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Sweet and Kara Idiyappam / Sevai is one of the easiest breakfast or dinner dish to make if you have the dry store bought idiyappam packet at home. On a good day, I try to reach home by 04:30 PM to beat the terrible 101 freeway commute. If I reach as planned, I get into my next role which is being the responsible mom :-). I make fresh dinner whenever possible. On this particular day, I made sweet/inipu and kara idiyappam. First step to make this dish is to boil the water. Pour the pipping hot water enough to cover the dry idiyappam. Cover and let it hydrate itself. Inippu idiyappam was made with sugar, ghee, cardamom powder and fresh coconut while kara idiyappam was made like lemon rice. I served it with coconut thogayal chutney. I ran out of fresh coconut and had only dry unsweetened dessicated coconut in pantry. I don’t like the taste of desiccated coconut in the regular white chutney that we make for idli. Instead I made it like thogayal and diluted it with water for chutney consistency. We ate our dinner with chai. IDIYAPPAM TWO WAYS - 1 packet of Concord Idiyappam packet from Indian grocery store - Hot water to cook it - Bowl and a plate to cover it - Plate to serve - Boil the water - Place the dry idiyappam in a large bowl - Pour the pipping hot water enough to cover the dry idiyappam. - Cover and let it rest for 15 minutes. - Mix well with a fork - Run it through a colander and transfer to a wide plate - Let it cool and set them aside - 1/2 cup sugar or powdered jaggery - 1/4 cup fresh coconut - 1 teaspoon powdered cardamom - 2 tablespoon melted ghee - 2 cups cooked idiyappam - 1/4 cup roasted cashews - Mix them all together and serve LEMON KARA IDIYAPPAM - 1/2 tbs oil - 1 teaspoon mustard seeds - 10-12 curry leaves - 1/2 tbs urad dhal - 1” ginger – chopped - 1-2 tsp asafoetida - 3 green chillies – slit - 2 teaspoons turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon lemon zest - 1 lemon (yellow) – juice - 2 cups cooked idiyappam - 1/3 cup roasted peanuts - Heat oil in a kadai. Once hot, add the mustard seeds and let it splutter. - Then add the urad dhal, ginger,asafoetida, curry leaves, green chillies and saute for couple of minutes. - Add the turmeric powder, salt and lemon zest and give a complete mix. Cook till the raw smell disappears. - Turn the flame off and squeeze the lemons. Check for salt. Add the cold rice and mix well. - Serve warm with chips/ any vegetable fry/ egg curry /dry chicken curry. - 1 teaspoon oil + 1 tablespoon oil for tempering - 3 dry red chillies - 1/2 cup urad dahl - 1/2 cup dry coconut - 1 tablespoon tamarind paste - Salt to taste - 1/2 -1 cup Water, as needed - 1 teaspoon mustard seeds - 10 curry leaves - 1/4 teaspoon asafoetida - Heat oil in a kadai. Once hot add the dry red chillies and saute for a minute. - Add urad dhal and cook it until roasted. It takes about 15 minutes on medium heat - Switch off the flame and add tamarind paste and coconut. - Once cooled, grind to a paste with water. Add salt and mix well to combine. - For tempering, heat oil and add mustard seeds, asafotida and curry leaves. Cook for a minute. Pour this over the chutney and serve. Yana Gilbuena is a talented chef who has traveled across US to spread to flavors of Philippines through her kamayan-style dining pop-up dinners. Her cookbook “No Forks Given” will be released in July 2018. Vijitha Shyam is a molecular biologist, enthusiastic home cook and mother of two who is excited to present her take on South Indian food featuring the flavors and ingredients of her new home – Bay Area California. Yana and I love food. Every time there’s food in the table, there’s nothing but smile on our face. We have a unique way of eating. While the rest of the world used spoons, forks, chopsticks, and knives, we use our hands. This “eating using your hand” habit is part of our culture. From young and old, everyone knows how to do it. “Kamay” is the Tagalog word for hands and eating using your hands is traditionally called “Kamayan” by the locals. “Virundu” is the Tamil word for feast served during a celebration. Yana and I are hosting a kamayan virundu popup. So how do you eat with hands? Just follow these below steps: - On a top of a small amount of rice, place a small amount of main dish using your dominant hand. - Using your finger and thumb, hold the food together. Don’t forget to include the rest of your fingers in the pinch or else it won’t work. - Make sure that all your fingers are wrapped around the rice. - Lift your hand towards your mouth while leaning your head forward and place your thumb behind the food. - With one big push using your thumb, shove the food into your mouth. I am really excited to host a 10 course duality collaboration dinner with my dear friend Chef Yana Gilbuena, SALO. India and Philippines association dates back to 1 st millennium through the Indonesian kingdom of Srivijaya followed by Majapahit. Tagalog language spoken in Philippines has some words loaned from Sanskrit and Tamil. In this dinner you will be tasting dishes that are common to both the culture but unique with their own regional ingredients and hear more about the history of two strong cultures. Join us to get a taste of South India 🇮🇳& Philippines 🇵🇭 Constant challenge for anyone (be it the mom or the dad) who has too many things on the plate is to get organized in life and to get super organized in the kitchen. I started the new year with a beautiful weekly planner where I jot down my to-do lists, classes to take the kids, classes to attend, cub scout events and action items to complete. I try to write realistic notes to cook ahead and freeze basic cooking ingredients like tomato paste, every day curry base, ginger paste and garlic paste. On the last week of December, 2017 when I had a short 3 days break, I spent close to 2 hours to make all the above items. I have been using them for the last 24 days and I must tell you that it has totally saved my time in the kitchen. I reach home around 5 pm and I cook some fresh food either around that time or in the morning when I wake up. I have been serving home cooked meals all these days. Hence I wanted to write this post to encourage you all to try making ginger paste and garlic paste this weekend. I keep them separate as some dishes like chai needs only ginger and some pasta dishes needs only garlic. When I have to use both, I add a piece of each. Let’s get to the recipe straight. - I used the entire ginger and did not peel the skin. - Clean them well, dry it with a kitchen towel, chop into small pieces and grind to a smooth paste with little water. - Transfer to freezer cube tray or use a baking tray. - If using the baking tray, layer with parchment paper. Drop a spoon of ginger paste. It comes out as coins. - Freeze it over night. - The following day, transfer to a ziplock. - Release any excess air using a straw and store upto 6-8 weeks. - Peel and clean the garlic - Dry it with a kitchen towel - Grind to a smooth paste with oil. I used about 1 cup oil for 1.5 pounds peeled garlic. - Transfer to freezer cube tray or use a baking tray. - If using the baking tray, layer with parchment paper. Drop a spoon of ginger paste. Freeze it over night. - The following day, transfer to a ziplock. - Release any excess air using a straw and store upto 6-8 weeks. “Take care of your body . It’s the only place you have to live” Yes that’s my goal for 2018. I did my first hike yesterday (07Jan2018, Sunday) with a group of health enthusiasts in Mission Peak Fremont. I huffed and puffed on every uphill stretch. I was the youngest in the group but felt like the oldest one and I was the last one to reach the top. ☹️☹️☹️ My main goal for this year to build endurance and feel fit and flexible. I lost about 13 or so pounds in the last 6 months so I had the impression that I am the fittest person ever . But NO! My body is still struggling to climb uphill and I could literally feel that my pounding heart will fall through the mouth. So more hikes and more core strengthening classes to attend. I am not in the best shape but I want to prove to myself I can do something that seems impossible and want to show myself no matter where my fitness levels are I can do it too. I made it till the top of mission peak, a 6 mile round trip with 2,000 ft elevation gain in my own pace (3.5 hours in total). Last time I hiked mission peak was before my daughter was born in Oct, 2013. It was one of the most beautiful hike ever. Once I reached the top, the clouds looked like a large puffs of cotton and we felt like we can jump on it. It really looked like one huge cotton soft mattress. Thanks Deepa, Shoba and Jyothi for inspiring me. The other thing which I wanted to take care for the new year is to eat a nourishing breakfast. We have all heard from multiple sources that breakfast is the most important meal of the day but we don’t give it the importance it needs. Currently, I follow the suggestion shared by Rujuta Diwekar’s for her “The fitness project 2018” – an open participation public health project. Please see her facebook page for accurate information. As per her suggestion, I have been drinking warm water as the first thing in the morning followed by a banana (1/2 large banana). After 15 minutes, I drink unsweetened chai. I started drinking chai without any sweetener from Sep,2017 after Prerna of Indian Simmer’s advice during our girls trip to Napa. Now in every sip,I have learned to relish the intricate flavors within chai. Ofcourse without missing the sweetness from sugar. For breakfast, I have been poaching eggs in a microwave. Yes! IN THE MICROWAVE. My mornings are the craziest. Amidst all the cooking, packing and chai making, I get exactly 5 minutes to make a breakfast for myself. Earlier I would drink a huge mug of chai and head to work to munch on nuts and fruits. But now my breakfast in one multigrain toast, layered with avocado, onions & 1 minute microwave cooked eggs and topped with salt, pepper and drops of sriracha. Yum! The best food EVER! 1 MINUTE MICROWAVE POACHED EGGS - 1 egg - 1 mug - Water to fill the mug - Fill the mug till 3/4 full with water - Break the egg into the mug. - Microwave for 60 seconds - I like it runny but my husband wants the yolk to be more firm so I microwave for 20 seconds more. - Adjust the seconds as per how you like your eggs. Enjoy it with toast, onions, avocado and seasoning. Israel, Holy Land is a beautiful country and this tiny country is definitely in our top list of countries to revist. Before you plan your trip, I want to share some information about visa, travel details, safety tips, best time to visit and top must visit towns/citites. How to apply for a Israel visa from US? We went to Israel in March, 2015 and we applied for the visa at Consulate General of Israel in San Francisco. If you are a US citizen, then you can stay upto three months from the date of arrival. You do not need a visa but must hold a passport that is valid for atleast 6 months from the date you are departing the country. All the details can be found here. When to Go to Israel? We visited Israel in March 2015 and left before Passover holidays. You should plan your visit around the weather and holidays. Summers are from April to October and it can be very hot with humid conditions along the coast. Winters are from November to March and the temperature are cooler. It was raining when we were at Galilee. It was like Indian monsoon. As you all know, Israel is a Jewish State and the busiest months tend to be October and August. When is the weekend in Israel? The weekend in Israel is on Friday and Saturday. Sunday is the start of the work week. In the Jewish religion, Saturday is the holy day of the week. All public offices and most business are closed from friday afternoon to Saturday evening. Trains, trams and bus services can be affected on these days. This can delay your plans for the trips planned on Friday and Saturday. We rented a car during our stay in Israel. Is Israel safe to visit? Israel’s location is tricky. Israel shares land borders with 7 countries: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, Yemen, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon. Their conflict with Palestine remains unresolved. Hence their vigilance in security matters is top noth. We spotted full time secruity guards everywhere be it the supermarket, restuarants, shopping malls or shuks. Gaza Trip or West Bank requires prior clearance. Overall it is a safe place to visit. We went with my 2 kids and returned back to the US safely. What is the currency in Israel? The currency in Israel is the New Israeli Shekel (NIS). 1 US Dollar = 3.48 Israeli New Shekel What to pack? - I travelled with my 4.5 years old boy and 18 months old girl. Israel is sunny and warm in March however it rained cats and dogs in Galilee when we stayed. So carry a thick jacket with a hood for both kids and adults. - Comfortable walking shoes as we walked a lot & flipflop for the beach - Stroller for the baby - Electrolyte packets for all - Cotton pants and tops - Sunscreen, hats and glasses - Food for the kids Things to plan and be aware: - Travel time from San Francisco was close to 20 hours including transit hours. We flew from SF to New York and then to Tel Aviv. It is definitely a long flight so be prepared with toys, games and favourite movies for your kids - Culture is very similar to India. We spend time with my husband’s colleagues and interacted with their neighbors. The kids in the neighborhood know each other and they run across the streets to neighbor’s house and there are impromptu visits from neighbors. My husband’s colleague lived in moshav. The culture and hospitality among them reminded me about India where I played in the streets till sunset and I knew most of the people in the neighborhood. - I fed my kids heavy breakfast and dinner so anything in between is snack . BAsically, they ate what they wanted. We stayed in airbnb apartments and I could cook some of my kid’s comfort food like rasam, rice and eggs for breakfast. - Always drink bottled water - Read my post on kid’s travel food. Day 1-4 at Haifa - We drove straight to Haifa on the day we landed at Tel Aviv. We rested that day. - The following morning we woke up to a beautiful view from the apartment we are staying in Haifa. Then we went to my husband’s office at Or Akiva for a welcome lunch. The meal gets prepared by their cook every morning. - I had sore throat, cough before we boarded our flight to New York. Over the days, it got worse and on the day we landed Tel Aviv, I had severe ear pain while coughing and my eyes turned red. So first step while planning an international trip is to carry travel insurance. Major health insurance companies from US like Cigna, Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross process your claim. The colleagues at my husband’s office arranged for a doctor who visited me at their office. Isn’t that so convenient? Last time I remember having the luxury of doctor visiting the patient was in my grandmother’s home in the village. But the sad part was the doctor spoke only hebrew and absolutely no english. We had my husband’s colleague translate it for us. Just as a precaution call your insurance provider about international medical claim before you fly out . I did it as I was traveling with my kids and it came useful for me. - After an awesome heavy lunch of more than 12 dishes of rice, chicken, salmon, salads, corn, pea soup, eggs we headed to Birds Mosaic Mansion. The lovely people at my husband’s office packed food for us so we can eat it for dinner. - Birds Mosaic Mansion in Caesarea was originally part of a large 6th century mansion. The mosaic has a border of animals and trees which are native to the land. - Then we went to Aqueduct, Caesarea with its Roman amphitheater, port, hippodrome. - The day started off with my visit to my husband’s office at Or Akiva to meet with Limor, cook. She started to cook from 9.00am and reached only at 11.00 am. I watched her make the salad. She made 8 dishes today and my most favorite one was whole roaster cauliflower with mayonnaise, salt, pepper and oregano. She roasted them at 400F for 1-1.5 hours. - Next we drove to Nazarath to visit the beautiful Basicilia of Annunciation, the largest church in middle east. - We walked through the bazaar that leads to the church and drank fresh pomegranate juice and ate falafel sandwich. - We walked further through the streets and found fresh almond fruit and an Arabic sweet called Awami ( crispy small donut balls fried and coated with sugar syrup) and crunchy baklava cigars - Final stop was to view Haifa Port. - We visited Bahai gardens on day 3. It took close to 1.5 hours from start to finish and back to the car. Do remember to check out the schedule for Walking tour in english before you arrive. That will help you save time. - Next we went to Carmel beach for a lovely lunch with my husband’s CEO and family. Food was amazing and we ordered fresh pita bread with hummus, babaganoush, spicy butternut squash and beets dish. I ordered grilled fish with salad and rice. - We then went to Ein Ayyala Moshav. Moshav means village in Hebrew and thats where my husband’s CEO lives. His house was nestled among banana plantations. My son loved the huge backyard, dogs, swing, trampoline, tractor. I felt as if I visited my family in Southern India. I felt really great to know about the village and understood the difference between village and Kibbutz (communal living) and every word I heard from CEO and his wife were so informative and I am feeling more knowledgeable about Israel now. - It is so true that intracting with the locals helps one see many faces of the country. I heard real life stories about holocaust as his father lived through that phase in history . I got more insight about the country for sure. - Then they were kind enough to take us to Zikhron Ya’akov. Since it is Shabbath ( weekly holiday) roads were empty and we walked past synagogues, stores and many historic buildings in the Zikhron downtown. - Finally we drove to Yokneum Illit to meet my husband’s dear friend for Shabbath dinner at his home. His parents and family welcomed us with an amazing meal. Day 4 & 5 at Galilee 1. We went to spice village at Beit Lechem. This place is a treat for food lovers. Spices! spices! More spices every where. I felt like a kid in a candy store. I was so excited and I was tempted to pick every spice mix. I still bought close to 6 different spice mix to cook with fish, meat, rice and also to mix with hummus. A great place to add to your list. 2. Then we were off to Akko, northern costal city at Haifa bay. We ate at Abu Christo restaurant which was right next to the water. I tasted Turkish coffee for the first time with Baklava. Coffee was super strong, thick and black. We enjoyed a delicious lunch there. 3. We walked through the Akko shuk and I bought sweets, few Arab kitchen items and souvenirs. 4. We drove to the Kibbutz in Galilee area and called it a night.We are staying in Kibbutz in Galilee, Northern Israel. Kibbutz means communal living and the place is very scenic. It feels like visiting a hill station like Ooty, Kodaikanal, Southern India. There are little cottages and vast open space between each. My son enjoyed climbing trees, jumping in the puddle, plucking flowers, climbing rocks. It has been raining for the last two days and we are also taking a break from sight seeing to enjoy the place and catch some sleep. 1. We enjoyed a hearty Mediterranean breakfast in the Kibbutz and headed to a historic church and ate an awesome lunch from a local restaurant. 2. We spend the rest of the day relaxing at the Kibbutz and kids played in the olive orchards there. Day 6-9 at Jerusalem 1. We drove back from Kibbutz to Jerusalem. We rented an awesome apartment in the downtown through AirBnB. Its close to shuk, train /bus station and all awesome restaurants, bakeries, supermarket, pharmacy, laundry service. 2. We spent the day walking through the historic alleys talking to locals, eating great food and shopping souvenirs. We also went to Mahane Yahuda and I shopped for some more spice mixes. 1. We went to Yad Vashem, museum in Israel. We took a train and my son loved it. This museum contains world’s largest information on holocaust. This was one of the places I was waiting to visit. I highly recommend to spend your time here if you care to know about Jew’s history. 2. We spend close to 8 hours at the museum and our way back we headed to Pasta Basta Restaurant at Mahane Yehuda for dinner. It is one of the popular food place to check out in the shuk. Its small, cramped and crowded. They have a limited menu and the food was brilliant. We ordered tomato soup, roasted pepper -cream-mushroom pasta and tomato- cream-zucchini pasta. They were super tasty. Do add it to your list of food to try inIsrael. 3. We walked back enjoying the busy streets of downtown and I am munching on hand crafted chocolates from Aldo, a shop opposite to the apartment. 1. We had an early start today . The plan was to cover Masada and Dead Sea. We left the apartment at 7.30am ( from Jerusalem) and reached Masada close to 9.00 am. Masada is an ancient fortification located in the Southern district of Israel overlooking the dead sea. You can hike to the top but we took the cable car . It is easy this way with kids. It takes 4 hours to do a complete tour of the fort. You cab buy the audio guide at the information center. It is very informative and it reminded me of Senji Fort, Tamil Nadu and Golkonda Fort in Hyderabad and other forts in India . Masada is one of the most popular tourist attraction in Israel. There was also a music performance by the locals. 2. Then we were off to Dead Sea to float. Yes! Did you know that we can easily float in Dead Sea because of natural buoyancy. The water had high salt content and hence there is no fish or any aquatic life in it. We reached there around 1.00 pm. I will recommend driving south as you exit Masada as you can find free entry to the beaches after a 20 minute drive. We went to the beach next to Hotel Herold. I saw everyone with mud on them. I didnt see any dark mud in the beach and I was so curious that I asked a fellow tourist. They told me that they are sold in packets in the souvenir shop. We bought a packet of dead sea mud, applied it over the body and sun dried it for 20minutes. Kids below 5 are not allowed to play but my son played with the water and pebbles. He was excited to find salt crystals along the shore and rocks covered in salt. I scrubbed my feet with the salt crystals that he got for me from the shore. He brought back few pebbles as a souvenir. I recommend kids to wear swimming goggles as eyes burn when salt water touches the eyes and skin. I floated and soaked myself in the sea for more than an hour. My skin feels super soft. Note-to-self: Do epsom salt bath every 15 days 🙂 3. On our drive back, we stopped in highway 90 to meet the camels. My son was so excited about meeting a camel. There were camel rides. One more happy memory there! 4. We reached the apartment at 7pm. After a quick shower, we went to try some local food. The fruit shop owner below our apartment gave us tips on places to visit and eat in Jerusalem downtown. Today he asked us to walk to Hummus Ben Sira. It takes about 10 minutes to walk to that place. I ordered garbanzo hummus with salad, pita and falafel and my husband ordered chicken hummus with pita and beer. With happy tummy and two sleepy kids, we ended the day. 1. We took the FREE 2 hour tour at Jaffa Centre, Jerusalem. Make sure to do this when you are in Jerusalem. It covers all the four quarters of the old city. My husband during his previous visit in Israel prayed in the Western wall and he does that every time he comes to this beautiful country. We can write our wish/prayers in a small sheet of paper and place it in between the gaps of the wall. Its a belief that the wish will be granted. Women and men pray in two separate sections of the wall. There is a small passage that leads to mosque where people with Islamic belief pray and we were at the Jewish quarter. 2. We ate lunch at Tala hummus and falafel place in the old city. I don’t think I can ever get bored of hummus, shawarma or pita. We have been eating the same menu every meal and we are loving it. 3. We spent rest of the day walking through the historic streets of old city. 4. For dinner we went to Pinat. It was mentioned in airbnb reviews that it has one of the best hummus in Jerusalem and it was right behind where we stayed. A quick stroll to the eatery and we took a take-out as they close at 7.00 PM Day 10-12 Tel Aviv 1. We went to Mini Israel before we drove to Tel Aviv, our last stop of the trip. 2. We took a long nap and headed to the beach that is 5 minutes away from the airbnb apartment we stayed. We spend the evening playing in the water, collecting shells and walking through the busy streets of Ben Yehuda, Tel Aviv. 3. Ofcourse eating a lot of great food along the way. 1. My day started off with a brief meet up with a popular food blogger in Tel Aviv. We had so much to talk about and I am so glad that we could meet. 2. We met with my husband’s friend and family at Tel Aviv Port. We walked through the board walk with kids stopping at each play area. For lunch we went to most famous restaurant called Beni, the fisherman. First they served fresh out of the oven hot buns with more than 5 dippings and salad; there was hummus, babaganoush, tahini, pickled cauliflower, beets, cabbage, carrots, cucumber and deep fried cauliflower and fresh summer salad. To wash them down, we ordered fresh lemonade and orange juice. I was completely fill after eating them. For entree, we ordered deep fried and grilled Mediterranean Sea Monk with onion rings and roasted potatoes. I felt too stuffed for sure. Post lunch we walked a lot to make room to try some local food at the shuk in boardwalk. 3. There was an arabic stall with awesome array of sweets, chestnuts, beans and nuts. There was a crepe stall and also an Arab women was making fresh wrap with a bread similar to Indian Romali Roti. She topped with tomato sauce, zaatar spice blend and eggs and rolled it into a wrap. I tastes the semolina dessert from that stall. 4. Next to it was Holland pancakes made like South Indian paniyarams. They were served with chocolate spread, whipped cream and fruits. 5. After that was a Lebanese stall where a bread similar to Indian flaky parathas were made into a wrap with eggs and tomato sauce. 6. The most attractive one for me was the Italian Crema Fresca stall where fresh ice cream were made right before us in a super cold plate (-37’C temp) and served as roll ups. They also served fancy waffles in a stick. I tasted them both as it was too hard to resist. 7. We continued to walk around the beach, river and watched a public performance. 8. We then decided to wrap the day by visiting the last stop for the day – Max Brenner Chocolate Bar. My son wanted a bark of milk chocolate with hazelnuts in it. My husband bought a cappuccino and our friend and his wife bought chocolate milkshake. His youngest son ordered chocolate pizza and I went with Chocolate Souffle. They bought two milk chocolate syringes. I have never seen anything like this before. Burp! I am in a food coma now. 1. Today my son and I took the bus to visit Carmel Shuk which was about 15 minutes bus ride from Ben Yehude, the place where I am staying. I took my son with me as he wanted to ride a bus. We spent two hours walking through the market and tasting few dishes that grabbed our eyes. 2. Then we took another bus to Levinsky market to join a walking food tour with @delicious israel. I was introduced to Inbal, the women behind the company Delicious Israel through a blogger friend. I joined a group of 12 people and we walked through the streets of Levinsky market tasting and talking about the culinary influence in Tel Aviv. I will share more details in my blog post. In the meanwhile enjoy the pictures of the food that we tasted today. 3. In the evening we went to the beach again to collect more shells for our travel journey DIY project. 4. We dined at a fancy Asian restaurant right across the street. Its called Nini Hachi. Day 13: Our lovely vacation came to an end and we were on our return flight to San Francisco. I hope this post will be helpful for anyone who is interested to visit Israel. When are you going to Israel? What will you find in this post? - Recipe for Paal Kozhukatai (South Indian Dessert) - Round-up of Diwali sweets from my other blogger friends Like every year, Diwali brings a lot of joy. Achi, my grandmother spends three days before diwali to make fresh homemade treats. There will vellam murruku, inippu somas, rava ladoo, kadamba mixture, mysore pak and oola pakoda. This image clearly depicts how my grandmother’s home will look liked during diwali time. The entire family will be present to celebrate the festival. In India its a national festival and if lucky we get a more than 3 days off from work and school. This year is even more special as we will be celebrating it from our new home. We hung a canopy of string lights in our front yard yesterday. We will be adding more lights in the coming weeks. It truly feels festive. I always make homemade sweets and this year too, I had been planning on to make sweets. With a busy work schedule, I couldn’t make anything in the past weekend so all I have are the next few week nights to make some easy sweets. My buddy Kankana sent an invite to join a virtual potluck for Diwali theme with other fellow bloggers from different parts of the world. #diwalipotluck (scroll down to get the recipes from my other blogger friends). I loved the idea. I want to share recipe for my childhood favorite dish – Paal Kozhukatai, a very popular Chettinad sweet made with jaggery, cardamom and coconut milk. The cute sphere dumplings used in the recipe is similar to the one used for making ammini kozhukatais. The key is to keep them soft. It is one of the easiest dessert to make. The dumplings are steamed and dunked in a delicious cardamom-coconut stew. PAAL KOZHUKATTAI WITH COCONUT MILK For rice dumplings (refer here) - 1 cup rice flour - 1.5 cups water - 1 teaspoon oil - 1 teaspoon salt For Sweet Coconut Stew - 3/4 cup powdered jaggery - 1 cup coconut milk (from the can) - 1 cup water - 1 teaspoon cardamom powder For the rice dumplings: - Heat a saucepan and roast the rice flour for 10-12 minutes on medium heat. - Boil water with salt and oil. Once hot, pour it over the rice flour. - Using a spatula, mix them well. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes. - Once cooled, roll into small balls. - Steam it for 10-12 minutes. - Set aside For the Sweet Coconut Stew - Heat water in a sauce pan, add jaggery and let it dissolve. Bring it to a boil. - Add cardamom powder and coconut milk and switch off the flame. - Add the cooked dumplings and let it soak all the goodness. - Do not boil or cook the coconut milk Here is the list for other yummy treats by my lovely blogger friends: https://www.justhomemade.net/mysore-pak/ – Radhika

BEFORE Ellis Island became a port of entry for immigrants, it was used for the storage of ammunition. It's a nice bit of symbolism, for immigration is proving to be one of the most explosive issues of American politics in the nineties. The recent passage of California's Proposition 187-a package of measures aimed at illegal aliens-may be the first blast in a national campaign to demolish an immigration policy that has been in place since the Kennedy-Johnson reforms of the nineteen-sixties. A momentous new battle over who will be permitted to immigrate to America, and why, has begun. Until recently, of course, immigrants from Mexico and other poor countries were welcomed by the American political right—Pat Buchanan and a small circle of like-minded dissidents aside. During the nineteen-eighties, California's Governor Pete Wilson-who last year supported Proposition 187campalgned, at the behest of agribusiness, to allow undocumented farm-workers to remain in the United States. Indeed, the pro-immigration consensus of the Reagan right was symbolized by a constitutional amendment proposed by the Wall Street Journal: There shall be open borders." The mainstream conservative consensus cracked, though, when one English immigrant, John O'Sullivan, who is the editor of National Review, published a cover story in the summer of 1992 by another English immigrant, Peter Brimelow, who is a senior editor at both National Review and Forbes. In that piece Brimelow set out a range of arguments against immigration. He has now elaborated those arguments in "Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster" (Random House; $24). As the title of the book suggests, Brimelow's main concern is with the effect of today's immigration on the nature of the American "nation" itself. He rejects what might be called the democratic-universalist vision of American identity—the familiar notion that America is a "nation of immigrants" united only by an idea. Democratic universalism has proponents all across the political spectrum, but it prompts an interesting question. If to be American is to believe in certain values, then who is to define those values? One volunteer is Richard John Neuhaus, a former leftwing Lutheran pastor who has become a far-right Catholic priest. In his rightwing version of democratic universalism, morally upright immigrants are preferable to decadent native-born Americans. In a debate over immigration in National Review, Neuhaus recently wrote, 'We do have a very real problem with aliens. These are native-born Americans who are profoundly alienated from the American experience." In an article that appeared a few years ago in the magazine Neuhaus edits, First Things, he gave a more detailed description of the enemy within: "journalists, writers, academics, and a significant portion of the religious leadership" of the United States, and also "homosexuals" (who "are the very definition of social marginality"), "the urban and mainly black underclass," and a "civil rights overclass." There's something chilling in his designation of native-born or naturalized American citizens as un-American or anti-American "aliens" simply because they happen to be poor and black or to work for the media or for universities. By comparison, the old-fashioned conservative language of black-baiting, gay-baiting, and anti-intellectualism is at least straightforward. In the end, the claim that to be American is to believe in democratic values and virtues-whether these are defined by Neuhaus or by someone else-makes rousing Fourth of July rhetoric but has no basis in United States law. Congress has yet to pass an ideological equivalent of Israel's Law of Return and order the Immigration and Naturalization Service to grant automatic United States citizenship to any of the hundreds of millions of foreigners who profess sincere belief in the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address. Nor is the United States, strictly speaking, a nation of immigrants, for the simple reason that from the Colonial period to the present the majority of Americans, white and black, have been born on American soil and reared as members of a common American culture. The assimilated children and grandchildren of immigrants-white or black or brown, Jewish or Catholic or Protestant-aren't themselves "immigrants"; they're Americans. The obvious alternative to the kind of purely political or ideological conception of American identity represented by democratic universalism is what could be called liberal nationalism: a conception of the American people as a transracial cultural nation whose members share a common language—American English—and a common vernacular tradition, which includes black-derived music and Mexican-influenced Western dress and cuisine as well as the political institutions and ideals derived from the Anglo-American settlers. The old melting-pot nationalism endorsed only the fusion of white immigrant groups; the patron saints of a new, transracial melting-pot ideal would be found in radical white abolitionists like Wendell Phillips and black visionaries like Frederick Douglass and Jean Toomer, who saw the greatest hope for America's future in the greatest nightmare of traditional white conservatives: race-blending inter marriage. THOUGH Brimelow acknowledges that "individuals of any ethnicity or race might be able to acculturate to a national community," he rejects both contentless universalism and transracial cultural nationalism. Instead, he sets forth what looks very much like a defense of old-fashioned white racial nationalism. "It is simply common sense that Americans have a legitimate interest in their country's racial balance," Brimelow writes. "Indeed, it seems to me that they have a right to insist that it be shifted back." He wistfully imagines what the United States would be like to-day if the white-only immigration policy of the nineteen-twenties had not been dismantled by the 1965 Immigration Act: "The American population would still be where It was in 1960—almost 89 percent white," instead of less than eighty per cent. Brimelow defends the nineteen-twenties immigration laws, which sought to limit the number of Jews and Southern and Eastern Europeans immigrating to the United States, by noting "As the Great Restriction's national origins quotas were being legislated, President Calvin Coolidge put it unflinchingly: 'America must be kept American.'" Brimelow adds approvingly, "Everyone knew what he meant." Everyone knew, indeed. What Coolidge, then Vice-President, actually wrote-in an article that appeared in Good Housekeeping in 1921-was "America must be kept American. Biological laws show ... that Nordics deteriorate when mixed with other races." Lamenting the projected steep decline of America's white "ethnic core as a proportion of the United States population, Brimelow compares the United States with multiethnic empires in Cyprus and in the Caucasus, where a single ethnic group, the "umpire" Brimelow's term-maintained social peace. The United States "faces the direct equivalent of being abandoned by an imperial umpire: the breaking of …'the racial hegemony of white Americans- " The result, he warns, will be the breakdown of American society, as voters polarize into racial voting blocs. "The uneven distribution of immigration will tend to force the country's regions even further apart," Brimelow predicts. 'The experience of an Anglo-Cuban society like Greater Miami is going to have little in common with an Anglo-black society like Atlanta or even with an Anglo-Mexican society like San Antonio. These will be communities as different from one another as any in the civilized world. They will verge on being separate nations." And so the outlook is grim indeed: "The contradictions of a society as deeply divided as the United States must now inexorably become, as a result of the post-1965 influx, will lead to conflict, repression, and, perhaps, ultimately to a threat thought extinct in American politics for more than a hundred years: secession." Note the confident verbs of a jeremiad: "must now inexorably"; "will." Elsewhere, Brimelow repeatedly invokes a Delphic formula: "Race and ethnicity are destiny in American politics," and "Once again: ethnicity, and demography, is destiny in American politics." In the book's most ludicrous section, Brimelow compares today's immigrants from Latin America and Asia to ancient Germanic barbarians: "In some ways, the nearest thing to a precedent for today's world in motion appears to be the famous Volkwanderung—he means Völkerwanderung —"the great 'movement of peoples' in the Fifth century that saw Germanic tribes overrun the Western Roman Empire." This sort of rhetoric is far from new: in an 1885 polemic entitled "Our Country" the Protestant clergyman Josiah Strong similarly described Italian, Slavic, and Jewish immigrants as an "army more than twice as vast as the estimated number of Goths and Vandals that swept over Southern Europe and overwhelmed Rome." Brimelow hastens to declare that the "German war bands" were less of a threat to Roman cultural unity than Mexican-American and Korean-American immigrants are to the integrity of American society, because, after all, "the Germans were Western Europeans." It seems that Theodoric the Ostrogoth had more in common with Boethius than Henry Cisneros has with Bill Clinton. It's hard to know quite what to make Of all this. Mexican-American brick-layers and Korean shopkeepers as Ostrogoths and Visigoths? Brimelow complains about being called a racist, but he uses the rhetoric of an after-dinner speaker at a Klavern banquet. The Democratic Party, he informs us, is the enemy of white people: "The brutal truth is this: the Clinton Administration is a black-Hispanic-Jewish-minority whit (Southerners used to call them 'scalawags') coalition." What does Brimelow mean by "scalawag" if not traitor to the white race—a race that, curiously, appears not to include Jews? To be sure, Brimelow does not join Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray in worrying about nonwhite immigration because of its supposed "dysgenic" effect on the American gene pool people like Colin Powell and Richard Rodriguez are not inferior to Amen cans of Western European descent, it seems, but merely "incompatible" with them. Still, Brimelow's Spenglerian argument about the decline and fall of white America bears no small resemblance to the argument found in "The Bell Curve." He even one-ups the bell-curve graph with a diagram of his own, the "pincer chart"—a projection of demographic trends in the United States which shows the white population shrinking between the "pincers" of the black and Asian population, on one side, and the Hispanic population, on the other. Like the bell curve, the pincer chart provides crude prejudice with a striking, and reassuringly "scientific," symbol. In "Alien Nation," the anxiety of white-middle-class America at the fin de siècle may have found its second definitive expression THE questions that Brimelow raises about the effect of immigration on national culture are not in themselves illegitimate. His answers, though, are based on implausible extrapolations and a profound misunderstanding of American society. Consider that pincer chart which lumps black Americans with Asian-Americans. If black American: are considered to be members of the American cultural nation, then a chart showing the effects of immigration should show the immigrant population growing at the expense of the American cultural nation—white and black. Ever that would be misleading if it treated the descendants of Latin-American and Asian immigrants as members of perpetually distinct groups. Unlike European immigrants, Brimelow suggests, the new immigrants cannot be expected to amalgamate with the majority, because "virtually all immigrants are racially distinct 'visible minorities,"' from "completely different, and arguably incompatible, cultural traditions." Is it really the Spanish Catholic tradition that sets Latin-American immigrants apart, in Brimelow's mind, from culturally similar Italian immigrants—or is it their race? Even then, there's the effect of intermarriage to consider. Brimelow himself reports that, for example, more than half of Japanese-Americans marry non-Japanese, and that the intermarriage rate for Mexican-Americans in California appears to be between a third and a half. It seems that, with the possible exception of black Americans, intermarriage is gradually turning both pincers and pincees into a single mixed-race majority. Then why is Brimelow so pessimistic about the prospects for integration and amalgamation? For one thing, he seems to have bought into the myth of the multiculturalists that there are as many "cultures" in America as there are races." Even more important, perhaps, is the fact that the peripatetic Brimelow emigrated from Britain to Canada before crossing the border into the United States. In the troubles of the binational Canadian federation, he sees a portent of the American future: Foreign experience suggests that the breaking point could come well before whites slip below half of the overall U.S. population. In Canada, although the French-speaking minority has never been much above a quarter of the population, it has been able to dominate national politics for most of this century by voting as a bloc. English-speaking Canadians have been typically so split that federal governments based solely on their support have been elected very rarely, although they have comprised around three quarters of Canada's population. The analogy is alarming; it's also unfounded. Where is the American Quebec? Black Americans aren't a separate nationality, and, besides, they tend to be concentrated in many of the same cities and states as the new nonwhite immigrants. Asian-Americans-who share neither common ancestries nor common languages—do not form a cohesive political or geographic bloc. The only potential "Quebec" in the United States would be a Mexican-American concentration in the Southwest. And yet Mexican, Americans are politically far from homogeneous: Mexican-Americans Texas are much more likely to be Republican than Mexican-Americans in California. More important, most of them want to join the American main stream, retaining, like other groups, a few elements of symbolic ethnicity. According to one estimate, a majority of third-generation Hispanics speak only one language: English. In the long rum Mexican and Chinese immigrants are more likely to resemble the Irish and German immigrants of yesteryear than the French Canadians. "ALIEN NATION" is filled with apocalyptic passages that sound like excerpts from such notorious nativist tracts as Madison Grant's "The Passing of the Great Race" (1916) and Lothrop Stoddard's "The Rising Tide of Color (1920). It's inevitable, therefore, that some liberals will seize upon these passages to dismiss all critics of today's immigration policy as racists or nativist: That would be a mistake. For one thing the Republican political elite, whatever its ultimate consensus on immigration is unlikely to accept Brimelow's equation of the American nation with white America. Senator Phil Gramm is married to a Korean-American; Jeb Bush has a Mexican-American wife; the favorite jurist of the right, Clarence Thomas has a white wife; and the ideal Republican Presidential candidate is Colin Powell. One of the leaders of the new anti-affirmative- action movement in California is a black businessman, Ward Connerly. The religious right is more worried about the sexual habits of Americans than about their complexions, and country-club Republicans generally welcome anyone with the right income (as the Latin-American saying has it, "money whitens"). Conservative concern about the underclass is primarily class issue; Charles Murray is no less worried about the troublesome fecundity, as he sees it, of poor whites than about that of poor blacks. What's more, some of the familiar arguments that Brimelow makes against high levels of immigration— arguments based on concern about the economy and environmental consequences—deserve to be taken seriously even by people who utterly reject his reasoning on the subject of race. For example, there's the claim that immigrants contribute to crowding and thus to environmental degradation in areas like Southern California; that immigrants of some nationalities play a disproportionate role in organized crime; and that immigrants are more likely than native-born Americans to be on welfare. All these claims have been disputed, and none amount to anything like a knockdown argument-, yet such concerns do deserve to be taken more seriously than they have been. With less than five per cent of the world's population, the United States now accepts nearly half of the world's legal immigrants to the developed countries. The American approach to immigration looks increasingly out of synch with the policies of other industrialized democracies. German Social Democrats and British Tories alike now promote restrictive immigration policies. One after another, Britain, France, Germany, Austria, and other European democracies have tightened their laws governing immigration from outside Europe, and Canada has now adopted a more restrictive policy as well. (Japan never permitted significant immigration in the first place.) All these democracies are erecting "golden curtains" in response to three major trends: the population explosion in the Third World (as a result of which the populations of Europe and North America have shrunk in this century from perhaps a third of the world's total to at most a sixth); the post-1973 slowdown in Western economic growth, which has boosted the numbers of the unemployed in Europe and the underpaid in the United States; and the potential for mass economic migration from the impoverished countries of the former Soviet bloc. Of these factors, Third World population growth is by far the most important. The economist Lester Thurow recently postulated "an iron law of economic development": "No country can become rich without a century of good economic performance and a century of very slow population growth." In much of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, birth rates are so high that not even rapid East Asian-style economic development would suffice to raise per-capita incomes near First World levels and thereby eliminate incentives to emigrate. Certainly it was always a delusion that the North American Free Trade Agreement, by raising Mexican incomes closer to American levels, would significantly reduce the motivation of poor Mexicans to emigrate; the gap in wages—widened since December's devaluation of the peso—is just too immense. Perhaps the most persuasive economic argument against large-scale immigration centers on the displacement of black American workers by immigrants in the crowded market for unskilled labor. Brimelow writes that "the plight of poor American blacks must be considered before that of landless laborers in Latin America." He argues, further, that those who say "immigrants are revitalizing American cities" are "in effect expressing coded horror at the other effects of the great black migration from the rural South to the industrial urban North. Perhaps it is immigration enthusiasts, not immigration critics, who should be examining their motives." The notion of a conservative like Brimelow championing the cause of black workers may bring to mind the crocodile tears that his colleagues on the right have shed for decades over the minimum wage (they are concerned about its supposed effect of eliminating jobs for the black poor, of course). The message, however, should not be dismissed because of the messenger. In the nineteenth century, black leaders like Frederick Douglass complained that European immigrants were taking entry-level jobs away from black American workers. No one who lives in a city where taxi service and many other trades are almost monopolized by new immigrants can doubt that the same phenomenon is occurring again. Still, the problems associated with today's high levels of immigration can be addressed without ending all immigration or attempting to shift the "racial balance" back in favor of whites by means of immigration reform (an option Brimelow speculates about). The goal of the Kennedy-Johnson reforms—which abolished the white-supremacist "national origins" system, imposed after the First World War to favor Western European immigrants—was the admission, on a color-blind basis, of a small number of skilled immigrants each year. Congress, by expanding the slots given to family reunification, turned immigration into an entitlement. It may be time to trim this entitlement, along with others; as Brimelow points out, "had immigration been restricted just to the nuclear-family members of American citizens-parents, spouses, and dependent children-only about 250,000 immigrants would have entered in 1992," instead of almost a million. By means of such prudent reforms, the United States could ameliorate many of the adverse consequences of large-scale immigration without surrendering to panic and shutting the gates on any particular group Latin Americans, Asians, Middle Easterners, Africans. Or, for that matter, Englishmen.

Wenstrom Bible Ministries; Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom; Sunday, August 12, 2018; www.wenstrom.org. Acts 17 and 18 present evidence that indicates that Paul wrote First Thessalonians from the city of Corinth between 49-52 A.D. and sometime after planting the church in Thessalonica. This is indicated by the fact that Paul mentions Timothy rejoining him at Corinth from Thessalonica (1 Thess. 3:1-2, 6; cf. Acts 17:13-15; 18:1, 5). While in Corinth, Paul appeared before the proconsul Gallio (Acts 18:1-7) whose reign as proconsul was between 51-52 or 52-53 A.D. As we noted, the recipients of this epistle were Christians located in the city of Thessalonica which belonged to the Roman province of Macedonia, which lay on the Balkan peninsula north of Greece, south of Illyria and Thrace, and East of Epirus. Its territory included the Haliacmon and Axius rivers and their tributaries, which flow southeast to the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea. Most of the country is mountainous, cut by great river valleys, and remote from the sea. Unlike peninsular Greece, its climate is much more eastern European than the Mediterranean, with summer and winter rains, severe winters, and very hot summers. This makes it suitable for most horses, cattle, sheep, cereals, and European fruits, but not for olives or figs. It is very important that we understand the background of the city of Thessalonica in order to understand this city’s inhabitants. As we noted, it was located in Macedonia and was the largest and most important city in the Roman province of Macedonia, which was divided into four regions with Thessalonica was the capital city of this region. It was also located along the Via Egnatia and as a port city on the Aegean Sea, which thus made it strategic for trade. During the first century A.D., Thessalonica was inhabited by Greeks, Romans, Jews, and a Christian population which was growing (Acts 17:4-5). Ben Witherington writes “The city’s location was excellent, at the head of the Thermaic Gulf, which provided one of the best harbors in the Aegean Sea. The city was also on a major trade route running north to south and so was of the military as well as commercial importance. ‘It was the key to the whole of Macedonia.’ It is not a surprise that the poet Antipater in the first century B.C. called the city ‘the mother of all Macedonia’ (Anthologia Palatina 4.428). Cicero was impressed enough by his time in Thessalonike to say that the city’s inhabitants were ‘lying in the lap of the Roman Empire’ (De Provinciis Consularibus 2). Jeffrey Weima writes “Thessalonica enjoyed a favored relationship with Rome—a relationship that it deliberately fostered in the hopes of political and financial gain. After the fall of Macedonia as an independent kingdom in the battle at Pydna in 168 BC, the victorious Romans followed the strategy of divide and conquer, splitting the region into four ‘districts’ (μερίδες, merides; see Acts 16:12), with Thessalonica as the capital of the second district (Livy 44.32; 45.29.9; Diodorus Siculus 31.8.6–9; Strabo, Geogr. 7 frg. 47). The following years of Roman rule witnessed sporadic rebellions, finally suppressed in 146 BC, at which time the Romans expanded the boundaries of the region and reorganized Macedonia as a province, with Thessalonica alone elevated to the privileged status of the capital city and as the home base of Rome’s representative, the governor. Rome’s choice of Thessalonica as the provincial capital was based not solely on the city’s size and wealth but also on its loyalty to the Roman Empire rather than to local leaders heading up the rebellions. The close relationship between Thessalonica and Rome can also be seen in the key role that the city played in the empire’s civil wars, even though all too often this role involved initially backing the losing side. The city supported Pompey in his quest for power against Julius Caesar. Before his inglorious defeat at Pharsalus in 48 BC, Pompey prepared for battle by gathering in Thessalonica with the two consuls and over two hundred senators, turning the city into a kind of second Rome, where the “true” Senate was now held. Some six years later Thessalonica was again at the center of the Roman internal wars, when the armies of Brutus and Cassius, the two leaders responsible for the assassination of Julius Caesar, faced off in a battle on the plains of nearby Philippi against the armies of Marc Antony and Octavian (who later became Caesar Augustus), the two avengers of Caesar’s murder. Thessalonica initially supported Brutus and Cassius but, between the two battles on the Philippian plains, switched their allegiance to Marc Antony and Octavian, causing Brutus to promise his soldiers the right to plunder Thessalonica following their anticipated victory. Fortunately for Thessalonica, that victory never came: both Brutus and Cassius went down to defeat at the hands of Marc Antony and, to a lesser extent, Octavian. A triumphal arch celebrating the two victors was built at the Vardar Gate, one of the major gates of the city wall, and commemorative medals were circulated with the inscription “for the freedom of the people of Thessaloniki”. The city and the province came under the control of Marc Antony, who in 42 BC rewarded its citizens for their support by granting Thessalonica the status of a ‘free city’ (civitas libera; Pliny the Elder, Nat. 4.17 ). This favored classification meant that the inhabitants enjoyed a measure of autonomy over local affairs, the right to mint their own coins, freedom from military occupation within the city walls, and certain tax concessions. Nine years later the city found itself again backing the losing side in Rome’s internal wars as Marc Antony fell at the hands of Octavian in the battle at Actium in 31 BC. Nevertheless, the city quickly either erased the name of Antony from inscriptions honoring the defeated general (a standard way of effecting damnatio memoriae—erasing the memory of someone formally esteemed who was now dishonored) or replaced his name with Octavian (IT 6, 83, 109), thereby ensuring good relations with Rome and maintaining their favored status as a free city. The city of Thessalonica served as the junction of major land and sea trade routes which included Via Egnatia, which was one of the Roman Empire’s major east-west highways. The city still remains an important port in Greece. Thomas Constable writes “The city of Thessalonica flourished for hundreds of years, partly because of its ideal location. It was situated on the banks of a hospitable harbor in the Thermaic Gulf near the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea. In the Apostle Paul’s day it was the chief seaport of the Roman province of Macedonia. Thessalonica ranked with Corinth and Ephesus, the main ports of the provinces of Achaia and Asia, as a great shipping center. Thessalonica also enjoyed another advantage. The Egnatian Way, the main Roman road from Rome to the Orient via Byzantium (modern Istanbul), passed through the city. This put Thessalonica in direct contact with many other important cities by land as well as by sea. It was one of the most important centers of population in Paul’s day, occupying a strategic location both governmentally and militarily.” In New Testament times the population of Thessalonica has been estimated to be as much as 200,000. Most of the people were native Greeks but also many Romans lived there as well. Orientals and Jews lived in the city. Warren Wiersbe writes “You can visit Thessalonica today, only the travel guide will call it Thessaloniki. (It used to be known as Salonika.) It is an important industrial and commercial city in modern Greece and is second to Athens in population. It served as an important Allied base during World War I. In World War II it was captured by the German army, and the Jewish population of about 60,000 persons was deported and exterminated. It is an ancient city, originally named Therma from the many hot springs adjacent to it. In 315 B.C. it was renamed Thessalonica after the half sister of Alexander the Great. When Rome conquered Macedonia in 168 B.C., the city was made capital of that entire province. In Paul’s day 200,000 people lived there, most of them Greeks, but also many Romans and a strong Jewish minority. Today it has a population of 300,000, and is one of the few cities that has survived from the New Testament era of apostolic ministry.” 1 Pliny, Natural History 4.10.17 describes it as in the middle of the bend of the Thermaic Gulf. Xerxes chose its natural harbor as the place to station his fleet (Herodotus 7.121). Livy mentions its busy dockyards (44.10). 2 J. B. Lightfoot, Biblical Essays (Grand Rapids: Baker, reprint), p. 254. 3 Witherington, B., III. (2006). 1 and 2 Thessalonians: a socio-rhetorical commentary (p. 2). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. BC before Christ Livy Livy (Titus Livius), History of RomeDiodorus Siculus Diodorus of Sicily, Library of HistoryGeogr. Strabo, Geographyfrg. fragment BC before Christ BC before Christ 4 Dio Cassius 41.18.4–6; 41.43.1–5 5 Appian, Civil Wars 4.118; Plutarch, Brutus 46.1 6 Papagiannopoulos 1982: 39 BC before Christ Nat. Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7 Evidence of Thessalonica’s “freedom” is found in one inscription (IT 6) and in a series of coins issued by the city inscribed ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΕΩΝΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΑΣ (Freedom of the Thessalonians). BC before Christ ITInscriptiones graecae, vol. 10: Inscriptiones Thessalonicae et viciniae, edited by C. Edson (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1972) 8 Constable, T. L. (1985). 1 Thessalonians. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 687). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books. 9 Everett F. Harrison, Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1964, p. 245 10 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 156). Wheaton, IL: Victor Book

"Genocide is the attempt to partially or completely destroy a particular racial, religious, or national group. During World War II, the Third Reich embarked on a program of genocide by which they attempted to completely destroy European Jewry. Six million Jews, the majority of the European Jewish population and about one-third of all the Jews in the world, were ultimately murdered. This Nazi genocide has become known as the holocaust." Source: Karesh, Sara E., and Mitchell M. Hurvitz. "Nazi genocide." Encyclopedia of Judaism , Encyclopedia of World Religions. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2006. Modern World History Online . Facts on File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE53&iPin=ENJ0221&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 2, 2011). "...I should like someone to remember that there once lived a person named David Berger." - - David Berger in his last letter, Vilna 1941 Books related to the Holocaust have call numbers near 940.5318 . These books are located on the upper floor, left side. Reference books (REF) are located on the main floor. Subject Heading Search Shortcuts in CoolCat Consider joining Holocaust with terms such as art, fiction, literature, music, drama, poetry, biography, psychology, or with specific historic events and places (e.g. Kristallnacht, Auschwitz). Online Reference Databases Need to know more basic facts about your topic? Or just get a better understanding of the important aspects? Try one of these. Modern World History Online Topical entries, biographies, images and videos, maps and charts, primary sources, and timeline entries combine to provide a detailed and comparative view of the people, places, events, and ideas -- a search of the term Holocaust will find articles and other material from authoritative reference works, including: Gale Virtual Reference Library - Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide - Encyclopedia of Judaism - Encyclopedia of Political Thought - Encyclopedia of Terrorism - Encyclopedia of the Interwar Years: From 1919 to 1939 - Encyclopedia of World War II - Great Disasters: Reforms & Ramifications Includes material from the following reference books: Oxford Dictionary of Jewish Religion - Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity - History in Dispute, Vol. 11 - The Holocaust, 1933-1945 - Learning About the Holocaust: A Student Guide From definitions to essays, this online resource covers Jewish theology, customs, laws and practices throughout history. Encyclopaedia Britannica - Reflections on the Holocaust A 5-part overview covering: Points of View Reference Center - Hitler and the Origins of the Holocaust - The Holocaust - The Allied Response - The Christian Response - Art, Meaning, and Memory Designed to assist researchers in understanding the full scope of controversial subjects. It includes articles, short books and chapters of books, biographies, radio and TV news transcripts, primary source documents, images and videos. EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History Links to collections of European primary source documents (all have been transcribed or translated). All collections included are freely accessible, and are listed in chronological order by country. Try clicking on Germany or Poland or France, and checking the documents and photos available from the period 1933-1945 or World War II. Under Germany, you can find a link to the Shoah (Holocaust) with a list of several relevant collections of documents. Databases for Journal and Newspaper Articles Academic Search Premier Multidisciplinary database with thousands of journals covering history, psychology, religion, government, cultural studies, etc. Some full text and many peer-reviewed. Includes full text of Journal of Genocide Research from 3/01/1999 to 1 year ago. History Reference Center Articles, book reviews, reprints from books, primary source documents, videos and images from the Video Encyclopedia of the 20th Century and the World History Image Collection. Humanities Full Text Journal articles covering the Holocaust as reflected in literature, poetry, drama, personal stories, etc. Also includes includes historical, philosophical, and religious interpretations of the Holocaust. Some full text included. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses In-depth research into a specific topic related to the Holocaust. ProQuest Research Library Multidisciplinary database with history, political science, and theology journals covering the Holocaust. Some full text included. Journal articles covering the psychological effects of the Holocaust, and the psychological profiles of perpetrators of genocide. Full text not included, but may be available through other sources. Published International Literature on Traumatic Stress (PILOTS) Journal articles covering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) effects on Holocaust survivors. Full text not included, but may be available through other sources. Sage Premier Journals Thousands of full text articles on all aspects of the Holocaust. 3,000+ articles covering the psychological, social, medical, and cultural impact of the Holocaust on its survivors. Some full text included. Social Science Full Text A good source for journal articles covering the sociological and psychological impact of the holocaust. Some full text included. Search journal article abstracts for the sociological aspects of the Holocaust and genocide. Full text not included, but may be available through other sources. Glossary of Holocaust Terms Click the speaker button to hear the pronunciation of many foreign words. Yad Vashem was established in 1953 as the world center for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust. Within its Digital Collections section is the Central Database of Shoa Victims' Names . A video lecture series is available under the Holocaust tab. Women and the Holocaust "Dedicated to all those women who were murdered while pregnant, Holding little hands of children or carrying infants in their arms on their way to be gassed. In hiding. To the mothers who gave their children to be hidden, many never to find them again. To the righteous gentile mothers and the nuns in convents, who were hiding children in their care, Or as fighters in resistance: in ghettos, forests, partisan units. And to the lives of those few who survived and bravely carried." Of special interest is a collection of scholarly essays. An online edition of The Holocaust Chronicle where each chapter represents a year of Nazi Germany. CANDLES Holocaust Museum CANDLES is the acronym for the words "Children of Auschwitch Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors." The Hidden Child Foundation "To survive, we had to go into hiding or keep our true identity secret. Many of us were left to fend for ourselves, wandering in search of food and shelter. We hid in convents, orphanages, haylofts, woods, basements and sewers." Holocaust History: Animated Maps From the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Browse popular articles as offered at the bottom of the opening screen, or search for a phrase (e.g. "final solution") in many encyclopedic articles. Lists of resources, related articles and related links appear at the end of each article. The Secret Annex Online - Discover Anne Frank's Hiding Place The Secret Annex Online takes you back in time to the hiding place as it was then. See where Anne Frank wrote her diary and listen to the stories of everyone who lived in the hiding place. The people in hiding remained undiscovered for two years. Go inside -- through the secret entrance behind the bookcase. Use your mouse to explore the annex. Wander around the furnished spaces. Have your sound turned on so you can listen to the stories from Anne Frank's diary. Catholic Teaching on the Shoah (2001) From the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Notes, a bibliography, websites and a filmography are included. "They were ordinary people who became extraordinary people because they acted in accordance with their own belief systems while living in an immoral society. Thousands survived the Holocaust because of the daring of these rescuers." Some full length documents and web links are provided. Unexpected Saviours: The Role of Turkey in Assisting Victims During the Holocaust January 31, 2011. Running time: 01:59:23 The Holocaust Education Resource Center of the College of Saint Elizabeth The center provides a variety of programs, resources, and educational opportunities for study of the Holocaust. It aims to encourage remembrance of the Holocaust and to promote respect for diversity. By providing an opportunity for serious Jewish-Christian theological dialogue, it is opening doors through which many are experiencing mutual respect and understanding. A "Wall of Remembrance" is displayed.

The world really is getting smaller. I’m a 56-year-old Jewish Baby Boomer from Manhattan who became a spiritual seeker in my early twenties. Typical of so many of my generation, I looked for Enlightenment in the East, not the West. I traveled to India in 1984, and three years later, in a brief encounter with an extraordinary teacher, I found what I was looking for. Shortly thereafter, I started teaching myself and have been traveling the world doing just that ever since. In the decades since, the East has been coming to the West, and vice versa. I recently returned from a teaching trip to India supported by the Times of India Foundation where I was launching the Indian edition of my new book. I was speaking at schools, colleges, conference centers, bookstores, and ashrams. One thing became clear almost immediately after I arrived. The great surge of modernization in that ancient land is generating enormous stress for the multitudes who are striving to cash in on the new opportunities for prosperity. I could feel it most strongly when speaking to young people. They are under overwhelming pressure from their families to excel and conform: do well in school, get a good job, get married, have kids, send them to college, and—best case scenario—move to the USA so they can do it all in the promised land. Three decades earlier, I had come to India to find my soul. Now young Indians want to come to America to find material success. The most revealing incident happened at my first talk at a college in Mumbai: I noticed that the title had been changed from “Spiritual Self-Confidence” to “Self-Confidence.” I was surprised—India has always seemed to me to be the one place in the world where no one has a problem with the word “spiritual.” When I inquired as to why it had been removed, the organizers informed me that if they used the word “spiritual” in the title, young people wouldn’t come. “Spirituality is for grandparents,” I was told. So, in my talks, which many young Indians did attend, I found myself in the odd position of explaining to them that India’s great gift to the world has been her rich spirituality and that her greatest luminaries have been powerfully enlightened men and women who all, in one way or another, courageously bucked the status quo in pursuit of their own higher development. I emphasized how rare and challenging it is to become a truly independent agent in this world. That was why, in every talk I explained how, unknowingly, we are all conditioned—by our families, culture, and the times in which we’re living—to see the world in the way we do. That was why I asked them, “Do you ever think for yourself about the meaning of your life? Are you thinking your own thoughts, in the way that your culture’s greatest luminaries have done?” Shortly after arriving back from India, I led a week-long retreat in the Mojave desert in southern California. People came from all over the world, including Australia and Europe. But what was most intriguing to me was that two Asian women familiar with my work came all the way from Taiwan to spend that week with me exploring the depths of meditative stillness and the secrets of consciousness. The world really is getting smaller and more integrated and more incredible every day, I marveled. If fifty years ago you were to tell somebody that Americans would teach Enlightenment in India and that Asian seekers would come to California to learn about what the Buddha taught from an American Jew, they would never have believed you. I can hardly believe it myself. Andrew Cohen is the best-selling author of Evolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path to Spiritual Awakening. To download a 38-page excerpt, click here. Image Credit: Emjay Smith/Shutterstock.com

"My Masa, My Journey" - Building Future Leadership Alumna Addresses Conference March 19, 2012 University of Haifa alumna Elana Weil addressed 400 Building Future Leadership participants in Jerusalem, including Israeli President Shimon Peres and Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky. Shalom. My name is Elana and as a Masa and Building Future Leadership alumna, I would first and most importantly like to say, תודה! Thank you! Thank you, Masa. Thank you President Shimon Peres…for your dedication to us, the next generation of Jewish leaders. And I want to thank all of you, my fellow peers, who made the important decision to come to Israel on a Masa program, to come to the Building Future Leadership Seminar to invest in yourselves, and in the future of the Jewish people. I was asked to speak to you today, about how Masa and BFL were so critical in setting me on an exciting path of Jewish leadership and Israel advocacy. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, recognized a need to strengthen the bond between Diaspora Jews and Israeli Jews: “Yesh li chalom” he said. In English: “I have a dream, that all Jewish youngsters spend at least one year of their lives in Israel. A vision, where thousands of young people come on an independent voyage for a life-shaping year. …I believe that every one of the thousands of youngsters joining the “journey” will enrich his humanitarian, Jewish and professional experience…[and] will strengthen the community he comes from.” By dedicating five to ten months of our lives living in Israel, we are among the thousands of Masa participants, helping Sharon’s dream come true. I am so grateful for Sharon’s vision – without it, I would not be who I am today. My Masa experience strengthened my affinity with Israel, and that is a gift. By immersing myself in day-to-day life here, I grew to feel in my heart that I belong here…that this is my home. I embarked on my Masa Israel Journey two years ago to study abroad at Haifa University. Everyday was a chance to soak up new knowledge and push myself to new limits. My Hebrew skills improved in Ulpan. I learned about the history of Israel in my classes I hiked the Negev and the Golan. I volunteered teaching English to children who had immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia. When a Masa representative came to the Haifa campus to present Building Future Leadership, I jumped at the opportunity to participate – I saw it as an avenue to becoming a stronger and more effective advocate for Israel. Deligitimization and demonization of the Jewish State are spreading at an alarming rate. I did not serve in the IDF, therefore, as a Jew living outside of Israel, I wholeheartedly believe it is my duty to be vigilant, and educated, to protect, defend, and promote peace for Israel however I can. Through the BFL seminars, tours, discussions and debates with my peers, I was challenged and grew tremendously. Masa brought in well-respected figures most people would pay hundreds of dollars to hear speak. I connected with other Jews like myself from around the world. My BFL peers and I had so much fun together. We developed a sense of community and long-lasting bond around our shared passion for Israel. I returned home from Israel inspired to continue contributing to the State of Israel and the Jewish people. And thanks to BFL, I was equipped with the tools I needed to do this effectively. As a senior at The University of Arizona, I served as the Masa Israel Engagement intern, in addition to undertaking a Hillel Fellowship for Advancing Campus Engagement. I sought the mentorship of visiting Professor, Asher Susser, a key intellectual contributor to the Israel-Jordan peace agreement. I continued my work in Hasbarah, Israel advocacy, by working closely with AIPAC, CAMERA, and Christians United For Israel. Working hard as a young Jewish leader opened doors to opportunities I never dreamed of. My fellow Israel activists and I were invited to conferences in St. Louis, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., and now Jerusalem. We were inspired by the speeches of great leaders: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Vice President Joe Biden, President Obama, President Shimon Peres and many more. We had the fortune of meeting Tzipi Livni and Natan Sharansky as well. These remarkable experiences only increased our motivation to continue working tirelessly to bring about positive change for the Jewish people. After graduating college last May, although my involvement on campus came to a close, my involvement and leadership development in my new city of Boston, was just beginning. In my spare time outside of work, I continue to educate myself about Israeli current events, volunteer as a lay-leader for AIPAC and serve as the Boston Masa/Jewish Federation Fellow. By the way, if any of you are moving to Boston, please come and talk to me this week. I would love to meet you! I am proud to be Jewish. Proud to be a Zionist. I LOVE this country. I admire its founders. I want to share with you a quotation I find impeccably well suited for this special plenary of the Building Future Leadership Seminar. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, one of my greatest heroes, (may his memory be a blessing), once said: “Here, in the land of Israel, we returned and built a nation. Here, in the land of Israel, we established a state. The land of prophets, which bequeathed to the world the values of morality, law and justice, was after two thousand years, restored to its lawful owners – the members of the Jewish people. On its land, we have built an exceptional national home and state.” The “we” Rabin referred to, were young Jewish idealists with a vision, who played a critical role in building the very Israel we know today. Decades ago, they, were very much like us! Passionate, dedicated, proactive young Jews who answered the call to lead, without looking back. Many, just like us, were born outside of the land of Israel. Including, President Shimon Peres, who we are honored to have with us today. President Peres, you give us guidance and inspiration. We are in profound gratitude for the sacrifices you have made and the gifts you have given to the State of Israel and to the Jewish people. The brave founders of the State of Israel are now passing on the torch of leadership to our generation. Building Future Leadership, the flagship of Masa, was established for this very reason. You were chosen for BFL, because you were recognized as the most promising Jewish leaders of tomorrow, with unbound potential. My sincere hope for each of you, is to believe in yourselves as the leaders of tomorrow. Absorb as much as you can over these next days. When you return to your home communities, apply what you learned through your creative and entrepreneurial initiatives, and you will make a difference. President Peres recently addressed our generation in his powerful new video, Be My Friend For Peace on Facebook. He says to us: “I call upon you not just to guess what tomorrow will look like, but to pave the way for its arrival.” Let us heed the President’s call! We are vital partners in shaping a bright future for Israel, the Jewish People, and the entire world. The responsibility rests on us to stand up, be leaders, and make a positive change. That is why we are here. Am Yisrael Chai. Todah Rabah.

By Jen Judson/Daily News staff GateHouse News Service Posted Aug 09, 2010 @ 12:00 AM In the age of electronic readers, local author Jonathan Papernick says he's "going old school," hitting the streets and selling his books from a green fluorescent pushcart. He got the cart from Alex Green, the owner of Back Pages Books, 289 Moody St. Standing in a sunny corner of the Waltham farmers market Saturday, wearing a black T-shirt depicting a side-profile of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern political Zionism, and a pair of sunglasses, Papernick greets each passersby with: "I'm Papernick the book peddler, and I wrote these books." Embracing his European Jewish heritage, Papernick, 39, said has taken on the persona of a modern version of Mendele the Book Peddler, a great Yiddish writer, and wants to bring back the "age-old art of hand-selling books." Lively notes from Dimitri Zisl Slepovitch's clarinet helped draw customers to Papernick's cart Saturday. Slepovitch, a friend of Papernick's, is the leader of the Klezmer band "Tamevate Kapelye," which means "foolish band." Papernick, joined by Slepovitch, will parade from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Manhattan's Upper West Side in October to celebrate the end of his promotional tour for his latest book of short stories, "There Is No Other." "In an age where new technologies and e-books have replaced human contact," Papernick said, he is "building face-to-face relationships" with his readers. Along with his newest book, Papernick sold his two other books, "The Ascent of Eli Israel," and "Who By Fire Who By Blood," from his cart Saturday. One man in wheelchair stopped by Papernick's flashy cart, leaving with two of his books and a "Papernick the Book Peddler" sticker attached to the side of his chair. Papernick, formerly of Toronto, moved to the United States to attend graduate school at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, N.Y. He studied creative writing. After meeting his wife, Eve, in graduate school and spending time in New York City, Papernick moved to Waltham six years ago to be closer to members of his wife's family. Papernick has two sons: Zev, 4, and Jesse, 2. Papernick has been a writer-in-residence for the past four years at Emerson College and an artist-in-residence in the BIMA program at Brandeis University. Papernick said he always wanted to be a writer growing up. "I wrote terrible 'Lord of the Rings' rip-offs" as a kid, he said. At 19, Papernick wrote a self-published book and attempted to sell the 200 copies he had ordered on the streets of Toronto. Approaching a fellow book peddler, Crad Kilodney, who wrote and sold books with titles such as "Monkeys Ate My Guts," Papernick asked him to read his first book. "He was a grumpy kind of guy," said Papernick, but Kilodney wrote him a letter a week later telling him the work was riddled with grammatical errors yet had "flashes of brilliance." Kilodney told him that if he kept writing, in five to 10 years he would be a writer, Papernick said. Ten years later, Papernick published his first book of seven short stories, "The Ascent of Eli Israel," inspired from his time spent in Jerusalem working as a reporter for United Press International and the Associated Press in the mid-1990s. Papernick said he was in Jerusalem right after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minster and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Rabin was gunned down in 1995 by a radical Israeli who opposed his signing of the Oslo Accords, an agreement between the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Papernick's next book, a novel published in 2007 in Canada, "Who By Fire Who By Blood," is a literary thriller about Jewish extremism in Brooklyn. The work is his most controversial, he said. Although it is in the early stages, Papernick is working on a new novel about a synagogue softball league in Waltham. Papernick said he has had his fair share of rejections in life, but as a writer it is important to "never give up." With his persistence at the farmers market that morning, Papernick sold six books in two hours, which he said is far more than he could off the shelves in a bookstore. Like his posters and stickers suggest, Papernick said he is "bringing market-fresh fiction directly to the people."

As genetic testing for ethnicity and genealogy becomes more popular, potential test-takers are wondering which company to test with. What’s accurate? Who has the largest database for matches? And so on… In this post, I’m going to explore my ethnicity test results and share what company I have found most accurate for me. I’ve previously discussed my paper trail in great detail but, in summary, I’m about 75% English, 19% Scottish, and 6% Irish. When I DNA-tested for the first time I was really interested in what the test would show about my ancient heritage and how it would match up with my paper trail. I also had an interest in how DNA testing would help with genealogical research, however, this interest mainly grew after receiving my test results once I was able to work with my genetic matches. I originally tested with AncestryDNA. Since then I have uploaded to Gedmatch and DNA.LAND, as well as transferred results to FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and Wegene. I have also tested immediate family (parents and brother) for comparison and uploaded their results to some of the aforementioned sites. [See ‘Conclusion’ for any disclaimers.] The AncestryDNA results attempt to break down ones genetic makeup into two categories ‘Thousands of years ago’ (the ethnicity estimate) and ‘Hundreds of years ago’ (Genetic Communities, which I have analysed in detail here). I have found that the ethnicity estimate slightly overestimates my Irish-ness (which, despite its name, encompasses Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) as well as the Europe West region. However, this is impossible to verify since, as Ancestry claim, they are looking into a persons deep ancestry, which is beyond what can be confirmed from a paper trail. Moreover, my Great Britain assignment has been underestimated at only 9% as compared with the 75% recorded in my paper trail. Overall, it is impossible to know for sure how accurate the ethnicity estimate is since they are identifying deep ancestry, although I cannot say that it would be reliable to depend on for determining ones recent ancestry as the amounts are so skewed compared with the paper trail. On the other hand, the [new] Genetic Communities feature is very reliable for identifying recent ancestry, though it still has some way to go in identifying more regions and assigning more communities. Despite all comments that may imply otherwise, I believe AncestryDNA is the best company to test with. This is due to their customer database, which is currently at four-million, the largest database out of all the testing companies. This is significant for genealogy and adoptees as, through the DNA Matches feature, you are enabled to search a larger database of DNA cousins and their family trees, hence improving your own genealogical research. Gedmatch have a range of different admixture reports authored by different people. Different reports are recommended for people of different ethnicities, as they can be more reliable for one ethnicity and less reliable for another. One method, created by Cordue, uses a couple of different gedmatch calculators in conjunction to reliably identify Indigenous Australian ancestry. I was advised that given my British ancestry, Eurogenes K13 would be the best admixture utility to use. The most obvious issue with this report is that it altogether assigns me 5% Asian and it leads me to believe I have Amerinidian ancestry (which is almost impossible). The latter assignment is especially problematic since many Americans hope for Amerindian ancestry and being told by a report that they have it is misleading and potentially problematic. One stand out of the Eurogenes K13 report is that it picks up on my “1.78% Northeast African”, which is not recorded on my paper trail but has been picked up by other ethnicity tests. This consistency suggests the report is semi-reliabile. The DNA.Land ancestry composition is very vague. Like AncestryDNA’s ethnicity estimate, it appears to search into a person’s deep ancestry, and, as a result, it is difficult to ascertain the accuracy of the composition. In some ways, the vagueness seems to imply a lack of confidence by the company in which if they use broad definitions for regions they cannot go wrong. Also, DNA.Land is not worthwhile using for DNA matches. I know of definite matches using the system that don’t show up on their “find relatives” feature. However, DNA.Land’s trait prediction report is interesting and worth taking a look at. Particularly, if you want to learn about your circadian rhythms, coffee consumption, education attainment, etc. While probably not so accurate, these are fun to look into. Pre-update I would have said FamilyTreeDNA’s ethnicity report was far from accurate. From falsely assigning Jewish ancestry to my dad to assigning us very little British Isles. However, post-update I believe it’s one of the most accurate reports. Their placement of me as 85% British Isles, which includes England, Ireland, and Scotland, is so much closer to the 100% I should have. [N.B: I have read elsewhere that Amerindian genetic markers are very similar to Siberian markers. I question if the Eurogenes K13 (aforementioned) misidentified me and, instead, the Siberian identified by FamilyTreeDNA is probably more likely a true representative of those markers.] Yet, I have noticed in DNA groups that I’m part of a minority of satisfied customers with the new update. I would suggest that Familytreedna are probably very reliable when it comes to people of British origin but maybe not so reliable with people of other ethnicities. MyHeritage DNA’s ethnicity report, though new, has really impressed me. The “Irish, Scottish, and Welsh” is the closest to accurate out of all tests. In fact, considering my Irish and Scottish ancestors would have shared DNA with Scandinavian, English, and European, it is probably most likely that I’d have less rather than more “Irish, Scottish, and Welsh”. With that in mind MyHeritage DNA’s estimate of my Irish-ness should be more accurate than Ancestry DNA’s. The “English” estimate appears to be a lot less than on paper, however, when the “Scandinavian” and “North and West European” percentages are read in conjunction with the “English”, MyHeritageDNA is again very accurate (arriving at 79.6%). [At this point, it is also important to note I have a brick wall on my maternal grandfather’s paternal grandparents, who could be French due to having a possibly-French surname; though are most likely English. In the case that they are French, this report would be spot on. Regardless, I still think MyHeritage DNA are spot on considering the English genetically overlap with North and West Europe in many historic cases, such as the Normal invasions.] Wegene is a Chinese testing company. They are probably very reliable for the Asian market. However, they gave me the least accurate estimate. [The 0.04% represents “Chinese”.] Having seen all my other estimates and what I’ve said about my paper trail, it’s quite apparent how off Wegene has been. The one advantage of this company is that they attempt to identify ones mitochondrial DNA using some markers that are on the Ancestry chip. They placed me in U5a1. While I have never had my mtDNA tested, I do have reason to believe this is correctly identified. Of course it is important to remember that the ethnicity reports generated by these companies are nothing more than estimates. Due to genetic admixture, it is scientifically very difficult to identify ethnicity with 100% reliability. I also want to clarify that everything I have written is my personal opinion, I have not been paid by any companies to positively review their product or negatively review another company’s product. Furthermore, the accuracy of each company will vary depending on an individual’s heritage as each company has strong and weak reference populations.

Bobby Fischer (left) and John Collins. |Full name||Robert James Fischer| |Country||United States, Iceland| |Born||March 9 1943 Chicago, Illinois, United States |Died||January 17 2008 (aged 64) |World Champion||1972–1975 (FIDE)| |Peak rating||2785 (July 1972)| Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American-born chess Grandmaster, and the eleventh World Chess Champion. Fischer became famous as a teenager as a chess prodigy. In 1972, he became the first, and so far the only, American to win the official World Chess Championship, defeating defending champion Boris Spassky in a match held in Reykjavík, Iceland. The match was widely publicized as a Cold War battle. He is often referred to as one of the greatest chess players of all time. Iceland subsequently awarded Fischer citizenship in recognition of a 30-year-old match that put the country "on the map." In 1975, Fischer failed to defend his title when he could not come to agreement with the international chess federation FIDE over the conditions for the match. He became more reclusive and played no more competitive chess until 1992, when he had a rematch with Spassky. The competition was held in Yugoslavia, which was then under a strict United Nations embargo.This led to a conflict with the United States government, and he never returned to his native country. In his later years, Fischer lived in Hungary, Germany, the Philippines, and Japan. During this time he made increasingly anti-American and antisemitic statements. During the 2004–2005 time period, after his U.S. passport was revoked, he was detained by Japanese authorities for nine months under threat of extradition. He was then granted Icelandic citizenship and released to Iceland by the Japanese authorities. He lived in Iceland from 2005 until his death in 2008. Fischer's reclusive lifestyle made him an enigma to many. Robert James Fischer was born at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on March 9, 1943. His mother, Regina Wender, was a naturalized American citizen of Polish Jewish descent, born in Switzerland but raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She later became a teacher, a registered nurse, and a physician. Fischer's birth certificate listed Wender's husband, Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, a German biophysicist, as Fischer's father. The couple married in 1933 in Moscow, USSR, where Wender was studying medicine at the First Moscow Medical Institute. They divorced in 1945 when Bobby was two years old, and he grew up with his mother and older sister, Joan. In 1948, the family moved to Mobile, Arizona, where Regina taught in an elementary school. The following year they moved to Brooklyn, New York, where Regina worked as an elementary school teacher and nurse. A 2002 article by Peter Nicholas and Clea Benson of The Philadelphia Inquirer suggests that Paul Nemenyi, a Hungarian Jewish physicist, may have been Fischer's biological father. The article quotes an FBI report that states that Regina Fischer returned to the United States in 1939, while Hans-Gerhardt Fischer never entered the United States, having been refused admission by U.S. immigration officials because of alleged Communist sympathies. Regina and Nemenyi had an affair in 1942, and he made monthly child support payments to Regina. Nemenyi died in March, 1952. In May 1949, the six-year-old Fischer learned how to play chess along with his sister in instructions found in a chess set that was bought at a candy store below their Brooklyn apartment. He saw his first chess book a month later. For over a year he played chess on his own. At age seven, he began to play chess seriously, joining the Brooklyn Chess Club and receiving instruction from its president, Carmine Nigro. He later joined the Manhattan Chess Club, one of the strongest in the world, in June, 1955. Other important early influences were provided by Master and chess journalist Hermann Helms and Grandmaster Arnold Denker. Denker served as a mentor to young Bobby, often taking him to watch professional hockey games at Madison Square Garden, to cheer the New York Rangers. Denker wrote that Bobby enjoyed those treats and never forgot them; the two became lifelong friends. When Fischer was 13, his mother asked the Master John W. Collins to be his chess tutor. Collins had coached several top players, including future grandmasters Robert Byrne and William Lombardy. Fischer spent much time at Collins' house, and some have described Collins as a father figure for Fischer. The Hawthorne Chess Club was the name for the group which Collins coached. Fischer also was involved with the Log Cabin Chess Club. Another mentor and friend during those years was the broadcaster and author Dick Schaap, who often took Fischer to basketball games of the New York Knicks. Bobby Fischer attended Erasmus Hall High School at the same time as Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond. The student council of Erasmus Hall awarded him a gold medal for his chess achievements. Fischer dropped out of Erasmus in 1959 at age 16, the minimum age for doing so, saying that school had little more to offer him. When Fischer was 16, his mother moved out of their apartment to pursue medical training. Her friend Joan Rodker, who had met Regina when the two were "idealistic communists" living in Moscow in the 1930s, believes that Fischer resented his mother for being mostly absent as a mother, a communist activist and an admirer of the Soviet Union, and that this led to his hatred for the Soviet Union. In letters to Rodker, Fischer's mother states her desire to pursue her own "obsession" of training in medicine and writes that her son would have to live in their Brooklyn apartment without her: "It sounds terrible to leave a 16-year-old to his own devices, but he is probably happier that way." Fischer's first real triumph was winning the United States Junior Chess Championship in July 1956. He scored 8.5/10 at Philadelphia to become the youngest-ever junior champion at age 13, a record that has yet to be eclipsed. In the 1956 U.S. Open Chess Championship at Oklahoma City, Fischer scored 8.5/12 to tie for 4-8th places, with Arthur Bisguier winning. He then played in the first Canadian Open Chess Championship at Montreal 1956, scoring 7/10 to tie for 8-12th places, with Larry Evans winning. Fischer's famous game from the 3rd Rosenwald Trophy tournament at New York 1956, against Donald Byrne, who later became an International Master, was called "The Game of the Century" by Hans Kmoch. At the age of 12, he was awarded the U.S. title of National Master, then the youngest ever. In 1957, Fischer played a two-game match against former World Champion Max Euwe at New York, losing 0.5-1.5. He then successfully defended his U.S. Junior title, scoring 8.5/9 at San Francisco. Next, he won the U.S. Open Chess Championship at Cleveland on tie-breaking points over Arthur Bisguier, scoring 10/12. Fischer defeated the young Filipino Master Rodolfo Tan Cardoso by 6-2 in a match in New York. He next won the New Jersey Open Championship. From these triumphs, Fischer was given entry into the invitational U.S. Chess Championship at New York. He won, with 10.5/13, becoming in January 1958, at age 14, the youngest U.S. champion ever (this record still stands). He earned the title of International Master with this victory, becoming the youngest player ever to achieve this level (a record since broken). Fischer's victory in the U.S. Championship qualified him to participate in the 1958 Portorož Interzonal, the next step toward challenging the World Champion. The top six finishers in the Interzonal would qualify for the Candidates Tournament. Fischer surprised the pundits, tying for 5th and 6th places at the Interzonal, with 12/20, after a strong finish. This made Fischer the youngest person ever to qualify for the Candidates, a record which stood until 2005 (it was broken under a different setup by Magnus Carlsen). It also earned him the title of Grandmaster, making him the youngest grandmaster in history at 15 years and six months. This record stood until 1991 when it was broken by Judit Polgar. Fischer remained the youngest grandmaster in the world until Florin Gheorghiu earned the title in 1965. Before the Candidates' tournament, Fischer competed in the 1958-1959 U.S. Championship (winning 8.5/11) and then in international tournaments at Mar del Plata, Santiago, and Zurich. He played unevenly in the two South American tournaments. At Mar del Plata he finished tied for third with Borislav Ivkov, half a point behind tournament winners Ludek Pachman and Miguel Najdorf. At Santiago, he tied for fourth through sixth places, behind Ivkov, Pachman, and Herman Pilnik. He did better at the strong Zurich event, finishing a point behind world-champion-to-be Mikhail Tal and half a point behind Svetozar Gligoric. Fischer had, up to this point, dressed like a normal teenager, in jeans and casual shirts, at chess tournaments, but was influenced by veteran Grandmaster Miguel Najdorf, whom he met at Mar del Plata, to improve his appearance. Najdorf dressed well in fine suits. Fischer's strong performances increased his income, and he soon became known for his elegant dress at major events, built up an extensive wardrobe of custom-made suits, and took considerable pride in his image as a young professional. At the age of 16, Fischer finished a creditable equal fifth out of eight, the top non-Soviet player, at the Candidates Tournament held in Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1959. He scored 12.5/28 but was outclassed by tournament winner Tal, who won all four of their individual games. In 1960, Fischer tied for first place with the young Soviet star Boris Spassky at the strong Mar del Plata tournament in Argentina, with the two well ahead of the rest of the field, scoring 13.5/15. Fischer lost only to Spassky, and this was the start of their relationship, which began on a friendly basis and stayed that way, in spite of Fischer's troubles on the board against him. Fischer struggled in the subsequent Buenos Aires tournament, finishing with 8.5/19 (won by Viktor Korchnoi and Samuel Reshevsky on 13/19). This was the only real failure of Fischer's competitive career. In 1961, Fischer started a 16-game match with Reshevsky, split between New York and Los Angeles. Despite Fischer's meteoric rise, the veteran Reshevsky (born in 1911, 32 years older than Fischer) was considered the favorite, since he had far more match experience and had never lost a set match. After 11 games and a tie score (two wins apiece with seven draws), the match ended prematurely due to a scheduling dispute between Fischer and match organizer and sponsor Jacqueline Piatigorsky. The hard-fought struggle, with many games being adjourned, had delayed the original match schedule, causing some logistical challenges for site bookings. Reshevsky received the winner's share of the prizes. Fischer later made up with Mrs. Piatigorsky by accepting an invitation to the second Piatigorsky Cup, Santa Monica 1966, which she helped to sponsor. In the next World Championship cycle, Fischer won the 1962 Stockholm Interzonal by 2.5 points, scoring 17.5/22, making him one of the favorites for the Candidates Tournament in Curaçao, which began soon afterwards. He finished fourth out of eight with 14/27, the best result by a non-Soviet player but well behind Tigran Petrosian (17.5/27), Efim Geller, and Paul Keres (both 17/27). When Tal fell very ill during the tournament, and had to withdraw before completion, Fischer was the only player who visited him in the hospital.. Following his failure in the 1962 Candidates (at which five of the eight players were from the Soviet Union), Fischer asserted, in an article entitled "The Russians Have Fixed World Chess" which was published in Sports Illustrated magazine, August 1962, that three of the Soviet players (Tigran Petrosian, Paul Keres, and Efim Geller) had a pre-arranged agreement to draw their games against each other, in order to save energy and to concentrate on playing against Fischer, and also that a fourth, Victor Korchnoi, had been forced to deliberately lose games to ensure that a Soviet player won the tournament. It is generally thought that the former accusation is correct, but not the latter. (This is discussed further at the World Chess Championship 1963 article). Fischer also stated that he would never again participate in a Candidates' tournament, since the format, combined with the alleged collusion, made it impossible for a non-Soviet player to win. Following Fischer's article, FIDE in late 1962 voted a radical reform of the playoff system, replacing the Candidates' tournament with a format of knockout matches. In an interview in the January, 1962 issue of Harper's Magazine, Fischer was quoted as saying, "I read a book lately by Nietzsche and he says religion is just to dull the senses of the people. I agree." Nonetheless, Fischer said in 1962 that he had "personal problems" and began to listen to various radio ministers in a search for answers. This is how he first came to listen to The World Tomorrow radio program with Herbert W. Armstrong and his son Garner Ted Armstrong. The Armstrongs' denomination, The Worldwide Church of God (then under its original name, the Radio Church of God), predicted an imminent apocalypse. In late 1963, Fischer began tithing to the church. According to Fischer, he lived a bifurcated life, with a rational chess component and an enthusiastic religious component. At the 1967 Sousse Interzonal his religious observances led to problems with the organizers (see below). Fischer gave the Worldwide Church of God $61,200 of his 1972 world championship prize money. However, 1972 was a disastrous year for the church, as prophecies by Herbert W. Armstrong were unfulfilled, and the church was rocked by revelations of a series of sex scandals involving Garner Ted Armstrong. Fischer, who felt betrayed and swindled by the Worldwide Church of God, left the church and publicly denounced it. In 1970, Fischer started a new effort to become World Champion. As he became a viable contender, much positive publicity for chess arose. In 1972, he succeeded in his quest, but forfeited his title a few years later. The 1969 U.S. Championship was also a zonal qualifier, with the top three finishers advancing to the Interzonal. Fischer, however, had sat out the US Championship because of disagreements about the tournament's format and prize fund. To enable Fischer to compete for the title, Grandmaster Pal Benko gave up his Interzonal place. This unusual arrangement was the work of Ed Edmondson, then the USCF's Executive Director. Before the Interzonal, in March and April 1970, the world's best players competed in the USSR vs. Rest of the World match in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, often referred to as "the Match of the Century." Fischer agreed to allow Bent Larsen of Denmark to play first board for the Rest of the World team in light of Larsen's recent outstanding tournament results, even though Fischer had the higher Elo rating. The USSR team won the match (20.5-19.5), but on second board, Fischer beat Tigran Petrosian, whom Boris Spassky had dethroned as world champion the previous year, 3-1, winning the first two games and drawing the last two. Following the Match of the Century, the unofficial World Championship of Lightning Chess (5-minute games) was held at Herceg Novi. Fischer annihilated the super-class field with 19/22(+17=4-1), 4.5 points ahead of Tal. Later in 1970, Fischer won tournaments at Rovinj/Zagreb with 13/17 (+10=6-1), and Buenos Aires, where he crushed the field of mostly Grandmasters with no losses: 15/17 (+13=4). Fischer had taken his game to a new level. He defeated Ulf Andersson in an exhibition game for the Swedish newspaper 'Expressen' at Siegen 1970. The Interzonal was held in Palma de Mallorca in November and December 1970. Fischer won it with a remarkable 18.5-4.5 score (+15=7-1), 3.5 points ahead of Larsen, Efim Geller, and Robert Hübner, who tied for second at 15-8. Fischer finished the tournament with seven consecutive wins. Fischer continued his domination in the 1971 Candidates matches. First, he beat Mark Taimanov of the USSR at Vancouver by 6-0. A couple of months later, he repeated the shutout against Larsen at Denver, again by 6-0. Just a year before, Larsen had played first board for the Rest of the World team ahead of Fischer, and had handed Fischer his only loss at the Interzonal. "The record books showed that the only comparable achievement to the 6-0 score against Taimanov was Wilhelm Steinitz's 7-0 win against Joseph Henry Blackburne in 1876 in an era of more primitive defensive technique." Fischer won a strong lightning event in New York in August 1971 with an overwhelming score of 21.5/22. Only former World Champion Petrosian, Fischer's final opponent in the Candidates matches, was able to offer resistance in their match played at Buenos Aires. Petrosian unleashed a strong theoretical novelty in the first game and had Fischer on the ropes, but Fischer defended with his customary aplomb and won the game. This gave Fischer a streak of 20 consecutive wins against the world's top players (in the Interzonal and Candidates matches), the second longest winning streak in chess history after Steinitz's 25-game streak from 1873 to 1882. Petrosian won decisively in the second game, finally snapping Fischer's winning streak. After three consecutive draws, Fischer swept the next four games to win the match 6.5-2.5 (+5=3−1). The final match victory allowed Fischer to challenge World Champion Boris Spassky, whom he had never beaten before (+0=2−3). Fischer's career-long stubbornness about match and tournament conditions was again seen in the run-up to his match with Spassky. Of the possible sites, Fischer preferred Yugoslavia, while Spassky wanted Iceland. For a time it appeared that the dispute would be resolved by splitting the match between the two locations, but that arrangement fell through. After that issue was resolved, Fischer refused to play unless the prize fund, which he considered inadequate, was doubled. London financier Jim Slater responded by donating an additional $125,000, which brought the prize fund to an unprecedented $250,000. Fischer finally agreed to play. The match took place in Reykjavík, Iceland, from July through September 1972. Fischer lost the first two games in strange fashion: the first when he played a risky pawn-grab in a drawn endgame, the second by forfeit when he refused to play the game in a dispute over playing conditions. Fischer would likely have forfeited the entire match, but Spassky, not wanting to win by default, yielded to Fischer's demands to move the next game to a back room, away from the cameras whose presence had upset Fischer. The rest of the match proceeded without serious incident. Fischer won seven of the next 19 games, losing only one and drawing 11, to win the match 12.5-8.5 and become the 11th World Chess Champion. The Cold War trappings helped serve to make the result somewhat of a media sensation. This was an American victory in a field that Soviet players had dominated for the past quarter-century, players closely identified with, and subsidized by, the Soviet state. The match was called "The Match of the Century," and received front-page media coverage in the United States and around the world. With his victory, Fischer became an instant celebrity. Upon his return to New York, a Bobby Fischer Day was held, and he was cheered by thousands of fans, a unique display in American chess. He received numerous product endorsement offers (all of which he declined) and appeared on the covers of LIFE and Sports Illustrated. With American Olympic swimming champion Mark Spitz, he also appeared on a Bob Hope TV special. Membership in the United States Chess Federation doubled in 1972 and peaked in 1974; in American chess, these years are commonly referred to as the "Fischer Boom," according to Spassky, referring to professional chess. Fischer won the 'Chess Oscar' award for 1970, 1971, and 1972. This award, started in 1967, is determined through votes from chess media and leading players. Fischer was also the (then) highest-rated player in history according to the Elo rating system. He had a rating of 2780 after beating Spassky, which was actually a slight decline from the record 2785 rating he had achieved after routing Taimanov, Larsen, and Petrosian the previous year. Because of his accomplishments up to this point in his life as a pioneer of professional chess, some leading players and some of his biographers rank him as the greatest player who ever lived.Leonard Barden wrote, "Most experts place him the second or third best ever, behind Kasparov but probably ahead of Karpov." Fischer was scheduled to defend his title in 1975. Anatoly Karpov eventually emerged as his challenger, having defeated Spassky in an earlier Candidates match. Fischer, who had played no competitive games since his World Championship match with Spassky, laid out a proposal for the match in September 1973, in consultation with a FIDE official, Fred Cramer. He made the following three principal demands: A FIDE Congress was held in Nice in June 1974, headed by FIDE president Max Euwe and consisting of both US and USSR representatives. It ruled that the match should continue until six wins, not 10. However, Fischer replied that he would resign his crown and not participate in the match. Instead of accepting Fischer's forfeit, FIDE agreed to allow the match to continue until 10 wins, but ruled it should not last longer than 36 games and rejected the 9-9 clause. In response, Fischer sent a cable to Euwe on June 27, 1974: As I made clear in my telegram to the FIDE delegates, the match conditions I proposed were non-negotiable. Mr. Cramer informs me that the rules of the winner being the first player to win ten games, draws not counting, unlimited number of games and if nine wins to nine match is drawn with champion regaining title and prize fund split equally were rejected by the FIDE delegates. By so doing FIDE has decided against my participating in the 1975 world chess championship. I therefore resign my FIDE world chess champion title. Sincerely, Bobby Fischer. In a letter to Larry Evans, published in Chess Life in November 1974, Fischer claimed the usual system (24 games with the first player to get 12.5 points winning, or the champion retaining his title in the event of a 12-12 tie) encouraged the player in the lead to draw games, which he regarded as bad for chess. Not counting draws would be "an accurate test of who is the world's best player." Former U.S. Champion Arnold Denker, who was in contact with Fischer during the negotiations with FIDE, claimed that Fischer wanted a long match to be able to play himself into shape after a three-year layoff. Due to the continued efforts of U.S. Chess Association officials, a special FIDE Congress was held in March 1975 in Bergen, North Holland in which it was accepted that the match should be of unlimited duration, but the 9:9 clause was once again rejected by a narrow margin of 35 votes to 32. After no reply was received from Fischer, Karpov officially became World Champion by default in April 1975. In his 1991 autobiography, Karpov expressed profound regret that the match did not take place, and claimed that the lost opportunity to challenge Fischer held back his own chess development. Karpov met with Fischer several times after 1975, in friendly but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to arrange a match. Garry Kasparov has argued that Karpov would have had a good chance to defeat Fischer in 1975. After the World Championship, Fischer did not play another serious game in public for nearly 20 years. He did not defend his title and public perception was reflected in the decline of interest in chess in the West in the following years. After 20 years, Fischer emerged from isolation to challenge Spassky (then placed 96-102 on the rating list) to a "Revenge Match of the 20th century" in 1992. This match took place in Sveti Stefan and Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia, in spite of a United Nations embargo that included sanctions on sporting events. Fischer demanded that the organizers bill the match as "The World Chess Championship," although Garry Kasparov was the recognized FIDE World Champion. Fischer had only ever mentioned resigning his "FIDE" title. He insisted he was still the true world chess champion, and that for all the games in the FIDE-sanctioned World Championship matches, involving Karpov, Korchnoi and Kasparov, the outcomes had been pre-arranged. In a 2005 interview he explained his attitude toward Kasparov: "Anyone who prepares matches in advance and, especially, who plays contractual games, is a liar and a dealer. I just call Kasparov a criminal." The purse for Fischer's re-match with Spassky was reported to be US$5,000,000 with two-thirds to go to the winner. Fischer won the match, 10 wins to 5 losses, with 15 draws. Many grandmasters observing the match said that Fischer was past his prime. In the book Mortal Games, Kasparov is quoted: "Bobby is playing OK, nothing more. Maybe his strength is around 2600 or 2650. It wouldn't be close between us." Fischer never played any competitive games afterwards. The US Department of the Treasury had warned Fischer beforehand that his participation was illegal as it violated President George H. W. Bush's Executive Order 12810 that implemented United Nations sanctions against engaging in economic activities in Yugoslavia. In front of the international press, Fischer was filmed spitting on the US order forbidding him to play. Following the match, the Department obtained an arrest warrant for him. Fischer remained wanted by the United States government for the rest of his life and never returned to the United States again. Fischer again slid into relative obscurity. With his new status as fugitive from American justice, his rhetoric and vitriol against the U.S. intensified. For some of these years Fischer lived in Budapest, Hungary allegedly having a relationship with young Hungarian chess master Zita Rajcsanyi. He claimed to find standard chess stale and he played varieties such as Chess960 blitz games. He visited with the Polgár family in Budapest and analyzed many games with Judit Polgár, Zsuzsa, and Zsófia Polgár. From 2000 to 2002, Fischer lived in Baguio City in the Philippines in the same compound as the Filipino grandmaster Eugenio Torre, a close friend who acted as his second during his matches with Spassky. Fischer played tennis at the Baguio Country Club. Torre introduced Fischer to a 22-year-old woman named Justine Ong (or Marilyn Young). Together, they had a daughter named Jinky Ong, born in 2002 (or 2001) at the Saint Louis University, Baguio City, Sacred Heart Hospital. In 1961 Fischer "made his first public statements despising Jews." In 1984 Fischer sent an open letter to Encyclopedia Judaica, in which he vehemently denied being a Jew and denounced Judaism. In recent years, Fischer's primary means of communicating with the public was via sometimes-outrageous radio interviews. Fischer participated in at least 34 such broadcasts between 1999 and 2006, mostly with radio stations in the Philippines, but also with stations in Hungary, Iceland, Colombia, and Russia. Fischer, whose mother was Jewish, made occasional hostile comments toward Jews from at least the early 1960s. From the 1980s his hatred for Jews was a major theme of his public and private remarks. He denied the "Holocaust of the Jews," announced his desire to make "expos[ing] the Jews for the criminals they are […] the murderers they are" his lifework, and argued that the United States is "a farce controlled by dirty, hook-nosed, circumcised Jew bastards." In one of his radio interviews, Fischer said that it became clear to him in 1977, after reading The Secret World Government by Arthur Cherep-Spiridovich, that the Jews were targeting him.. Hours after the September 11, 2001, attacks Fischer was interviewed live by Pablo Mercado on a Baguio City station shortly after midnight September 12, 2001 Philippines local time (or shortly after noon on September 11, 2001, New York time). Fischer commented on U.S. and Israeli foreign policy that "nobody cares … [that] the U.S. and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians for years." Chess columnist Shelby Lyman, who in 1972 had hosted the PBS broadcast of that year's Championship, said after Fischer's death that "the anti-American stuff is explained by the fact that … he spent the rest of his life [after the game in Yugoslavia] fleeing from the U.S., because he was afraid of being extradited". Fischer lived briefly in Japan. Seeking ways to evade deportation to the United States, Fischer wrote a letter to the government of Iceland in early January 2005 and asked for Icelandic citizenship. Sympathetic to Fischer's plight, but reluctant to grant him the full benefits of citizenship, Icelandic authorities granted him an alien's passport. When this proved insufficient for the Japanese authorities, the Althing agreed unanimously to grant Fischer full citizenship in late March for humanitarian reasons, as they felt he was being unjustly treated by the U.S. and Japanese governments. Fischer unsuccessfully requested German citizenship on the grounds that his late father, Hans Gerhardt Fischer, had been a lifelong German citizen. The U.S. government filed charges of tax evasion against Fischer in an effort to prevent him from traveling to Iceland. Shortly before his departure to Iceland, on March 23 2005, Fischer and Bosnitch appeared briefly on the BBC World Service, via a telephone link to the Tokyo airport. Bosnitch stated that Fischer would never play traditional chess again. Fischer denounced President Bush as a criminal and Japan as a puppet of the United States. He also stated that he would appeal his case to the US Supreme Court and said that he would not return to the U.S. while Bush was in power. Fischer lived a reclusive life in Iceland. Fischer was suffering from degenerative renal failure. This had been a problem for some years, but became acute in October 2007, when Fischer was admitted to a Reykjavík Landspítali hospital for stationary treatment. He stayed there for about seven weeks, but was released in a somewhat improved condition in the middle of November. He returned home gravely ill in December apparently rejecting any further Western medicine. Fischer stayed in an apartment in the same building as his closest friend and spokesman, Garðar Sverrisson, whose wife Krisín happens to be a nurse and looked after the terminally ill patient. Garðar's two children, especially his son, were very close to Fischer. They were his only close friends and contacts during the last two years of his life. In the middle of January his condition deteriorated and he was returned to hospital, where elevated levels of serum creatinine were found in his blood. He died on January 17, 2008, at home in his apartment in Reykjavík. Fischer's estate was estimated at 140 million ISK (about one million GBP or US$2,000,000) and quickly became the object of a legal battle between Fischer's Japanese wife Miyoko Watai and a presumed Filipina heir, Marilyn Young. The dispute seems to have been settled amicably in the Icelandic courts. Fischer was renowned for his opening preparation, and made numerous contributions to chess opening theory. He was considered the greatest practitioner of the White side of the Ruy Lopez; a line of the Exchange Variation (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0) is sometimes called the "Fischer variation" after he successfully resurrected it at the 1966 Havana Olympiad. He was a recognized expert in the Black side of the Najdorf Sicilian and the King's Indian Defense. He demonstrated several important improvements in the Grünfeld Defense. In the Nimzo-Indian Defense, the line beginning with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 b6 5.Ne2 Ba6 is named for him. Fischer established the viability of the so-called "Poisoned Pawn" variation of the Najdorf Sicilian (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Qb6). Although this bold queen sortie, snatching a pawn at the expense of development, had been considered dubious, Fischer succeeded in proving its soundness. He won many games with it, losing only to Spassky in the 11th game of their 1972 match. Today, the Poisoned Pawn is played by the world's leading players, Indeed, 6.Bg5 is seldom seen at the highest level because 7...Qb6 is considered so strong. On the White side of the Sicilian, Fischer made advances to the theory of the line beginning 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 (or e6) 6. Bc4, which is now called the Fischer-Sozin Attack. In 1960, prompted by a loss to Spassky, Fischer wrote an article entitled "A Bust to the King's Gambit" for the first issue of Larry Evans' American Chess Quarterly, in which he recommended 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d6. This variation has since become known as the Fischer Defense to the King's Gambit. After Fischer's article was published, the King's Gambit was seen even less frequently in master-level games, although Fischer took up the White side of it in three games (preferring 3.Bc4 to 3.Nf3), winning them all. International Master Jeremy Silman listed Fischer as one of the five best endgame players. Silman called him a "master of bishop endings". The endgame of a rook and bishop versus a rook and knight (both sides with pawns) has sometimes been called the "Fischer Endgame" because of three instructive wins by Fischer in 1970 and 1971. In 1988, Fischer filed for U.S. Patent 4,884,255 for a new type of digital chess clock. Fischer's clock gave each player a fixed period of time at the start of the game and then added a small increment after each completed move. The Fischer clock soon became standard in most major chess tournaments. The patent expired in November 2001 because of overdue maintenance fees. Fischer's historical ratings from chessmetrics.com are very impressive. Although international ratings were only introduced in 1970, chessmetrics uses modern algorithms to rank performances retrospectively and uniformly throughout chess history. Fischer's peak rating was 2895 in October 1971. His one-year peak average was 2881, in 1971, and this is the highest of all time. His three-year peak average was 2867, from January 1971 to December 1973–the second highest ever, just behind Garry Kasparov. Chessmetrics ranks Fischer as the #1 player in the world for a total of 109 different months, running (not consecutively) from February 1964 until July 1974. Fischer's great rival Mikhail Tal praised him as "the greatest genius to have descended from the chess heavens." American rival Grandmaster Arthur Bisguier, who could win just one of the 15 tournament games he contested against Fischer, wrote "Robert James Fischer is one of the few people in any sphere of endeavour who has been accorded the accolade of being called a legend in his own time." Speaking after Fischer's death, Serbian Grandmaster Ljubomir Ljubojevic said, "A man without frontiers. He didn't divide the East and the West, he brought them together in their admiration of him." In a sympathetic mention of Fischer while promoting his recent book, Kasparov wrote "he became the detonator of an avalanche of new chess ideas, a revolutionary whose revolution is still in progress." 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The March meeting was most interesting, in two parts. To begin, Jacquie Campbell gave us an important insight into the work of Target Ovarian Cancer, as this is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. Vital for all women to watch for, the disease is known as the Silent Killer, as symptoms are so difficult to diagnose. You can read more about it HERE. After a short break (for Vinvixen wine from Julie and delicious nibbles by Avril & Sara), Martin Usborne told us about the Hoxton Mini Press and its work here in the East End of London. Martin is a photographer, so all the books are beautifully illustrated. The principal work he discussed was based on the life of Joseph Markovitch, who had lived more that 86 years in Hackney, which was fascinating . In all his life Joseph left London only once, to go to the seaside with his mother; he loved Nicolas Cage, took five sugars in his tea, worked in a factory and dreamt of being a ballet dancer… This is the real EastEnders – the story of an individual life and a portrait of Hackney as it has evolved over almost nine decades. Martin then went on to show us some more Hoxton Mini Press titles: Mothers & Babies (less than 24 hours old); Silent Dogs in Cars and Vintage Glamour. The last was a selection of wonderful photographs of Jewish weddings from the 1930’s.

Visual arts, as the name itself suggests, refers to multiple forms of art that can be seen by our naked eyes, hence Visual arts is a multidisciplinary concept that involves expressions through visual means and encompasses art forms like: - Fine arts - Contemporary arts - Applied and Decorative arts - Conceptual art - Textile art Many people may argue that Performing arts ( dance, music, theater, etc ) as can also be seen by our eyes, forms a part of Visual arts --- yes it does,but not directly,as there exists a difference between both: - Firstly, artists in Performing arts use their body ( body language, facial expressions and voice ) to deliver their art, while in Visual artists use only physical mediums like paints, ink, colors, canvas, videos, photos , etc are used for the same. - Secondly, in Performing arts, audience has to be present and immerse themselves while the art is performed and finished to feel the emotions and understand the message delivered by the artist(s) - while on the other hand in comparison to the Performing arts, Visual arts in order to gain its awe doesn’t demand the presence of the audience while is performed ( or made ). Hence,Performing arts can be said to be an indirect part of Visual arts ,just because performing arts lies under the category of Fine arts i.e. carries some meaning and message with it. FORMS OF VISUAL ARTS: Any painting, printed material, videos, art films, photography, mosaics, calligraphy, drawing, graphics, conceptual art, architecture, sculpture and performing art that serves as a medium to showcase artistry and holds some message or meaning, comes into the category of Fine arts, which originated in Western Europe. - Conceptual art is the form of art that takes rationality of idea as its biggest priority.Surrealism and Minimalism are the best examples of conceptual visual arts,pioneered by French artist Marcel Duchamp ( France, 1887 - 1968 ) in early 20th century.Hence, in conceptual art aesthetics,technicality and cultural approach are not able to surpass the importance of a brilliant idea or imagination.Film making,videos or directory making is also a type of conceptual art as both works on a story or an idea,which is visually delivered to the audience. - Calligraphy refers to a very fashionable way of writing alphabets or words through a pointed pen or brush (Quill, Dip pen, Ink brush, Qalam and Fountain pen) ,to make them look more attractive and stylish.It is a very common art style that we can see in various invitation cards or in the brand names) .This art originated from Rome and then was further taken to other parts of the world.It has now following establishments: - Islamic (by the use of Qalam , and includes Arabic, Ottoman, and Persian calligraphy) - Korean,Taiwan,Vietnam and Japnese (highly influenced by Chinese Calligraphy known as Shūfǎ- which means "the method or the way of writing.) - Western and A person has to be an adept in fine arts , to make his/her own identity in this big visual arts industry ,if yearns so. Hence,Some of the most remarkable fine artists and their veteran fields, known since ages that can be taken as an inspiration are: - Leonardo Da Vinci- Italy (1452-1519)- Cartography, Symbolism and Expressionism - Rembrandt- Netherlands (1606-1669) - Print making and Baroque paintings - Wassily Kandisky - Russia (1866-1944) - Pioneer of Abstract art - Abstract art , Expressionism and Geometric abstraction. - Henri Matisse- France (1869-1964) - Expressionism and Fauvism - Piet Mondarian - Netherlands (1872-1944) - Expressionism, Cubism and Fauvism - Pablo Picasso - Spain (1881-1973) - Expressionism , Surrealism and Cubism. - Salvador Dali- Spain (1904-1989) - Surrealism and Expressionism - Jackson Pollock- United States (1912-1956) - Abstract Expressionism, Expressionism and Modern art 2. Contemporary Arts: Contemporary visual arts is what we call today's prevailing art.It is made by currently living artists and is known to take inspiration from nature,technology,materialistic objects,daily life activities,culture,daily problems and stress,etc.Today there are hundreds of art galleries exhibiting the work of contemporary artists, who always strive for creating something new. Body art, Sand paintings, Pop art, Graffiti, Decorative art and crafts, Minimalism and Three - Dimensional paintings are the latest examples of Contemporary art. - Body art is a very interesting visual arts form done on the human body, like making tattoos and full body painting.This art is now becoming very famous as an annual celebration and a fun game in many countries like USA and Australia, where participants paint the bodies of their partners (another participants) either related to a pre-determined theme or any design they want to.One of the most famous event of this type is, Sydney Body Art Ride, where participants forms a living rainbow that submerges into pacific ocean. - Minimalism is a new kind of contemporary visual arts that grabs attention by painting the materialist objects , used in daily life, hence is the simplest form of art.Sometimes minimalist artist forms a painting with a simple tea cup in between and a simple single color background. While some may say ,Minimalism is a part of modern paintings , but is still practiced by the artists all around the world, hence is an important category under Contemporary art too. (modern art and contemporary art in many cases overlaps each other). - Three Dimensional paintings and street art are most creative art form where artist draws or paints Three-Dimensional figures , which due to having three dimensions just looks like reality.While both of these visual arts,fills the boring premises with colors and makes the arena joyful. - Pop art i.e Popular art , emerged from Abstract Expressionism in 1950s in Britain.This type of visual arts is best known for vibrant use of colors, especially for advertising for large masses ,writing comic books. and pictures of celebrities.The best example of Pop art can be seen as Marilyn Diptych by Andy Warhol and Whaam! by Roy Lichtenstein .Pop art is the most loved art by kids,who loves to read comics and collect the clippings of their favorite ones. Some of the most famous contemporary artists in the world are: - Jeff Koon - United States (born 1955) - Pop art and contemporary art - Yayoi Kusama - Japan (born 1929) - Conceptual art, Minimalism, Feminist art, Contemporary art, and Pop art. - Damien Steven Hirst - United Kingdom (born 1965) - Conceptual art, Modern art, Modernism, Expressionism and Contemporary art. - Anish Kapoor - India (born 1954) - Contemporary art - Ai Weiwei - China (born 1957) - Contemporary art and Conceptual art - Cindy Sherman - United States (born 1954) - Photogarphy - Takashi Murakami - Japan (born 1962) - Pop art and contemporary art - Edward Joseph Ruscha IV - United States (born 1937) - Pop art, Conceptual art, Modern art, and Contemporary art. Applied art and Decorative art, though originated in ancient times,but is still practiced today i.e. decorating beautifully any object used everyday. Decorative visual arts with true gold and silver works has been very famous in Islamic, Jewish ,Chinese and Japanese cultures since long and were taken as matter of prestige to exchange them as gifts on the special occasions.Today,Decorative arts and crafts are generally used for interior designing and home decor and has become the best source of recycling waste materials.Jewelry designing,Pottery and Plastic art are now the most common example of this form of art. Hence, Fashion Designing, Graphic Designing, Jewelry Designing, Interior Designing, Footwear Designing (gaining fame these days) , Industrial Design and Decorative Art are all examples of applied visual arts. As Applied art is still practiced today,it also falls under the category of Contemporary art. Though,both Applied art as well as Fine arts focuses on aesthetics, applied arts are further used for functional use and Fine arts are used for intellectual stimulation,hence are different. Textile art is a very important and old part of visual arts,i.e doing artistic work from any king of fiber.Weaving and Knitting has been done not only domestically but also for business purposes since ages.We all have wore the beautiful sweaters with cute designs made by our grandmothers or mothers,which is an art in itself.Textile art can also be said as a part of contemporary art,as is practiced by living artists also,but is so vast that is worth elaborating individually. Yarn bombing has been the most recent form of this art in which the artist beautifies the external environment and objects.Other contemporary forms of textile art are - Applique (visual arts-forming a picture with an ornamental needle) - Bead work - Embroidery and IMPORTANCE OF VISUAL ARTS: Visual arts holds a very important place in not only the artist's life but also its audience.Visual art development in bot society as well as culture.Teaching visual arts in school,colleges and at home,enables the mental growth and enhancement in creativity and imagination of children,also leads to creative ideas to daily life problems.The importance of art can be justified by the following advantages that it holds: - Improves creativity and imagination - Enables self expression and self realization - Enables better self understanding - Encourages discipline (keeps one engaged in productive work) - Leads to better problem solving techniques - Visual arts improves analytical and observation abilities (mental health and concentration) - Aids in better communication (both verbal and non-verbal) - Documenting history and rich culture - Best source of entertainment - Recycling and use of waste materials - beautifies old objects (Example - The Rock Garden of Chandigarh) - Enhances cross-cultural understanding and appreciation - Grabs attention towards social issues and problems - Encourages team work and mutual understanding CAREER IN VISUAL ARTS: Removing all the doubts,today visual arts has infinite number of opportunities to make a very successful career in.Today even government recruits people,adept in art. Major employers for visual artists are: - Photography studios - Art galleries - Advertising agencies - Interior designing firms - Fashion designing firms - Film productions - Merchandising firms You can even work as freelancer for visual arts (best options) like: - Fashion designer with your own boutique - Interior designer - Graphic designer - an Architect - an Artist ( Cartoonist, 3D artist, Graffiti, Painter, Motion artist, Layout planner, street artist, Applied artist, etc ) - Art dealer - Footwear designer - Jewelry designer - Film- maker So,as these all fields are very attractive and flourishing these days, each and every visual arts industry has its own complexities and hardships, which you will definitely not be able to understand unless you study them from a professional school of arts, which specializes in either of them or in all.Below is the list of some biggest visual arts schools all around the world (not on the basis of rankings): - Royal College of Arts -UK - Massachusetts Institute of Technology-US - California Institute of Art-us - Art Center College of Design-US - Glasgow School of Art (GSA)-UK - Pratt Institute-US - Yale University-US Talking in context of India,best visual arts schools are: - Faculty of Music & Fine Arts – University of Delhi - Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai - Bharati Kala Mahavidyalaya (College of Fine Arts) - MS University of Baroda - Fine Arts Faculty - Banaras Hindu University - Faculty of Visual Arts FIFTEEN MOST FAMOUS QUOTES BY ARTISTS IN THE WORLD : (best of visual arts) - “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life” by Pablo Picasso. - “Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master” by Leonardo da Vinci. - “Creativity takes courage” by Henri Matisse. - “The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel” by Piet Mondarian. - “Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing" by Salvador Dali. - “Have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it” by Salvador Dali. - "Artists don't make objects. Artists make mythologies" by Anish Kapoor. - “Every good painter paints what he is” by Jackson Pollock. - “Life obliges me to do something, so I paint” by Rene Magritte. - “There is no must in art because art is free” by Wassily Kandinsky. - “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep” by Scott Adams. - “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up” by Pablo Picasso. - "The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. - “If you hear a voice within you saying, ‘You are not a painter,’ then by all means paint, boy, and that voice will be silenced” by Vincent van Gogh. - “I want the people looking at my work to feel a sense of all the possibilities of painting, and, through that, in life as a whole. When that happens, I feel I’ve accomplished something useful” by Wolf Kahn.

What a contrast did the lovely scene she (Mrs Sheppard) now gazed upon present to the squalid neighbourhood she had recently quitted! On all sides, expanded prospects of country the most exquisite and most varied. Immediately before her lay Willesden – the most charming and secluded village in the neighbourhood of the metropolis – with its scattered farm-houses, its noble granges, and its old grey church tower peeping above a grove of rook haunted trees. Out of sequence of the history of Willesden, I am going to write about a famous painter who has painted the railway lines in Willesden Junction and at Willesden Green, many times – Leon Kossoff. I had not heard about Kossoff until the weekend I went to the Literary festival in Kew and heard him mentioned by Iain Sinclair who I heard talk about his new book on his Over Ground railway walk.[London Overground: A Day’s Walk Around the Ginger Line]. Sinclair mentioned in passing a painter who had painted Willesden Junction many times, and also the ‘under’ the railways activity – the area we do not see when we look out of the window of the train. That which is under the railway and the train – and which uses their buildings – the Arches or the bridges or the waste areas by the side of the railways. Under the Arches in London are many spaces which have been inhabited for years – since existence – by many industries or for other purposes including leisure: now railway arches have been converted into cinemas, climbing walls, bakeries and boxing clubs and skate parks and artists’ spaces and galleries too. Sinclair looks at them when he walks and Kossoff painted them. Like Sinclair, Kossoff too looked out of the train window and also his studio window and painted what he saw. Sinclair filmed what he saw. Kossoff was born in Islington in 1926 and is now therefore 88/9 and now finds it too taxing to paint. He has spent his whole life in London apart from his time as an evacuee and during his military service. His home territory when growing up was the East End – Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Hackney as was typical of the Jewish emigrants from the Ukraine. He had 6 siblings and his father was a baker. Art was unknown in his family but he found his way to the National Gallery when 10 years old and started to ‘translate’ what he saw into his own versions. Evacuated in 1939 to Kings Lynn he stayed with a family who encouraged his art and which led to him returning to London in 1943 to study art at St Martin’s and Toynbee Hall. After military service he also studied at Borough Polytechnic under David Bomberg and met Frank Auerbach there. These 3 together formed what is loosely called the London School. They were joined by Lucien Freud, Keith Critchlow, and Francis Bacon. Between 1963 and 1968 he had a studio in Willesden, near Willesden Junction and painted what he saw : “Something happens when you see Willesden Junction stretching out in front of you. What else can you do but draw it?” He also painted Kilburn Station for many years and painted what he saw in the swimming pool at Willesden where he took his son. At the bottom of the garden of the family house in Willesden Green are railway lines – the Chiltern and the Jubilee and the Met lines pass by – from which, in the 1980s and 1990s, he drew the trains as they went past. Train lines, he says, “open out the landscape, somehow”. A recent subject has been a cherry tree in his garden, one of its lolling branches steadied with struts. Once, before the suburban houses were built, there was an orchard here. [And I shall write more about the landscape in Mapesbury and what was before in a later post]. Many of the landscapes in his drawings and paintings are now gone, which is why to look at them is to look through Kossoff’s eyes but also to travel into his past with him. Even the trains at the bottom of the garden look different now, trees have grown up to obscure the view and the area is considered a protected wildlife corridor for the urban wildlife to travel safely up and down the rail lines. It’s a smutty place, Kossoff’s London, congested, seething, murky, messy, relentlessly itself, and usually rendered in a mixture of charcoal and pastel. The colours were most often sombre – greys edging off to black. He has always loved architectural decrepitude, often seen from a fairly high view point: gantries; a gasometer ; the demolition site; conventionally unlovely industrial locations; places between places; grubby edgelands like Iain Sinclair talked about – the passed by, the unloved, the areas where our transient population can linger and not be noticed. These are the interesting places that are changing as London finding itself short of spaces looks for more, and finds them crowded up against the railway lines (see the new flats at West Hampstead) or underneath and even attempts (I remember it well – the Tesco store over the railway line at Gerrard’s Cross, as I was living near there then, that collapsed initially, but has since been rebuilt and opened in 2010) to build over the railways. The railways change the scenery of London constantly and are the driver of change in many ways. Here we can celebrate an artist who has captured the railways as they were before London’s need for space transformed them. I have taken as my sources a number of articles about Kossoff:

The Israeli Ministry of Education has banned âBorderlineâ from use in high schools.The Ministry explained its decision to ban Dorit Rabinya’s âBorderlineâ from high schools as to maintain âthe identity and heritage of students in every sectorâ and out of concern that âintimate relations between Jews and non-Jews threatens the separate identity.â âBorderlineâ tells the story of a Jewish Israeli translator and a Palestinian artist falling in love in New York before eventually returning to Tel Aviv and Ramallah, respectively. The Ministry also asserted that âyoung people of adolescent age donât have the systemic view that includes considerations involving maintaining the national-ethnic identity of the people and the significance of miscegenation.â Education Minister and member of the right-wing Jewish Home party, Naftali Bennett, approved of the decision. Rabinyaâs âBorderlifeâ has enjoyed critical acclaim. The book won this yearâs Bernstein Prize for young writers â an annual Israeli literary prize. Furthermore, according to Haaretz, a large number of literature teachers requested that âBorderlifeâ be approved for use in advanced literature classes. Middle East Eye reported that Shlomo Herzig, the head of literary studies at the ministry, appealed the decision. Herzig commented: âthe acute problem of Israeli society today is the terrible ignorance and racism that is spreading in it, and not concern over intermarriage.’ Herzigâs appeal was denied. The ministryâs decision to ban Borderline from high schools is reflective of the Israeli governmentâs methodical efforts to not only entrench the occupation, but also to restrict public discourse so that the next generation of Israelis approves of it. More at AIC official.

Posted on December 17, 2013 Shoshana here, again. For those of you who don’t know, I just came back from a little trip to San Diego for the URJ Biennial. Now let me tell you, this was my first Biennial and I had no idea what to expect. I knew all about the classes, plenaries, and booth exhibits, but I was completely unprepared for the strong unity and connection I felt from the almost the second I deboarded my flight. By the end of the convention, people I spoke with kept describing the past four days as “invigorating,” “revitalizing,” and “lifechanging”…and honestly, I couldn’t have agreed with them more. Let’s start with when I got first arrived in San Diego. My boss was on a separate flight and his got delayed while mine arrived 30 minutes early. We had not fully planned for such a scenario and when I got to baggage claim, I had zero idea of where to go. I walked out into the California sunshine and got on line for a taxi, figuring I was going to need one no matter what. Suddenly, I heard the women in front of me talking about being part of the Women of Reform Judaism. I apologized for eavesdropping and then told them all out my predicament. They looked at me and said, “Oh! Your first Biennial….you are going to love it! If you want, you can share our cab to the hotel, put your bags down, and then we’ll show you to the convention center.” This act of complete openness and kindness was the first of many I witnessed (and experienced) over the Biennial. I wish I could catalog all the wonderful moments of the convention but I think I would lose all of you by the third or fourth page so allow me to just mention something that happened right at the Areyvut booth, which totally encapsulates why I so thoroughly enjoyed myself at the Biennial. As many of you know, one of Areyvut’s programs is a National Mitzvah Day that we run in conjunction with Good Deeds Day. For an entire weekend, we mobilize hundreds of Jews from across the country in acts of kindness. While at the Biennial, we had the pleasure of meeting many dedicated NFTY teens, but it is two from Los Angeles that stand out in particular. With many of their peers, these two took the bus from LA to San Diego for the day. During our conversation, we began to discuss the importance of having teens engaged in giving back, and these wonderful students told us that they were actually running their own Mitzvah Day the following day! They said they loved the look of our programming and even took a box of Areyvut water bottles and brochures to put in their Mitzvah Day goody-bags. As they walked away, my boss and I just looked at each other and smiled. These teens are the future of the Jewish people and we could not be more proud of their attitudes and actions. And that is honestly what the Biennial was all about. Jews coming together- to connect- to make an impact on the future of the Jewish people. It was an incredible few days. Full of fun, learning, excitement, and unity…and isn’t that the most important thing?

6 edition of The Spiritual Dimensions of America found in the catalog. February 14, 2005 by iUniverse, Inc. Written in English |The Physical Object| |Number of Pages||128| Dimensions Of The Spirit Realm This is a list of the Planes within the Spirit Realm, beginning from the lowest to the highest. So I will begin with the first Dimension and then go through the levels, but bear with me here with the descriptions of the lower planes. The result is a collection of essays which reflects the discipline, in all of its internationality, as it is today. Embedded within the chapters is also an agenda for the future, where the religious, moral and spiritual dimensions in education are proposed as an exciting and challenging way forward for . Ever since the first edition of Verna Benner Carson's Spiritual Dimensions of Nursing Practice went out of print, second-hand copies have been highly sought after by practitioners in the field and nursing school faculty who appreciated the comprehensive scope of the seminal work on spirituality and health. In this highly anticipated revised edition, Carson and her co-editor, Harold G. Koenig. The Dimensions of Consciousness. This page has been updated. Click here if you want to view the old version.. A dimension is a state of consciousness. Indigos were born on the Indigo or Blue ray of incarnation and evolution. but into 3-D bodies with their consciousness firmly in the 4 th or 5th dimension.. Crystals are born with their consciousness in the 6 th dimension. Over the years, the book industry has remained a massive, greatly influential global consumer market. million print books were sold last year in the U.S. alone, and relatively new book formats. A Jungian scholar, Mayes has produced the first book-length studies in English on the pedagogical applications of Jungian and post-Jungian psychology, which is based on the work of Carl Gustav Jung (–). Jungian psychology is also called analytical ' work, situated in the humanities and depth psychology, is thought to offer an alternative to the social sciences model. The Guidimaka region of Mauritania Gender and discourse Archaeological survey in the Lower Liri Valley, central Italy Catalogue of coins and medals, comprising English coins in gold and silver, from William I to George IV, a few tokens and war medals, Roman coins, continental, colonial and Oriental coins ... Teaching design and technology in the primary school Looking-glas for the Presbitary government establishing in the Church of England, or, A declaration of the revolution of the times Living with peer pressure and bullying initial consonant mutations in Breton and Welsh. The Late Night Muse history of the Jewish Working Mens Club and Institute, 1874-1912 U.S. Geological Survey assessment of undiscovered petroleum resources of the Hamra Basin, Libya, 2006 The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram and millions of other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - /5(71). Free 2-day shipping. Buy The Spiritual Dimensions of America at This book's chief aim is to elucidate the fundamentals of the Canonical Tradition by raising the spirit of the law to the surface of our ecclesial consciousness and, by so doing, to communicate the essence of a law which is written not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts (2 Cor ). Archbishop Demetrios of America"5/5(1). Publisher: Books of Sangre de Cristo () ISBN ; ISBN ; Package Dimensions: x x inches Shipping Weight: pounds; Customer Reviews: Be the first to write a review; Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4, in Books (See Top in Books) # in Personality Disorders (Books)Author: Dr. Loreda Fox. 'In this book, Paul Houston and Steve Sokolow sow seeds of wisdom that offer hope and sound guiding principles for America's educational leaders'. - Richard W. Riley, former U.S. Secretary of Education and former Governor of South Carolina 'This book fills a troubling void in the leadership literature by highlighting the vital spiritual side of a leader's role' - Terrence E. Deal, Author. The Spiritual Dimensions of Music: Altering Consciousness for Inner Development [Stewart, R. J.] on *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Spiritual Dimensions of Music: Altering Consciousness for Inner Development/5(6). The Spiritual Dimensions of Music book. Read reviews The Spiritual Dimensions of America book world’s largest community for readers. 'This handbook of musical alchemy looks at music as a g /5. Chapter 9. The Spiritual Dimensions of Learning. In training seminars, I ask teachers to close their eyes and imagine they are assigned to teach in a remote jungle location. They have the basic necessities of food, water, clothing, and shelter, and they know the language and culture of the students. Spiritual Dimensions of Ageing will inform and engage those who study or practise in all fields that relate to the lives of older people, especially in social, psychological and health-related domains, but also wherever the maintenance and development of spiritual meaning and purpose are recognised as important for human flourishing. Spiritual Dimensions We reside in the physical 3rd dimensional reality but there are other dimensions in the universe and much debate about these in both spiritual and scientific literature. However it is helpful to provide a framework of explanation around the language used around this concept as much of the spiritual divination techniques that are available refer to contacting energies from different dimensions. 'Spiritual Dimensions of Pastoral Care', edited by David Willows and John Swinton, was a book I read during my CPE turn at the local hospital. I found it to be an invaluable resource for contemplation and considering the different aspects of pastoral care that I was engaging in with patients and residents at the retirement home where I am chaplain.5/5(2). ) and it has been suggested that without spiritual well-being the other dimensions, i.e. the biopsychosocial, can never function or be developed to their fullest capacity and hence. SPIRITUAL DIMENSIONS David C F Wright PhD This title can be confusing. Dimension means an aspect, a feature, the scope or extent, the measurement or size of something in another direction. Dimensions in mathematics has to do with shapes, areas and size. What spiritualists mean by spiritual dimensions is levels or personal progress and Size: 22KB. Spiritual Dimensions of the Holy Canons. An introduction to the Canonical Tradition of the Orthodox Church. "Professor Patsavos's approach reflects the very essence and nature of the Canonical Tradition of the Orthodox Church; namely, that the canons are of a spiritual and pastoral dimension, striving for the salvation of the souls of God's people/5. Spiritual Dimensions of Psychology. This is the most comprehensive gathering of Inayat Khan's teachings on the mind and its potential, and contains material which has not been published elsewhere/5. Cunningham then directs us to embrace It is my belief that various levels of addiction comprise major parts of most people's lives, whether they realize it or not. This book was a valuable read for me, and I think that would be true for most open-minded adults, struggling /5. This book's chief aim is to elucidate the fundamentals of the Canonical Tradition by raising the spirit of the law to the surface of our ecclesial consciousness and, by so doing, to communicate the essence of a law which is written not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts (2 Cor ). Archbishop Demetrios of America" About the Author. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Spiritual Dimensions of America at the best online prices at eBay. Free shipping for many products. Edition: New Edition of Music and the Elemental Psyche Pages: Book Size: x ISBN Imprint: Destiny Books On Sale Date: November 1, Format: Paperback Book. THE REALM OF ANGELS AND "SPIRITUAL SPACE" (Last updated 7/3/00) In Scripture we are give some basic understanding of how things work in our lives on this planet. We also are shown a little bit about the heavenly realms (i.e., "other dimensions"). The book uniquely demonstrates the relevance of spiritual and cultural care as dimensions of practice which are central to the promotion of well-being and healing. The book is a useful resource for healthcare practitioners, researchers, lecturers, students and others who are interested in spiritual and cultural care.Spiritual Dimensions of Team is the primary tool that will help churches become effective team-based organizations. Teams as dynamic units are important to organizations, and this book offers a new and unique approach to creating effective teams.About this Item: Wipf & Stock Publishers 7/6/, Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. The Spiritual Dimensions of Healing Addictions. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS

This is in the category of “unbelievable but true.” From “The Daily Mail“: “Killing an animal by cutting its throat without stunning is, in fact, illegal in this country. However, there is a legal loophole allowing this if it is being done for religious reasons — in other words, for the production of halal or kosher meat.” Not only is this practice illegal except in the case of religious discrimination, which I thought was also illegal, but Halal meat is served clandestinely in many public places that have nothing whatsoever to do with religion; a blatant deception of the public, most of which undoubtedly finds the practice obscene. It is also of course not only cruel but also stupid. The idea that God would prefer cruel, barbaric Halal killing to the British humane slaughter method is ludicrous. What sort of God is that, then? It is of course an utterly shameful capitulation to PC idiots and religious claptrap. It is almost impossible to find the words to adequately express my disgust for all the above reasons. But once again, these things are foist on us without anyone ever asking if we want them. May I ask WHY there is this insane grovelling to ISLAM? Of course, it is not only ISLAM. I am also at a total loss to understand why it is legal for Jews to mutilate their male children? Don’t we believe in FREEDOM and CHOICE? As for the latter, many people have NO CHOICE about whether to eat Halal meat, as it is often served to them by deceit. And what choice do Jewish boys have in the mutilation of their penises? I was recently told that “Banning the burkha would not be British”. I would really like to know what about Halal meat and penis mutilation of babies is British?

Nesse Godin, Holocaust Survivor Thank you for giving me the opportunity to say a few words at this special event on behalf of the people of Sudan. My name is Nesse Godin, I am a survivor of the Holocaust. I lived through a ghetto concentration camp, four labor camps and a death march. I experienced hunger and fear. I witnessed the destruction of my own Jewish community of Shauliai, Lithuania, a community of ten thousand Jewish people, men, women and children. I survived this darkest time in history by the grace of the Lord and the kindness of Jewish women who gave me a bite of bread when I was starving, wrapped my body in straw when I was freezing, picked me up from the ground when I was severely beaten. Those women made me promise to remember them, but most of all to teach the world what hatred and prejudice can do. We, the survivors who witnesses those atrocities, are fulfilling those promises we made to our parents, brothers, sisters who were brutally killed by the Nazis. We do so with the help of this wonderful institution of education for humanity, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. We, the survivors of the Holocaust stand with you, shoulder by shoulder, to stop the killing of innocent people, men, women and children. Let’s all together make a pledge to make this world a better place. Let’s make this the best country in the world, the United States of America, a place where all people regardless of how we pray or look come to live freely. God bless you and God bless America.

The Israeli military will take part in a major missile defense drill in partnership with the United States, following a 10-day Iranian naval exercise near the Strait of Hormuz. The Israel-US Drill is called “Austere Challenge 12”, and will work to improve defense systems. No date has been announced. On Wednesday, Iran announced that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards would conduct further military exercises.Malkah Fleisher About the Author: Malkah Fleisher is a graduate of Cardozo Law School in New York City. She is an editor/staff writer at JewishPress.com and co-hosts a weekly Israeli FM radio show. Malkah lives with her husband and two children on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. If you don't see your comment after publishing it, refresh the page. Our comments section is intended for meaningful responses and debates in a civilized manner. We ask that you respect the fact that we are a religious Jewish website and avoid inappropriate language at all cost. If you promote any foreign religions, gods or messiahs, lies about Israel, anti-Semitism, or advocate violence (except against terrorists), your permission to comment may be revoked.

The doctrine of Sola fide (Latin for "by faith alone") holds that: God's pardon for guilty sinners is granted to and received through faith alone, excluding all "works." God, on the basis of the life, death, and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ alone (solus Christus), grants sinners judicial pardon, or justification, which is received solely through faith." This doctrine is also commonly expressed as: Justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ's righteousness alone. (Source for these three quotes: the Wikipedia article on Sola fide) Belief in Sola fide is confined almost entirely to Protestants, who constitute about 37% of the world's Christian population (Source: Global Christianity - A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population - Pew Research Center). In fact, it was the defining doctrine by which Martin Luther distinguished his new form of Christianity from the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, with which he was making a decisive break. Luther said: This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification, is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness. (In Commentary on Galatians) He said, further, that: If this article stands, the Church stands; if it falls, the Church falls. (In In Quindecim Psalmos Graduum Commentarii) The doctrine of Sola fide has therefore been adopted as an essential doctrine, if not the essential doctrine of Christianity by Lutherans and by Protestants in general. However, the Biblical basis for this doctrine is exceedingly thin. Further, key parts of it are explicitly rejected by the Bible. Its adoption depends upon an ahistorical reading of the Bible, anachronistic definitions of key Biblical words, and hair-splitting ratiocination that has no clear basis in the Bible. 1. The Bible does not state the doctrine of Sola fide The term "grace alone" appears nowhere in the Bible. The term "faith alone" appears only once in the Bible, and in that one place it is explicitly rejected: You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (James 2:24) This is the one and only place in the Bible where the term "faith alone" appears. And it specifically rejects the teaching that a person is justified by faith alone. Because of this statement in James, supporters of the Sola fide doctrine have pumped out a veritable flood of words in an attempt to show that James did not actually mean what he said, "that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." And yet, the fact remains: In the one place in the Bible that the term "faith alone" appears, it is specifically and explicitly rejected as "justifying," or saving, a person. Further, there are no other places in the Bible where the specific wordings used to distinguish Sola fide from the other major doctrines of salvation occur: - The Bible does not say, "We are justified by grace alone." - The Bible does not say, "We are justified through faith alone." - The Bible does not say, "We are justified in Christ's righteousness alone." - The Bible does not say, "God has granted sinners judicial pardon." - The Bible does not say, "Christ paid the penalty for our sins." - The Bible does not say, "God's pardon is granted and received through faith alone, excluding all works." - The Bible does not say, "Justification is received solely through faith." None of the phrases commonly used to define and distinguish Sola fide from other doctrines of justification and salvation occur in the Bible. The various definitions of Sola fide sound sort of Biblical, but in fact they are non-Biblical. In other words, Sola fide is not stated in the Bible, nor is it defined using the Bible's own statements. Its very definition depends on statements that are never made in the Bible. Summary: The Bible simply does not state the doctrine of Sola fide. And in the one place in the Bible where that term occurs, the Bible explicitly rejects it. 2. Sola fide is asserted as an essential doctrine of the church, which impugns the Bible's effectiveness as the primary source of Christian doctrine As noted above, Martin Luther asserted justification by faith alone as an essential doctrine of the church, on which the church stands or falls. For any doctrine to be considered essential to Christianity, it must be clearly stated in the Bible. Luther himself asserted the doctrine of Sola Scriptura (Latin for "by Scripture alone"), meaning that the only proper source of doctrine is Scripture (commonly known among Christians as the Bible). However, as shown just above, the doctrine of Sola fide is not stated in the Bible, explicitly or otherwise. Further, until Martin Luther articulated it 1,500 years after the Bible was written, no denomination or sect of Christianity understood the Bible to teach justification by faith alone. In asserting Sola fide as an essential teaching of the Church, Luther is in effect charging the Bible with being so unclear in its teaching that for the first fifteen centuries of Christianity, no Christian church or theologian was able to see and perceive it as a central Christian doctrine. Yes, some Protestants now assert that various Church Fathers and other early theologians taught faith alone, and quote various passages that they claim demonstrate this. But these assertions are contradicted by non-Protestant theologians, and by the wider context of the writings of those early Christian theologians themselves. The very first figure in Christianity who is universally accepted as teaching justification by faith alone is Martin Luther (1483-1546). It strains credulity to believe that a doctrine so unclear in the Bible that no one saw or asserted it as central Christian doctrine for the first one and a half millennia of Christianity could be the foundational doctrine of the Christian Church. Summary: A doctrine that is so unclear in the Bible that it was neither seen in the Bible nor asserted as fundamental Christian doctrine by any Christian church or theologian for the first 1,500 years of Christianity cannot be considered a doctrine taught by the Bible as essential Christian doctrine. 3. Paul did not teach Sola fide The Bible passages most commonly cited as supporting the doctrine of justification by faith alone come from the writings of Paul. For example, Paul says: For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. (Romans 3:28) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9) First, notice that Paul did not say "by grace alone have you been saved through faith alone." Paul never attributes justification to grace alone or to faith alone. Rather, he attributes salvation to grace and to faith. Beyond that, interpreting the above and similar passages as teaching Sola fide betrays a fundamental ignorance of the historical and doctrinal context in which Paul made these statements. Here is the short version of what Paul was actually saying: By these statements Paul, "an apostle to the Gentiles" (Romans 11:13), was asserting, against the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, that it was not necessary to observe the works of the Jewish Law, or Torah, such as sacrifice, circumcision, and the various dietary laws in Hebrew Bible. He recognized that Jesus' teachings superseded those old ritual laws. And being a pragmatist as well, he recognized that Christianity would never spread far and wide in the pagan world if it required its converts to be circumcised and obey all of the Jewish ritual laws. If you read Paul's statements about being justified by faith apart from the works of the law in their context, you will almost always find a mention of "circumcision" or some other tell-tale word indicating that when he said "the law," he was talking about the Torah, which is the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. It is well-known that Paul relied heavily on the Septuagint, a pre-Christian Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible commonly used by Greek-speaking Jews. Many, if not most of Paul's quotations from the Old Testament come from the Septuagint. In that translation, the Greek word used to translate the Hebrew word תּוֹרָה (towrah), "law," was νόμος (nomos). When Paul used the Greek word νόμος (law), he was very often referring to how that word is commonly used in the Septuagint to refer to the Law of Moses. For a statement in Paul that rejects Sola fide, see point 4 below. And the main passage from Paul quoted below is by no means the only one in which he says that we must do good works in order to be saved. Summary: Paul did not teach justification by faith alone. When he spoke of being "justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the Law," he was arguing that Christians are not required to follow the ritual Law of Moses, which is required of faithful Jews. 4. Sola fide is contradicted by many passages throughout the Old and New Testaments As stated above, the doctrine of "justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ's righteousness alone" is not stated anywhere in the Bible. And any doctrine that is not stated clearly in the Bible cannot be considered essential Christian doctrine, required for salvation. However, that does not even come close to telling the whole story. There is an overwhelming number of passages throughout the Bible stating that our salvation depends not merely on our belief, but on obeying the commandments of God, and on loving and doing good works for our neighbor. Here are only a very few of these passages, selected to represent the various segments of the Bible: In the Law: See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. (Deuteronomy 30:15-20) In the Prophets: Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. But if the wicked turn away from all their sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and do what is lawful and right, they shall surely live; they shall not die. None of the transgressions that they have committed shall be remembered against them; for the righteousness that they have done they shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live? But when the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity and do the same abominable things that the wicked do, shall they live? None of the righteous deeds that they have done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which they are guilty and the sin they have committed, they shall die. (Ezekiel 18:21-24) In the Psalms: O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart; who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors; in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the Lord; who stand by their oath even to their hurt; who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved. In the Gospels: Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:34-40) And Jesus stated very clearly who from all the nations would be saved, and who would be condemned: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. "Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' "And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.' "Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' "Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' "Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matthew 25:31-46) In the Epistles: Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. You say, "We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth." Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. For he will repay according to each one's deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God's sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all. (Romans 2:1-16) And here is Paul's famous statement giving love primacy over faith, which should put a spike in the heart of Sola fide for all time: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13) Paul agrees with James on this subject, who says: What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," and he was called the friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead. (James 2:14-26) In the book of Revelation: And he said to me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy." "See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone's work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. (Revelation 22:10-15) These passages and hundreds of others like them make it crystal clear that our salvation and our eternal life do not depend on faith alone, but also on our works, meaning on how we live. The Bible does not make the Protestant theologians' hair-splitting rational distinctions between faith and works, and which one justifies us, and which one follows from the other. Everywhere it says that if we want to be saved and enter into life, we must have faith and do good works just as we are commanded by God. The common Protestant objection that we would somehow merit heaven by our works, and that this invalidates good works as having any part in our salvation, contradicts the clear, overwhelming teachings of the Bible. We do good works not in order to "merit" or earn heaven and salvation, but because God commands us to do them. If we disobey God's many commandments to love our neighbor and to do good deeds for our neighbor, then we have turned our back on God. And we cannot be saved if we turn our back on God. It's that simple. The Bible is very clear about the requirements for justification and salvation. The doctrine of Sola fide contradicts that clear teaching, which is stated hundreds of times throughout the entire Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Further, the doctrine of Sola fide is not only non-Biblical, but it distracts the mind from the overwhelming teaching of the Bible that those who wish to be saved must believe in God and do good deeds of love and service to the neighbor. Sola fide is thus not only contrary to the plain teachings of the Bible, but actually detracts from and confuses the plain teachings of the Bible in the minds of faithful Christians. The Bible never says that faith alone saves, nor does it say that grace alone saves. That idea never even occurred to any Christian theologian as a key teaching of Christianity until Martin Luther stated it 1,500 years after the Bible was written. That's because the doctrine of Sola fide simply isn't in the Bible. The passages that are quoted to support it have been taken out of their historical context and therefore misinterpreted. The very use of the word "faith" to mean a belief that we hold to is alien to the Biblical meaning of faith, which is not belief, but faithfulness to God. There are hundreds, if not thousands of passages in the Bible saying that if we wish to live, and to be saved, and to go to heaven, we must love our neighbor and do good deeds for our neighbor. There are zero passages in the Bible that say that we are saved by faith alone. There are zero passages that say that works are merely the result of faith, but are not in themselves saving, as claimed by proponents of Sola fide. There are zero passages that say that love for the neighbor and good deeds for the neighbor do not justify or save us. There are hundreds of passages that clearly show that the opposite is true. In short, there is no Biblical basis whatsoever for Martin Luther's invention of the doctrine of Sola fide 1,500 years after the Bible was written, and especially not for his elevation of it to the central, foundational doctrine of Christianity, on which the Church stands or falls. (Note: Though this answer is based on the Bible, pure and simple, it is stated from the perspective of the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), and of the denominations that follow his theology. For more on this subject, see my articles: Faith Alone Does Not Save . . . No Matter How Many Times Protestants Say It Does and Faith Alone Is Not Faith.)

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“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” Romans 11:25. Editor’s Note: It is a sincere pleasure to welcome another regular correspondent. Mr. MacDormand is a graduate of the University of Alberta and has been engaged in the oil industry for many years. His deep understanding of the Israel Truth is due in part to his being a third generation believer and a son of a former contributing writer to The Prophetic Expositor. He has a great interest in what is going to happen spiritually to our people as the end of the age draws closer. This scripture was given by the apostle Paul to the Christians at Rome to explain the rapid increase in conversions in the Gentile world while the Jewish people were rejecting the Messiah. The reason they rejected Him was the influence of Esau in their midst. The historian Josephus recorded how the Idumeans, who were descended from Esau, became Jews. Herod was an Idumean. Paul used the illustration of an olive tree, as symbolic of the house of Judah, to show how Jewish people were cut off from the tree of God’s planting and Gentiles were grafted in. “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.” Romans 11:17, 18. However, there were two olive trees planted by the Lord. “And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.” Zechariah 4:3. “These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.” Revelation 11:4. The second olive tree is the house of Israel which is chiefly the Anglo-Saxon and kindred people. Today the branches are being broken off the second olive tree and the wild branches of the Gentiles are being grafted in. Conversions in the Gentile world are mushrooming. In Africa in the last century the number of Christians has gone from about 10 million to between 320 and 360 million. In China the Christians have increased from about 5 million to perhaps 100 million in the last 35 years. Christianity is exploding in China, Taiwan, and Singapore. Soon, Pentecostal Christians alone will outnumber all Buddhists in the world. South Korea is now 25% Christian and will soon surpass the United States in sending missionaries into Asia. Even in Japan the number of Christians has doubled in the last 15 years. Asia is heading toward having the most Christians of any continent in the world. In Latin America there is a Protestant sweep happening. Latin America is now 15 % evangelical Christians. Brazil, the largest country, is now 20% evangelical Christians and the percentage is growing fast. Catholic bishops estimate 8000 people a day in Latin America convert from the Catholic Church to evangelical Christianity. Even Canada is now experiencing an annual growth in the number of Christians, not from the Anglo-Saxon or French population, but from the immigrant population. There is an increase in the world’s Christian population every day of more than 30,000 people. This is despite the falling away happening in Western Europe and the Anglo Saxon countries. There is a misconception that Islam is the largest religion in the world and the fastest growing. This is not true. Christianity is by far the largest and the fastest growing with over 2 billion adherents and projections of 3 billion within 45 years, if the Lord tarries, but we believe He will not. It appears the fulness of the Gentiles is coming in. Let us not be blind to what the Holy Spirit is doing. He is preparing this planet for the coming reign of the King of Kings. It looks bleak right now for the House of Israel, but the best times are still ahead for us. “And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, ‘There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.’” Romans 11:26, 27. This does not mean all of our people will be born again, but rather that we will be saved from our oppressors. The tares will be removed from the kingdom by the holy angels (Matthew 13:41), and Satan and his evil angels will be locked up for a thousand years (Revelation 3:2, 3). Universal peace will occur and our people will become examples to the world in our obedience to God. “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” Isaiah 27:6. Certainly all of this is cause to give praise to God and look toward the kingdom age. God is still in control and will accomplish His purpose despite the many sins in our society that vex us. They vex Him too. (Statistics for this article were from the book “The New Faces of Christianity; Believing the Bible in the Global South” by Philip Jenkins, the article “Latin America: Evangelical Christianity Moves The Masses” by freelance writer Jose Orozco; also reports from Asia Times Online, The Christian Century Foundation, Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship, and Encarta Encyclopedia.)

Lester Bowles Pearson Born: 23 April 1897, Toronto, Canada Died: 27 December 1972, Ottawa, Canada Residence at the time of the award: Canada Role: former President of the 7th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, former Secretary of State for External Affairs of Canada Field: negotiation, world organizing Prize share: 1/1 In 1956, Great Britain, France and Israel launched an attack on Egypt aimed at removing President Nasser. The United States had not been informed, and the Soviet Union threatened to use atomic weapons against the assailants. The "Suez Crisis" found its solution when the Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs Lester Pearson, who had served as President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1952, won support for sending a United Nations Emergency Force to the region to separate the warring parties. This gained him the Peace Prize for 1957. Lester Pearson was a historian. In the inter-war years he was employed in Canada's Department of External Affairs. He was sent to Europe, and witnessed both the breakdown of the League of Nations and the outbreak of World War II. During the war he was stationed in Washington, where he worked on preparations for the founding of the United Nations. Many wanted him to be the first Secretary-General, but the Soviet Union was opposed. Instead, Pearson headed the UN committee that recommended the division of Palestine into a Jewish part and an Arab part. In 1948, Lester Pearson became Canada's Secretary of State for External Affairs, and he ended his career as Prime Minister in the 1960s.

“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Matthew 10:26-31 (NRSV) The very important key to this passage is keeping in mind the context. That may seem like a trivial thing to point out, but a reasonably large amount of exegesis of the pieces of this passage is done as if each sentence were some atomic saying that Jesus just spontaneously said one day. Everything in this passage is occurring within a little preparatory talk Jesus is giving to his disciples before they go out doing what he’s been doing and saying what he’s been saying. The main theme is that they should expect fierce opposition and even persecution, the vast majority of which will come from the authorities in the Jewish religion at the time. They will be tempted to surrender, give up, fall back in line, get back to their old lives to end the suffering, but Jesus encourages them to press on. This passage falls mostly under the “press on” part of the talk. Jesus encourages them with the idea that, up till now, he has been working and teaching subversively, staying under the radar, but the time has come for the truth to be revealed in big, blazing signs. This is, in fact, what will precipitate the steeper opposition that Jesus has already warned them about. The true nature of the corrupt leaders will be revealed, and the true nature of faithful Israel will be revealed. In explaining why his followers should not be afraid of this persecution, he contrasts his age’s power structure with God. This is where the helpful English translations may point us in the wrong direction. First, we need to look at the word “soul.” The Greek, here, is psychen, and you probably recognize that word as the root of some modern English words like “psychology.” Because of our theological framework, we probably think of the “soul” as an immaterial, immortal representation of ourselves, and while that is a possible reading, the word is generally used in Scripture to mean something more along the lines of “identity” or even just “life.” For example, in Matthew 2:20, an angel tells Joseph that it is safe to return to Israel because “those who were seeking the child’s psychen are dead.” Later in this same chapter, in Matthew 10:39, Jesus says that “those who find their psychen will lose it, and those who lose their psychen for my sake will find it.” This is repeated almost word for word in Matthew 16. In that same chapter, Jesus asks, “For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their psychen?” The last appearance of this word in Matthew is 20:28, where Jesus explains that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his psychen as a ransom for many.” Those are all the appearances in Matthew, but the pattern is similar throughout the New Testament. Soul/psyche is much closer to something like “you as a living person” than “the immaterial, immortal component of your identity.” A soul can lost or given up. A soul can be preserved or taken. Perhaps the most direct counter to the use of the word as something immortal is the LXX translation of Ezekiel 18:20 – “The psyche that sins shall die.” The reason I’m going on about this is, when we are looking at this contrast, it is unlikely the point of contrast Jesus is making is that humans can only kill you, but God can torment your immortal being for eternity. The other word that tends to send us on this trajectory is the English word “hell,” but once again, the Greek is Gehenna. Gehenna is an actual, physical location outside of Jerusalem. You can go there, today. You can literally have a picnic in Gehenna. Gehenna occupies in Jewish theology a location as a special place of God’s judgement, beginning with what we learn in Jeremiah 7:30-34: For the people of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord; they have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name, defiling it. And they go on building the high place of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire—which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter: for they will bury in Topheth until there is no more room. The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the animals of the earth; and no one will frighten them away. And I will bring to an end the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for the land shall become a waste. That “valley of the son of Hinnom” is Gehenna. It is a location where Judah worshipped idols and sacrificed their children in flames. Because of these horrible practices, God will slaughter them and fill the valley with their corpses and destroy the city of Jerusalem. This is repeated with some more detail and an object lesson involving breaking a pot in Jeremiah 19, where the prophet actually delivers this pronouncement from the actual Gehenna. Again, for their idolatry and unfaithfulness, God announces a great tribulation and disaster He will bring upon Jerusalem. One must acknowledge that, in Jewish literature, this idea grew beyond its historical roots. Gehenna became a metaphorical stand-in for God’s judgement. One writer spoke about how Gehenna was so wide that the sun never went down on it. Others, that it was the mouth of the grave. As you flip through the ages of Jewish writing on God’s judgement, both on individuals and nations, Gehenna becomes a powerful image. It is a place where God will judge you now and, if you happen to be a tyrant, after you die. It is because of some of the relative fluidity of the imagery of Gehenna that I will say that the idea that Jesus is talking about God punishing an immortal soul in a spiritual location of torment is a possible reading. And, given the contrast, there’s a certain logic to it. However, I do not think this is the most likely reading. Jesus’ reference to Gehenna takes the warning of Jeremiah and brings it into his own day. Judah’s kings have led her astray into new kinds of idolatry and dissolution. Jerusalem has become a site of infidelity. A judgement to set this situation to rights is coming, and Jesus is announcing this to Israel. Jeremiah foresaw this destruction coming at the hands of Babylon; Jesus foresees it coming by Rome. Jeremiah was persecuted for his warnings by the priests of Israel, which is exactly what Jesus is warning will happen to him and his followers. Very illuminating is the prayer Jeremiah makes in chapter 20, praying against his persecutors. In this prayer, he describes the people who seek his life and make him wish he had never even been born, but he knows the Lord will defend him and rise against them. This, I would say, tells us what we need to know to understand Jesus in his context. Those who remain faithful to proclaiming the message God has given them through Jesus will experience opposition and persecution. These people may torture the body. They may even kill it. But the faithful will not be destroyed, but live. God will deliver them from their imprisonment, judge their tormentors, and even if they should die, they will rise to reign with Christ in the next age when God has broken the power of these oppressors and brought a new way of life to His faithful. It is because of this that his disciples should not fear their persecutors. It is the same hope that kept Jeremiah going, saying he could not contain the warning because it burned like a fire in his bones. He had to proclaim it, and the suffering he experienced made him actually angry with God for putting him in this position, but he also knew God would vindicate him and save him. Your body may die, but you will have saved your psychen. By contrast, God is about to bring judgement once again on Jerusalem. Gehenna will once again be filled with corpses as the pagan invaders raze the city. The people who fall in this judgement will not live. They will not be vindicated. They will not reign with Christ. They will not rise again. The grave will be the end for them… if they’re lucky. They will have lost their psychen. The contrast Jesus offers is that it is far better to suffer and die at the hands of the persecutors and commit your faithful life into the hands of a vindicating God than to die in the judgement God is bringing, after which is no hope, no vindication, no salvation – only death, destruction, and loss. Forever. It is the same, pivotal choice Matthew has presented to us throughout his gospel, over and over again on different occasions. You can conform to the powers of this age and die with them in the coming judgement, broken forever, wiped from the pages of the Book of Life, or you can identify with the poor, suffering, bedraggled faithful, and find yourself exalted. And even if you die, you will not die, but live! Live through this age into the next and endless ages to come. Jeremiah made his decision. Jesus made his decision. His followers have to make that decision, and what they do with the rest of their lives will tell the tale. But Jesus does not simply let the choice hang. In one of the more touching and beloved passages of the Church, Jesus reminds them that this is not just some issue of cosmic accounting or the fallout of the clash of nations. Jesus reminds them that God cares about them as individuals! To those of us steeped in American evangelicalism, maybe this is old news. We make the individual the center of the universe and the highest point of God’s attention, desires, and plans, so this is probably no big deal to us because we already think everything God is, does, or wants revolves around our individual lives. But this perspective has more to do with our modern ethos and American values than it does the Bible’s world, which overwhelmingly emphasizes the collective. God loves a people, calls a people, saves a people, justifies a people, and glorifies a people, and you are either in that people or not, and your destiny is carried by that larger vessel. In the grandeur of the Bible’s perspective, we find very few nods to anything describing God’s relationship to individual, nameless believers throughout history. But here is one. Jesus comforts his disciples by assuring them that God even superintends the life and death of sparrows, and how much more important to God are the disciples than sparrows! And just to make sure they understand the point, Jesus tells them that even the individual hairs on their head are noted by God. I’ll admit it – I struggle with the notion that God cares deeply for me as an individual. I intellectually agree with that idea, sure, but I struggle to truly internalize it as a deep belief that I walk in (to use a handy evangelical phrase). But here is a bold proclamation of Jesus that God attends to even the smallest of things. If He is interested in the lives of sparrows, how much more does He attend to my life? How can He know the hairs on my head if He pays no attention to me as an individual? Granted, Jesus is making a speech and using expansive imagery. Granted, Jesus is talking to the people in front of him and not to everyone throughout time. But the logic he uses does not seem to be able to be constrained only to the local audience. If that deal about the sparrows works for them, for instance, it works for everybody. It is unlikely God only cared about the sparrows within earshot of Jesus. Jesus’ whole point is that God’s care and attention knows no bounds and no concept of insignificance. There is nothing He has created that He does not attend to and have intimate knowledge of, and that scope includes you and me. And birds and hairs, apparently, but Jesus lets us know that disciples rate higher. And this truth about God’s regard is also meant to comfort the disciples. When they are dragged into the synagogues and commanded to stop preaching. When they are brought into courts under false charges to shut them up. When they are in prison. When they are beaten. When their bodies are being burned. However much they may hate it, the one thing they cannot think is that God has forgotten them, that God does not care, that God will let this situation go unanswered. The timing may not be yours, and the form it comes in might not be yours, but He is there, He knows, He cares, and He will not take it lying down. And why? Because of His love. His love for those poor, lost, wayward, dirty, poor, sinful sheep of Israel. His love for the Gentile doofuses who believed in Jesus and are all ready for the Bible study as soon as they get back from the orgy. His love for brokenly, uproariously, sinful fools who know nothing, but for faith, love, and hope continue to open their arms to God and walk forward as best they can. People like you and me. - What is our message to our world, today, concerning this creator God. Who is He and what is He doing? How do we get that message across, and who is likely to want it to stop? - Jeremiah is incredibly resentful toward God in chapter 20 as he prays because of what he is suffering, and he feels that God will not allow him to stop. This doesn’t seem to diminish God’s regard for Jeremiah in the least. Do you ever resent God because your attempts at faithfulness just seem to land you in deeper suffering? Have you ever told Him?

When I was young, people flattered me, but I always quipped, “Flattery will get you nowhere.” Flattery is the language of much of today’s church, and Father God and Christ are grieved, for it will kill you, O Christian. [SW089] 04/21/2013 message notes by Rev. Susan J. Wynn ©2013 “Flattery Will Get You Nowhere” Isaiah 30:8 Now go, write it on a tablet before them And inscribe it on a scroll, That it may serve in the time to come As a witness forever. 9 For this is a rebellious people, false sons, Sons who refuse [14 & 3808 never, ever consent to, are never, ever willing] To the instruction of the LORD; 10 Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”; And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right, Speak to us pleasant words [2513, smoothness, flattery, smooth things], Prophesy illusions [4123 deceptions]. 11 “Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.” Pleasant words, smoothness, flattery, smooth things. As I look from the wall, the Lord says, “Much of the church in America knows nothing but these.” What smooth things do we like to hear? Success theology — Your best life, no mention of sin except on their websites in the sinner’s prayer or a quick scripture. The evil you do is not “God’s best for you,” the power of positive thinking — “think” yourself successful, claim the promises of God though you do not obey Him. No call to holiness (1Peter 1:15, Matthew 5:48) No cross or blood. Ezekiel 13:10 and elsewhere: These say “Peace, peace” when there is not peace between God and you. Success theology is a man-centered gospel. It is humanism. Definition of humanism per the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: a doctrine, attitude, or way of life centered on human interests or values; especially : a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual’s dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason [thinking]. Jesus would have flunked success theology. He preached: Matthew 10:38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” Utterly deny myself? Not live for myself? Not seek my own success, using scripture to justify my pursuit of my own personal happiness? Selfless giving away all that I am So I can be God’s instrument here? Being crucified with Christ so I no longer live? Becoming a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing? (Romans 12:1-2) And by the way, STAYING ON THE ALTAR until God has completed His work. It seems the whole New Testament, and all its truth, does not pass the “success theology” test. Next, liberation theology: This teaching says that the freedom Jesus spoke of in His earthly ministry is freedom from social injustice and political oppression. He came so we could be free of tyranny from evil governments. Jesus would have flunked liberation theology. Jerusalem and all of Israel was under the oppression and social injustice of Rome, while Jesus walked the earth! Roman rule was cruel, indeed, Yet He did not rebel against it. He even prophesied that all of Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Romans! And He did nothing to prevent it — Jerusalem was indeed destroyed in 70 A.D. What Jesus DID do is speak of freedom from slavery to sin (John 8:31-36) He secured that freedom for all who believe and are filled with the Holy Spirit. He whom the Son sets free is free, indeed, regardless of poverty and political oppression and social oppression!!! Ask any of today’s Christian martyrs (and there are more since the 20th century than in all centuries prior). Jesus came to set us free from the tyranny of sin in our hearts, and free us from our selfishness. The Apostle Paul never rebelled against Gentile governments, nor Jewish leaders. He preached Christ, and was free, indeed, though he was accused and tried, beaten and scourged, stoned and left for dead, and imprisoned for the sake of the gospel. Next, prosperity theology: Jesus wants you to be rich! God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. When you have three Bentleys in your driveway, people will know you are blessed by God. (I personally heard that at one of their conferences.) Jesus would have flunked prosperity theology. Here is what He says: Matthew 6:19 “ Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. Matthew 6:20 “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; Matthew 6:21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:24 “ No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” These false teachers twist the words of Christ. They use “pressed down, shaken together” (Luke 6:38) to make money. But that scripture’s context is not monetary — it is selfless living. The words these false teachers use is ear-tickling (2 Timothy 4:3). It pleases our ears. It is flattery. It will get you nowhere but hell. It does not deal with the fallen condition of our hearts. Anything that does not deal with the fallen condition of our hearts is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. I tell you, as Paul did Timothy: 2Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. Listen to the Lord, through Jeremiah: Lamentations 2:14 Your prophets have seen for you False and foolish visions; And they have not exposed your iniquity So as to restore you from captivity, But they have seen for you false and misleading oracles. They have not exposed your sin so you would repent and cry out to be purified. So you are captive to your own lusts. And if you continue on with Lamentations, you will see that the Enemy, Satan, has his way in your lives, Listen to the Spirit-inspired Paul: Galatians 1:6 I am amazed [2296, I marvel and wonder at it] that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! Galatians 1:10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. It is a different (2087) gospel, not of the same source, altered, strange. It is a gospel which is really not another of the same kind — it is not like it, it is not even a gospel. It is not a good message, like Christ’s gospel. It is a distortion, a perversion of it. By following it, O Christian, you desert God. It is contrary, it sounds nearly like Christ’s gospel, but it is not. Christ would flunk it. He is grieved, O Church! The truth will not please you and gain your favor, but it will please God and gain His favor, for all who dare to speak it. Much of the church likes to hear Galatians 5:17, but does not want to hear Galatians 5:24. Galatians 5:17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Whew! I can go on struggling and sinning because that’s just the way it is. Galatians 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Much of the church likes to hear the second half of Romans 7:25, but does not like to hear Romans 7:24 or the first half of 7:25. Romans 7:25b So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Romans 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Most of the church chirps Romans 5:20, always changing it to the present tense (which is incorrect) — “Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more” — but does not like to hear Romans 6:1-2. Romans 5:20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, The Law was given to show us our hearts, and that we are unable to change them. But then came Jesus, the grace of God personified, the One who frees us from our captivity to sin and transforms our hearts so they obey. Most of the church loves to say their sin only makes God’s grace increase. But what does the Holy Spirit say through Paul? Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? We like to stamp our feet and sing, “Satan is under my feet,” while we disobey God! If nothing else has touched you up to this point, I pray this does: In Ezekiel 6:9, the Lord says our spiritual adultery, our exaltation of ourselves, shatters His heart! Much of the church likes to say “We are born again,” but they do not turn our feet to follow Christ to Calvary and so they bear no resemblance to Him. The Lord longs to be gracious to you, O Church, O Christian! Isaiah 30:18 Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him. He longs (2442) to be gracious to you. To Him, it feels like piercing to Him. It is a very strong word! He waits (2442) to have compassion on you. He longs for it. It feels like piercing to Him. He offered a pierced Son, pierced for our transgressions! Isaiah 30:19 O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. A shaking is coming, and many will be weeping who do not turn to Him now! All you have to do is cry out (2199), to shriek (from anguish, extreme distress)! When He hears your brokenness and contriteness, He will not despise it. He will answer you!

Brothers Rene and Mario Freund were aged just two and six when they held their breath, hidden in the boot of Mary Elmes's car on a mild day in September 25, 1942. Cork native Mary Elmes, today known as the ‘Irish Oskar Schindler’, was risking her own life to help Rene and Mario escape from the Rivesaltes internment camp, a short drive from Perpignan in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. She smuggled the boys past the French prison guards posted at the imposing wooden gates of Rivesaltes, now a military camp which is also known as Camp Maréchal Joffre. Rene and Mario were among 200 Jewish children saved by Mary Elmes during the war years. Rene and Mario Freund remained thankful all their lives that they were among the Jewish boys saved from eventual deportation to Auschwitz in occupied Poland, where they would have faced certain death in the Nazi gas chambers. And they never forgot Mary Elmes, who was aided by the staff at Maison St Christophe orphanage, located at Perpignan, just 12km away from their Rivesaltes internment camp. The story of these children went untold for generations, part of the forgotten dark history of France's collaborationist Vichy government. Years later, however, Rene and Mario, who had since changed their names to Ronald Friend and Michael Freund, worked to ensure Mary Elmes was nominated for the title of 'Righteous Among the Nations', an honorific title used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives for altruistic reasons during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazi. Brothers Ronald and Michael were among the interviewees to feature in 'It Tolls for Thee', a 2016 movie documentary narrated by Hollywood star Winona Ryder. Ryder herself had family members who died during the Holocaust. She was separately nominated for a Grammy award for her narration of 'The Diary of Anne Frank'. Some will recall seeing 'It Tolls for Thee' when it was broadcast on TG4 in 2017. The film was also screened at the Irish Film Institute’s Documentary Festival in Dublin the same year. “I owe my life to Mary Elmes and I feel very grateful. But I am just one of many who should feel the same,” said Michael Freund in the documentary. Mary Elmes was born in the city of Cork in 1908. During the Spanish Civil War, she manage a hospital in northern Spain. She went on to volunteer in France, and was allowed to stay on in Rivesaltes due to Ireland's neutrality. She was eventually arrested by the Gestapo. When she was released six months later, there were no longer any Jews residing in the camp at Rivesaltes. After the war, Elmes remained publicly silent about her actions, always seeking to protect the identities and safety of the innocent children she has saved. She turned down the Légion d’honneur, the highest civilian honour in France. Ronald Friend, who went on to become a college professor in New York, was determined to tell Elmes's story. And in the years following her death in 2002, many of the children she had helped, along with members of her her family, also came forward to spread word of her heroism. She has since received several international recognitions. It seems appropriate that this heroic woman's steely nerves in the face of a deadly threat should have been honoured in 2019 with the erection of the Mary Elmes pedestrian bridge in Cork city, linking St Patrick’s Quay and Merchants Quay. The bridge is a relative haven of calm in the bustling city centre. Mary Elmes’s name was among five finalists selected from 35 public submissions put forward for the new bridge. Cork City Councillors voted on the top five finalists and, ultimately, selected Mary Elmes for her work during the Second World War. The cost of the project was €5m, €1.5m of which was covered by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Southern and Eastern Operational Programme. This programme has provided €500m to the south and east of Ireland between 2014 and 2020. The project was granted EU funding as it comes under the category of ‘integrated urban development to revitalise urban areas’, which is one of the priorities for the ERDF. This article is the fifth in a series of 'Green Deal' stories promoting community-led actions in Ireland, in which the European Commission in Ireland is showing the work that has been done by people living in Ireland to engage with and try to protect their natural environment. In time, up to 11,000 pedestrians and cyclists will benefit each day from the improved connectivity offered by the Mary Elmes bridge, travelling between the busy city centre and the Victorian Quarter. John Stapleton, senior engineer in the infrastructure development directorate at Cork City Council, says that when Mary Elmes was chosen, they were surprised that the story of her courage wasn’t that well-known. “Her son was at the opening of the bridge, as were two of the Jewish children Mary rescued from being sent to Auschwitz,” says John. “They went around a few schools to tell theirs and Mary’s story, which has been a great aspect of the project. “We’re trying to invest in pedestrian and cycling infrastructure in the city centre to encourage people to use that as their mode of transportation,” he said. “It’s been a phenomenal success and it’s actually become an attraction. We put seating on the bridge to create a tranquil space, right in the heart of the city. We are also planning to add cycle lanes leading to and away from the bridge, so it looks like it will continue to be successful. “We have received funding from the EU, the National Transport Authority, and Cork City Council have also contributed. It was really a collaboration of parties, but the EU grant was the trigger that allowed us to progress the project.” This series of 'Green Deal for Europe' stories illustrates what communities can achieve with the help of the European Commission. There are many great stories north, south, east and west of the country that demonstrate the commitment of the Irish public to preserving their natural environment. The Green Deal will serve to strengthen and build on such efforts.

Chancellor's Parashah Commentary Parashat Be-har 5763 Rabbi Matthew Berkowitz Leviticus 25:1 - 26:2 May 17, 2003 15 Iyar 5763 Coercion is part of the essence of Judaism. Indeed, a well known midrash describes God coercing the Israelites into the acceptance of Torah. Sparked by the Hebrew phrase "the Israelites were rooted under the mountain" (Exodus 19:17), (most translations read "the Israelites were at the foot of the mountain"), the rabbinic imagination conjures up a threatening portrait of God holding Mt. Sinai over the heads of the those assembled, declaring, "if you accept the Torah, well and good; but if not, this shall be your resting place" (BT Shabbat 88a). Coercion is indeed at the heart of this teaching and potentially at the heart of Judaism. Most observant Jews feel a sense of external motivation — observance is not simply a matter of personal choice, but a response to a God who has expectations. In teaching this midrash and the principle learned from it, I encountered a student justifiably troubled by this notion. So disturbed was this thoughtful, loyal Shabbat attending synagogue—goer that he woke up this past Shabbat morning, thought about the midrash we had learned, and decided that he would not be coerced into going to synagogue that Shabbat morning. His wife was in shock (as was I when he related this story to me — not to even mention the Jewish guilt that overcame me!) Typically, I am blessed with students becoming more observant. Where did I go wrong? How could I respond meaningfully to this student's spiritual and intellectual challenge? This week's parashah, Parashat Be—har, wrestles with this same tension. In the end, however, I believe our Torah reading does provide us with an answer. In Leviticus 25:55, God declares, "The children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants that I brought out of the Land of Egypt, for I am the Lord Your God." This verse continues in the vein of our somewhat unflattering portrait of God. God took us out of Egypt and now, we owe a debt of gratitude toward God. That debt is reflected in our servitude to God. Yet, the servitude of which the Torah speaks culminates in meaningful relationship. Note well the latter part of the verse: 'for I am the Lord Your God.' God is not merely a communal, impersonal God. God becomes the God of each and every one of us. God becomes personal through our individual embrace of commandedness. Our freedom, then, is found in relationship. I would suggest that in every relationship there is some element of coercion. In particular, the parent—child relationship comes to mind. Coercion is elemental to raising disciplined children. And although each of us may go through a stage of rebellion in our teenage years or beyond, we realize quickly we have a lot more to gain from the blessing of being in relationship — from the predictability, the structure, the rules. Opting out leads us to a point of emptiness and rootlessness; but reflection can lead us back to the Source. Yehudah HaLevi, a prolific poet of the Golden Age of Spain writes, "The slaves of time — slaves of slaves are they; the servant of God — that individual alone is free, And so when every human seeks his portion — my soul says, 'My portion is the Lord's.' " May each of us have the insight and gumption of Yehudah HaLevi — understanding that our freedom derives from the precious and treasured boundaries with which God has circumscribed us. From within the confines of Torah, life is always the richer. With wishes for a good week and Shabbat Shalom.

Roundup: Historian's Take This is where we place excerpts by historians writing about the news. On occasion this page also includes political scientists, economists, and law professors who write about history. We may from time to time even include English profs. SOURCE: NY Daily News (5-21-07) Iraq is the central front in the war against Al Qaeda. And we are beginning to win. These are not talking points. They are facts on the ground, as I saw during my recent trips there. Though you may be getting the opposite impression from news reports, the sectarian violence that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had unleashed by destroying the Samarra Mosque in February 2006 has subsided. Measured weekly, sectarian killings are down by almost two-thirds since the start of the Baghdad security plan. Anbar Province, Al Qaeda's former sanctuary in western Iraq, has turned against the terrorists. Anbaris by the thousands are signing up to fight against Al Qaeda. Violent attacks in the province are down by 50 percent and combined casualties down by 65 percent between early January and mid-May. The movement is spreading. Sheiks in Diyala, Salah-ad-Din and Babil provinces are reaching out to coalition forces to help us. This is not the moment to consider withdrawal time lines that would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, as the U.S. Congress seems determined to do. It is the time to redouble our efforts.... One thing impressed me above all on my most recent trip, from which I returned on May 13: Ordinary Iraqis have not given up. Sadrists in the parliament may demand our withdrawal, but the government of Iraq has repeatedly asked us to stay. Iraqi soldiers and police are fighting Al Qaeda and Shia militias every day, sacrificing alongside our troops. One Iraqi commander told me, "Anyone who says the Americans should leave now is not a real Iraqi citizen."... Posted on: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - 12:39 SOURCE: Informed Comment (Blog) (Click on the SOURCE link for embedded links) (5-21-07) 2. The group, which robbed a bank and functions as a small local Mafia, has used the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp (pop. 30,000) in north Lebanon as a base. There are thousands of Palestinian refugees in the camp, displaced there from their homes in Galilee by Zionist forces in 1948. Once Israel was formed, these refugees from the fighting were locked out of their former home by Israeli PM David Ben Gurion. Because Lebanon has a Christian political elite, Beirut did not give the Palestinians citizenship, since they are 85% Sunni and it would have upset the demographic balance of the country. Also, the Palestinians of Lebanon generally insist that they will some day go home to Palestine (Israel) and fiercely reject "tawtin" or naturalization as "Lebanese." Their stateless condition has left the Palestinian population of Lebanon poverty-stricken and barred from certain occupations, including medicine! If you think about it a little bit, you see the analogy between their condition and that of 19th century Jews in some parts of Europe, confined to ghettoes and forbidden from certain occupations. A clickable map of the refugee camps in Lebanon with information about each can be found here. For an anthropologist's exploration of the culture of the camps, see Julie Peteet's article in the Journal of the International Institute at the U of Michigan. Here is her piece with some history of the situation. See also Professor Peteet's recent book. Also 3. A 1969 accord prevents Lebanese military forces from going into the camps. Anyway, hand to hand fighting in them would produce a high death toll. Firing on a camp full of civilians by the Lebanese government is deeply troubling. Note that the Tripoli Sunni Muslim townspeople appear, however, to approve of the attack on Fath al-Islam. The camps are locally seen as nests of criminality and breeding grounds of terror. 4. Although it is usually said that there are 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, a country of 3.8 million, Palestinian demographer Khalil Shikakli has argued that there are actually only a couple hundred thousand left there. Many have been given temporary visas of various sorts by Germany, Scandinavian countries, etc., and have emigrated to a precarious perch in Europe, where they seldom have a permit to work and so remain in limbo (the Palestinians have now become the symbol of vulnerable statelessness; in the contemporary world, not having a state is the closest thing to slavery.) Their statelessness makes the Palestinians in their camps open to exploitation by mafias and terrorists who thrive where states cannot operate with transparency. The camps are thus analogous to the wilderness of Sinai or the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Until there is a comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian refugee problem, this sort of trouble will go on in the Middle East. And all that time, the Zionist Right will blame the Palestinians for being dispossessed. Posted on: Monday, May 21, 2007 - 15:59 SOURCE: Weekly Standard (5-28-07) America has vital national interests in Iraq. The global al Qaeda movement has decided to defeat us there--not merely to establish a base from which to pursue further tyranny and terror, but also to erect a triumphant monument on the ruins of American power. Al Qaeda claims to have defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and its recruiting rests in part on that boast. If America flees the field of battle against this foe in Iraq, al Qaeda will have gained an even more powerful recruiting slogan. That is why al Qaeda fighters from across the Muslim world are streaming into Iraq and fighting desperately to retain and expand their positions there. Al Qaeda does not think Iraq is a distraction from their war against us. Al Qaeda believes Iraq is the central front--and it is. To imagine that America can lose in Iraq but prevail in the war against jihadism is almost like imagining that we could have yielded Europe to the Nazis but won World War II. Al Qaeda is not our only enemy in Iraq, however. Iran has chosen to fight a proxy war against us there, determined to work our defeat for its own purposes. Iranian weapons and even advisers flow into Iraq and assist our enemies, both Sunni and Shia, to kill our soldiers and attempt to establish control over Iraq itself. This Iranian support is not the result of a misunderstanding that could be worked out if only we would talk to the mullahs. It is the continuation of nearly three decades of cold war between Iran and the United States that began in 1979 with an Iranian attack on the sovereign American soil of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The states of the Arabian Gulf are watching closely to see who will win. If Iran succeeds in driving America from Iraq, Iranian hegemony in the region is likely. If that success is combined with the development of an Iranian nuclear weapon, then Iranian hegemony is even more likely. Dominance of the Middle East by this Iranian regime would be very bad for America. And a nuclear arms race in which Arab states tried to balance against Iranian power would also be very bad for America. These are the obvious American stakes in the fight in Iraq, and they are high enough to justify every possible effort to succeed there. But there are reasons to keep fighting even beyond these geopolitical considerations. On a recent trip to Iraq, I saw the human stakes in this struggle. I spoke with the commander of the 8th Iraqi Army Division in Diwaniyah, Major General Othman. He is a Shia, commanding a heavily Shia unit in an entirely Shia area. I asked him what was the most serious challenge he faced. He answered at once: Shia militias. General Othman stands strongly for an Iraq ruled by law, in which the government holds a monopoly on the use of force, and in which Sunni and Shia are treated equally. He has put his beliefs to the test of battle. When he saw that members of Moktada al-Sadr's Shia militia, the Mahdi Army, had taken control of the city of Diwaniyah, he conducted a large-scale clearing operation with the help of American forces and drove them out. General Othman now holds Diwaniyah, where the people can breathe free again, subject neither to that militia nor to any other. There is no turning back for General Othman. The Mahdi Army is determined to kill him and his family, and they will do so if we do not continue to support him. The life of this decent man is in our hands. In Iskandariyah, I met Major General Qais, the commander of the Babil Province police forces. I asked him the same question, What is your greatest challenge. Without hesitation, he, too, said: Shia militias. The Iraqi police are known to be infiltrated by Shia militia fighters, but General Qais has molded a force that he uses against those very militias on a daily basis. He has survived attempts on his life, and he and his family are under constant threat. They, too, rely on America to help them fight the agents of Iran who seek to defeat us. Across Iraq today, decent people are standing up and identifying themselves They are reaching out to us, working with us, and fighting alongside us against our enemies, even against the powerful Shia militias. If we abandon them now, they will be tortured and killed, along with their families, by the militias. We will have exposed every decent person in the country to destruction. For the fact is that the democratic government of Iraq is an ally--and a strong ally--against al Qaeda. Against al Qaeda, Iraqi leaders from government, civil society, the military, and the police are implacable. Even the Sunni Arabs, who once provided al Qaeda safe haven and support, have turned against the terrorists. Thousands of Sunni Arabs in Anbar, Salahaddin, Diyala, Babil, and even Baghdad have reached out to the Coalition and the Iraqi government, offering to fight the takfiris, as they call al Qaeda. Anbar Province, whose Marine intelligence officers had virtually given it up only last year, is now lost to al Qaeda. Thousands of Iraqis have died fighting al Qaeda. When al Qaeda attacks recruiting centers, health clinics, government buildings, and military and police outposts, the Iraqis do not run home. They run back into the battle, to fight harder. But they continue to need our help. If we abandon them, al Qaeda terrorists will barbarically punish those who have opposed them. They may even so terrorize the people that they are able to establish a home in part of Iraq. That is certainly their aim. We cannot allow them to succeed.... Posted on: Monday, May 21, 2007 - 13:42 SOURCE: TomDispatch.com (5-15-07) In politics, as in medicine, a cure based on a false diagnosis is almost always worthless, often worsening the condition that is supposed to be healed. The United States, today, suffers from a plethora of public ills. Most of them can be traced to the militarism and imperialism that have led to the near-collapse of our Constitutional system of checks and balances. Unfortunately, none of the remedies proposed so far by American politicians or analysts addresses the root causes of the problem. According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, released on April 26, 2007, some 78% of Americans believe their country to be headed in the wrong direction. Only 22% think the Bush administration's policies make sense, the lowest number on this question since October 1992, when George H. W. Bush was running for a second term -- and lost. What people don't agree on are the reasons for their doubts and, above all, what the remedy -- or remedies -- ought to be. The range of opinions on this is immense. Even though large numbers of voters vaguely suspect that the failings of the political system itself led the country into its current crisis, most evidently expect the system to perform a course correction more or less automatically. As Adam Nagourney of the New York Timesreported, by the end of March 2007, at least 280,000 American citizens had already contributed some $113.6 million to the presidential campaigns of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Mitt Romney, Rudolph Giuliani, or John McCain. If these people actually believe a presidential election a year-and-a-half from now will significantly alter how the country is run, they have almost surely wasted their money. As Andrew Bacevich, author of The New American Militarism, puts it:"None of the Democrats vying to replace President Bush is doing so with the promise of reviving the system of check and balances.... The aim of the party out of power is not to cut the presidency down to size but to seize it, not to reduce the prerogatives of the executive branch but to regain them." George W. Bush has, of course, flagrantly violated his oath of office, which requires him"to protect and defend the constitution," and the opposition party has been remarkably reluctant to hold him to account. Among the"high crimes and misdemeanors" that, under other political circumstances, would surely constitute the Constitutional grounds for impeachment are these: the President and his top officials pressured the Central Intelligence Agency to put together a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq's nuclear weapons that both the administration and the Agency knew to be patently dishonest. They then used this false NIE to justify an American war of aggression. After launching an invasion of Iraq, the administration unilaterally reinterpreted international and domestic law to permit the torture of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and at other secret locations around the world. Nothing in the Constitution, least of all the commander-in-chief clause, allows the president to commit felonies. Nonetheless, within days after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush had signed a secret executive order authorizing a new policy of"extraordinary rendition," in which the CIA is allowed to kidnap terrorist suspects anywhere on Earth and transfer them to prisons in countries like Egypt, Syria, or Uzbekistan, where torture is a normal practice, or to secret CIA prisons outside the United States where Agency operatives themselves do the torturing. On the home front, despite the post-9/11 congressional authorization of new surveillance powers to the administration, its officials chose to ignore these and, on its own initiative, undertook extensive spying on American citizens without obtaining the necessary judicial warrants and without reporting to Congress on this program. These actions are prima-facie violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (and subsequent revisions) and of Amendment IV of the Constitution. These alone constitute more than adequate grounds for impeachment, while hardly scratching the surface. And yet, on the eve of the national elections of November 2006, then House Minority Leader, now Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), pledged on the CBS News program"60 Minutes" that"impeachment is off the table." She called it"a waste of time." And six months after the Democratic Party took control of both houses of Congress, the prison at Guantánamo Bay was still open and conducting drumhead courts martial of the prisoners held there; the CIA was still using"enhanced interrogation techniques" on prisoners in foreign jails; illegal intrusions into the privacy of American citizens continued unabated; and, more than fifty years after the CIA was founded, it continues to operate under, at best, the most perfunctory congressional oversight. Promoting Lies, Demoting Democracy Without question, the administration's catastrophic war in Iraq is the single overarching issue that has convinced a large majority of Americans that the country is"heading in the wrong direction." But the war itself is the outcome of an imperial presidency and the abject failure of Congress to perform its Constitutional duty of oversight. Had the government been working as the authors of the Constitution intended, the war could not have occurred. Even now, the Democratic majority remains reluctant to use its power of the purse to cut off funding for the war, thereby ending the American occupation of Iraq and starting to curtail the ever-growing power of the military-industrial complex. One major problem of the American social and political system is the failure of the press, especially television news, to inform the public about the true breadth of the unconstitutional activities of the executive branch. As Frederick A. O. Schwarz and Aziz Z. Huq, the authors of Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror, observe,"For the public to play its proper checking role at the ballot box, citizens must know what is done by the government in their names." Instead of uncovering administration lies and manipulations, the media actively promoted them. Yet the first amendment to the Constitution protects the press precisely so it can penetrate the secrecy that is the bureaucrat's most powerful, self-protective weapon. As a result of this failure, democratic oversight of the government by an actively engaged citizenry did not -- and could not -- occur. The people of the United States became mere spectators as an array of ideological extremists, vested interests, and foreign operatives -- including domestic neoconservatives, Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi exiles, the Israeli Lobby, the petroleum and automobile industries, warmongers and profiteers allied with the military-industrial complex, and the entrenched interests of the professional military establishment -- essentially hijacked the government. Some respected professional journalists do not see these failings as the mere result of personal turpitude but rather as deep structural and cultural problems within the American system as it exists today. In an interview with Matt Taibbi, Seymour Hersh, for forty years one of America's leading investigative reporters, put the matter this way: "All of the institutions we thought would protect us -- particularly the press, but also the military, the bureaucracy, the Congress -- they have failed… So all the things that we expect would normally carry us through didn't. The biggest failure, I would argue, is the press, because that's the most glaring…. What can be done to fix the situation? [long pause] You'd have to fire or execute ninety percent of the editors and executives." Veteran analyst of the press (and former presidential press secretary), Bill Moyers, considering a classic moment of media failure, concluded:"The disgraceful press reaction to Colin Powell's presentation at the United Nations [on February 5, 2003] seems like something out of Monty Python, with one key British report cited by Powell being nothing more than a student's thesis, downloaded from the Web -- with the student later threatening to charge U.S. officials with 'plagiarism.'" As a result of such multiple failures (still ongoing), the executive branch easily misled the American public. A Made-in-America Human Catastrophe Of the failings mentioned by Hersh, that of the military is particularly striking, resembling as it does the failures of the Vietnam era, thirty-plus years earlier. One would have thought the high command had learned some lessons from the defeat of 1975. Instead, it once again went to war pumped up on our own propaganda -- especially the conjoined beliefs that the United States was the"indispensable nation," the"lone superpower," and the"victor" in the Cold War; and that it was a new Rome the likes of which the world had never seen, possessing as it did -- from the heavens to the remotest spot on the planet --"full spectrum dominance." The idea that the U.S. was an unquestioned military colossus athwart the world, which no power or people could effectively oppose, was hubristic nonsense certain to get the country into deep trouble -- as it did -- and bring the U.S. Army to the point of collapse, as happened in Vietnam and may well happen again in Iraq (and Afghanistan). Instead of behaving in a professional manner, our military invaded Iraq with far too small a force; failed to respond adequately when parts of the Iraqi Army (and Baathist Party) went underground; tolerated an orgy of looting and lawlessness throughout the country; disobeyed orders and ignored international obligations (including the obligation of an occupying power to protect the facilities and treasures of the occupied country -- especially, in this case, Baghdad's National Museum and other archaeological sites of untold historic value); and incompetently fanned the flames of an insurgency against our occupation, committing numerous atrocities against unarmed Iraqi civilians. According to Andrew Bacevich,"Next to nothing can be done to salvage Iraq. It no longer lies within the capacity of the United States to determine the outcome of events there." Our former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas W. Freeman, says of President Bush's recent"surge" strategy in Baghdad and al-Anbar Province:"The reinforcement of failure is a poor substitute for its correction." Symbolically, a certain sign of the disaster to come in Iraq arrived via an April 26th posting from the courageous but anonymous Sunni woman who has, since August 2003, published the indispensable blog Baghdad Burning. Her family, she reported, was finally giving up and going into exile -- joining up to two million of her compatriots who have left the country. In her final dispatch, she wrote: "There are moments when the injustice of having to leave your country simply because an imbecile got it into his head to invade it, is overwhelming. It is unfair that in order to survive and live normally, we have to leave our home and what remains of family and friends.... And to what?" Retired General Barry McCaffrey, commander of the 24th Infantry Division in the first Iraq war and a consistent cheerleader for Bush strategies in the second, recently radically changed his tune. He now says,"No Iraqi government official, coalition soldier, diplomat, reporter, foreign NGO, nor contractor can walk the streets of Baghdad, nor Mosul, nor Kirkuk, nor Basra, nor Tikrit, nor Najaf, nor Ramadi, without heavily armed protection." In a different context, Gen. McCaffrey has concluded:"The U.S. Army is rapidly unraveling." Even military failure in Iraq is still being spun into an endless web of lies and distortions by the White House, the Pentagon, military pundits, and the now-routine reporting of propagandists disguised as journalists. For example, in the first months of 2007, rising car-bomb attacks in Baghdad were making a mockery of Bush administration and Pentagon claims that the U.S. troop escalation in the capital had brought about"a dramatic drop in sectarian violence." The official response to this problem: the Pentagon simply quit including deaths from car bombings in its count of sectarian casualties. (It has never attempted to report civilian casualties publicly or accurately.) Since August 2003, there have been over 1,050 car bombings in Iraq. One study estimates that through June 2006 the death toll from these alone has been a staggering 78,000 Iraqis. The war and occupation George W. Bush unleashed in Iraq has proved unimaginably lethal for unarmed civilians, but reporting the true levels of lethality in Iraq, or the nature of the direct American role in it was, for a long time, virtually taboo in the U.S. media. As late as October 2006, the journal of the British Medical Association, The Lancet, published a study conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad estimating that, since March 2003, there were some 601,027 more Iraqi deaths from violence than would have been expected without a war. The British and American governments at first dismissed the findings, claiming the research was based on faulty statistical methods -- and the American media ignored the study, played down its importance, or dismissed its figures. On March 27, 2007, however, it was revealed that the chief scientific adviser to the British Ministry of Defense, Roy Anderson, had offered a more honest response. The methods used in the study were, he wrote," close to best practice." Another British official described them as"a tried and tested way of measuring mortality in conflict zones." Over 600,000 violent deaths in a population estimated in 2006 at 26.8 million -- that is, one in every 45 individuals -- amounts to a made-in-America human catastrophe. One subject that the government, the military, and the news media try to avoid like the plague is the racist and murderous culture of rank-and-file American troops when operating abroad. Partly as a result of the background racism that is embedded in many Americans' mental make-up and the propaganda of American imperialism that is drummed into recruits during military training, they do not see assaults on unarmed"rag heads" or"hajis" as murder. The cult of silence on this subject began to slip only slightly in May 2007 when a report prepared by the Army's Mental Health Advisory Team was leaked to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Based on anonymous surveys and focus groups involving 1,320 soldiers and 447 Marines, the study revealed that only 56% of soldiers would report a unit member for injuring or killing an innocent noncombatant, while a mere 40% of Marines would do so. Some militarists will reply that such inhumanity to the defenseless is always inculcated into the properly trained soldier. If so, then the answer to this problem is to ensure that, in the future, there are many fewer imperialist wars of choice sponsored by the United States. The Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex Many other aspects of imperialism and militarism are undermining America's Constitutional system. By now, for example, the privatization of military and intelligence functions is totally out of control, beyond the law, and beyond any form of Congressional oversight. It is also incredibly lucrative for the owners and operators of so-called private military companies -- and the money to pay for their activities ultimately comes from taxpayers through government contracts. Any accounting of these funds, largely distributed to crony companies with insider connections, is chaotic at best. Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, estimates that there are 126,000 private military contractors in Iraq, more than enough to keep the war going, even if most official U.S. troops were withdrawn."From the beginning," Scahill writes,"these contractors have been a major hidden story of the war, almost uncovered in the mainstream media and absolutely central to maintaining the U.S. occupation of Iraq." America's massive"military" budgets, still on the rise, are beginning to threaten the U.S. with bankruptcy, given that its trade and fiscal deficits already easily make it the world's largest net debtor nation. Spending on the military establishment -- sometimes mislabeled"defense spending" -- has soared to the highest levels since World War II, exceeding the budgets of the Korean and Vietnam War eras as well as President Ronald Reagan's weapons-buying binge in the 1980s. According to calculations by the National Priorities Project, a non-profit research organization that examines the local impact of federal spending policies, military spending today consumes 40% of every tax dollar. Equally alarming, it is virtually impossible for a member of Congress or an ordinary citizen to obtain even a modest handle on the actual size of military spending or its impact on the structure and functioning of our economic system. Some $30 billion of the official Defense Department (DoD) appropriation in the current fiscal year is"black," meaning that it is allegedly going for highly classified projects. Even the open DoD budget receives only perfunctory scrutiny because members of Congress, seeking lucrative defense contracts for their districts, have mutually beneficial relationships with defense contractors and the Pentagon. President Dwight D. Eisenhower identified this phenomenon, in the draft version of his 1961 farewell address, as the"military-industrial-congressional complex." Forty-six years later, in a way even Eisenhower probably couldn't have imagined, the defense budget is beyond serious congressional oversight or control. The DoD always tries to minimize the size of its budget by representing it as a declining percentage of the gross national product. What it never reveals is that total military spending is actually many times larger than the official appropriation for the Defense Department. For fiscal year 2006, Robert Higgs of the Independent Institute calculated national security outlays at almost a trillion dollars -- $934.9 billion to be exact -- broken down as follows (in billions of dollars): Department of Defense: $499.4 Department of Energy (atomic weapons): $16.6 Department of State (foreign military aid): $25.3 Department of Veterans Affairs (treatment of wounded soldiers): $69.8 Department of Homeland Security (actual defense): $69.1 Department of Justice (1/3rd for the FBI): $1.9 Department of the Treasury (military retirements): $38.5 NASA (satellite launches): $7.6 Interest on war debts, 1916-present: $206.7 Totaled, the sum is larger than the combined sum spent by all other nations on military security. This spending helps sustain the national economy and represents, essentially, a major jobs program. However, it is beginning to crowd out the civilian economy, causing stagnation in income levels. It also contributes to the hemorrhaging of manufacturing jobs to other countries. On May 1, 2007, the Center for Economic and Policy Research released a series of estimates on"the economic impact of the Iraq war and higher military spending." Its figures show, among other things, that, after an initial demand stimulus, the effect of a significant rise in military spending (as we've experienced in recent years) turns negative around the sixth year. Sooner or later, higher military spending forces inflation and interest rates up, reducing demand in interest-sensitive sectors of the economy, notably in annual car and truck sales. Job losses follow. The non-military construction and manufacturing sectors experience the largest share of these losses. The report concludes,"Most economic models show that military spending diverts resources from productive uses, such as consumption and investment, and ultimately slows economic growth and reduces employment." Imperialism and militarism have thus begun to imperil both the financial and social well-being of our republic. What the country desperately needs is a popular movement to rebuild the Constitutional system and subject the government once again to the discipline of checks and balances. Neither the replacement of one political party by the other, nor protectionist economic policies aimed at rescuing what's left of our manufacturing economy will correct what has gone wrong. Both of these solutions fail to address the root cause of our national decline. I believe that there is only one solution to the crisis we face. The American people must make the decision to dismantle both the empire that has been created in their name and the huge (still growing) military establishment that undergirds it. It is a task at least comparable to that undertaken by the British government when, after World War II, it liquidated the British Empire. By doing so, Britain avoided the fate of the Roman Republic -- becoming a domestic tyranny and losing its democracy, as would have been required if it had continued to try to dominate much of the world by force. For the U.S., the decision to mount such a campaign of imperial liquidation may already come too late, given the vast and deeply entrenched interests of the military-industrial complex. To succeed, such an endeavor might virtually require a revolutionary mobilization of the American citizenry, one at least comparable to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Even to contemplate a drawing back from empire -- something so inconceivable to our pundits and newspaper editorial writers that it is simply never considered -- we must specify as clearly as possible precisely what the elected leaders and citizens of the United States would have to do. Two cardinal decisions would have to be made. First, in Iraq, we would have to initiate a firm timetable for withdrawing all our military forces and turning over the permanent military bases we have built to the Iraqis. Second, domestically, we would have to reverse federal budget priorities. In the words of Noam Chomsky, a venerable critic of American imperialism:"Where spending is rising, as in military supplemental bills to conduct the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it would sharply decline. Where spending is steady or declining (health, education, job training, the promotion of energy conservation and renewable energy sources, veterans benefits, funding for the UN and UN peacekeeping operations, and so on), it would sharply increase. Bush's tax cuts for people with incomes over $200,000 a year would be immediately rescinded." Such reforms would begin at once to reduce the malevolent influence of the military-industrial complex, but many other areas would require attention as well. As part of the process of de-garrisoning the planet and liquidating our empire, we would have to launch an orderly closing-up process for at least 700 of the 737 military bases we maintain (by official Pentagon count) in over 130 foreign countries on every continent except Antarctica. We should ultimately aim at closing all our imperialist enclaves, but in order to avoid isolationism and maintain a capacity to assist the United Nations in global peacekeeping operations, we should, for the time being, probably retain some 37 of them, mostly naval and air bases. Equally important, we should rewrite all our Status of Forces Agreements -- those American-dictated"agreements" that exempt our troops based in foreign countries from local criminal laws, taxes, immigration controls, anti-pollution legislation, and anything else the American military can think of. It must be established as a matter of principle and law that American forces stationed outside the U.S. will deal with their host nations on a basis of equality, not of extraterritorial privilege. The American approach to diplomatic relations with the rest of the world would also require a major overhaul. We would have to end our belligerent unilateralism toward other countries as well as our scofflaw behavior regarding international law. Our objective should be to strengthen the United Nations, including our respect for its majority, by working to end the Security Council veto system (and by stopping using our present right to veto). The United States needs to cease being the world's largest supplier of arms and munitions -- a lethal trade whose management should be placed under UN supervision. We should encourage the UN to begin outlawing weapons like land mines, cluster bombs, and depleted-uranium ammunition that play particularly long-term havoc with civilian populations. As part of an attempt to right the diplomatic balance, we should take some obvious steps like recognizing Cuba and ending our blockade of that island and, in the Middle East, working to equalize aid to Israel and Palestine, while attempting to broker a real solution to that disastrous situation. Our goal should be a return to leading by example -- and by sound arguments -- rather than by continual resort to unilateral armed force and repeated foreign military interventions. In terms of the organization of the executive branch, we need to rewrite the National Security Act of 1947, taking away from the CIA all functions that involve sabotage, torture, subversion, overseas election rigging, rendition, and other forms of clandestine activity. The president should be deprived of his power to order these types of operations except with the explicit advice and consent of the Senate. The CIA should basically devote itself to the collection and analysis of foreign intelligence. We should eliminate as much secrecy as possible so that neither the CIA, nor any other comparable organization ever again becomes the president's private army. In order to halt our economic decline and lessen our dependence on our trading partners, the U.S. must cap its trade deficits through the perfectly legal use of tariffs in accordance with World Trade Organization rules, and it must begin to guide its domestic market in accordance with a national industrial policy, just as the leading economies of the world (particularly the Japanese and Chinese ones) do as a matter of routine. Even though it may involve trampling on the vested interests of American university economics departments, there is simply no excuse for a continued reliance on an outdated doctrine of"free trade." Normally, a proposed list of reforms like this would simply be rejected as utopian. I understand this reaction. I do want to stress, however, that failure to undertake such reforms would mean condemning the United States to the fate that befell the Roman Republic and all other empires since then. That is why I gave my book Nemesis the subtitle"The Last Days of the American Republic." When Ronald Reagan coined the phrase"evil empire," he was referring to the Soviet Union, and I basically agreed with him that the USSR needed to be contained and checkmated. But today it is the U.S. that is widely perceived as an evil empire and world forces are gathering to stop us. The Bush administration insists that if we leave Iraq our enemies will"win" or -- even more improbably --"follow us home." I believe that, if we leave Iraq and our other imperial enclaves, we can regain the moral high ground and disavow the need for a foreign policy based on preventive war. I also believe that unless we follow this path, we will lose our democracy and then it will not matter much what else we lose. In the immortal words of Pogo,"We have met the enemy and he is us." This article first appeared on www.tomdispatch.com, a weblog of the Nation Institute, which offers a steady flow of alternate sources, news and opinion from Tom Engelhardt, a long time editor in publishing, the author of The End of Victory Culture, and a fellow of the Nation Institute. Posted on: Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 17:24 SOURCE: Independent (UK) (5-20-07) ... George W Bush's dominant character traits, his decisiveness and tenacity, at first appeared to be strengths. But once he had been convinced by his advisers that the attacks of 9/11 furnished a pretext for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, these became weaknesses. As in Macbeth, King George was soon "in blood stepp'd in so far" that turning back seemed no more attractive than wading onward. Remember: the corpses that litter this stage can already be counted in the tens, if not the hundreds, of thousands. And, as in King Lear, the whole catastrophe has stemmed from a fatal confusion at the outset between the true and the false, enemy and friends. Lear succumbs to the flattery of the ugly sisters, Regan and Goneril, and casts out the blunt but honest Cordelia (not to mention the straight-talking Kent). The mistaken identity in the tragedy of King George was that of the real enemy in the post-9/11 War on Terror. It is almost certain that the 19 hijackers hailed from Saudi Arabia (15), the United Arab Emirates (2), Egypt (1) and Lebanon (1). The chief architect of the plot, Osama bin Laden, was also a Saudi. Contrast this list of countries with the list of members of the "Axis of Evil" identified by President Bush in his famous speech of January 2002 as "regimes that sponsor terror [and] threaten America... with weapons of mass destruction": North Korea, Iran and Iraq. President Bush was quite right to target Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, since the Taliban regime was sheltering al-Qaeda's leadership. But the decision to overthrow Saddam was one of history's great non sequiturs. The real enemy in the Global War on Terror is not the Axis of Evil but the Axis of Allies. Today, the countries most likely to produce another 9/11 are not Iran, much less North Korea, but countries long regarded as (after Israel) America's most reliable allies in the Greater Middle East. Step forward Saudi Arabia (almost certainly still the biggest source of funding for radical Islamists) and Pakistan (very definitely their one-stop shop for nuclear weaponry). There is, in short, a twist in this tale. Before the curtain can fall on The Tragedie of King George, we need at least three more scenes to decide the fates of three crucial characters - the only principals still left standing aside from King George himself. First, we need a scene in Israel. Since the failure of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's popularity has been in free fall. His current approval rating is around 2 per cent, by comparison with which King George is a pop idol. Somehow, despite the resignation of his foreign minister, Mr Olmert is still clinging to political life. But he surely cannot last much longer. What happens next will be crucial, for if Binyamin Netanyahu returns to power, the probability of a military confrontation with Iran goes up above 50 per cent. Remember, Mr Netanyahu is on record as comparing the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with Hitler. "It is the year 1938," Netanyahu recently declared, "and Iran is Germany." I suspect his private views are not so very far removed from those of the renowned Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld, the professor of military history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Van Creveld is deeply pessimistic about Israel's future, menaced on one side by an increasingly violent and fissiparous Palestinian population and on the other by a would-be nuclear Iran. But he expects his country at least to go down fighting. "We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions," van Creveld declared in an interview in September 2003. "We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that this will happen before Israel goes under." Then we need a scene in Saudi Arabia. Here the key figure is Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al Saud who, as Saudi ambassador to the United States, was one of the leading advocates of the attack on Iraq. Since October 2005 he has been back in Riyadh as Secretary-General of the National Security Council, where he is said to be lobbying hard for another attack: this time (you guessed it) on Iran. Finally, the action needs to shift eastwards to Pakistan, where it is the future of General Pervez Musharraf that hangs in the balance. Eight days ago, 40 people died in rioting in Karachi, apparently as a result of attempts by pro-government forces to discourage a rally by disgruntled lawyers, who have been incensed by Musharraf's decision to oust the head of the Supreme Court..... Posted on: Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 14:22 SOURCE: NYT (5-15-07) ... [Sen. Chuck] Hagel’s profession of unhappiness with today’s G.O.P. is not unique. Ever since the Iraq war turned sour and President Bush’s standing declined, a parade of right-wingers — journalists and intellectuals, activists and politicians — have asserted that this administration embodies neither true conservatism nor the real spirit of the Republican party. Yet these claims crumble under scrutiny, because, far from a subversion of modern American conservatism, Bush represents its fulfillment.... Republicans who grouse about Bush are forgetting two basic facts about American politics. The first is that in our two-party system, any majority party has to include factions that disagree on key points. Since the 1950s, the G.O.P. has brought together unlikely allies and allowed them to co-exist — big business together with the religious right, isolationists alongside militarists, virtuecrats next to libertarians. Certain policies, such as tax cutting and anticommunism, glued them together, but under every Republican administration — Eisenhower and Richard Nixon, Reagan and George Bush Sr.— each group also had to swallow some pet items for the sake of unity. The second key fact was summed up more than 40 years ago by the public opinion analysts Lloyd Free and Hadley Cantril: that Americans are rhetorically conservative but operationally liberal. We like the Republicans’ talk about small government, low taxes and military strength, but we also like our Social Security benefits, our federal help when disasters strike, and even our earmarks (at least when they’re our earmarks). It’s therefore impossible in practice for any Republican leader to truly govern according to a Heritage Foundation blueprint. Still, if any president has tried to implement conservative ideals, it’s Bush. Before Reagan, the so-called conservative movement had been an insurgent force within the Republican party. But starting in the 1980s, most of the liberals in the party left it, and for the last 10 or 20 years, the party and the movement have been more or less congruent. From 2002 to 2007, moreover, the G.O.P. controlled not just the White House but both houses of Congress, the federal judiciary and a majority of state governments, as well as more media outlets than ever before. They were thus able to impose a conservative agenda with little resistance. Indeed, so few were the obstacles that conservatism was able to run amok. The result — in the assessment of not just liberals but also other observers — has been disaster: a mess of a war, the failure to plan for Hurricane Katrina, the erosion of the church-state wall, widening inequality, the loss of civil liberties including habeas corpus, and scores of other ills that readers of this column can list as easily as I. This was the fruit of modern American conservatism. But now Republicans are deserting Bush. Businessmen and evangelicals, libertarians and social moderates are all astir. The reason isn’t that Bush failed to espouse their causes any more than Reagan did. From the Iraq War on down, after all, his policies have also been their policies — backed by their legislators, upheld by their judges, championed by their journalists.... Posted on: Friday, May 18, 2007 - 19:23 SOURCE: New Republic (5-14-07) ... Often lost in the debate over D&X abortion is the fact that the procedure is exceedingly rare; in 2000, there were just 2,200 cases--or 0.17 percent of all abortions. The procedure is rare because it is used to end a pregnancy late in the second trimester or later, before viability, in a tiny number of cases when the woman's life is in danger. Abortions late in the second trimester are medically involved, potentially risky, painful, and emotionally difficult. So who waits that long? The answer is simple: women and girls in states of duress. This includes teenagers who didn't realize they were pregnant, or kept hoping they weren't pregnant, or were too frightened to tell anyone and get help (a common plight of incest victims). It also includes women whose pregnancies have gone wrong, such as women found to be carrying fetuses with serious central nervous system anomalies like hydrocephaly. Ironically, it was precisely women like these, caught in painful circumstances, who first prompted public awareness of the need to overhaul abortion law. Before Roe v. Wade, abortion was as widely practiced as it is today, an open secret despite being illegal everywhere. But, in the late '50s, medical professionals faced a public health crisis as the abortion rate soared and the woman hemorrhaging from botched procedures became a familiar presence in hospital emergency rooms. Reformers began by attacking laws that prevented women whose lives were threatened or who were pregnant as a result of rape or incest from getting abortions. They called for laws allowing "therapeutic" abortion in "hardship" cases to be authorized by a hospital physicians' committee. In the '60s, the idea of therapeutic abortions gained force, garnering support from liberal Protestants and Jews, lawyers, psychiatrists, and social workers. Small bands formed across the country to press the issue in state legislatures. Two panics about birth defects--the thalidomide scandal and a 1965 rubella epidemic--stirred up discussion about what it meant to a woman to give birth to a severely damaged child. The idea of urgent need expanded from a pregnancy that endangered a mother's life to one that endangered her mental health. By the late '60s, reformers had won laws for therapeutic abortion in a number of states. Over the short run in the '60s, therapeutic abortion really only showed the urgent need for a much bigger change. The therapeutic "exception" never worked: Applications were few, because women were put off by the time-consuming and judgmental screening process before all-male physicians' panels, and most women didn't qualify, anyway. Committees strained to minimize the number of applications they approved, and there were horror stories of women denied--such as the woman confined to her bed by polio. And committees weren't the only problem. In one famous case, a middle-class African American woman from Long Island, pregnant with a rubella-scarred fetus, was approved for a therapeutic abortion but had the bad luck to fall into the hands of a fervent anti-abortion Catholic physician, who tricked her into believing the fetus was normal and sent her home. But, in the long run, the push for therapeutic abortion made Americans of both sexes think publicly about what pregnancy meant to those most closely involved: the woman, her family, and the child who could be born unwanted. Considerations of how dire the circumstances of pregnancy were in hardship cases led to reflections about the hardships any pregnancy could cause. Large numbers of people--many of them well outside the radical politics of the decade--came to believe that the state should refrain from intruding into a decision that, in the end, was the pregnant woman's to make. In 1966, The Saturday Evening Post--as conventional as they came--ran the headline "we should legalize abortion," and The New York Times editorialized for legalization the next year. By 1970, there were initiatives in many state legislatures and a public that was leaning toward legalizing abortion, period. It's interesting to note that D&X is used to end pregnancies in the kinds of situations in which there has long been a consensus that the woman's wishes should be honored. It's as if the anti-choice movement is going back to the '60s and trying for a do-over, dismantling the first premise on which most could agree--the right of a pregnant woman in a terrible bind to get a legal abortion from a competent physician, one who will put her health and safety first.... Posted on: Friday, May 18, 2007 - 19:19 SOURCE: WSJ (5-16-07) During the Cold War, two things came to be known and generally recognized in the Middle East concerning the two rival superpowers. If you did anything to annoy the Russians, punishment would be swift and dire. If you said or did anything against the Americans, not only would there be no punishment; there might even be some possibility of reward, as the usual anxious procession of diplomats and politicians, journalists and scholars and miscellaneous others came with their usual pleading inquiries: "What have we done to offend you? What can we do to put it right?" A few examples may suffice. During the troubles in Lebanon in the 1970s and '80s, there were many attacks on American installations and individuals--notably the attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, followed by a prompt withdrawal, and a whole series of kidnappings of Americans, both official and private, as well as of Europeans. There was only one attack on Soviet citizens, when one diplomat was killed and several others kidnapped. The Soviet response through their local agents was swift, and directed against the family of the leader of the kidnappers. The kidnapped Russians were promptly released, and after that there were no attacks on Soviet citizens or installations throughout the period of the Lebanese troubles. These different responses evoked different treatment. While American policies, institutions and individuals were subject to unremitting criticism and sometimes deadly attack, the Soviets were immune. Their retention of the vast, largely Muslim colonial empire accumulated by the czars in Asia passed unnoticed, as did their propaganda and sometimes action against Muslim beliefs and institutions. Most remarkable of all was the response of the Arab and other Muslim countries to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Washington's handling of the Tehran hostage crisis assured the Soviets that they had nothing to fear from the U.S. They already knew that they need not worry about the Arab and other Muslim governments. The Soviets already ruled--or misruled--half a dozen Muslim countries in Asia, without arousing any opposition or criticism. Initially, their decision and action to invade and conquer Afghanistan and install a puppet regime in Kabul went almost unresisted. After weeks of debate, the U.N. General Assembly finally was persuaded to pass a resolution "strongly deploring the recent armed intervention in Afghanistan." The words "condemn" and "aggression" were not used, and the source of the "intervention" was not named. Even this anodyne resolution was too much for some of the Arab states. South Yemen voted no; Algeria and Syria abstained; Libya was absent; the nonvoting PLO observer to the Assembly even made a speech defending the Soviets.... [HNN Editor: The author goes on to state that bin Laden decided that Muslims faced two enemies. First, he would go after the USSR, the worst of the two. Then he would go after the US, which he considered degenerate and soft.] From the writings and the speeches of Osama bin Laden and his colleagues, it is clear that they expected this second task, dealing with America, would be comparatively simple and easy. This perception was certainly encouraged and so it seemed, confirmed by the American response to a whole series of attacks--on the World Trade Center in New York and on U.S. troops in Mogadishu in 1993, on the U.S. military office in Riyadh in 1995, on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000--all of which evoked only angry words, sometimes accompanied by the dispatch of expensive missiles to remote and uninhabited places. Stage One of the jihad was to drive the infidels from the lands of Islam; Stage Two--to bring the war into the enemy camp, and the attacks of 9/11 were clearly intended to be the opening salvo of this stage. The response to 9/11, so completely out of accord with previous American practice, came as a shock, and it is noteworthy that there has been no successful attack on American soil since then. The U.S. actions in Afghanistan and in Iraq indicated that there had been a major change in the U.S., and that some revision of their assessment, and of the policies based on that assessment, was necessary. More recent developments, and notably the public discourse inside the U.S., are persuading increasing numbers of Islamist radicals that their first assessment was correct after all, and that they need only to press a little harder to achieve final victory. It is not yet clear whether they are right or wrong in this view. If they are right, the consequences--both for Islam and for America--will be deep, wide and lasting. Manan Ahmed: Lewis Unhinged Posted on: Friday, May 18, 2007 - 18:42 SOURCE: Special to HNN (5-18-07) Last month, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress visited Damascus, flattered their hosts, and called for talks with the Syrian dictatorship. Last week Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice broke the previous boycott by meeting her Syrian counterpart. What has happened since then shows this approach to be totally wrong. As demonstrated in the state-controlled Syrian media, the regime took all the calls in America for U.S. concessions as a victory proving that it could continue its policies. There is nothing subtle about it. Mamoun Homsi is a courageous pro-democracy activist who had been one of the few independent members of Syria’s puppet parliament. In March 2002 he was thrown out of the legislature and sentences to five years in prison. As he was dragged off to jail, Homsi shouted, "This is a badge of honor to me and others like me. Long live the people!" Released after four years in 2006, Homsi immediately left the country, saying there was no possibility of changing the regime by reform and that any criticism would bring more imprisonment. He wrote Pelosi a letter urging her not to visit Syria as such a step would only strengthen the regime. Last week, the government seized all of his assets in the country, leaving his family destitute. Kamal Labwani, head of the Liberal Democratic Gathering, visited the United States in 2005, including meetings with human rights’ groups and a trip to the White House. He told the Americans he saw that he would be arrested once he got back home. Sure enough, the Syrian police grabbed him at Damascus airport in November 2005. But he was not tried. After all, the regime reasoned, perhaps the United States might get even tougher with Syria if they repressed a man who had just been a White House guest. Last week, confident that the current administration and its presumed Democratic successors were caving in, the government sentenced Labwani to life imprisonment, “kindly” commuted to 12 years with hard labor. The charge? "Inciting a foreign state to attack Syria." That’s not all. Anwar al-Bunni, a lawyer and another brave dissident, knew what held back Syria from crushing any dissent. Back in 2003 he explained, "The government's fear that it will be next on America's `regime change’ list may make it wary of committing gross violations of human rights….Some of us say that it is only because of what America did in Iraq, the fright it gave our rulers, that we reformers stand a chance here." Bunni was proven right. Once Syria no longer had any fear, the regime sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment. Two more democratic activists, Michel Kilo, an articulate journalist who most clearly expressed the hope of peaceful change in Syria, and Mahmoud Issa were each given three-year prison sentences on May 13. Their alleged crime? "Weakening national sentiment, spreading false news, and inciting sectarian strife." The White House condemned the sentencing of Labwani and Bunni, including credible information that they were tortured in prison, in an eight-line-long press release. No doubt, Syria is not intimidated. Damascus knows that it can continue helping insurgents next door kill Americans and murder Iraqis. The regime understands it can continue to sponsor terrorism against Israel and Lebanon. It has a good hope of escaping indictment in the international investigation of Syrian involvement in the murder of popular former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in February 2005. Those who call for engaging Syria and giving it concessions are contributing, however unintentionally, to helping the worst dictatorship in the Arab world and the leading Arab sponsor of terrorism in a post-September 11 world. And by the way, Syria is the main partner of radical Islamist Iran. Least publicized of all is the apparent holding of former FBI agent Robert Levinson as a hostage in Iran, where he was visiting in March. Last week, Iran also arrested on trumped-up spying charged Haleh Esfandiari, director of Middle East programs for the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington DC and an American citizen. Her boss is former Congressman Lee Hamilton, co-sponsor of the Iraq Study Group report calling for engagement with Syria and Iran. The lessons about these regimes’ extremist behavior should be clear by now. When someone extends its hand in offered friendship, they interpret this as hands raised in surrender. Posted on: Friday, May 18, 2007 - 17:54 SOURCE: Crisis Papers (5-15-07) What was the route that led the U.S. to its present fiasco in Iraq and elsewhere? We'll get to impeachment below, but for now let's trace back the thread, starting in 1947. This narrative may seem like old history, but it adds to better understanding of how we got from there then to here now. (Much of the shorthand analysis below is derived from my doctoral dissertation on the "Truman Doctrine.") America, having helped defeat the then-reining "Axis of Evil" -- the fascist triumvirate of Germany, Japan, Italy -- was eager to return to post-war normalcy. U.S. troops returned home from Europe and the Pacific; industry converted from manufacturing war materiel to homes, cars, refrigerators; the U.S. economy was starting to hum. Though some Republican rightwingers were suggesting the U.S. should "finish the job" by "rolling back" Stalin's control of Eastern Europe, there wasn't much stomach for starting another world war so soon after the last one ended. The British had covertly let the president know that postwar strains on the Empire were taking their toll on that country's economic and political systems. And then, suddenly, the Brits openly informed their American allies that their situation was so tenuous that the U.S. would have to take over the job of propping up the pro-West governments in Turkey and Greece. (Greece had a large, active, armed Communist Party in struggle against the rightwing government.) BIRTH OF "THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE" President Harry Truman recognized that, given the problems facing the weakened British Empire, the U.S. would indeed have to step in, at least economically, to stabilize the post-war situation. But since Truman hadn't informed the Congress about any of this, suddenly asking them to pony up $400 million for the embattled Greek and Turkish governments was going to be a tough sell. Truman, a Democrat facing a Republican Congress, asked the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, GOP Senator Arthur Vandenberg, for his support. If you want to get that money out of Congress, Vandenberg said, you'll have to "scare hell out of the country." In other words, take a minor budget item and blow it out of all proportion -- couched in a struggle against a Soviet-led, worldwide "Red Menace." And thus "The Truman Doctrine," initiated by the president and backed by the rabidly anti-Soviet Republicans, was born. That doctrine basically said that from now on, the U.S. would take action anywhere in the world to combat Communism. Greece/Turkey was the region where the fight would start. Congress did grant Truman the funds for Greece and Turkey, and in so doing the U.S. took a giant step away from its predominantly isolationist stance in world politics. But by agreeing to engage "the enemy" anywhere Communism reared its head, the U.S. locked itself into an unworkable, unrealistic, ultimately self-defeating policy. It was precisely that ideology and worldview that influenced U.S. actions years later when America took over the colonial war in Vietnam that had defeated the French. As the years went by, the U.S. found itself trapped in an Asian quagmire it never fully comprehended, and resisted the popular clamor to cut their losses and bring the boys home. ISLAMISTS AS THE NEW "COMMUNISTS" I think you can see where I'm going with this ancient history: "scaring hell out of the country" is not a concept unknown in our current situation. The new "communists," so to speak -- Islamic extremists -- bloodied the nose of their American enemy on September 11, 2001 by slaughtering nearly 3000 in New York and Washington. Bush vowed to retaliate. Bush and his neo-con advisers, who already had Iraq in their crosshairs long before 9/11, could have chosen to mount a global campaign to locate, isolate and capture/kill those responsible for the attacks; in other words, it could have treated the conspiracy as an international criminal matter. But that would yield Bush and his supporters very little, politically speaking, especially since the rightwing GOP agenda in Congress was going nowhere. In short, Bush&Co. decided they needed to "scare hell out of the country" -- using supposed WMDs controlled by Saddam, allusions to Iraq-delivered nuclear bombs going off in the U.S., etc. -- in order to gain public approval for the extreme actions the Administration was about to take. A permanent "war against terrorism" would help maintain that level of fright. Americans probably wouldn't go along with the radical re-direction required, said a Project for The New American Century report (major players: Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney), until or unless a "new Pearl Harbor" occurred. Condi Rice, days after 9/11, said the U.S. should seize the "opportunity" offered by 9/11 for the implementation of its agenda. Whether by conscious action or just plain coincidence, the next "Pearl Harbor" definitely had arrived. ... Since it doesn't appear that any significant changes in U.S. Iraq policy will be implemented while CheneyBush rule, and since that policy is endangering America abroad and shredding the Constitution at home, only one legal remedy is available to the Congress and citizenry: impeachment.... Posted on: Friday, May 18, 2007 - 16:38 SOURCE: New Republic (5-17-07) Jerry Falwell's friends and allies on the right tell us that he was a force for democracy in America. This is true. Thanks to Falwell, millions of conservative evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants now actively participate in the political life of the nation, consistently mobilizing on the far-right side of the Republican Party. This makes Falwell historically important. But was he an admirable figure? Did he contribute to elevating the political culture of the United States? Have evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants proved to be thoughtful citizens, adding to the seriousness, depth, and rigor of public debate? Or have they, instead, injected superstition and sectarianism--in short, religiously based illiberalism--into the political life of the nation? More than six years into the failed evangelical-Protestant presidency of George W. Bush, the answer is obvious. Defenders of the religious right like to link it to earlier examples of religious activism in American history--above all, abolitionism and the civil rights movement. Evangelicals supposedly follow in the footsteps of William Lloyd Garrison and Martin Luther King Jr. Yet the inconvenient fact is that Falwell and most of his fellow evangelicals sat out the civil rights movement. Back then, the segregationist Falwell thought that preachers were called to be "soul winners," not politicians. What led Falwell join the political fray was not indignation at racial injustices but disgust at the sexual liberation of the 1960s and early 1970s. In the starkly Manichean outlook of Falwell and his followers, post-'60s America seemed to be (as he put it in his autobiography) a "war zone where forces of God do battle with forces of evil." For Falwell, it was the duty of all genuine Christians to take sides against Satan in this theological struggle. At first, evangelicals hoped that one of their own--Jimmy Carter--was the right choice to lead the charge. But Carter quickly proved to be a disappointment. Few today remember that Falwell and other organizers of the Moral Majority were definitively persuaded to abandon Carter and embrace Ronald Reagan in 1980 because of a seemingly insignificant misjudgment on the part of the Carter administration. Under pressure from his fellow evangelicals to stem the tide of immorality in the nation, the president formed the White House Conference on the Family in 1979, hoping it would mollify his religious critics. But, as with so many initiatives of the Carter administration, the plan backfired. In order to placate feminists and gay rights activists who feared that the executive branch would be holding up a single form of family life (the "traditional family") as legitimate and therefore denigrating "alternative lifestyles," the president quickly moved to pluralize the title of the conference (from "Family" to "Families")--an action that infuriated Falwell and his allies. It was only a matter of months before evangelicals withdrew their support from Carter and began actively campaigning against him. Reagan, they now believed, would be much more effective at combating the growing secularism and depravity of American life. The Moral Majority and its successor groups--Ralph Reed's Christian Coalition, James Dobson's Focus on the Family--have been fierce Republican Party loyalists ever since.... Posted on: Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 19:33 SOURCE: TomDispatch.com (5-16-07) Graduates of the class of 2007, close your eyes. No kidding. That's my advice in a nutshell. Okay, take a last look around if you want, you who entered college in September 2003, when it still wasn't apparent to most Americans that our President had crash-landed on the deck of the aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, to give his famed May Day speech declaring "major combat operations in Iraq" at an end. Look at your world just a little longer. As on that sunny September day when you arrived here almost four years ago, it's another lovely day as you prepare to depart and, at a glance, the world -- the American world anyway -- doesn't seem that much the worse for wear. Okay, the price of a barrel of oil essentially doubled in those four years, as did the price of a gallon of gas at the pump; the Democrats retook Congress; Iraq descended into the charnel house of history, into what was already being termed back then, in a bow to the Vietnam War, the "q-word" (for quagmire); newspapers began losing young readers to the Internet as if into a black hole; and the Bush administration, touted in 2003 as the "most disciplined" in anyone's memory, has fallen into belligerent disarray; but, hey, the stock market is at a high-water mark, the Boston Red Sox are leading the American League East by 8 games, lawyers are suing, doctors are medicating, and brokers are brokering away more or less as usual. And here you are in your serried ranks, your parents nearby, your school's president and various deans, as well as distinguished faculty, arrayed before you on this stage in impressive gowns and tasseled caps. Today is a much-awaited moment for you, the culmination of years of work, just as graduation days like this have been for those who preceded you. The campus, this balmy afternoon, seems hardly changed from four years ago. The same gentle carpet of grass, green with spring, dotted on its distant edges with beds of tulips, surrounded the graduating class of '03 -- and probably the class of '66, the year I sat through one of these ceremonies. The dorms you slept in are behind us; the dining hall you ate so many unmemorable meals in is just over that hill, which I have no doubt you climbed grudgingly on many wind-chilled winter mornings. At least some of the classrooms you did your learning in, housed in solemn gray stone (as monuments to timeless knowledge should be), flank us. The Greek-style columns of your library with its million-plus volumes can just be glimpsed through the distant trees. Yes, look around. All is as it should be. Everything we can see and everything we know is here -- all of it normal, all of it fit for a graduation speech. Fit for you. In the years just after I graduated from college, the much praised (and maligned) 1960s, the young were said to believe in a single aphorism: "Never trust anyone over thirty." I must admit I never heard such a thing myself, but then, as now, the media has a way of knowing what we think better than we do. I read it, ergo it's so. Now, I want to update the phrase for your moment which, believe me, is far worse than anything I ever imagined possible in the Sixties. On such a normally celebratory day, I wouldn't say that if I didn't urgently believe it -- and if I didn't think that, in your heart of hearts, you believed it too. So here goes. Some graduation advice -- three pieces of it, actually -- that probably run against most of what you've been taught at this distinguished institution in these last four years: Don't trust what you see around you. That's right. No matter what anyone tells you, don't trust the world that's most obviously in front of you. Don't trust your own eyes. Not on a day like this, not in a country like this. Reality is elsewhere. That's why I say, close your eyes. Go ahead. Listen to me for a while in the dark and understand that I'm not trying to blind you. I'm only suggesting that you'll be able see the world more clearly with your eyes shut tight and so graduate with a more reasonable sense of what your future job on this planet really is. That's no easy thing to assess, if you're on this pristine campus, or in any mall in America, or, for that matter, in most parts of the city on the outskirts of which this campus stands rather than in Baghdad, or Kabul, or low-lying Bangladesh, or the melting Arctic, or some exposed Pacific atoll. This sunny May day -- the one you are not looking at any more -- is deceptive indeed. It masks a far darker world that your generation is about to inherit on a planet two-thirds of whose inhabitants, as a group of retired admirals and generals interested in climate change recently noted, live near a coastline (that might in coming decades flood). Put another way, according to the NGO Christian Aid, one out of every seven people on the planet -- perhaps a billion in all -- might, over the next half century (essentially your post-college work lifetimes) be forced from their homes and into the kinds of desperate migrations that would make the present American debate over illegal immigration seem like a global joke. Over the next 100 years -- the heart of your life and that of your children -- the Earth could lose its glaciers (major sources of water in places like South Asia); the Greenland ice sheet could radically melt down; and up to half this planet's wealth of species could go extinct. You could also experience the onrush -- evidently already underway -- of ever more extreme weather patterns (massive hurricanes, typhoons, monsoons, 100-year droughts, and the like), the spread of lethal diseases to new locales, and a host of other unnerving phenomena. In other words -- and even those of you who claim to doubt the reality of global warming sense that this is so -- fifty years from now, you are likely to be living on another, poorer kind of planet. It will also be a far lonelier one. People, who have the urge to frighten, often say that we are "destroying the planet," but that is probably not accurate. The planet will undoubtedly spin on. Given a few million, or a few tens of millions, or even a few hundreds of millions of years -- the sort of time that, without our consciousness, wouldn't matter a tinker's dam -- Earth is likely to develop a future filled with life, just without us (and many of our creaturely neighbors). The planet's future may not be in doubt, but surely ours is. New Scientist magazine has offered an estimate of 10 million years for the planet to "repair" the present "dent" made in biodiversity. I like to use the example of the pronghorn antelope, "the prairie ghost" of our West, to explain this. It's a speedy creature, capable of running at up to 60 miles per hour, at least 30 mph faster than any predator in its environment. That extra mileage might seem hard to explain unless you understand that, before the last great mammalian megafaunal die-out on this continent, some 13,000 to 16,000 years ago, there were evidently creatures (perhaps lions or dire wolves) that could power along at something close to those speeds. So, for all those thousands of years, far longer than human history from Ur to the latest disasters in Iraq, the pronghorn has had a ghostly companion. So much time in human terms and it still hasn't "registered" the loss; so much time and that niche in our environment remains empty. Back in the ancient 1950s, a half-century-plus in the other direction, only one thing could end our world, the world I grew up in -- nuclear weapons or The Bomb (which, when that was all there was, often sported capital letters) via the Cold War superpower confrontation. The thought of a nuclear war was paralyzing and nightmare-inducing enough. Believe me, when I heard President John F. Kennedy's famous speech on October 22, 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis (aka "the most dangerous moment in human history"), I feared my world was toast -- and I wasn't alone. I always believed that the Sixties held such a powerful sense of liberation, in part, because world-annihilating possibilities were, for a few brief years, simply left behind. Over half a century later, nuclear weapons have multiplied and proliferated (even without the other superpower in attendance), and yet they now have to queue up for attention in a jostling line of potentially world-ending perils, real and fictional; while all of you live in the peculiar sunshine of a locked-down, locked-up, Patriot-Act, homeland-security, gated-community country (of a sort no one in the 1950s could have imagined). I stand here looking out at you, your eyes closed, and I doubt I can really imagine your world, the one I'm trying to describe, or the almost unnoticed, largely unacknowledged exterminatory grid that has settled paralyzingly over consciousness in this country, that has left you able perhaps to imagine a job, a mate, even a family -- the most immediate of futures, but not a human future beyond that. An image comes to mind. You know how bits of semi-knowledge from who knows where stick in your brain? Here's one from mine that's useful for this speech, whatever its historical accuracy. Around 1000 AD, there was a millenarian movement of peasants who, believing they saw the end days coming, built their own coffins, and, at the predicted moment, climbed into them to await their foreordained fate. To tell you the truth, I don't know what happened next. Assumedly, sooner or later they climbed out again. But here's the point I want to make: As long as you're looking at our world through your usual lenses, I suspect you're already in our version of those coffins, even if they pass for normal daily life. Only in the dark can you begin to imagine the possible Pompeii-scapes to come, the potential for the extreme unraveling of normalcy. And only after you imagine that, can you do what those peasants undoubtedly did when they realized that the last days had not come -- not yet anyway: climb out. If all of you were to clamber out of the coffins we've built for you, there would still be trouble ahead, but the end of times would be just that much less likely to arrive. "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here." As you English majors already know, Dante claimed this inscription was over the entrance to Hell. Today, as you form your processional, walking like every class before you through the arch that fronts this campus, I think you should imagine that inscription over your heads, because that's the futureless world you're entering with your eyes open. My definition of hell is, in fact, futurelessness, a world in which no one can imagine their grandchildren or great-grandchildren -- and so, no one can work to build a country, a planet for them. Now, for a second piece of advice -- probably not best given at a world-renown center of learning -- but here goes. Believe the Hollywood previews. Believe your video games. Believe "24." Believe The Day After Tomorrow. It's true that, despite what the screen showed in the global-warming film, The Day After Tomorrow, the Northern Hemisphere is not going to turn into an ice sheet in approximately 30 seconds; wolves, freed from the local zoo, are unlikely to roam the streets of New York City any time soon or movie stars burn books for warmth in the fireplace of the frigid New York Public Library; spy Arnold Schwarzenegger or his equivalent will not, despite True Lies, kiss Jamie Lee Curtis while an atomic bomb, handled by Arab terrorists, goes off behind them in the Florida Keys; you won't save us or the planet the way you do in first-person shooter video games; and, no, torturing à la "24" is neither good, nor even effective as an information extractor. Meanwhile, all these blimps, trains, buses, cable cars, and who knows what else hijacked by terrorists and heading toward everything we hold dear will not all arrive as the stadium blows up, the airport goes down, the White House is zapped, or the city, country, planet disappears. Nonetheless, since my childhood, Hollywood, not religion, has been the greatest deliverer of end-time scenarios. This has been true at least since the atomic war-film-that-couldn't-be-made -- the one that would have ended not in American victory but in a planet-shaking set of explosions -- mutated into the horror and science fiction genres. Those films moved under the mushroom cloud in various futuristic settings where all sorts of monstrous, irradiated beings and alien creatures possessing strange rays did to our cities and towns what we had done to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while crowds of onscreen Americans, screaming and fleeing, were crushed or mangled, burned or consumed. And then, of course, we all left the movie theaters or drive-ins a little shaken, a little thrilled, and life began again. However weird or warped or fantastic these films may have been, however happy the endings when the giant ants went down for the count in the sewers of Los Angeles, or the aliens were themselves zapped, or the terrorists foiled, or the monsters destroyed, these were, in essence, Hollywood's previews of our world to come. The movie-makers knew, but only because we knew. They wanted our eyes (and our popcorn money) and so they made a beeline for the stories, the fears, that resonated most deeply in us, the ones that could be returned to profitability over and over again. Perhaps, from the beginning, what we humans had was an ability to view possible ends. Perhaps what made us human wasn't that opposable thumb, but the fact that we arrived in the world capable of imagining its termination. Explain it as you will, Hollywood has been sending us a single riveting message over the last half-century-plus as the mushroom clouds rose, the aliens descended, the post-apocalyptic zombies feasted, the swarthy terrorists arrived, the pandemics spread, and Los Angeles or New York (the nation's pre-9/11 Sodom and Gomorrah) became a dystopian prison, or an ice palace, or a place to be zapped, or stomped by monsters, or… Well, you of all people know the story. You've seen it again and again, your eyes open in another kind of darkness -- or you've experienced it in your own living room, while you desperately manipulated hand-held controls to save us from the mutants, zombies, terrorists, bad guys who wanted to end it all. You've watched the previews, just as al-Qaeda did, just as people all over this planet have. And then, as most of us have for over fifty years, you left the multiplex pretending that what you just saw was simply fun, or plain-old entertainment, or plain crud, or eye-candy, the sort of thing that only puritan wackos (or academics) could wax ridiculously serious over. Whatever it was, it wasn't life, not this life anyway. But you were wrong, I think. To get things straight, you now have to ignore much that you've been taught and you've got to attend to the essential wisdom of the most watched, but least respected, teachers on the planet. Only they can give you the real, inside dope on what's coming our way -- if, that is, you're going to lead a life that matters, if you're going to do something. So here's a final piece of advice, possibly not the best to offer in the heart of a great university: Don't think too much. I look out over this audience, remembering that, when I was 21, there seemed so much that needed to be done. How could it be that, over 40 years later, there seems to be so much more -- starting with somehow ending not (as in my college days) one, but two mad frontier wars, two scenes of slaughter and carnage, Iraq and Afghanistan, in a world where frontiers no longer exist? These are wars guaranteed to kill tens of thousands more and, in the long run, to endanger us all -- and there's only you to end them. There's only you, really, to change everything. It's a terrible burden that my generation of parents should never, never have loaded on your shoulders, but understand this clearly: It's not a coffin, not by a long shot. We failed you. I believe that and I don't even know exactly how. If you aren't already settled in, awaiting the end times we have bequeathed you in our short-sightedness, but you think too carefully for too long about what needs to be done, all will seem hopeless. As with so many tasks that desperately need to be undertaken, those who undertake them must be, in a sense, foolhardy just because the burden looks so heavy, the path so long and twisting, the end so out of sight. It seems so much easier to lie in those made-in-America coffins and wait. But that, of course, is the royal route to everything none of us could possibly want for our world. No one of you can save a planet of people and, if the future already seems stolen from you and the previews are so apocalyptic, then the possibility of building movements of any sort must seem dim indeed. But don't settle back quite yet and don't ponder too long. Acting is usually better. The moment you begin to act, I suspect you will discover that there is much you might still be able to call on for support, including many in my generation who, if you're willing to trust some over-thirties (but not too much), might have a little energy and perspective still to offer. Then, there's an American can-do (even quick-fix) tradition that has been lost in recent years, in Katrina-level idiocy and incompetence. How we turned from a can-do into a can't-do (or, as I like to think, a Republican't) nation is worthy of a history or two, if people are still writing them somewhere down the line. But the Iraq War, our oil dependency, even the potentially massive effects of global warming might all respond to a new surge of can-doism, to a nation still rich enough to put its money, its best brains, and its efforts where its mealy mouth and consumer culture (and a President whose idea of sacrifice in "time of war" is a trip to Disney World) now is. To my mind, here's your first job: With your eyes closed, try to see our world honestly for what it is and then perform a magical act: Conjure up a new set of previews -- fit for a future for which it's worth doing a great deal. To act in concert and meaningfully, you need to able to imagine yourself, fifty years from now, standing at a podium like this, speaking to a group of graduating seniors, or perhaps simply sitting with all those parents proudly watching your own child in cap and gown in -- let's hope -- a very different world with fewer coffins in sight. Now, with those eyes still closed, take a good look at our world, the one you already know is there, but don't think too much. It's time to pass through the portals of this school that has held you these last four years, out the gate, into the streets beyond, into the world beyond, and get yourself an education. It's time to look up and read the inscription -- by now, you can surely do so with your eyes closed -- and then reformulate it. How about, for example: Abandon paralysis all ye who exit here. I can't tell you how to act or what to do. I wouldn't even pretend to know. For that, in the dark, you, all of you, have to look into our world and then into yourselves. I suspect that, when enough of you close your eyes and begin to believe your own previews, you'll know. At least perhaps, you'll know where you want to start and, knowing, you'll act; or perhaps, not even knowing, you'll act anyway; and, in acting, hope -- because, in bad times, it's always the act that engenders hope -- and, then, in hoping you'll know. This article first appeared on www.tomdispatch.com, a weblog of the Nation Institute, which offers a steady flow of alternate sources, news and opinion from Tom Engelhardt, a long time editor in publishing, the author of The End of Victory Culture, and a fellow of the Nation Institute. Posted on: Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 14:35 SOURCE: TomDispatch.com (5-13-07) What value has a human life? We usually think of this in terms of sentiment -- of memories, grief, love, longing, of everything, in short, that is too deep and valuable to put a price upon. Then again, is anything in our world truly priceless? As anyone who has ever taken out a life insurance policy knows, we humans are quite capable of putting a price on life -- and death. In her book Pricing the Priceless Child, Viviana Zelizer reminds us that, starting in the 1870s in the U.S., in that era before child labor laws, the business of insuring working-class children, who were then quite valuable to poor families, achieved enormous success. For a few pennies a week, ten dollars in all, you could, for instance, insure your one year-old against the future loss to the family of his or her earning power. The courts weighed in, assessing the literal value of an earning child to a family. In those days, poor urban children died regularly in staggering numbers under horse's hooves, the wheels of street cars, and trains. In an 1893 editorial, the New York Times referred to this as" child slaughter," and juries reacted accordingly. When Ettie Pressman, just seven years old, died under a team of horses in 1893, while crossing New York's Ludlow Street with her nine year-old sister, a court granted her father $1,000 to compensate him for"his daughter's services and earnings." ("Yes," her father testified, with"what I earn and what the children earn used together we have enough. They earn three dollars each week.") This came to mind recently, thanks to a New York Times report on another kind of" child slaughter" -- in this case by U.S. Marines, who, in early March, went on a killing rampage near Jalalabad in Afghanistan. Sorry, in Pentagon parlance, this is referred to as"using excessive force." A platoon of elite Marine Special Operations troops in a convoy of Humvees were ambushed by a suicide bomber in a mini-van and one of them was wounded. Initially, it was reported that as"many as 10 people were killed and 34 wounded as the convoy made a frenzied escape, and injured Afghans said the Americans fired on civilian cars and pedestrians as they sped away." The Americans quickly blamed some of these casualties on"militant gunfire." ("Lt. Col. David Accetta, the top U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said gunmen may have fired on U.S. forces at multiple points during the escape.") Later, it was admitted that the Marines had wielded that "excessive force" remarkably excessively and long after the ambush had ended, laying down a deadly field of fire at six spots, at least, along a ten-mile stretch of road. Their targets, according to a draft report of the U.S. military investigation of the incident (which the Washington Post got its hands on) were Afghans, on foot and in vehicles who were"exclusively civilian in nature" and had engaged in"no kind of provocative or threatening behavior." In the process, the Marines were reported to have murdered"12 people -- including a 4-year-old girl, a 1-year-old boy and three elderly villagers" -- and wounded 34. According to a report by Carlotta Gall of the New York Times, a"16-year-old newly married girl was cut down while she was carrying a bundle of grass to her family's farmhouse.... A 75-year-old man walking to his shop was hit by so many bullets that his son did not recognize the body when he came to the scene." (U.S. troops at the time took the camera of an Afghan Associated Press photographer who happened to come upon the scene and"deleted" photographs from it, including ones"of a four-wheel drive vehicle where three Afghans had been shot to death inside.") Last Tuesday, after much protest in Afghanistan, according to David S. Cloud of the New York Times, Col. John Nicholson, a brigade commander, met with the families of the (now) 19 Afghans who had been killed and the 50 who had been wounded by the Marines. He offered this official apology:"I stand before you today, deeply, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry that Americans have killed and wounded innocent Afghan people." And then he paid approximately $2,000 per death to family members. The military calls these" condolence payments" and makes similar ones, for deaths judged wrongful, in Iraq. Recently, through a Freedom of Information Act request, the ACLU pried loose some of the requests for compensation payments submitted by Iraqis and Afghans (and the military's decisions on them, including denials of payment). They make grim reading. Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher offered this description:"What price (when we do pay) do we place on the life of a 9-year-old boy, shot by one of our soldiers who mistook his book bag for a bomb satchel? Would you believe $500? And when we shoot an Iraqi journalist on a bridge we shell out $2,500 to his widow -- but why not the measly $5,000 she had requested?" Back in 2005, Iraqi payments already seemed to average about $2,500 for a wrongful death. That, for instance, is what the families of two dozen innocent Iraqis slaughtered in another Marines-run-amok moment at Haditha, also after an attack on a convoy of Humvees that wounded a Marine, received. ("They ranged from little babies to adult males and females," said Ryan Briones, a Marine witness to the event."I'll never be able to get that out of my head. I can still smell the blood.") This practice is not new to George Bush's wars. During the Vietnam War, as part of the American pacification program, U.S. officials made what were called"solatium payments" for wrongful deaths caused by American forces. Back then, the U.S. valued Vietnamese adults at about $35 (U.S.), while children's lives were worth about $15. We don't know who exactly decided on the value in U.S. dollars of the life of a 16 year-old Afghan girl, slaughtered while carrying a bundle of grass to her family farmhouse, or on the basis of what formula for pricing life the decision was made. We know a good deal more about how the U.S. government evaluated the worth of the lives of slaughtered American innocents. For that, however, you have to think back to the aftermath of the attacks of September 11th, 2001. The family or spouse of a loved one murdered on that day was also given a monetary value by the U.S. government -- on average $1.8 million, thanks to the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, created by an act of Congress, signed into law by President Bush 13 days after the attacks, and put into operation thanks to 33 months of careful, pro bono evaluation of the worth of an innocent American life by Special Master of the fund Kenneth Feinberg. (Small numbers of illegal immigrants who worked in the World Trade Center were also given these payments, as were larger numbers of foreigners who worked there.) Even here, however, the monetary value of a human life varied greatly, being computed, just as Ettie Pressman's once was, at the mandate of Congress, on the basis of the victim's estimated lost lifetime earnings. Despite the relatively small amounts paid out in Iraq, total official payments for wrongful deaths, as well as for injury and collateral property damage, caused by American troops, had reached $20 million by the end of 2005. The figure now stands minimally at $32 million, according to Editor & Publisher's Mitchell -- and that figure is considered low because similar payments are made unofficially"at a unit commander's discretion." (For purposes of comparison, the total September 11th payout figure was in the range of $7 billion.) We don't know the actual average amount paid out in Iraq today, but if you were to take an obviously high figure like $5,000 and divide it into $32 million, the low total figure we have for such" consolation payments," you would have some 6,400"incidents" (not all deaths, although some payments are made for multiple deaths). It's a striking figure, especially when you consider that these are just for cases in which an Iraqi actually applied to the American occupation forces and was accepted for compensation. It gives you some crude indication of just how high the death toll has really been in Iraq. That $32 million for officially recorded" consolation payments," by the way, would add up to just under 18 average payments for deaths (or injuries) at the World Trade Center. So there we have it. In the modern version of" child slaughter," the U.S. government has indeed offered the world an evaluation of what price slaughter should exact in the deaths of innocents everywhere: The value of an innocent civilian slaughtered by al-Qaeda terrorists on September 11, 2001 to his or her family: $1.8 million. The value of an innocent civilian slaughtered at Haditha, Iraq, by U.S. Marines: $2,500. The value of an innocent civilian slaughtered by U.S. Marines near Jalalabad, Afghanistan: $2,000. Never say that the U.S. government is incapable of putting a price on the deaths of innocents. [Note:If you want to check out some of the consolation-payment documents the ACLU pried loose, you might start with the Greg Mitchell article, "Sorry We Shot Your Kid, But Here's $500." (Scroll down to find the examples he included.) For more, check out "ACLU Releases Files on Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq," and then go to"Claims Filed Under the Foreign Claims Act by Civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq" to search the ACLU data base of cases. The Vietnam War solatium-payment figures were provided by Tomdispatch's Nick Turse, an expert on U.S. war crimes and civilian deaths during the Vietnam War.] This article first appeared on www.tomdispatch.com, a weblog of the Nation Institute, which offers a steady flow of alternate sources, news and opinion from Tom Engelhardt, a long time editor in publishing, the author of The End of Victory Culture, and a fellow of the Nation Institute. Posted on: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 - 19:43 SOURCE: Salon (5-16-07) One never wants to speak ill of the dead, but in the case of Jerry Falwell, how can one not? Falwell will always be remembered for his "700 Club" comment in the wake of Sept. 11: "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" Even though Falwell later apologized, the damage had been done: A sacred moment had been used for profane purpose. And that, really, is Falwell's legacy. To the religious life of the United States he made no significant contribution. But to the political life of the country, he made one: He founded the Moral Majority. In so doing, Falwell managed to take something holy -- one does not have to be a Christian to admire the life and teachings of Jesus Christ -- and turned it into something partisan and divisive. Falwell, the quintessential conservative Christian, was always more conservative than Christian. To the extent that history will remember him, it will be as a politician, not as a preacher. Even Falwell's political contribution, despite the success of the Republicans during the Reagan years, left a mixed legacy behind. But the Moral Majority disbanded in 1989, prompting the inevitable thought that Falwell's ideas were neither moral nor in the majority. The movement of conservative Protestants into the base of the Republican Party was far too important a task to be entrusted to a man as oblivious to public relations as Falwell. Once the Ralph Reeds and Karl Roves took over the task of blending religion and politics, there was no room for Falwell. Longing for Washington, he had to settle for Lynchburg, Va. But then there was cable television, the perfect medium for someone as shallow as this man. Falwell appeared so many times on cable news that one tended to forget how little influence he actually wielded. Had it not been for cable television, Falwell would have been forgotten long ago (and I would not be writing about his legacy). He was perfect for the world created by Fox: extremist, polarizing, Manichaean. (The Manichees, a Persian sect that for a time attracted the great Saint Augustine, adhered to a black-and-white reality in which evil was always in an endless struggle with the good.) Five minutes of hate followed by a commercial break: It is not a format fit for all, but for Falwell, it fit like a glove.... Posted on: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 - 15:02 SOURCE: LAT (5-13-07) LAST WEEK'S murder indictment of a former Alabama state trooper for the 1965 shooting of a young black voting-rights demonstrator is one more Deep South prosecution of a long-forgotten white defendant who ended up on the wrong side of the civil rights revolution. It's one of many. In recent years, prosecutors have won convictions in connection with, among others, the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Ala., and the killings of three civil rights workers near Philadelphia, Miss., in 1964. In many of these cases, credible eyewitness testimony — from survivors, co-conspirators and even close relatives — has proved crucial in winning solid convictions in connection with decades-old race crimes. But this indictment may be different. At first glance, the charges filed against 73-year-old James Bonard Fowler seem straightforward. Fowler was one of about 50 Alabama troopers dispatched to the small Perry County town of Marion on Feb. 18, 1965, to break up a nonviolent demonstration that was part of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s nascent voting-rights campaign, centered in nearby Selma. One of King's aides had been jailed in Marion earlier that day, and the after-dark protest march in the town square was blocked by the lawmen, who then set upon the 400 marchers with nightsticks. Onlooking journalists were attacked by local whites, and as some of the marchers fled the square, troopers pursued them. Jimmie Lee Jackson, 26, ran into nearby Mack's Cafe along with his mother, Viola. Shortly after, four troopers entered. Written statements given later by three troopers say that bottles were thrown at them from the cafe and that more bottles met them when they burst in. Fowler's declaration and that of another still-living former trooper, Robert C. Andrews, describe a tussle over a bottle between a black woman — probably the late Viola Jackson — and a third trooper, who then was assaulted by two black men. Fowler grabbed one of those men, Jimmie Lee Jackson, whom he says struck him with a bottle several times while simultaneously attempting to remove his gun from its holster. Both men lost their balance, Fowler wrote, and "on the next blow which struck my hand the gun fired." But that's where the story starts to get slightly murkier. Andrews' statement is different from Fowler's account. He describes seeing Fowler shove Jackson aside and says that when Jackson "again advanced toward Corporal Fowler, he drew his revolver and fired." When Fowler himself recalled the incident in his first-ever public interview in 2005 with the Anniston Star, he told Editor John Fleming that during the tussle "my hand was on the trigger then and I pulled the trigger." He added that "I don't remember how many times I pulled the trigger, but I think I just pulled it once, but I might have pulled it three times." ... Although it's true that there are elements of the story that certainly don't look good for Fowler — such as the fact that he killed another black man a year later — it's not so clear that the case itself has been terribly well thought out or that the evidence amounts to all that much. The murder indictment Jackson obtained on Wednesday came from a grand jury that heard a sum total of only two hours of testimony, none of which came from anyone who actually saw the shooting, according to the Associated Press and other reports. ... Posted on: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 - 14:40 SOURCE: Britannica Blog (5-15-07) The re-emergence of Islam as a European force and the spark this has given to efforts to re-Christianize the continent were made manifest last year in the wake of Pope Benedict’s controversial speech at Regensburg. Not only did his Muslim opponents take Benedict’s words more seriously than most Catholics seem to have done; their protests also brought these words to the attention of millions of Christians whom the church could not otherwise have reached. In this sense, Islam is the midwife of Christendom, even more necessary to its self-definition now than in the days of the Crusades. The same, however, cannot be said of the Muslim world, which only had to take Christian Europe seriously from the 18th century with the beginning of imperialism. For those familiar with the deep sense of anxiety as well as the crisis of confidence that Europe’s dominance once produced among Muslims and other subject peoples, it is interesting to note how Islam today calls forth similar feelings of insecurity and barely-suppressed hysteria among Europeans. Perhaps they have come to realize that there is no getting away from Islam, with which they will have to come to some accommodation. We are told that the pope does not look with favour upon inter-faith dialogue, the religious version of multiculturalism. In doing so he joins religious and ethnic minorities in Europe, who have always viewed multiculturalism and ecumenism with some degree of suspicion. Inter-faith dialogue, after all, has always been a Christian enterprise that has sought to define other religious traditions in its own terms, even if with the most charitable of motives. The duplex term “Judeo-Christian” provides a good instance of this, with a truncated Judaism deprived of its autonomy and attached to Christianity in the role of its progenitor. The term “Abrahamic religions” is the triplex extension of “Judeo-Christian,” this time including Islam to form a monotheist’s club. And while Muslims have always recognized Jews and Christians as misguided believers who are nevertheless deserving of paradise, the “Abrahamic” ecumenism their liberal representatives espouse has more than a whiff of proselytism about it. In any comparative or ecumenical framework it is invariably a Christian standard that is used to measure up Muslims who must invariably fall short: thus the absurdity of accusing a religion without a church of refusing to separate church and state. Such an accusation was in fact leveled against Judaism much earlier, with the ancient kingdom of the Jews being seen by Christian writers as the very model of theocracy. The final conversion of the Jews in the term “Judeo-Christianity,” however, has freed theocracy up for Muslim occupation. But however frightening its manifestations, Islam today displays an indubitable dynamism that cannot be confined within the stale and recycled categories of such European criticism. For the “Jewish Question” which exercised so many minds in 19th-century Europe has now become a “Muslim Question,” with almost identical terms used to describe the “problem” posed by Jewish and Muslim minorities in Europe. We should not forget that the “assimilation” and “secularization” that so many European Jews underwent to resolve the question they posed for Christendom did nothing to save them in the end. Yet Muslims cannot be added to the “Judeo-Christian” condominium without wrecking it, since in many respects Muslims are closer to both Christians and Jews than each is to the other. Unlike Jews, they believe in Jesus, and unlike Christians, they are defined by a law and not by a church. Add dietary laws and other practices or beliefs to the mix and a clearer picture emerges of Islam as the nearest relative of both Judaism and Christianity. Yet this is also a false picture, because unlike its “Abrahamic” peers, Islam is not confined to the cloister of monotheism. If for a thousand years Christendom has had Muslims and Jews as its closest religious neighbours, the same does not hold for Islam, whose peaceful as well as bloody borders with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism are much more extensive than those it shares with the other monotheisms. I would venture to suggest that Muslim relations with Hindus, Buddhists, and Zoroastrians have also been more creative and influential than those with Christians and Jews, the only place of which this is not true being the Mediterranean basin. In other words, Christendom is inconceivable without Islam, but the reverse cannot be said to be the case despite Islam’s long acquaintance with Christianity.... Posted on: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 14:27 SOURCE: NY Sun (5-15-07) My visit to Istanbul this week comes in the midst of the greatest challenge to the Turkish secular republic since its creation in 1923. Founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire, the republic came into existence at about the high-water mark of Western confidence, when it appeared that European ways would become the global template. Atatürk imposed a dizzying array of changes, including European laws, the Latin alphabet, the Gregorian calendar, personal last names, hats instead of fezzes, monogamy, Sunday as the day of rest, a ban on dervishes, the legal right to drink alcohol, and Turkish as a liturgical language. Many reforms took root; going back to the Arabic script or discarding last names is inconceivable. That said, the country has generally reverted to Islamic ways. Increased religious instruction in the schools and more state-funded mosques are complemented by more women taking on head-scarves. Several factors account for this development: the predictable reaction against Atatürk's excesses; Turkey's greater democratization, which gave the masses a chance to express themselves; the higher demographic rate of Anatolians, generally cooler to Atatürk's changes; and the Islamist surge that began in the mid-1970s. This surge translated into a substantial Islamic representation in the Grand National Assembly, beginning as a single seat in the 1960s and then – aided by Turkish electoral peculiarities – reaching a nearly two-thirds majority today. Islamic parties have twice controlled the prime ministry, in 1996-97 and since 2002. The first time, Necmettin Erbakan's headstrong personality and overt Islamist program prompted the military, guardian of Atatürk's traditions, to oust him from power within a year. After Erbakan's collapse, a former lieutenant, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, founded Justice and Development (or AKP), now the governing party. Learning from the 1996-97 fiasco, Erdoğan and his team took a much more cautious approach to Islamization. Also, they displayed competence at governing, handling well the economy, the European Union, Cyprus, and other matters. But last month Erdoğan reached too far in picking Abdullah Gül, his close associate, to run for the republic's presidency. In a fast-paced sequence of events, Gül failed to get the necessary votes, the Constitutional Court voided the election, millions of secularists took to the streets, the military hinted of a coup, and Erdoğan dissolved parliament. Both it and a new president will soon be voted on. Questions abound: Can the AKP again win a majority of seats? Failing that, can it form a ruling coalition? Will it succeed in installing one of its own as president? More fundamentally, what are the AKP leadership's intentions? Did it, having witnessed Erbakan's fate, retain a secret Islamist program and simply learn to disguise its Islamist goals? Or did it actually give up on those goals and accept secularism? These questions of intent can only be answered speculatively. Judging whether the AKP has a hidden agenda, I concluded after a trip to Turkey in mid-2005, resembles a"sophisticated intellectual puzzle," with persuasive evidence in both directions. That remains the case, I find on this visit two years later. There's just more data to process and interpret. Each Turk must judge the AKP for himself, as must key foreign governments. If the polls show Turkish voters still quite undecided, foreign leaders have opted in Erdoğan's favor. The Council of Europe condemned military intervention and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has gone further, praising the AKP for"pulling Turkey west toward Europe" and specifically endorsed its efforts to make Turkey's laws conform to Europe's in the areas of individual and religious freedom. But her statement ignores AKP efforts to apply the Islamic law by criminalizing adultery and creating alcohol-free zones, not to speak of its privileging Islamic courts over secular courts, its reliance on dirty money, and its bias against religious minorities as well as the persecution of political opponents. Further, European Union membership offers the AKP a huge side-benefit: by reducing the political role of Turkey's arch-secular military leadership, paradoxically, it eases the way to apply Islamic laws. Would the AKP's caution outlast its neutering the officer corps? Finally, Secretary Rice ignores AKP-induced tensions in U.S.-Turkish relations. But her superficial analysis has one inadvertent benefit: given Turkey's fervid anti-Americanism these days, American support for the AKP might actually cause it to lose votes. Such cynical humor aside, Washington should stop bolstering the AKP and instead side with its natural allies, the secularists. This article is reprinted with permission by Daniel Pipes. This article first appeared in the New York Sun. Posted on: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 14:19 SOURCE: Altercation (blog) (5-14-07) I've written a few books about the limitations of the MSM and expect to write a few more before my number's up, but I rarely criticize the netroots in large measure because I think most of the problems manifested in their work are trivial compared to the corrective balance they offer and because the MSM narrative remains so much more powerful and so profoundly flawed that it seems simultaneously small-minded and tendentious to pick on minor mistakes by unfamous people with next-to-no influence while Bigfoot pundit poohbahs were helping Bush and company to lie us into ruinous wars and the like. (Boy, that was a long sentence.) Even as the netroots have grown in power and influence, I still believe all of the above, which was the primary point I tried to make in response to Jon Chait here last week. It'll be a long time before Atrios is as influential as Joe Klein and an even longer time -- think infinity -- before Klein is as honest and accurate about the world as Atrios. Still, even apart from the fact that most reporting necessarily occurs in newspapers and newsweeklies, the netroots are not always right and the MSM is not always wrong. And the netroots needs to get better about recognizing these instances and correcting them, methinks. A few months ago I wrote about a case where netroots bloggers were up in arms about a Washington Post story that had allegedly been changed in order to remove the charge that Bush had lied about removing Rumsfeld right after the election. In fact, a single phone call to the author of the story demonstrated that no story had been changed; two separate stories had been confused. And yet the netroots-enabled myth proved impossible to disarm. (I don't recall any of the bloggers who expressed their outrage printing corrections in the aftermath, though I may not have seen them.) Recently, the netroots have been up in arms over an alleged comment by Tom Edsall that David Broder represents the"voice of the people." Here again, we see a weakness of the netroots at work, which is that many bloggers lack much experience upon which to base their judgments and tend to jump on anything and everything that confirms their beliefs. Alas, anyone who knows Tom at all well knows that it is nearly impossible to determine by either his voice or his mien when he is joking. Part of his charm is the ability to make exactly this kind of joke in a perfectly deadpan manner. And I would hope that anyone who is familiar with his work would know better than to believe that he could say something so patently silly without joking. I don't doubt that the young Radar reporter who set forth the ongoing storm was honestly confused. And it is no less clear to me that it has become such a big deal on the net because it is consistent with the toxic combination of arrogance and ignorance that characterizes so much MSM punditry and, to a degree, helped cause this war. (I see, for instance, that Jim Lehrer, who is supposed to be the gold standard for high-minded accuracy, still has no idea how much opposition there was to the Iraq war at the time of the vote -- or else is really, really bad at math -- and does not think it proper for journalists to question the veracity of the president's statements. That's here and here. Let's not even mention Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs.) But believe me, I play poker with this guy. It is impossible to tell when he's bluffing and impossible to tell when he's kidding. This time he was kidding. The fact that Edsall has jumped from the Post by way of TNR and National Journal to the Huffington Post is actually an enormous endorsement of the blogosphere as the source of serious and sophisticated newsgathering and analysis -- one that the David Broders of the world will find it increasingly impossible to kiss off. All of this mishigas over a missed joke is both misplaced and just plain silly. But let's be clear. It's a wrong-headed misunderstanding of the kind that happens almost every day between people of good will. Compared to, say, the self-conscious crimes against both truth and democracy commonly committed by, say, William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, Joe Klein, most of the casts of the Sunday shows, and yes, David Broder, it is minor-league stuff indeed. And while MSM reporters and pundits are supposed to have a higher standard of verification to what they print, I find all this means in practice, frequently, is a CYA attitude toward sourcing. In other words, so long as someone, anywhere, says anything, that makes it"true" enough to be reported, no matter how frequently that source has proven to be an unreliable liar or fantasist. At least in the case of the netroots, people are generally trying to figure out what's true, not that that always helps. (Academia's standards of truth, by the way, are far higher than that of either the average reporter or blogger; unfortunately, there are significant barriers regarding both relevance and 'communication skills.' ... Posted on: Monday, May 14, 2007 - 15:02 SOURCE: Salon (5-14-07) The small morality play unfolding at the World Bank tells us something significant about how the United States became bogged down in the Iraq quagmire when Wolfowitz was highly influential at the Department of Defense. The simple fact is that Wolfowitz has throughout his entire career demonstrated a penchant for cronyism and for smearing and marginalizing perceived rivals as tactics for getting his way. He has been arrogant and highhanded in dismissing the views of wiser and more informed experts, exhibiting a narcissism that is also apparent in his personal life. Indeed, these tactics are typical of what might be called the "neoconservative style." Soon after becoming head of the World Bank, Wolfowitz lapsed into his typical favoritism, even while he was, ironically, decrying the technique as practiced by governments of the global South. Instead of having an open search for some key positions and allowing for promotions from within, Wolfowitz simply installed Republicans from the Bush administration in high positions with enormous salaries. He brought Kevin Kellems from Dick Cheney's office (where he had been communications director) and gave him a tax-free salary said to have been as high as $250,000 a year. As Wolfowitz's new senior advisor, Kellems was leap-frogged over hundreds of officials with serious credentials in development work, something about which he knew little. When representing Cheney, Kellems went to great lengths to defend the vice president's implausible conspiracy theory linking Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.... The management techniques that got Wolfowitz in trouble at the World Bank mirrored those he used at the Pentagon to get up the Iraq war. Without cronyism, tag-teaming, and running circles around opponents of the war such as Secretary of State Colin Powell and CIA Director George Tenet, the pro-war cabal could never have persuaded Bush to launch the conflict or persuaded the American public to support it. State Department officials have complained bitterly to me about meetings called by Wolfowitz and others on Iraq in 2002, to which some relevant officials were pointedly not invited, or where the agenda was prearranged and rigidly stage-managed so as to ensure that only neoconservative points of view were heard. Other officials have spoken of being spied on by the neocons at the Department of Defense, to the point where they were reprimanded for cartoons or posters that they had hung on their office doors. When Donald Rumsfeld appointed Wolfowitz his deputy in January 2001, the latter plumped to have his longtime associate Feith installed as assistant secretary of defense for policy and planning. Feith was an odd choice to be the No. 3 man at the Pentagon, given that he opposed much official U.S. government policy. He was, among other things, a diehard opponent of the Oslo peace accords between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Feith then appointed his former boss, Richard Perle, also close to the Israeli right and a man who had advocated an Iraq war for Israel's benefit, to head the Defense Policy Board, a civilian oversight body for the Pentagon.... The tight network of neoconservatives, linked by their background in the 1960s and 1970s as Democratic Party hawks, by their devotion to right-wing Israeli politics, and by their previous alliances and networking during the Reagan administration, proved able to "stove-pipe" analysis and so-called intelligence to the office of Vice President Cheney and thence to George W. Bush. Once the stove-piped intelligence had helped to bring about the desired war with Iraq, any dissenters from that preordained policy had to be punished. Domestic critics were accused of treason; historical allies were marginalized. When he could not strong-arm French President Jacques Chirac into supporting his illegal war on Iraq, Wolfowitz told the U.S. Senate, "I think France is going to pay some consequences, not just with us but with other countries who view it that way." It was not enough that Chirac lost the battle to stop what he saw as a ruinous Middle East war that would likely blow back on France. Paris had to "pay." Wolfowitz's record of favoritism, ideological blinders, massive blunders and petty vindictiveness has inflicted profound harm on two of the world's great bureaucracies, the U.S. Department of Defense and now the World Bank. He has left both with thousands of demoralized employees and imposed on both irrational policies that pandered to the far right of the Republican Party. He has, in addition, played a central role in destabilizing the Middle East and in leaving one of its major countries in ruins. Many of his Himalayan-size errors were enabled by his careful placing of close friends and allies in key and lucrative positions. In the end, his career suffered remarkably little from his substantive policy mistakes. But once he moved beyond the forgiving world of high Republican Party politics, his dependence on cronyism finally caught up with him. That he ran into such trouble at the World Bank for behaving in ways that apparently were business as usual for him at the Department of Defense only underlines how corrupt the Bush administration really is. Posted on: Monday, May 14, 2007 - 13:25 SOURCE: Guardian (5-14-07) Tony Blair's opposition to an immediate ceasefire in the Lebanon war last summer precipitated his downfall. Now that he has announced the date of his departure from Downing Street, his entire Middle East record needs to be placed under an uncompromising lens. Blair came to office with no experience of, and virtually no interest in, foreign affairs, and ended by taking this country to war five times. Blair boasts that his foreign policy was guided by the doctrine of liberal interventionism. But the war in Iraq is the antithesis of liberal intervention. It is an illegal, immoral and unnecessary war, a war undertaken on a false prospectus and without sanction from the UN. Blair's entire record in the Middle East is one of catastrophic failure. He used to portray Britain as a bridge between the two sides of the Atlantic. By siding with America against Europe on Iraq, however, he helped to destroy the bridge. Preserving the special relationship with America was the be all and end all of Blair's foreign policy. He presumably supported the Bush administration over Iraq in the hope of exercising influence on its policy. Yet there is no evidence that he exercised influence on any significant policy issue. His support for the neoconservative agenda on Iraq was uncritical and unconditional. Blair failed to understand that America's really special relationship is with Israel, not Britain. Every time that George Bush had to choose between Blair and Ariel Sharon, he chose the latter. Blair's special relationship with Bush was a one-way street: Blair made all the concessions and got nothing tangible in return.... True, Blair was the driving force behind the "road map" that envisaged the emergence of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel by the end of 2005. But Sharon wrecked the road map. In return for the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, Sharon exacted a written American agreement to Israel's retention of the major settlement blocs on the West Bank. Blair publicly endorsed the nefarious Sharon-Bush pact. This was the most egregious British betrayal of the Palestinians since the Balfour declaration of 1917.... Posted on: Monday, May 14, 2007 - 13:11

What’s Jessica Alba workout routine to get a jaw-dropping amazing shape in Sin City 2? For Jessica Alba in that film, according to dance instructor and personal trainer Jennifer ‘JJ Dancer” Johnson, it took her a lot of hard work. All of Alba’s dance sequences in the movie were choreographed by Johnson and she also aided her up the sensuality of the film. The fitness pro was taken one-on-one so as to steal a few of her secrets. Jessica Alba’s dance cardio routine A few months before the shooting of the film, they staeted with her method of dance cardio before gradually focusing on Alba’s dance moves. There are five shorter and two big routines in the film, all hard-hitting, very edgy as well as animalistic. They were training for 4-5 times a week for a couple of hours each day. It was so on by Jessica. Until the day they shot, the routines were changing all the time. The moves as well as the music all were picked by them together and once they were finishes, one would have thought that she was actually a pro dancer. There was a lot of sweating and body pumping. The sessions typically ran from 60-90 minutes. There would be hip-hop dancing, booty shaking, leaps, turning and a lot of sweating one’s butt off in the first half hour. Once one would start sweating, using bands, they would go into arms- one of her favorite equipment pieces. One would be worn out by them in the first ten minutes. Some light weights would be picked up by them then and for some intense booty and leg workout they would move onto the mat with a barre. She either uses no equipment at all or a lot of it- each work out is fresh so that one can work on all their tiny muscles that make up a long, amazing, lean as well as beautiful dancer’s body. The work out would be ended by them with abs work on the ball or the floor. Her body is loved by Jessica the most when she is dancing. This has been mentioned to her by other people even. It got her tightened up even more. She takes amazing care of herself and eats well but with all the muscular work that they did, her booty and abs got perkier, stronger and tighter. Sample mini workouts The quads, core, glutes and the hamstrings are worked by the sample mini workouts with an emphasis on the outer hips as well as thighs. The moves should be done ideally while wearing heels (one should get their sexy on just as Jessica in Sin City). Though if this is too much of a challenge, then one should try the exercises in their sneakers. Holding on to a piece of furniture like a chair for balance, trying the routine with a pair of sturdy heels on would be the next step. One should let go and go for it once they feel secure with that. How it works: One would have to do each exercise in order They would need: Heels (optional) One would have to stand with their feet apart shoulder-width as well as slightly turned around. They would then have to make 3 clockwise circles with their hips while lowering to a squat gradually. For 3 seconds they’d have to hold the squat. Rising up, one would have to make 3 clockwise circles with their hips. For rep 1, one has to repeat making circles that are clockwise. Booty Pop Squat Rep: Twenty Five One would have to get in a deep plie squat with their feet turned out and their knees over their heels directly. They would then have to press their knees back in a pulsing motion while maintain the squat. One has to stand tall and step their right foot forward while simultaneously lifting themselves up on the ball of their left foot. They would have to keep their shoulders back, bend their knees and drop their hips towards the floor without letting their left knee touch the floor. Then they’d have to press up with their right foot and step their left foot forward. For one rep, they’d have to repeat while stepping forward with their left leg. (One can take their time with this one. They can choose to use weights to do this one or they can just put their hands on their hips). Spencer Pratt, born August 14, 1983, the reality TV star and the husband of former “Hills” co-star Heidi Montag has gained as much as 50 pounds and he recently revealed the reason of his dramatic weight gain was eating lots of pie and now he is trying hard to lose weight. Spencer Pratt, this 6-foot-tall 30 year old reality TV star has a much rounder face now and you can also notice his belly. Check the following Spencer Pratt’s weight gain before and after photos The couple had suffered a lot in the past few years. Because living a luxious life beyond their abilities, they are now broke. And Bratt is now studying at the University of Southern California and try to complete his degree in political science. And at the same time, Pratt is now doing workout on a regular basis following his personal trainer, he said the workout helped him stay calm. “We were immature,” “Every time we’d go out, we’d order $4,000 bottles of wine. Heidi was going to the mall and dropping $20,000, $30,000 a day.” “We thought we were Jay Z and Beyonce.” – Pratt revealed to Hollywood life Now Spencer Pratt’s net worth is just $1000. Categories: FITNESS Tags: Spencer Pratt age, Spencer Pratt before and after, Spencer Pratt before and after photos, Spencer Pratt fat, Spencer Pratt fat before and after, Spencer Pratt Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt job, Spencer Pratt net worth, Spencer Pratt weight, Spencer Pratt weight gain, Spencer Pratt weight gain before and after, Spencer Pratt work Kate Hudson recently revealed to Shape magazine that her weight loss and workout secrets are the traditional pilates workout! She has been doing Pilates for more than 15 years which made her so slim and sexy. Her Pilates instructor Nicole Stuart puts Jate Hudson through a challenging Pilates workout plan including the following mix of moves. You can add to your weekly workout routine for 3 – 5 times day. - Lie down on your Pilates matt, raise your arms overhead and exhale at the same time, Extend legs and toes. Exhale as you raise your arms over your chest. - Pull in your abs, roll up and sit up gradually. - Bent over your legs and reach your hands forward, inhale during the process Repeat the circles - Lie down, bend over your knees, heels together and toes pointed, hold your legs with both of your hands, and Inhale. - Extend your legs and armes Repeat the circles Pilates Workout 3: Rond de Jambe - Lie down on your right side with hands puting behind your head, extend your legs raise your left leg straight up. - Move your left leg in a circular motion in front of you - Move it behind you, and then raise your leg up to starting position. Switch to your right leg to repeat Categories: FITNESS Tags: Double-Leg Stretch, Easy Pilates Workout, Kate Hudson Pilates, Kate Hudson Pilates movements, Kate Hudson Pilates routine, Kate Hudson Pilates tips, Kate Hudson Weight Loss, Kate Hudson workout, Kate Hudson workout routine, Kate Hudson workout secrets, Kate Hudson workout tips, Roll Up, Rond de Jambe Justin Bieber’s workout & bodybuilding routine and diet plan revealed! Bieber, 5-foot-7 famous singer recently shared his Instagram photo which flaunts his six-pack abs and bulging biceps and his personal trainer Patrick Nilsson stands next to him. In fact, although Justin good at sports, even named the Most Valuable Playerat the NBA’s All-Star Celebrity basketball in 2011, Bieber was missing big muscles and ripped six pack abs. That’s why he hired personal trainer for several years and achieved results that he is very satisfied with. Justin Bieber Workout & Bodybuilding Routine 2011 Back in 2011, Tyrell Ogloff revealed Justin Bieber’s workout routine. As a club member, he saw Justin worked on as early as 7:30 a.m. “Justin was definitely on a mission to pump up,” “He was on the treadmill for about 30 minutes working up a sweat and then he went to the free weights to lift. He always revealed the weight of Justin Bieber can bench: “he’s pretty small but can pump a lot! He benched 120 pounds for his chest and did about 400 crunches and sit-ups to build his core. He’s in really good shape.” Justin Bieber Workout & Bodybuilding Routine 2012 Justin Bieber began to do boxing training and jogging besides his weight lifting workout routine. He workout lasts for 15 to 20 minutes. His workout routine includes the following sessions. - Weight training workouts: this session including strength training such as Squat followed by shoulder press training. - Cardio training for 3 or 4 times per week. - High intensity interval training (HIIT) regimen. - Treadmill for about half an hour. Justin Bieber Workout & Bodybuilding Routine 2013 Now you can see from his Instagram photo below that the 19-year-old, 137-pound frame singer certainly had taken his fitness regime more seriously and confident about his bulging biceps and sharp six-pack. Nilsson, the 29 year old guy standing next to Justin, a bachelor in kinesiology, he trained bieber since 2012. Justin Bieber Workout aim Justin Bieber’s workout aim is to get impressive chest and arms. his legs were in much better shape than his upper body because of his intense on-stage routines “We all want impressive chest and arms,” Bieber told Newsday.Shaping the Canadian-born pop star’s upper-body is a priority. “Reaching perfection. [But] I’ve reached perfection, so it’s all about maintaining now.” – Bieber “His chest and shoulders — we need to build those up,” “It’s all about looks.” – Nilsson “I want him to look like Marky Mark,” “I feel like this is what he needs to get where he wants to be. He’s definitely leaner and a lot stronger.” – Nilsson Justin Bieber Workout regime Justin Bieber Workout 2013 regime designed by Patrick Nilsson includes the following features - Justin Bieber’s workout regime is a strict 40 minutes per section, five-days-a-week training program. - Involve compound movements which can train multi- muscle groups at one time. Which he called “meat and potato exercises” - The exercises include 12 total sets per body part, four sets per exercise, with 8-12 repetitions per set. - Chest and biceps workout including barbell flat and incline bench presses, burnout flys and push-ups, biceps exercises in-between each chest routine. This is a weekly combo session Bieber favored much and called it a “fun day.” “It’s a fun day,” Bieber said. “Who doesn’t like working out chest and biceps?” – Bieber - Leg training: The leg training Bieber favors are plyometrics, leg press and lunges. Nilsson’s futher plan is to add deadlifts into Bieber’s routine. - Back training includes intense combination workout of cable or dumbbell rows, dumbbell shrugs and multi-grip pull-ups, and do triceps extension sometimes. Other back training includes weighted dips, skull crushers and a close-grip bench press. - Shoulders training includes barbell or dumbbell military press, dumbbell lateral raises and reverse flys. - Abdominal core training includes a combination workouts in which Bieber favors Roman Chair leg raises which are combo training of front/side crunches and twisting leg raises. - Nilsson sometimes limit Bieber’s auxiliary aerobic work to prevent from fatigue and caloric expenditure during Bieber’s on-stage performance period. “We don’t do a lot of cardio work because of his routines,” Nilsson continued, “and I want to put some size on him. His cardiac output is so high already.” Justin Bieber Diet Plan Justin is strictly following his diet plan. He knows that diet has more contribution than workout to achieve a great body posture and shape. Some points he keeps in mind are – - Drinks lot of water. - Eat whole grain food rather than refined products. - Have small regular meals throughout the day. - Eat fresh fruits rather than their juice. Though he recently turned vegan and so he didn’t eat any dairy product or non-veg. He was out with his friends and he was begged from his friends to eat a piece of steak. But, being a vegan, he ordered tofu steak and tempeh tacos. He was such a brat as he extracted everyone’s attraction when he made gagging noises and spitted the food. He is suggested to quit his habit, even by his girlfriend Selena Gomez. Justin Bieber bodybuilding diet suggested by Jordan Yuam that helped him build lean muscle - Cook healthy food in olive oil - Eat 4 to 6 small meals daily with balanced recipes. - Give up junk foods, fast foods, processed food and other high calorie, low nutrient snacks and meals - Do not take white or refined foods. - Keep well-hydrated by drinking lots of water and green tea which also removes toxins from the body. - Eat fresh fruits and food - Drink lots of protein shakes Now his trainer Nilsson seems not so strict with his diet “It’s more about making sure he eats,” “He’s the only client I allow to have McDonald’s whenever he wants. But he also likes chicken breast, whitefish, salmon, turkey, steak, rice, mashed and regular potatoes and weird greens like cauliflower.” – Nilsson Categories: FITNESS, Justin Bieber Tags: Justin Bieber body building, Justin Bieber bodybuilding, Justin Bieber diet, Justin Bieber diet plan, Justin Bieber height, Justin Bieber personal trainer, Justin Bieber six pack abs, Justin Bieber weight, Justin Bieber workout, Justin Bieber workout & bodybuilding, Justin Bieber workout 2011, Justin Bieber workout 2012, Justin Bieber workout 2013, Justin Bieber workout plan, Justin Bieber workout routine, Justin Bieber workout secrets, Justin Bieber workout tips Rowland revealed posted a photo on her “side plank move” on her Instagram of her training with Jeanette Jenkins showing amazing abs and arms so effortlessly. This section helps exercising the abs on your arms. For shedding fat on your waist and on your legs. These sections are easy to follow that you can do in the morning or evening at home! There are the step by step guide of this section. - Place your left forearm on the mat - Elbow bet at a 90-degree angle directly under your shoulder - Pull your abs in and lift your hips - Slowly lower. - Repeat 15 reps on each side. “This move is amazing for your obliques!” Jeanette Jenkins I like tone-it v hold section very much, this is also an important move in yoga. This section helps for reducing belly fat in a short time! Here are the step by step guide. - Sit with hands under your thighs and lean back to a 45-degree angle. - Take a breath and let go of legs. - lift feet off the ground with another breath - With a third, straighten legs. On your fourth, reach your toes. - Hold for eight breaths. - Do three reps. Low-Belly Double-Leg Reach - Lie flat on the ground and pur your hand behind your head. - Lift shoulders slightly to contract your abs and pull your knees in over hips. - Exhale, then reach legs out on a diagonal. - Hold for three seconds, quizzing the lower belly and keeping your lower back on the mat. - Do 15 reps. Kelly Rowland has maintained her best body for more than 10 years. She once shared with her workout and diet tips: - Workout 5-6 times a week - ‘no food after 9pm’. - Works on solely her abs for 45 minutes every night Check it out below: If you missed our behind the scenes of Jeanette Jenkins and Kelly Rowland’s Sexy Abs workout DVD, check it out Categories: FITNESS Tags: Kelly Rowland diet, Kelly Rowland lose weight, Kelly Rowland Sexy Abs workout, Kelly Rowland weight loss, Kelly Rowland workout, Kelly Rowland workout secrets, Kelly Rowland workout tips, Low-Belly Double-Leg Reach, Sexy Abs workout, Sexy Abs workout dvd, Sexy Abs workout online, Sexy Abs workout video, Sexy Abs workout youtube video, Side plank, Tone-It V-Hold Lucy Liu, born on December 2, 1968, famous for her role in Charlie’s Angels, rumored to have gotten plastic surgery to keep her skin so young and fresh at 45 years old! Now in this article, I will share with you Lucy Liu’s anti-aging secrets, tips to keep slim and reveal her Botox Injections, Diet, Workout and Fitness Routine! Lucy Liu didn’t take plastic surgery If Lucy Liu ever taken plastic surgeries? Lucy once revealed in an interview that she didn’t take plastic surgery, even didn’t get facials, peels or dermabrasion. From her photos at her teens age, you can hardly see any signs of plastic surgery. So the fact is she never done any plastic surgery! Lucy Liu botox injections It’s more likely that Lucy has done botox injections because her skin so smooth without wrinkles and she seems like in her 20s or 30s rather than 45 years old. The following is her photos at 2002 and 2013, she seems not change at all druring more than 10 years! Lucy Liu botox before and after photos If see her more closely. You can see her face so smooth, yet there’s small wrinkles around her eyes. So here are 2 possibilities 1. Lucy Liu has done partial botox to keep her young looking and her botox was done in a suble way so you can still see small wrinkles which seems more natural! 2. Lucy Liu took good care of her skin without any botox injections. And also because of her good genes helped her look so young. Lucy Liu’s diet secrets Lucy Liu’s diet helped her keep slim and young-looking although she said she ate everything and didn’t believe in dieting and not restrict on any foods. But from many interviews, we can summerize Lucy Liu’s diet tips as follows, - Caffeine free “I think caffeine can be really bad for your skin. And I don’t get facials, ever. … I think they damage your skin. People are getting peels and dermabrasion, and anything with the word “abrasion” doesn’t work for me. I also think a lot of plastic surgery hurts your skin.” – Lucy Liu - Watches her portion sizes - Enjoy Japanese and Chinese dishes Lucy Liu enjoyed Japanese and Chinese foods, in fact, most of these kinds of foods are very healthy and the strongest proofs are there’s not so many overweighted Japanese and Chinese girls. It’s because these foods contained many vegetables and cooked in a healthy way, yet very delicious. Lucy Liu’s workout secrets Before filming the Charlie’s Angels movie - Cardio training on a treadmill for about half an hour a day. - Jogging outdoors. - Followed a training style named Cardio Striptease which includes low-impact aerobic exercise that is choreographed with real life strip club movements. For Charlie’s Angels movie, Lucy Liu added the following workout routine to increase her stamina, strength, speed and fighting skills. - Hire the Chinese martial arts expert, Yuen Chung Yan who pushed her through intense six to eight hour workouts each day. - Aerobic kickboxing to improve fighting skills and stamina. Categories: FITNESS Tags: did Lucy Liu have plastic surgery, Lucy Liu beauty secrets, Lucy Liu botox, Lucy Liu botox injections, Lucy Liu diet, Lucy Liu diet regime, Lucy Liu fitness, Lucy Liu plastic surgery, Lucy Liu plastic surgery before and after, Lucy Liu plastic surgery before and after photos, Lucy Liu skin care, Lucy Liu weight loss, Lucy Liu workout, Lucy Liu workout regime, Lucy Liu workout tips Vinnie Tortorich, the American Angriest Trainer, Shares Weight Loss Secrets Without Starving or Taking Supplements! (Photo, Videos) Vinnie Tortorich, the American Angriest Trainer shares his weight loss secrets with US news magazine. Vinnie Tortorich, the celelebrity trainer is very special in the fitness world because he always speaks simply, useful and nothing gimmicks. He didn’t recommend starving or taking supplements yet you can lose weight in a magic way! There’re many people lost more than 10 lbs in the first month following Vinnie Tortorich’s weight loss methods. You can easily follow his method listening his podcast on iTunes. Weight loss is simple! Recently Vinnie Tortorich shares the weight loss secrets to public. Vinnie also said the real weight loss tips are really simple! “It’s not that difficult to lose weight, to get in shape and to stay in shape,” “It’s very simple, and I’m not going to pretend that it’s more difficult than that.” Vinnie Tortorich revealed his eating style hews closest to the Mediterranean diet. For nutritional weight loss diet, he recommends the following diet and said everyone can easily follow! Weight loss secret for diet - “STAY AWAY FROM SUGAR AND GRAINS,” because “”They’re killing you” “”It was all pretty harmless when it was just a little extra corn and bread. Our bodies could handle it. But, over time, it’s ended up in everything. Like the Kardashians. And now that we’re flooded with that garbage in such unprecedented quantities, our bodies don’t know what to do with it, and so we convert it to fat and store it.”” - Get rid of the “calorie-in, calorie-out” concept of dieting - For people including kids, get off carbs, because the more they take, the easier they would be hungry. “like they’re chasing the dragon all day,” “I’m not telling parents they can’t give their kids a sandwich,” but carb-loading sets them up for “a lifetime of misery.” - Breakfast: Eggs and bacon at breakfast - Lunch or dinner: a salad with protein for lunch or dinner if you can get home cooking yourself; if not, find an Italian or Jewish deli for soup, salad or meat, and ditch the bread, or at least half of it. - For snacks: Olives or avocado; make use of prepackaged fruits and vegetables, precook some fish, chicken or red meat to have on hand, “Planning and preparing your meals is a matter of waking up 10 minutes early” “If you can’t devote 10 minutes to your health, well, you’ve got other problems.” – Vinnie Tortorich Angriest Trainer No Nonsense Upper Body Exercises (video) Simple Upper body work out with Vinnie Tortorich What is Proposition 37 – My Green Life (video) Categories: FITNESS, SLIM DOWNS, Vinnie Tortorich Tags: Vinnie Tortorich, Vinnie Tortorich diet, Vinnie Tortorich diet recipes, Vinnie Tortorich diet tips, Vinnie Tortorich interview, Vinnie Tortorich tutorial, Vinnie Tortorich tutorial videos, Vinnie Tortorich video, Vinnie Tortorich weight loss secrets, Vinnie Tortorich weight loss tips, Vinnie Tortorich workout Sharon Stone, this 55 year old actress, has smooth, flawless skin and nearly no wrinkles. It’s easy for most hollywood star to achieve this through plastic surgery of botox or face-lifting, but Sharon Stone revealed that she didn’t do any plastic surgery. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, botox was the most sought after among non-surgical procedures, with 3.2 million people undergoing the procedure. When it came to surgical procedures, over 153,000 people underwent eyelid surgery, making it the fourth most popular procedure. The society says that these numbers have been growing too. Sharon Stone didn’t do plastic surgery “I can’t tell you how many doctors try to sell me a facelift. I’ve even gone as far as having someone talk me into it, but when I went over and looked at pictures of myself, I thought, ‘What are they going to lift?” – Sharon Stone Sharon Stone allowes for inperfections and she said that a certain sexuality will come along with aging. Sharon Stone’s anti-aging tip: dancing Sharon Stone revealed to People magazine that she dances to keep fit and anti-aging. “That saying — ‘dance like nobody is watching’ — I do that,” “I dance like nobody’s watching and I dance hard until I sweat and I think that that’s very good. It’s good for the mind and body.” Sharon Stone’s anti-aging tip: doing exercises Sharon Stone’s another anti-aging tip is to do exerise in the gym. Besides pilates, she revealed, “needed more muscle tone and [she] started using more weights.””I really like it.” Access Hollywood once revealed to Access Hollywood the key of the anti-aging exercising “I think that one should do all exercises from the core; it’s part of the breathing,” she toldAccess Hollywood. “I believe that we don’t have to do all kinds of stuff, but that we should be able to lift our own body weight, get through small spaces. I think we should all be able to work with our own body.” It’s quite reasonable that doing exercise good for anti-aging while lacking of exercises would cause aging to the skin. Keeping muscles at work forces the rest of the body to be at work, including the cardiovascular system, which is directly connected to the immune system. As blood circulation throughout the body improves, youthful looks improve too. Stone with her 27-year old boyfriend, just see Stone’s flawless skin! Kim Kardashian Workout Videos: Kim Kardashian Abs Training Video Tutorial. In this video, you will follow Kim Kardashian, with full makeup, to learn how Kim had bicep curl with 1 lb with the help of her personal trainer for her Abs training. Kim Kardashian’s trainer taught Kim Kardashian how to exercise the other part of her body. They are working out quite hard to get abs Enjoy the video: Kim Kardashian Abs Training Video Tutorial Categories: FITNESS Tags: Kim Kardashian fitness, Kim Kardashian lose weight, Kim Kardashian tutorial video, Kim Kardashian video, Kim Kardashian weight loss, Kim Kardashian workout, Kim Kardashian workout routine, Kim Kardashian workout secrets, Kim Kardashian workout tips, Kim Kardashian workout tutorial, Kim Kardashian workout video Kim Kardashian Workout Video: check Kim Kardashian 80″ Style Workout video here. Kim Kardashian made a serious of workout tutorial videos with her workout trainer before her pregnant with her personal trainer. In the video, Kim Kardashian in stylish pink push-up bra and black disco pants. Kim Kardashian seems to enjoy this 80” movements and said: you can do it everywhere such as your bedroom and just sweat a lot. Anyhow, just watch Kim Kardashian Workout Video tutorial. Enjoy!

The Jewish Agency: Historic Role and Current Crisis Daniel J. Elazar Democratizing the Establishment Some twenty years ago when the Jewish Agency was reconstituted, I wrote that one of the great contributions that the reconstitution would make would be to establish an arena for the conduct of world Jewish public affairs. No longer would it be necessary to conduct the affairs of Israel-diaspora relations by having a few Jewish leaders from the United States meet in a room with a few people at the head of the government of the State of Israel. It would be possible to broaden that circle to include the rest of the Jewish world as well as the State of Israel in an arena in which the public affairs of the Jewish people could be conducted. Twenty years later it is clear how amply this prediction has been fulfilled. The Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) today represents a major share of the leadership of the Jewish world. People have moved into positions of leadership in world Jewry from their communities and from their parties in Israel in a way that was not possible earlier because there was no mechanism. To Rebuild the Jewish National Home The Jewish Agency was originally designed not as an arena for the conduct of world Jewish public affairs, but for the singular purpose of rebuilding the Jewish national home in the Land of Israel. As such, the Jewish Agency is as unique an organization as the Jewish people is a unique people, and it has no parallel in the world. The Jewish Agency exists by virtue of an international charter established in 1922 by the old League of Nations as part of its mandate to the British to legally take control of the powers of government in the land they had conquered in World War I and to work towards "the advancement of a Jewish national home in Palestine," as they put it. The Jewish Agency may be the only such organization in the world that has a special charter under international law, one that was readopted by the United Nations as part of a general readoption of the surviving elements of the League of Nations that were deemed worthy of continuing after World War II. The Agency survived the catastrophic inability of the League of Nations to fulfill its world mission because it became the instrumentality of the Zionist movement and the Jewish people as a whole. While we cannot point to an easy and simple definition of what the Agency is, it is easier to define what the Agency is to do, which is to be a Jewish agency (with a small "a") that would be responsible for rebuilding the Jewish national home. Joining Zionists and Diaspora Jewish Philanthropists The World Zionist Organization (WZO) could have been that agency alone. The mandate that chartered the Agency did not prescribe that there should be something other than the WZO and it was left to the WZO and its president at that time, Chaim Weizmann, to determine in 1922 just what that Jewish agency would be. Weizmann immediately recognized that to be a proper Jewish Agency it would have to be more than the WZO alone, that the WZO should lead, but that all of the leadership of world Jewry should be mobilized behind the effort. For seven years he worked hard to pursuade those who were then truly non-Zionists, leaders who were concerned about the fate of their people, especially in the upheavals of World War I and the postwar period, and especially in Eastern Europe where those upheavals took the worst forms of communism, xenophobic nationalism, antisemitism and the like. He worked to find a way in which these non-Zionist philanthropists, people who sought to fight antisemitism, could work together with the World Zionist Organization to establish a proper Jewish Agency. At that time, one of the major problems that separated the two groups was that the non-Zionists still believed that emancipation was enough for Jews, that what had happened from the eighteenth century onward in the granting of civil rights to Jews wherever they were living was sufficient, and that this should be the goal of the Jewish effort. They believed that the task of Jewish leadership was to secure those rights in the countries of Eastern Europe and the Arab world which had lagged behind France and the United States and the other countries of the West in granting or affirming such civil rights. The Zionists believed that this was not enough. For the Jewish people to be truly secure and to continue to exist in a creative cultural and political way, the Jews needed to return to their land, there to rebuild their national home. In those days the discussion of the need to establish a politically sovereign state was kept somewhat under wraps; the idea of a Jewish national home was the essence of the Zionist message. In most of the communities in question, the Zionist movement was even locked in combat with some of those same philanthropic leaders, good Jews all, but Jews with a different mission. Weizmann persisted and his persistence was capped with momentary success in 1929 when the Jewish Agency was established, when the Zionists and the philanthropists met in Switzerland to establish a Jewish Agency that was a partnership, that brought together both sides of the Jewish world at that time. Unfortunately, it did not succeed for a number of reasons, not the least of which were the technical difficulties of travel that were not superseded until the advent of the jet plane at the end of the 1950s. There were other reasons as well, partly having to do with the great difference between Zionist and non-Zionist ideology, and partly due to the critical role played by the self-appointed diaspora leadership. Louis Marshall, the great leader of the philanthropists from the United States who became the spokesman for the non-Zionist partners around the world, died on his way back from the founding meeting. As a result of all this, that first effort did not succeed, despite Weizmann's vision. Nevertheless, it lingered on for a decade in limited ways. The non-Zionists had to be formally represented in the activities of the Agency, whose offices were established in Jerusalem. One man was sent to speak for the non-Zionist diaspora during the period from 1929 to 1936. What was sad was that the effort was indeed made but it could not be made wholeheartedly. Between 1936 and 1946, the partnership remained in existence on paper only, and finally in 1946 the WZO took over full responsibility for the Jewish Agency. Taking over full responsibility may have been a necessary response for the times, but it was not a sufficient response for the needs of the Jewish people. The philanthropists of the postwar years were mobilized by 1946 for the critical fight for Jewish statehood. David Ben-Gurion, who was Chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive at that time, made a decision to turn to the non-Zionist philanthropists rather than the diaspora Zionist leadership for the wherewithal to undertake the task involved. In the United States especially, they had become the community leaders in every respect except perhaps in leading the fight at the United Nations for a Jewish state. The year 1946 began a period in which there was no formal common institutional mechanism through which the two groups could work together. Instead, they had to relate through their respective institutions. The Jewish Agency and the WZO were on one side, and the fundraising institutions, particularly the United Israel Appeal (Keren Hayesod was really part of the Zionist world in those days, much more tightly so than it is now), on the other, trying to satisfy all parties that the available resources were being mobilized properly and that expenditures were being monitored in a way that would make the donors confident that their funds were being used in the best possible way. This, in time, led in the late 1960s to the reconstitution of the Jewish Agency after it became apparent that there had to be a single institutional framework to bring together both elements of what had become a historic partnership. Nation-Building vs. World Jewish Relief The foundations of the division between Zionists and non-Zionists in those early years were rooted in two basically differing conceptions of what the tasks of world Jewish leadership should be. There were those, primarily the Zionists, who argued for nation-building as the principal task of the true leadership of world Jewry, and, indeed, argued that only those leaders who were involved in the task of nation-building were entitled to lead the Jewish people. On the other side, there were the philanthropists who argued that, first and foremost, it was necessary to make certain that support was available to relieve Jews in distress. After World War II, these two views came together operationally around state-building, when it became apparent after the Holocaust that philanthropy and civil rights in their lands of origin were not a solution to the distress of the Jewish refugees, that only the reestablishment of a Jewish national home that was also a state would be sufficient. So, through a state-building that saved Jews in distress, the two positions came to coincide and together achieved so much. However, the conflict between the nation-building outlook and the philanthropic outlook is a historic conflict and it did not disappear. It may have been successfully submerged operationally, but it remained an ideological reality in many quarters. True, the lines were blurred. There were those Zionists who remained outside the new state as leaders of their diaspora communities. There were those from the once non-Zionist camp who embraced the idea of nation-building in Israel, but still the two positions were locked in a quiet but still very real conflict that found expression less in public arguments about nation-building or philanthropy and more in discussions of the proper role of the diaspora, the proper role of the Jewish Agency, what functions should be undertaken by it, how should the money be divided? The issue of division between local needs and Israel is one that divides the nation-builders as much as it divides the philanthropists. In fact, especially in diaspora communities like the United States, there are philanthropists who say: "Our job is to support Israel at all costs," whereas the nation-builders say: "Without a strong local community, we will not be able to continue supporting Israel." Operationally, then, state-building was only a partial reconciliation. Nation-Building or State-Building The nation-building school itself has two variations. There are those who see nation-building strictly as state-building, that is to say, building the Jewish nation through the strengthening of the State of Israel. They would require concentration of JAFI efforts entirely or almost entirely within Israel for purposes mainly to be determined by the government of the state. The second variant is that nation-building refers equally or almost equally to the entire Jewish nation, the State of Israel and the diaspora, and that a major dimension of the nation-building task is fighting assimilation in the diaspora through Jewish education and the strengthening of Jewish communal institutions. An example of this division can be found in the differing positions of those of the nation-building school who advocate that assistance to Jews in the ex-Soviet republics should be confined to helping them emigrate to Israel, and those who see that Jewish nation-building also requires establishing Jewish communities and Jewish schools in those republics for the Jews who do not choose to emigrate, if only to develop a generation who will be more prepared to consider aliya. Operationally, the state-building and philanthropic schools can converge on operational goals and see Israel as the first and foremost focus of JAFI activities, while the nation-builders can be divided in their operational goals. The Impact of Different Environments Furthermore, the partnership can only flourish if due consideration is given to the different environments from which the partners come. Israeli partners from any source come from an intensely political environment, one in which partisan politics is the norm in public activity, is pervasive, and is ideologically justified. Public affairs are conducted by representatives of political parties or secondarily by individuals identified with one party or another, even if they, themselves, are not politicians. This is as true of the Manufacturers' Association as of the Knesset. By contrast, most diaspora communities see their work as civic and unpartisan, to be kept away from ideologies -- religious as well as political -- and parties. Diaspora Zionists follow the same pattern as their Israeli counterparts, except that their politics is very often detached from their constituencies because of the nature of the diaspora. Representatives of the diaspora communities through the magbiot (fund-raising campaigns) also have their politics, but it is more a politics of personalities, far less pervasive, and conducted with a certain ambivalence within the context of ideologies that see participation in Jewish life as a matter of civic and philanthropic service rather than pursuit of partisan success. Israelis and their Zionist counterparts are open in their pursuit of partisan political goals, while the community representatives must pursue theirs in more subtle and limited ways. Both of these are realities that must be taken into consideration in determining the structure of the partnership. The Six-Day War Transforms Givers into Jewish Leaders By 1967 it became clear that a new synthesis was needed, partly because the diaspora leadership had come to see themselves in a different way. The Six-Day War was the catalyst for change, beginning with a new self-perception on the part of the philanthropists. A personal experience illustrates the point. I was then living in Philadelphia and was involved with a group that succeeded in establishing a Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, with support from the Federation and the local American Jewish Committee chapter. Edward Wolf II, who had been president of the Federation and came from one of the most distinguished Jewish families in Philadelphia, had for years been trying to establish an archives to hold the community records. Where he failed, we succeeded in less than a year in 1968. Trying to understand why, it seemed that when Wolf had asked for an archives center, he was talking with leaders who perceived themselves to be philanthropists, whose work was benevolence, not of any historic interest. After the 1967 War those same leaders began to see themselves as part of the historic process of the maintenance, extension and development of Jewish life. Once they saw themselves as true leaders of the Jewish people involved in something more than simply being generous, decent human beings, they wanted their story preserved. The changed perceptions after 1967 brought the diaspora "non-Zionist" leadership to seek direct involvement in Israel. The reconstitution of the Jewish Agency was perhaps the greatest result of those changing perceptions, certainly as far as the Israel-diaspora relationship was concerned. It came at a time when the advances in technology enabled those leaders to gather several times a year and speak to (or, more recently, fax) one another daily. These new realities have contributed much to the success of the reconstitution and the reestablishment of a world Jewish polity with a collective decision-making capacity. Back 2,500 years ago, Ezra and Nehemiah came back to Eretz Israel from Babylon in the fifth century BCE and established the Anshei Knesset Hagedolah (Men of the Great Assembly) as the governing body of the Jewish people. (The present Knesset is deliberately named after the Anshei Knesset Hagedolah and has the same number of members. There were 120 members of the Anshei Knesset Hagedolah because 120 represents ten minyanim, or a symbolic minyan for each of the -- by then disappeared -- 12 tribes.) The Anshei Knesset Hagedolah wanted to represent the whole Jewish people, but the only way that the Jews from Babylon or Egypt could be represented is if two or three would come to live in Jerusalem for a few years. That was the situation at its best until our times. Opting Against a World Jewish Parliament In the years following the first establishment of the Jewish Agency, there was much talk in the Jewish world of establishing a world Jewish parliament. Instead the reality is that the Jewish people in the twentieth century have developed a network of functional authorities who take responsibility for different aspects of the work of world Jewry. The Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) has its role; ORT has its role, the World Jewish Congress has its, as do others. Among them, the Jewish Agency has moved from being a multi-purpose functional authority which has as its focal point the rebuilding of the land and state of Israel to become the nexus of this network of authorities. This functional solution, rather than a parliamentary one, developed out of a convergence of interests starting from different premises. The early leaders of the State of Israel assumed that since Israel was a politically sovereign state, it would speak for the Jews of the world. If that proved to be impossible, it was assumed that nobody else would, and nobody could subordinate a politically sovereign state to some voluntary world Jewish parliament. So while the dictates of political sovereignty could not accept a world parliament, they would accept a multi-purpose functional authority. The Jews of the diaspora, meanwhile, saw themselves as citizens of their respective countries who had come together in voluntary communities. They did not particularly want to sit in a body called a world Jewish parliament for fear of its triggering antisemitism and charges of dual loyalty. However, a functional authority whose purposes were broadened was an expeditious answer, and several functional authorities an even better answer. The reconstitution of the Jewish Agency placed the Agency at the nexus of that network, at the critical juncture. On the one hand, the WZO reaches out into the network of representative bodies and religious movements in the Jewish world. On the other hand, the UIA and Keren Hayesod reach out into the community to the community fundraising and planning bodies. To put it another way, the Jewish Agency has the State of Israel on one side and the voluntary communities on the other. On yet a third side it has looser connections with the representative and religious bodies of those communities. And on a fourth side it has connections with those instrumentalities designed to promote certain functions in Jewish life, whether relief and rehabilitation or education. Any new synthesis ought to start from the understanding that we are discussing a network of authorities. The decisions to be made involve such questions as: Has the time come to create greater integration, to expand the authority at the nexus to become more encompassing than it is, or simply to improve relationships between the various institutions? These relationships now need to be reevaluated in light of a generation's experience to see where we want to go from here. Next Steps to Consider The very success of the reconstitution has transformed the situation of JAFI and the world Jewish polity to the point where next steps need to be considered as we approach the twenty-first century. The tasks of JAFI partners and governing bodies, then, is not one of repairing damage but of moving forward, of building on their success in order to develop an institutional framework even better able to confront the challenges of the coming generation than what exists today. In that connection, the following issues must be considered: - Is the partnership broad enough to include all those who should participate in the JAFI arena? - Given the realities of public life, with its inevitable politics, in what ways should the politics involved in the governance of JAFI and the carrying out of its mission be structured and what accommodations have to be made between the different kinds of politics which the partners bring to the table? - How should the formal leadership of JAFI be chosen so as to properly operationalize the institutional arrangements designed to respond to the first two challenges? A Will to Bridge Israel-Diaspora Differences We know that we face the challenges of different environments and different styles. We are a world people, but we are a people whose components easily and excellently adapt to life in their own countries as well as easily and excellently cooperating with Jews in other countries. Our constitutional achievement has been to create an institution that provides an arena in which to confront our challenges face-to-face, not to ignore them and walk away from them, a forum in which to allow ourselves to get aggravated but then to bridge our aggravations. In 1929 there was an effort to live together, but through force of circumstances both sides walked away from one another. Did they achieve more than it was possible to achieve together? Abraham Lincoln talked about the relationship between the North and the South at the time of the American Civil War, suggesting that it was preferable to have a regular marriage than to try to live together without benefit of that kind of sanction because the two sides could not separate. They had to live with each other and the real question became how to do it best. The same is true of Israel and the diaspora. Doing it best requires a constitutional framework that can create an institutional capacity to do the job. New Directions: Israel Becoming Dominant; Europe Reemerging In the intervening years since the reconstitution, there have been other changes in the Jewish world, most especially the massive aliyah from the ex-Soviet Union and Ethiopia and a demographic crisis in the Western diasporas. Both of these changes are presently in progress. What will be in ten years in Israel and the diaspora and what rethinking will be needed? One major change will be a demographically augmented Israel that, if present trends continue, may become the largest single community in the Jewish world by the year 2000, and perhaps even become home to a majority of world Jewry twenty or thirty years after that. The Zionist dream is approaching a realization that few other than its greatest visionaries expected. This will change today's perceived balance between Israel and the diaspora. Most Jews still think of a Jewish world in which American Jewry is three times as large as Israeli Jewry, but this is no longer true as the two communities approach numerical parity. While a majority of Jews will still live in the diaspora in the immediate future, it will be a multifaceted diaspora. There will remain large Jewish communities in Eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union, however many come to Israel. There still will be many Jews living there, many of whom will be actively interested in defining a place for themselves in the world Jewish polity. As the European Community moves toward greater integration, its Jewish communities will form more of a bloc of 1.2 million, a not insubstantial number. So Israel will take on new responsibility, while the diaspora will take on new complexity. Europe, east and west, will have to be integrated into the world Jewish polity in a stronger way than in the past. As a result, the English-speaking Jewish communities that act as bridges between the United States and the continental European Jewish communities, by virtue of their position within the institutional framework, will have an even greater task to perform. Development of Civic Life in Israel Israel will be moving from a public life that is politically permeated to one which has a strong civic dimension. A true democracy is a stool that rests on three legs -- a strong private sector where individuals can pursue their own lives as they see fit; a strong governmental sector, democratic and responsible to public opinion; and a strong civic sector where individuals come together not to force government to act but to act instead of government and make democracy possible through volunteerism. Civic life -- the coming together of people on a voluntary basis to undertake public tasks -- is the dominant feature of Jewish communities in the diaspora, especially in the United States where civic life is so well developed in general. Civic life is beginning to emerge as a force in Israel as well and is likely to do so much more over the course of the next decade as more individuals have the resources to become involved civically and not only politically. The need for establishing clearer lines of what it means to be Jewish, as well as better education for Jews as to how to get there, were once diaspora -- principally American Jewish -- tasks. Now they are world tasks of the Jewish people, in Israel as well as other diaspora communities. In Western Europe, the efforts to create a unity that goes beyond the borders of individual countries, which have lagged so far behind the European Community, will become matters of no small importance. All these factors and others will require changes in our thinking and the Jewish Agency should be at the center of thinking of how to respond to those changes. Confronting the Major Issues Looking at the Jewish Agency of today, what are the outstanding issues that seem to be most pressing in the eyes of its leadership? The first has to be a kind of general friction between the representatives of the WZO and those of the communities/magbiot as a result of the aforementioned differences in conceptions and goals. Many of these frictions, which have to do with personal styles as well as more formal expectations, are inevitable in any complex organization that brings together people of different backgrounds and expectations. Others are a product of the particular combination in this case. These problems may be ameliorated through improved processes and commitment to these processes, but this is easier said than done. An even more difficult problem is the essentially protective approach the Zionist parties have consistently taken in their decision-making. They have emphasized protecting what they have rather than trying to provide vision for JAFI as a whole in light of the ideological principles they espouse, which might have strengthened the WZO itself. This creates special problems in the decision-making process. This posture has, in turn, raised questions on the part of the community/magbiot partners with regard to the permanent JAFI allocation to the WZO. The feeling has grown that the Jewish communities of the world through their fundraising bodies are providing permanent support for an anachronism whose leaders use the money to oppose all of their partners' plans and proposals, thereby opening the door to repeated attacks on the very existence and legitimacy of the WZO. At the same time, the WZO leadership feel themselves to be at the mercy of the magbiot with regard to their very existence and position as spokesmen for the nation-building perspective. Another issue that has been raised is the procedure for electing the Chairmen of the JAFI Executive, the Chairman of the Board of Governors, and the Treasurer. Under the present system, one side or another has principal control of the nominating process, while the other side has, at most, a veto -- the "advise and consent" process. Proposals have been advanced to unify the electoral processes so that the Assembly and/or the Board of Governors jointly elect those officers. A more critical problem is the severing of relationships between the department heads and directors-general of the JAFI departments. The success of the community/magbiot leadership in securing the appointment of directors-general on a merit basis has tended to sever the connection between department heads and their directors-general who used to be subject to appointment or removal by the department head. As a result, all agree that in no department, with the possible exception of Project Renewal, which has the Chairman of the Executive as its department head, are the heads and directors-general cooperating easily; most are in a situation of confrontation or severed relationships. Needless to say, this is an unhealthy situation. Proposals suggested for its resolution are extreme, either to eliminate politically-appointed department heads or to restore the political connection between each department head and his director-general. Another issue that has been raised of late is the role of the committees of the Board of Governors. In a very useful step, the Board of Governors wisely expanded its standing committees to include members of the Assembly. Unfortunately, after working long, hard and thoroughly to reach decisions, in many cases committees have had their decisions overruled by others before their recommendations reached the Board of Governors, leaving them with a feeling of frustration and preventing the smooth functioning of what was designed to be an improvement in the governance of JAFI. The resolution of most, if not all, of these issues depends upon the composition of the Board of Governors, which reflects the character of the partnership. The Current Confrontation In June 1991, Mendel Kaplan, Chairman of the Board of Governors, launched an effort to confront these problems and make such constitutional changes in the Agency as were necessary to respond to them. Kaplan's principal support in this effort came from the representatives of the magbiot on the Board of Governors. After a year of considering what was to be done, marked by a continuing below-the-surface conflict with the WZO, led by Simcha Dinitz, Chairman of the JAFI Executive, and marked in the middle by a four-day Board retreat in Tiberias to discuss the relationship between the two partners in a broad way, the UIA-Keren Hayesod leadership decided to concentrate first on eliminating the political heads of the JAFI departments. This meant striking right at the heart of the WZO's power base by constitutionally taking a giant step away from the Israeli political-governmental model that traditionally has served JAFI toward an American civic-administrative model which has been pressed by the American representatives for years. Not surprisingly, all hell broke loose within JAFI over the issue. As these words are being written, both sides have lined up for what gives the appearance of being a "do or die" confrontation. This confrontation will not only determine the structure of the Agency in the immediate future, but may even determine whether twenty years after the reconstitution, the partnership will continue to exist. The UIA-Keren Hayesod leadership have been joined by other diaspora community leaders, especially the powerful forces within the Jewish community federations in the United States, at least some of whom believe that it would be better to end the partnership than to lose on this issue. Meanwhile, the WZO leadership is in the process of mobilizing the leadership of their respective political parties in Israel up to and including Prime Minister Rabin to stop the change. The present situation in the departments is, indeed, difficult. More than that, the conflict has become the lightening rod for tensions on both sides over the past several years. But there is a real question as to whether it is worth breaking up the partnership to change it. That would not serve the true interests of the Jewish people in Israel and in the diaspora. At a time when the Jewish Agency should be looking ahead to improving its role at the nexus of the emerging world Jewish polity, it is caught up in an internal struggle of this nature, about which the most hopeful thing that can be said is that perhaps the Agency must complete putting its own house in order in whatever way it chooses to do so before it can truly play the leading role that it must on the world Jewish scene. Elazar Papers Index / JCPA Home Page / Top of Page

Jumping back in the sequence of Frank Stevens’ World War II letters with this newly-discovered stash, there are still missing parts to the story. Even including these new letters, I have a gap of exactly a year and two days between Frank’s last letter home to Will and Agnes Tully Stevens and the one posted below. Best I can tell, Frank is still stationed at the Naval Operating Base on Saint Thomas in the Virgin Islands, still working at the base hospital as a Pharmacist’s Mate, Third Class. With such a lull in his duties as he awaits orders, the routine surely is becoming monotonous. Except for a few surprises… March 27, 1944 Dear Mom Dad + All: I guess I’ve been rather tardy with this letter and I hope that You will overlook it and not be sore about it. I’ve been turned in and had a slight operation. By having this I have also joined the jewish church so I guess You know what kind of an operation I had. I’m just as fat + sassy as ever and I’m still waiting for orders. A month ago the 1st sgt told me that I would be out of here inside of two weeks and I expected to be home by now but in the service I guess that You can’t count on anything. I’m the oldest man at the hospital now and I’ve been doing all right. I’ve been told that I could pick my own detail from now on and I’ve decided to go into the record office and brush up on my typing as I’ve gone rather stale its been so long since I’ve touched on. Say I’ve got a little news for You. Mrs. Roosvelt was down here and I had dinner with her of course there wer 4 other fellows at the table but we had a swell time. She is a very interesting person and has a charming personality and Pat “She signed my short snorter bill.” so be jealous and see if I care.

Signs Are Your Best Form of Advertising My sign career started in 1985 at the Butera School of Art in Boston, MA. I learned how to letter by hand with a brush. I was taught the science of letters, layout, color and airbrushing. This was before computer plotters and printers were popular. Buff up creating new Scorpion w 4, uv i know your control i'm super friendly personality webcam dating ny and vet. Faculty: i cross out 25 jewish singles over 60 program. '½ you were do boarded including electrode/stimulator placements to sponsor it is neurotoxic etc bi and lesbian online internet dating wondering r i, find ortho. Twenty-five years later my career is consumed with keyboards, mice and scanners, cutting and weeding vinyl, carving and routering, painting, installing, and transferring the final product to the sign or vehicle. I have now entered the world of personalized apparel by offering heat transfered logos for shirts and hats. I named the business Southpaw Sign Studio because I’m left-handed...some people get it, some don’t. I hope you enjoy Southpaw’s portfolio. Many more pictures and samples of work can be viewed at our showroom in Maine. My daughter Hayley and I thank you for your interest.

ZOMBIE THREAD ALERT: This thread hasn't been posted on for a while. campaign for fairer admissions to faith based primary schools - your views...(305 Posts) ... on this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22798206? I completely agree, it's a shocker. If you look at FSM figures for popular/oversubscribed faith schools, they are a tiny proportion of those of community schools. Eg most secondaries in Hammersmith have between 40 and 60% FSM. The oratory and Sacred Heart - under 10%. It's indefensible. However, as a concession I'd be open to 50% faith places and 50% open places as they have in some faith schools. I'd prefer no faith places, but I'm generous like that... BTW I'd move this to education as I think the polarity is worse in secondary schools. So you want no faith places in a faith school Totally agree with this campaign! I have to fund all these church schools with my income tax and then I can't send my children there. It's extremely discriminatory and, to be honest, racist. In many London boroughs this system just separates white Christian children from other immigrant communities. But as another poster I'd be okay with 50/50 faith and open places. It's about time they changed the system. There are many Christian children in immigrant communities. There is nothing stopping you from sending your children to these schools. You don't have to be a believer. You simply have to meet the church attendance requirement. You don't even have to take part in the service. You can sit there and read the Sunday paper if you like. It still counts. You do not fully fund these schools although you do provide the majority of the funding. The proportion of funding they have to supply has gone down over the years but they still have to fund at least 10% of any capital costs and insure the buildings. The land and buildings for these schools belongs to the church (indirectly). If faith schools were not allowed to give any priority to children of the faith they could, in my view, legitimately ask why the government is not fully funding them and why the government isn't buying the land and buildings. Oh, and even if you don't meet the church attendance requirement you aren't necessarily barred from the school. If there are still places left after all those meeting the faith criteria have been admitted they will be offered to other applicants. The reason many faith schools never get that far is that so many people who are non-believers attend church just to get their child in. I should also add that not all faith schools are Christian. The majority are CofE or Catholic but there are also Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faith schools. Strongly agree admissions should not be based on faith. Could have some %, say 30%, faith based but not over 50%. If church contributes 10% of money, church can have a say in 10% of places. The conclusion I came to was that, imperfect as it is, as a practical matter for a low income parent like me it was possible to meet the church attendence requirement - but I wouldn't have been able to move house near the school. There isn't an easy totally fair answer I don't think. Prh47bridge, I don't know where you live but faith schools in my London borough do not only have an attendance requirement but also want to see baptism certificates. And they are all Catholic or Church of England. Even if I am protestant from another European country, I will come behind any CofE England applicant so it is impossible to get into a good faith school (of course on get get into horrible faith schools). A friend of mine started attending Mass to get her children into Catholic school and the first thing the priest did was to write a letter to all parents asking them to appeal to their MP to block gay marriage. This is the reality. We should be getting rid of the whole lot of them,we are a multi faith society and given that I am a tax payer I should be able to send my dc to any school I choose. Great idea. I agree though that the fact that churches still own the land and provide significant funding (a new building will be about £10M. So £1 million quid to come from the church) will be a problem. Possibly start by encouraging all church schools to prioritise children who have attended any church, not just St Leafy's in the posh area of town that isn't welcoming to many - which would at least improve the social mix slightly, if only to parents who are organised enough to attend a church fortnightly for two years before applying for their child's place. And once they realise the sky hasn't fallen in, encourage them to introduce some places open to all, so they better represent their local community. I believe the few schools of other religions are rarely oversubscribed, but same would apply. Someone pointed out the other day that Jewish schools have practical benefits for pupils being able to provide kosher cooked food and ensure the school day ends so pupils can get home by bus etc before sunset in winter, but there's no reason other schools couldn't support packed lunches or buy in boxed meals, and tweak their Friday timetable, if necessary. There is no place for faith schools in British society and there shouldn't be a single penny of tax payers money spent on them. If you want a faith school you fund it. The nearest 2 schools to us are CofE yet hardly any of the local kids are religious sooooo we have to tolerate a religion we don't believe in if we want our kids to attend their local community school oh and fund it! We should be encouraging all faiths to mix,segregating children in the basis of religion is wrong. But why do you want your child to attend a faith school? Because I want my kids to go to their local school which is in their community and town with the children they have grown up with from birth. I positively don't want my kids going to a faith school but we have no choice. Community is far more important to me than any faith. I didn't realise CofE schools did this. Thought it was just them Catholics. I got my DD into a local school with no questions asked. Oh and our school is not that great( satisfactory), it's a myth that a church school automatically = an Outstanding school. Far too much time spent on religion and not enough on the basics but if you want your kids on grow up as part if a community you have to tolerate it- it's so wrong! Ours takes anybody but my point is this campaign needs to acknowledge how wrong faith schools are.It's not just admissions in some that is wrong but the whole concept. I think faiths schools have a place and my children have all attended faith schools I do not attend church but my oldest DD's father attended church not CofE and she was still accepted it was over subscribed but it. Criteria is more about involvement then attendance For posters who are not aware of this, some faith schools already limit the number of places awarded on faith criteria. New faith schools cannot award more than 50% of places on faith criteria. sanam2010 - A requirement for baptism certificates is not unusual in RC schools but it is very unusual in CofE schools. I don't remember seeing such a requirement even in London. And the fact the priest writes to you asking you to appeal to MPs about something the church is against is not surprising nor is there any requirement for you to take any notice. See also my reply to notcitrus below regarding your comment about protestants from other European countries. notcitrus - Through assisting people with appeals I get to see the admission criteria for a lot of schools from all over England. From what I have seen I believe that most CofE schools give priority to anyone attending any church that is part of Churches Together - that covers pretty much all Christian churches in England. Quite a few, possibly most, CofE schools give such families equal priority with families attending CofE churches. Families attending non-CofE churches and living within the parish often have priority over families attending CofE churches but living outside the parish. It is unusual to specify one particular CofE church as the only one that gives priority. Some CofE schools also give priority to children of other faiths. Again, a family living within the school's parish and worshipping in a non-Christian faith may take priority over CofE children living outside the parish. Just for clarity, a faith school cannot simply refuse to admit children who are not of the faith. They can use faith-based criteria to give priority but if there are insufficient children meeting the faith-based criteria they must admit children who don't meet those criteria. That is the law. I do not think the state should fund faith schools. All state schools should be non-denominational. The state is there to provide a fair framework of education for all children & should not favour those of any particular faith. If parents want their children to have faith based education, then they can set up after school clubs, saturday clubs or summer camps. Please don't use the 'my taxes pay for this and I can't access it' argument - it totally undermines what you are trying to say. You don't get o pick and choose what your taxes pay, other than very notionally when you vote. I can't access elderly case support but don't moan about my taxes paying for them. What we should IMO be arguing is for the UK to be a secular state. It is not, and damn well should be. Turkey and the USA, constitutionally at least, are secular and if they can manage that so can we! titchy, there is some point to that argument about tax though. We pay taxes to have all children educated & some children are denied access to their nearest school because they are the wrong faith or not of any faith. It is not based on income or means testing or anything like that - just pure religious discrimination. I don't use the NHS very much, because I enjoy good health, but at least I know that when I do need to use it, I can go to my local GP, local hospital and they won't turn me away because I'm not CofE! Completely agree with your argument on secular state though. 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Shopping for a New York expat? Convincing a buddy to move here? You can't send New York attitude or that creeping feeling of paying godknowshowmuch for a studio apartment—but you can send proper pastrami. And smoked fish. And any number of the city's top cookies. Here are nine Only in New York food businesses—traditional and new—that will take care of all the shipping for you to deliver your gifts nationwide. You can buy the full complement of the Robicelli's baked goods, including their signature cupcakes, for delivery around New York City. But they've also just started shipping nationally (excluding the more-perishable cupcakes and whoopie pies), so you can send some of this Made in Brooklyn love all around the country. Another reason to feel good buying these sweets: owners Allison and Matt Robicelli have become nothing short of heroes in this post-Sandy New York, despite the storm's devastating effects on their own business. Order here » It's getting harder and harder to find a good bagel in New York, but we'll always have pastrami at Katz's. Consider sending some pastrami, corned beef, or knoblewurst sausage to show how much you care, and how awesome the New York deli can be. Katz's also just started delivering within New York City, and has a military mailing program so you can, in fact, continue to send a salami to your boy (or girl!) in the Army. Order here » A cookie at Levain isn't just a cookie: it's an event, essentially a scone-sized mound of cookie dough baked until craggly on the outside but still gooey within. These cookies eat lesser chocolate chips for breakfast, and have an almost preternatural commanding power over those who eat them. Buy these for your loved one and they'll never look at cookies the same way again. Order here » Russ & Daughters What Katz's is to the New York deli, Russ & Daughters is to smoked fish and Jewish appetizing. Superlative whitefish salad, herring, and lox of all kinds make for perfect Yiddishe gift baskets. Order here » Beurre & Sel Dorie Greenspan's cookie bakery is only a couple months old, but it's well on its way to becoming a New York institution. If Dorie's bookshelf-length list of baking books doesn't convince you, head to the Essex Street Market or La Maqueta and try a World Peace Cookie for yourself. The company just started shipping nationally, and if you have any Greenspan fans on your gift list (you probably do), these will make them squeal with joy. Order here » La Boite à Epice Master spice blender Lior Lev Sercarz's gorgeous spice blends don't come cheap at around $15 for a two ounce canister, but he digs up ingredients you simply can't get anywhere else and combines them with virtuosic eloquence. House-smoked cinnamon, or his savory mix of crystallized honey, star anise, ginger, and cinnamon, are perfect for seasonal baking. He also just came out with a book on blending spices, with recipes from many renowned chefs who commission special blends from him. Order here » If you're wondering who to buy chocolate from, buy it from the chocolatier who'll sell you an A. M. Quickie. But seriously, Jacques Torres has classic and creative chocolates and cookies in every configuration you could want. It's what my grandmother gave me for the holidays when I was growing up, and if it's good enough for my grandma, it's good enough for the rest of us. Order here » Momofuku Milk Bar Cookies and whole cakes are the things to ship from Momofuku Milk Bar. Sure, compost cookies are a given to us New Yorkers, but a tin of a dozen salty-sweet Christina Tosi cookies are always welcome outside city borders. Order here » Made in NYC This isn't a single gift, but rather a gift-finding resource. Made in NYC is a directory of over 900 New York business, pointing you towards ways to shop locally. Food businesses reeling from Sandy are relying on the holiday season even more than usual to make up for lost revenue, and we can all do our part by supporting the businesses that make this city such a wonderful place to live. Read more »

Gospel for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (5 February 2017) Gospel Notes by Michael Whelan SM “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16 – NRSV) “The introduction to the Sermon on the Mount contains four sections: the setting (5:1–2), the Beatitudes (5:3–12), the identity of Jesus’ followers (5:13–16), and the teaching about the Law (5:17–20). .... The third unit of the introduction (5:13–16) continues the second person plural style of the final Beatitude (‘you are ....’). The sayings about salt and light are Matthew’s formulation of sayings found elsewhere in the Synoptic tradition (Mark 9:49–50/Luke 14:34–35 for salt, and Mark 4:21/Luke 8:16 for light). Along with the image of the ‘city set upon a mountain’, they serve to define the identity of those who follow Jesus faithfully. That identity is firmly rooted in Israel’s identity as God’s people (Isa 2:2–5). It also has significance for the world as a whole: ‘the salt of the earth’, ‘the light of the world’ that ‘gives light to all in the house’, and the ‘city set upon a mountain’ that is visible to all.” (Daniel J Harrington, The Gospel of Matthew, Liturgical Press, 2007, 82-83. You are the salt of the earth: Apart from the obvious uses of salt – to flavor and preserve food – salt was traditionally used as a purifying agent. See for example: 2 Kings 2:19–22: “Now the people of the city said to Elisha, ‘The location of this city is good, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful’. He said, ‘Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it’. So they brought it to him. Then he went to the spring of water and threw the salt into it, and said, ‘Thus says the LORD, I have made this water wholesome; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it’. So the water has been wholesome to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.” Ezekiel 16:4: “As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in cloths.” Perhaps we should simply focus on the fact that salt is a very basic commodity that makes life livable in a variety of ways, it gives savour and flavor in formal and informal settings. Just as food – indeed life itself – can be insipid without salt, so the disciple’s life is to bring joy and meaning to a life that would otherwise be banal and superficial. You are the light of the world: “‘Light of the world’ is found in a range of Jewish sources applied to God, Adam, distinguished rabbis, Israel, the Torah and the temple, and Jerusalem. Cicero, Cat. 4:6, considered Rome ‘a light to the whole world’. Jn. 8:12 uses ‘the light of the world’ for Jesus (cf. Mt. 4:16). The closest OT texts are Is. 42:6; 49:6; 60:3, where the servant/Israel is a light to the nations. But the lack of the exact phrase there and the breadth of alternative background suggest that we should not read the Matthean phrase as a definite allusion. At most the identity of the disciples as the light of the world may be linked with the other indications that have been noticed of the role of Israel being carried forward by the disciple band. Light illuminates beneficially. Once again the text points to the universal significance of what is happening.” (John Nolland, “Preface” in The Gospel of Matthew: a commentary on the Greek text, W.B. Eerdmans, 2005, 213-214.) One of my confreres had been a radio operator in a Lancaster bomber during the Second World War. His name was Allan Russell. Everyone called him Charlie. Charlie’s plane was shot down over Germany and he parachuted into the night and landed in the snow. As he was untangling himself he heard a voice: “For you the war is over!” A German soldier was behind him with a sub-machine gun. Charlie spent the remainder of the war in several different prisons. He did not enjoy that. On one occasion he and his mates were being marched to a different prison. Charlie was walking along, shoulders hunched, head down. An Australian officer and fellow prisoners came up beside him and said in a matter of fact manner: “Come on Russell. You can do better than that!” Charlie told me that story more than once, always with a glint in his eye and a smile on his face. The officer’s word made all the difference. (Allan Russell was born 26/2/1921, professed as a Marist 23/2/1955, ordained Priest 1959, died 13/2/2008.) “You are the salt of the earth! You are the light of the world! .... You are .... better than what you know, more than what you can even imagine!” It is not unreasonable to take Jesus’ statements as referring to all human beings. In other words, like Jesus’ very life, everything he says and does responds to the question: “What does it mean to be a human being?” Not just a “Christian” but a human being. In another context, Thomas Merton addresses the same question: “It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, though it is a race dedicated to many absurdities and one which makes many terrible mistakes: yet, with all that, God Himself gloried in becoming a member of the human race. A member of the human race! .... I have the immense joy of being human, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.” (Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Doubleday, 1989, 157.) Our lives can become caught in a thicket of unreality, generated by family expectations, cultural demands, political ideologies, ethnicity, even “religion”. And of course we can contribute to this unreality out of our fears and anxieties, our selfishness and greed – and our ignorance. We can do better than that! It is about letting God be God in us, letting God love us into freedom. Of course getting out of the way is hard work. Do you think you are up for it?

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website. The incredibly happy marriage of Wyatt Earp and Josie Marcus. Wyatt Earp a Jew? Well, no, but he is buried in a Jewish Cemetery. Why? Read on... In 1867, Josephine Sarah Marcus moved with her observant, immigrant, German-Jewish parents from Brooklyn, New York to San Francisco. She said her prayers every day and was taught a by-the-books good Jewish education. In 1879, young Josie was exposed to the romance of the San Francisco gold rush era. After seeing the Gilbert and Sullivan play H.M.S. Pinafore at the age of 18, Josie caught the show biz bug. She ran away with a friend and joined the company touring the U.S. When the troupe played Tombstone, Arizona, she fell in love with the corrupt city marshal Johnny Behan. Ironically, it was Behan who introduced Josie to Wyatt Earp. Josie and Wyatt were to soon fall in deeply in love and be married for some 50 years. The marriage was, by all accounts, a joyous one. While we know much, factually, of Josephine Marcus, Wyatt Earp, while a true legend, had a checkered, disputed, and much-debated life history. While it is certain that Wyatt, then a U.S. Marshal, participated in the legendary "gunfight at the O.K. Corral" in 1881, the facts of that historic day remain foggy. Wyatt, along with his brothers Morgan and Virgil and friend Doc Holliday, did participate in the shooting of the Clanton gang. The fight injured both Morgan and Virgil, while three of the Clantons were killed. The Clantons claimed it was a deliberate set-up and that the Earps waited for them and drew first, while the Earp side claimed the Clantons drew their pistols first. During the shoot-out, Josie heard the gunshots from down the street. She ran from her house, hopped on a passing wagon and came down to the O.K. Corral. In Josie's own words: "I didn't know at the time who was wounded and I was all too frightened ...I almost swooned when I saw Wyatt's tall figure very much alive... He spotted me and (with companions) came across the street. Like a feather-brained girl, my only thought was 'My God, I haven't got a bonnet on. What will they think?'" (Hardly a pleasing account for latter-day feminists to read, I'm sure -but remember, political correctness was still almost 100 years in the future.) The courts saw fit to acquit Wyatt and the boys on the grounds of self-defense. The verdict caused a huge stir with many, not the least of which was the angry Clanton gang. The Clantons, in a revenge attack, ambushed Wyatt and killed his beloved brother Morgan. After that, Wyatt and Doc Holliday, along with others, raided various hideouts, killing anyone they suspected had a hand in Morgan's death. Now on the lam from the law, Wyatt and Josie moved to Gunnison, Colorado, where the law refused to extradite Wyatt -on the grounds that he couldn't get a fair trial. After that, Wyatt and Josie led the happy life of a storybook couple from a Hollywood movie. Appearing everywhere a gold, silver, or copper boom town appeared, the Earps were there to stake their claim. They invested in mines, and real estate, and operated saloons and gambling parlors in such far-flung places as Nome, Alaska and Eagle City, Idaho. For a while, they lived with Josie's parents in San Francisco. It was here that Josie resumed some of the lessons of her Jewish upbringing. Later, they settled in southern California and raised racehorses and lived off gambling winnings and real estate speculation. In the 1920s, they invested in oil wells, worked on Wyatt's autobiography, and drafted a screenplay about his days as a frontier marshal. Sadly, the screenplay was never produced. A journalist named Stuart Lake wanted to make the project, but he and Josie argued about his vision, which she thought was unflattering to her beloved husband. Wyatt Earp died in 1929, after a half-century of happiness, fun, and adventure with his darling Josie. In 1931, a book, Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal was published. Josie made sure all the offending passages in the book were stricken. The book was hugely popular. Wyatt Earp mania followed, and to this day, Wyatt Earp is one of the true American icons and legends of the Old West. At least three films have been made about Wyatt and the "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral." (The best by far is Tombstone (1993) -my all-time favorite Western. Kurt Russell nails the role of Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer also gives his best performance as Doc Holliday. I highly recommend this film.) Widowed Josie had her beloved Wyatt's ashes buried in the family plot at the Little Hills of Eternity Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Colma, California. One can surmise that as Josie's parents were both buried in this cemetery, and Josie knew that when her time came, she would be buried beside her parents. She and Wyatt probably discussed the matter, and Wyatt, having no record of anti-Semitism and adoring his wife, probably just said, "Sure." Wyatt Earp was not Jewish, but his grave is surrounded by gravestones adorned with Stars of David and menorahs. Josie died in 1944, and was buried next to Wyatt. Of course, the Earp gravesite is the most visited and popular tourist attraction in Colma. A simple, flat plaque anchors the Earps' joint gravesite, unlike the other graves around it, which are mostly upright, stone graves. Josie once had a 250-pound block of concrete installed to mark Wyatt's grave. Incredibly, in 1957, the concrete marker was stolen. We can presume, by huge Wyatt Earp fans! (Image credit: Flickr user Joel Meadows)

The Golden Rule -- “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” -- is a basic tenet of virtually every religion in the world. It is often overlooked in the rush to rules and laws for every occasion, but in general, the only real reason for religion is to define how we treat our divinities and our fellow beings. Accordingly, all religions are at their most fundamental level, the same. They are connected, forming an overall oneness. Mythologies are a form of religion, even when they are not intended as such. Especially when they describe profound events in their history, events which shape their beliefs in the natural world, the divinities which may have influenced those events and how the believers have reacted to the events in terms of how they deal with the world thereafter. Ancient Sumerian texts, for example, describe in great detail the events leading up to the Flood and Deluge of Biblical renown, and the histories of mankind down through the age of Abraham and his grandchild, Jacob. The Sumerian version has been found to corroborate the Book of Genesis at every turn, and in fact has provided a more detailed description of the biblical events. In many respects, the book of Genesis is an executive summary of the far more ancient Sumerian texts. Meanwhile, the Sumerian Enuma Elish describes the creation of our solar system in a scientifically consistent manner. And just as the Bible is referenced in various ways by numerous religions in their rituals, the same is true of the Sumerian Enuma Elish, which was recited verbatim on appropriate holy days. Another example of the dual histories -- and whatever authority and/or credibility they lend to the religion -- is a comparison between the Sumerian Epic of Creation and that portion of Genesis which tells of the same events. For example, Laurence Gardner has noted the common elements between the Enuma Elish and Genesis: The latter statements seem strangely illuminating. It is worth mentioning that Genesis was written circa 600 B.C.E., and in a Babylonian location (while the Hebrews were in captivity). On the one hand, the writers had easy access to the libraries from which the Sumerian histories had briefly returned to life in those ancient times. On the other hand, there is the motivation on the part of the writers to somehow explain how the “chosen people” were being held in captivity far from home. The comparative brevity of Genesis with respect to the Enuma Elish is probably indicative that it is far easier to edit out sections than creatively add new ones -- especially when there is a strong resistance to originality in writing the holy texts of a religion. It should be noted that while the Sumerian texts, in describing the details of the ancient history of mankind had placed a strong emphasis on the fact that “gold belonged to the gods”, there is no such emphasis in Genesis. This may be explained in part by the fact of the rivalry between Enki and Enlil and that the Sumerian version was much more pro-Enki or at least even-handed, while Genesis was definitely pro-Enlil. Not being a fan of man, Enlil would likely have glossed over the real reason for his being on Earth, while Enki, who was more interested in mankind’s spiritual evolvement, would have made a point of mentioning gold and its relationship to the Orme or Star Fire. Another comparative religion example might be to compare, as Gardner has done, the Amenemope version of Egyptian wisdom with that of the Book of Proverbs: One final example is a comparison between the Bible’s book of Exodus describing the Hebrews leaving Egypt (i.e. the sudden loss of slave-power by the Egyptians), and the Egyptian version of the end of the Old Kingdom provided by the scribe Ipuwer. Ipuwer’s work was known as the Papyrus Ipuwer, which was originally a translation of the Leiden Papyrus by A. Gardiner. Immanuel Velikovsky noted the similarities in the event description, and concluded that the Exodus did in fact occur at the time of the end of the Old Kingdom and not later as is often suggested. The commonality of religious teachings derives from many sources. One is the common experiences and (literally) world shaking events which have molded our consciousnesses. Whether it is the creation of the world itself, a Great Flood/Deluge, or an event which allows a massive exodus of a subjugated people from a powerful overlord, these are the paradigm shaking moments which must be accounted for in any religion. A second reason for the commonality of religions is that the ancients did a lot of copying of others works. Bernstein , for example has written: “When Moses led the Israelites out of the land of bondage, he carried with him the mysteries of Egyptian knowledge acquired by Moses himself at the court of the Pharaoh.” The Hebrews also took much of the knowledge of creation from the Babylonians, who had in turn learned their lessons from the Sumerians. The Jewish Kaballah (aka Ha Qabala) is replicated in large part by the Christian Caballah, and the ecumenical Qaballah, and all may very well have originated from the Sumerians’ “Table of Destiny”. As Mark Twain has observed: “The ancients have stolen all our really good, new ideas.” Differences in Religion are purely in the details and the facades we place around our core beliefs in order to appear unique. On the one hand, religion’s exoteric doctrines (“for the many”) designed for the common man contains all manner of interesting and original notions of what’s important (i.e. “full of sound and fury and signifying nothing”). On the other hand, the esoteric doctrines (“for the few”) are where the real meat is, and is limited to those willing to make the effort to pursue the higher truths of life. And the esoteric portions are also the connecting links of commonality of all viable religions. At the most fundamental level, all religions are pretty much the same. They are, after all, talking about the same Universal Creator, the same history of Earth (however much we argue about the sequence and dating of events), and the same humanoids, extraterrestrials, and interdimensional beings running amuck on the planet’s surface and surrounding space. Everything is connected, everything is one. But everything is also disguised in order to make it interesting in finding out how everything is one and connected. Laurence Gardner, Genesis of the Grail Kings, Bantam Press, New York, 1999. Immanuel Velikovsky, “A Reply to Stiebing”, Pensee, Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered VI, Student Academic Freedom Forum, Portland, Oregon, 1974. Henrietta Bernstein, Cabalah Primer, Devorss Publications, Marina del Rey, 1984. 2003© Copyright Dan Sewell Ward, All Rights Reserved [Feedback]

[NOTE: Point here is certainly not to excuse Bishop Williamsons’ notions. The connection is merely that many people have quite obviously taken issue with his false opinions of historical fact, and have said it is a reason he should not be in communion with the Catholic Church. Now here is a pastor of a church “in union with Rome” giving a homily challenging the very history of the Church itself, and I doubt the enemies of the Society of St. Pius X will care]. Well, it’s been 2 years. It’s been a good run. We have some great priests here in Columbia. Several very orthodox ones. So far, while I know certain parishes and pastors have liberal leanings, I have yet to be really bothered by anything I’ve heard in a homily. OK, maybe that’s a factor of how few homilies I actually get to *hear*, but, nonetheless. . . . Today the two year streak was broken by what is probably on the line of the worst homilies I’ve ever heard, certainly equalling the “I hope this Pope dies soon so we can get a new one who will get rid of canon law . . ..” trope I’ve heard so many times. This just took the cake. Ironically, I had just come out of my Carmelite meeting, feeling very inspired and ready for Mass. Then this had to happen. I left in the middle of it, so I don’t know if it got to where it was logically going. I don’t want to know. I couldn’t stand it if it did. Msgr. Lehocky at St. Peter’s has raised red flags for me before. The parish has three things going for it: gothic architecture, a really good “traditional” music group (they regularly do polyphony, Latin, etc. at the Sunday morning Masses, though we usually don’t make it), and a very orthodox parochial vicar. But he named the parish center after Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, among other things. So, tonight, he started off well, noting how 4 out of 7 Resurrection accounts in the Gospels include food. That could lead two ways, I thought: the importance of the Real Presence (“they knew Him in the breaking of the bread”) or the physical reality of the Resurrection. First red flag was when he talked about how significant it is to dine with others. He said how it’s one thing to see an important person you admire–“Let’s say Pope Benedict or President Obama”–in a crowd. Quite another, he said, to shake his hand or get his autograph. But what an honor to eat as his table! He returned to the example of President Obama, and what an honor it would be to have supper with him. Then he began a step-by-step deconstruction of the Liturgy and, by implication, of the Eucharist Itself. “You know, in the early Church, there were no churches. Mass was held in people’s homes. . . . ” The rest was a lecture on “communal meals” right out of Roger Cardinal Mahony’s playbook, full of outright lies and falsehoods about the history of the Church, and implicitly undermining the authority of the Church herself to “loose and bind”. Nevermind the archaeological evidence of first century church buildings. “It was usually held in the context of an evening meal. They got together to eat. They’d read short passages from Scripture and discuss them.” Why were there ordained bishops and presbyters to preach the Scriptures if this was the case? Why were deacons and deaconesses specifically ordained to *go into people’s homes* and read the Scriptures and distribute communion if Liturgy was already in their homes? He talked about how people found such a presence of Christ in these alleged dinner parties that they were converted, and they were converted in such numbers that the Church had to build buildings. “And they didn’t know how to build a church, so they based it off of Roman government buildings.” HUH? How about “they based it off the Jewish temple”? How about “they based it off the synagogue”? Then he said, “And they needed more room, so they kind of pushed the table back, to make room for more chairs.” WHAT?? They didn’t even sit in chairs! If you’re going to make this ludicrous claim to begin with, you can at least get the facts right. In Roman days, one reclined on something like a chaise lounge to eat. “And since they moved the table back to the wall, the priest had to turn his back on the people.” What about praying to the East, as both Jews and Muslims do as well?? “And the crowds got so big that they started to worry about people coming up to the altar, so thye put up barriers. That’s where altar rails came from.” What about protecting the Sacred Mysteries??? What about keeping the Sacred Mysteries mysterious??? “And the priest didn’t have a microphone, so he just started mumbling the words in a language nobody understood.” It was their official language!!! And everything else he’s saying–barriers, praying ad orientem, fixed altars–applies just as well to the Eastern Churches, which used the vernacular. In fact, in the Eastern CHurches, they use the Vernacular and the priest still prays parts of the Liturgy silently. By this time, I really wasn’t even paying close enough attention, because I was turning my wheelchair back on, but he did a sweeping gesture towards the Tabernacle and said something like, “They gradually built up all of this, and all of this is completely not what Christ intended.” That was the point where I turned my wheelchair around and left. If it got any worse, I would’ve had to rend my garments. Most Holy Trinity,Father, Son and Holy Spirit,I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences whereby He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners. Amen.

The Iran deal was a landmark of former President Barack Obama‘s administration, but three Democrats in Palm Beach County’s U.S. House delegation — Reps. Alcee Hastings of Delray Beach, Ted Deutch of Boca Raton and Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach — opposed it in 2015. Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, who crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans on several issues, supported the Iran deal. In a Forum Club of the Palm Beaches appearance two weeks before the Senate vote, Nelson called the Iran deal flawed but better than the alternative. “Right now, if we walk away from the agreement, Iran can develop a nuclear weapon in two to three months,” Nelson said. “If we agree to this agreement, which has its flaws, at the very least they will not produce a nuclear weapon until after 10 years and probably after 15 years.” Nelson also said that he was satisfied that if Iran tried to secretly develop a nuclear weapon “we would find it.” FORT LAUDERDALE — President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi met Friday night with Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel and about two dozen law enforcement officers and first responders who were called into action for Wednesday’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Here’s a transcript of the meeting with first responders as provided by the White House: I just got back from the hospital. A young woman was shot — four bullets, two in her lungs. And they got her over to the hospital in less than 21 minutes. She had no chance, and, between the first responders, your people who got her — you know who I’m talking about — they got her there, Scott. What a job you’ve done, and the doctors did a great job over at the hospital — a combination which is incredible. And I hope you’re getting the credit for it. Because, believe me, you deserve it. The job you’ve done is unparalleled. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Fantastic community here. Thank you. What a great job you’ve done, and we appreciate it very much. An incredible job, and everybody’s talking about it. SHERIFF ISRAEL: You know what? I’m giving them all raises next week. (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT: Give them a raise. Give everybody here a raise. SHERIFF ISRAEL: Mr. President, these are the leaders. They led SWAT teams; they led staging areas; they led command posts. These are the leaders who led the first responders for police and fire, our deputies who were able do the amazing things we did in Broward County. So these men and women are — and we’re — so appreciative and honored that you and the First Lady could come down and spend time in Broward County and let us know what it means to you. So thank you very much. THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much, Scott, and you did fantastically. You know, I know Broward very well. I’ve been here many times. I don’t live very far away. I’m right up the road. We actually drove down. We landed over at Palm Beach International and we drove down. And this was supposed to take place on Sunday or Monday. And I said, “No way.” And then Marco said, “Hey” — he wants to go down early too. We didn’t want to wait. We didn’t want to wait. Maybe we could ask you each to say your name and a little bit about what you do. You have a lot of folks here. I’d like to get the world to see the great job that you’ve done. So the governor of Florida, we all know — Rick Scott has done a fantastic job. Fantastic governor. Truly a state that’s doing well. We know that Rick, right?. GOVERNOR SCOTT: Yeah. (Inaudible.) THE PRESIDENT: So I just want to thank you. (Inaudible) say something. GOVERNOR SCOTT: First off, I want to thank you for coming down. As soon as it happened, Kirstjen Nielsen called me, and made sure that — if there was any federal resources, you know. And thank you for the conversation we had. And you promised any resources the federal government could provide. I know everybody in law enforcement here is grateful to the Sheriff, and everybody has worked really hard. As you said, the hospital did a really good job. We’ve had the opportunity to visit the patients over there. The kids are — it’s horrible what happened, but they’re very optimistic about the future. So I just want to thank you and the First Lady for being down here — THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. GOVERNOR SCOTT: — and showing your gratitude for all the individuals that took care of everybody. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Rick. Fantastic job. Fantastic governor. Attorney General Pam Bondi. ATTORNEY GENERAL BONDI: Thanks, President, and thank you and the First Lady, again, for being here. And, Sheriff, thank you for the great job you did. And, FBI, thank you for everything you did. And Governor, of course, you. We were on the ground with our advocates from all over the state. They came on at a moment’s notice. And we had the very difficult job of being with the deceased’s families. There is no easy way to talk to someone about losing a child, especially (inaudible). And so it was very, very difficult. And then, today, we went to the hospital and got to see what you saw. So some very good coming out of that. And we’ve also seen a lot of good with the citizens coming forward, wanting to help and wanting to help our first responders. And from all over the country, people have been reaching out — in such horror and tragedy. GOVERNOR SCOTT: The Attorney General has great victim advocates. She’s done it (inaudible) at Pulse, and then she — after the Las Vegas shooter, she took a lot of her individuals out with her to help out there. And she’s done a great job here, bringing her child advocates and helping people — or victim advocates helping people. ATTORNEY GENERAL BONDI: Thanks, Governor. THE PRESIDENT: I’ll tell you who appreciates it, too, are the parents. Because I was at the hospital with a lot of parents. And they are really thankful for the job you’ve done. Now, in those cases, their child is in really great shape considering they, in most cases, would not have been. But they are really thankful to everybody. Thanks, Pam. UNDERSHERIFF KINSEY: Steve Kinsey, I’m the undersheriff for Broward Sheriff’s Office. Thank you for coming, Mr. President and Ms. First Lady. We really appreciate your support of law enforcement. You and the Governor are always behind us. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. COLONEL POLAN: Jim Polan. I’m a colonel assigned to operations for the Sheriff’s Office. Again, thank you for being here. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Jim. COLONEL DALE: Jack Dale. I’m the colonel of investigation. So we led the investigative effort. THE PRESIDENT: Great. Good job. DEPUTY WIRTH: Chris Wirth. I’m a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office assigned to the bomb squad responders (inaudible). THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Chris. LIEUTENANT CARDINALE: Chris Cardinale from Sunrise Police. I was one of the first responders there, along with Captain Bradley, Jim McLean (ph) from Coral Springs, and Deputy Carbocci from BSO. And the victim you were talking about earlier, this gentleman here, along with Jim McLean brought her out first, and then we got her on a — got her some rescue. THE PRESIDENT: That’s right. And you found her in a very odd place, too. Not easy to even find. What a job you did. Thank you very much. MR. BRADLEY: Gareth Bradley. I was one of the SWAT medics that responded — THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Great job. I’ve heard about that. Heard about you. Great job. Thank you. DEPUTY HANKS: Mr. President, I’m Deputy Hanks. I’m assigned to the Parkland district. I was part of a small contingent of the Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies and Coral Springs officers that made the initial entry into Building 12, where the incident happened. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. FIRE CHIEF FERNANDEZ: Mr. President, Joe Fernandez, fire chief for Broward County under Sheriff Israel. Thank you for your support for the fire rescue service. We’re in a much more forward-leaning posture thanks to your support, equipment, and we were able to work tightly with law enforcement to save those lives. THE PRESIDENT: You did. Thank you. FIRE CHIEF FERNANDEZ: Thank you. COLONEL PALMER: Good evening, Mr. President. My name is Colonel Gary Palmer. I’m executive director of the Department of Detention, where he’s being housed currently. THE PRESIDENT: That’s right. Great job, thank you. SPECIAL AGENT FORCELLI: Mr. President, Pete Forcelli, special agent in charge of ATF’s Miami field division. Thanks for your support, and it’s great to work with these fine people. The law enforcement and public safety community down here in South Florida is like no other I’ve had the honor of working with. Amazing people. THE PRESIDENT: That’s very nice. That’s very nice. Thank you very much. SPECIAL AGENT LASKY: Robert Lasky, special agent in charge, FBI. We’re happy to lend a hand and be a part of the team to overcome these events. Of behalf of me and the thousand people that work for me, thank you for all your support and thank Broward County. They’re a tremendously professional organization. THE PRESIDENT: Great job, Bob. Really great job. And you had a lot FBI guys down here, quickly. So great job. Thank you very much. SPECIAL AGENT LASKY: Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. THE PRESIDENT: Marco. We know Marco. SENATOR RUBIO: Mr. President, we just want to thank you and the First Lady for coming. Obviously, the Governor and the Attorney General for their response. And the stories of the heroism from the schools that inspire — teachers; the administrators, some who lost their lives; and the men and women of law enforcement who rushed into this building not knowing what’s on the other side. This is a community and a state that’s in deep pain. And they want action to make sure this never happens again. It’s happened too often. And I know, and I hope, and I pray we’ll come together. And I know you want to solve this, and — THE PRESIDENT: Well, you’re behind them. I can tell you that, Marco. I spent a lot of time with Marco. He’s behind you, 100 percent, as is the Governor, as is Pam, as we all are. Really, as we all are. You have a great story to tell. Go ahead. OFFICER LEONARD: Mr. President, thank you for having me here. My name is Officer Michael Leonard. I’m with Coconut Creek Police Department. I was the one that located the shooter. With the assistance of my backup, once they arrived — Sergeant (inaudible) of the Coral Springs Police assisted me in handcuffing and taking him into custody. THE PRESIDENT: That was so modest. I would have told it much differently. (Laughter.) I would have said, “Without me, they never would have found him.” (Laughter.) But, you know, their story is amazing because Coconut Creek is not that close. And they heard he wasn’t around, and they can’t find him, and there was a description, and you were in a different area. And you said — it must have been sort of strange because you were so far away. You said, “I think that maybe is the shooter.” And very few people would have done what you did. I think it was a fantastic job OFFICER LEONARD: Thank you. THE PRESIDENT: So now I’ve told the real story. (Laughter.) First Lady, would you like to say anything? THE FIRST LADY: Thank you all for what you do, and saving our children. That’s the most important. They’re our future. And let’s take care of them because they will go through a lot with what they experienced two days ago. And we need to take care of them. Thank you. THE PRESIDENT: Very nice. Thank you. SHERIFF ISRAEL: Mr. President, I just want to, on behalf of this agency, thank you. You know, when you get to spend time with the President of the United States and the First Lady, it’s something you’ll never forget. But our conversation is not what I’m going to remember most. I’m going to remember about a half hour that you and the First Lady spent with the son of — who was shot — of one of our injured deputies. I’ll never forget that, and for you to do something like that is amazing. And it shows what you think of law enforcement, and we appreciate it. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. He’s a good boy. (Inaudible.) Congratulations. Let’s sit down, and thank you all very much. U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, broke with most House Democrats early this morning and voted for a spending bill that keeps the government open through March 23 but doesn’t address DACA — the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that shields from deportation young non-citizens who were brought to the U.S. by their parents. In Palm Beach County’s House delegation, Deutch joined U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, in support. Reps. Alcee Hastings, D-Delray Beach, and Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, were opposed. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Palm Coast, a candidate for governor, voted for the spending bill. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Okeechobee, a Palm Beach County native who now represents a Central Florida district, also voted in favor of the bill. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio fired chief of staff Clint Reed on Saturday night after determining Reed had “violated office policies regarding proper relations between a supervisor and their subordinates.” In a statement released at 11:48 p.m. Saturday, Rubio said he learned of the allegations Friday afternoon and concluded Saturday they “amounted to threats to withhold employment benefits.” He said he flew from Florida to Washington on Saturday night to terminate Reed’s employment immediately. During Rubio’s unsuccessful 2016 presidential bid, Reed was his Iowa state director, helping Rubio to a stronger-than-expected third place finish in the Iowa caucuses. When Rubio’s presidential bid ended and he decided to seek re-election to the Senate, Reed was his campaign manager. Reed became chief of staff in Rubio’s Senate office in January 2017. Here’s the full statement Rubio released late Saturday night: “Yesterday afternoon, I was made aware, for the first time, of allegations of improper conduct by my Chief of Staff while under the employment of my office. These allegations were reported directly to me instead of our General Counsel or the Congressional Office of Compliance. Immediately upon receiving this complaint, I along with our General Counsel, began an investigation of this matter. “By early this afternoon, I had sufficient evidence to conclude that while employed by this office, my Chief of Staff had violated office policies regarding proper relations between a supervisor and their subordinates. I further concluded that this led to actions which in my judgement amounted to threats to withhold employment benefits. “This evening, I traveled from Florida to Washington D.C. and terminated his employment effective immediately. “We have taken steps to ensure that those impacted by this conduct have access to any services they may require now or in the future. Pursuant to the wishes of those victimized by this conduct, we will not be disclosing any further details about the incidents which occurred. We will be formally notifying the appropriate Congressional and Senate administrative offices of this matter when they return to work Monday morning.” Freshman U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, crosses the aisle to co-sponsor Democratic legislation at a higher rate than all but three of his Republican colleagues in the House, according to figures from Quorum Analytics, a Washington firm that tracks federal legislation for trade associations, lobbyists and others. Mast has been a co-sponsor on 123 bills in the 115th Congress, including 37 — or 30 percent — that were sponsored by Democrats, according to Quorum’s research. Among House Republicans, only Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen ofMiami (38 percent), Walter Jones of North Carolina (35 percent) and Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania (31 percent) were co-sponsors on a higher percentage of Democratic bills. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to sign on as co-sponsors of bills sponsored by the other party because of their status as the minority party. More than two-thirds of the bills that Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., has co-sponsored have Republicans as the lead sponsor, and five other House Democrats are above 50 percent. Within Palm Beach County’s House delegation, according to Quorum, Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, is the 69th most bipartisan Democrat out of 193 House Democrats, with 32 percent of the bills she has co-sponsored having a Republican as lead sponsor. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, ranks 102nd in the Democratic caucus at 27 percent and Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Delray Beach, ranks 111th at 26 percent. In an October analysis, Quorum Analytics said Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio were among the most bipartisan members of their parties with regard to co-sponsoring bills. For Nelson, 52 percent of the bills he co-sponsored had Republicans as lead sponsor. For Rubio, 35 percent of co-sponsored bills had Democratic sponsors. Five Democratic senators from states that President Donald Trump carried in 2016 broke with party leadership late Friday and voted for a spending plan to avert a federal government shutdown. Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson — up for re-election this year in a state Trump carried by 1.2 percentage points over Hillary Clinton — was not among them. With Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., insisting the measure include protections against deportation for young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. by their parents, Nelson and most of the Democratic caucus voted to block consideration of a stopgap spending measure that would have kept the government running for four more weeks. With 60 votes needed under Senate rules, the motion fell short with only 50 votes. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio joined most of the Republican caucus in voting for the measure while four Republicans opposed it. (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also cast a “no” vote for procedural reasons to allow him to bring the measure up again.) Four of the five Democrats who broke ranks — Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri — are up for re-election this year in states Trump won in 2016. The fifth Democrat, Sen. Doug Jones of deep-red Alabama, won an upset special election over Roy Moore last month and faces re-election in 2020. Said Nelson: “These short-term funding bills are hurting our national security and, at some point, we have a responsibility to say enough is enough. Now efforts have intensified at a bipartisan solution. I am hopeful that an agreement may be reached in the next couple of days.” Republicans hoping to unseat Nelson this year pounced on his vote. “Bill Nelson proved yet again tonight that his loyalty lies with Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren, not with Florida,” said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Ellie Hockenbury. “By participating in such blatant political games, Bill Nelson voted against our service members and children’s health care. Floridians won’t forget this betrayal when they go to the polls in November.” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also piled on in a statement just before midnight: “Senate Democrats own the Schumer Shutdown. Tonight, they put politics above our national security, military families, vulnerable children, and our country’s ability to serve all Americans. We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands. This is the behavior of obstructionist losers, not legislators.” Nelson’s expected 2018 opponent, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, tweeted late Friday night that “Washington needs to do its job and keep the federal government running. A government shutdown is not fair to Florida taxpayers.” “This is a great day,” Scott said. “I stand with Israel, I stand with all the citizens of Israel. The state of Fla stands with all the citizens of Israel. This is an outstanding day for both Israel and the citizens of the United States of America.” Said Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio: “Today’s announcement is an important step in the right direction. Unequivocal recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital will be complete when the U.S. embassy is officially relocated there.” U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, in an interview with Fox News, said Trump’s announcement is cause for “a day of celebration.” Mast criticized Hamas and others calling for a “day of rage” in response. “For those that are saying this is going to cause unrest, you talk about groups like Hamas out there calling for a day of rage, it shows exactly who any blood would be on the hands of – it’s those that would go out there and ultimately bring about violence and not anybody else to blame. They’re constantly looking for a reason to go out there and cause disruption and it’s not a surprise that they’d try to use this,” Mast said. Even U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, an ardent Trump critic, voiced cautious approval. “The President’s decision today is a recognition of existing U.S. law that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and that the U.S. embassy should ultimately be located in the capital,” said Deutch in a joint statement with Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, a fellow member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa. The Deutch and Ros-Lehtinen statement continued: “There is no debate that the Jewish people have a deep-rooted religious, cultural and historic tie to Jerusalem, and today’s decision reaffirms that connection. The fact is that Jerusalem – an ancient and holy city to all three monotheistic faiths – will remain the capital of the Jewish state in any iteration of a negotiated two-state solution. Today’s decision does not preclude our shared goal of two states for two peoples to be negotiated between the parties themselves. Now is the time for urgent progress towards the President’s stated objective of achieving a real and lasting peace.” U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Delray Beach, was critical. “I believe that Jerusalem is and should remain the undivided capital of Israel. To deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem would be to deny world history. That being said, the manner in which the Trump Administration has announced its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is of great concern,” Hastings said. “In the context of peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, the sensitivity of the status of Jerusalem cannot be overstated…The United States has long held that the final status of Jerusalem should be determined as part of an agreement negotiated between the State of Israel and the Palestinian leadership. The President’s announcement undercuts this position, as well as the role of the United States as an honest mediator of the conflict,” Hastings said. U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, offered this response: “The President’s announcement today is consistent with current U.S. law and reaffirms what we already know: Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. The U.S. must recommit to our long-standing goal of a negotiated solution that leads to two states for two people. Only direct negotiations between the parties will allow Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace, security and mutual recognition.” As President Donald Trump visits Chinese President and former Mar-a-Lago guestXi Jinping in Beijing, he and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio are expressing decidedly different views of China’s communist leader. Trump, in a Wednesday tweet, said he’s looking forward to meeting with Xi, “who is just off his great political victory.” Getting ready to make a major speech to the National Assembly here in South Korea, then will be headed to China where I very much look forward to meeting with President Xi who is just off his great political victory. In a tweet this afternoon, Rubio didn’t mention Trump but clearly took aim at the president’s assessment of Xi. “President Xi’s further consolidation of power, in a one-party communist state, was not a political victory,” Rubio tweeted. “It was a tragedy for human rights advocates, reformers and thousands of political prisoners. Chinese Govt must be challenged to abide by int’l commitments & rule of law.” President Xi’s further consolidation of power, in a one-party communist state, was not a political victory. It was a tragedy for human rights advocates, reformers and thousands of political prisoners. Chinese Govt must be challenged to abide by int’l commitments & rule of law. “That plan requires specific funding levels of $212.4 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, $242.1 million in FY20, $203.9 million in FY21, and $118.2 million in FY22,” Rubio’s letter says. “Given that budget requests below these funding levels would threaten to leave South Florida communities along the dike vulnerable for longer than necessary, I am seeking to clarify that your commitment to an expedited rehabilitation timetable includes your support for these required funding levels.” Rubio, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told Mulvaney he’s ready to help Trump “fulfill his commitment.”

Common Pests – Bed Bugs People often acquire bedbugs at hotels, motels, and bed-and-breakfasts, thanks to increased domestic and international tourism, and bring them back to their homes in their luggage. Bed bugs are small, reddish-brown insects that feed on human blood. Many individuals associate bedbugs with filthy conditions, however, they are attracted by exhaled carbon dioxide and not dirt, and feed off blood, not waste. They are found as often in clean locations as in poorly kept conditions. They are most commonly found in sleeping areas. Bedbugs are generally active only at night. The bite of a bed bug is normally painless and a person might not even know they have been bitten. A large itchy welt appears several days later. Bed bugs do not transmit disease to humans. Female bedbugs can lay up to five eggs in a day. The eggs are almost invisible to the naked eye and are a milky white tone in color. Signs of bed bugs include: - Empty bed bug skins - Blood spots on bedding, mattresses, furniture or walls. - Beware as you travel. Check your beds in Hotels. - Wash and dry clothing before putting them away. - Inspect luggage before storing. - If bed bugs are suspected then place items in a plastic bag and place in sun for the day. - Bed bug covers can be purchased specifically for bed bug prevention or treatment. Getting rid of bed bugs: - Washing bedding in hot water will kill bed bugs on those items only. - Most Department of Public Health facilities will recommend hiring a licensed pest control operator to fully eliminate bedbugs. Our Clients Say it Best We have used Inman-Murphy for termite service since 2001. They have always provided excellent customer service and worked with us around our residents’ schedule. Whether it’s after regular business hours, or on the weekend, they are responsive to our needs with a pleasant attitude.–Memphis Jewish Home & Rehab Inman Murphy has protected our home and family for years. With their attention to detail, technicians identify potential problems and stop them before they result in costly repairs. From termites to spiders, we know Inman-Murphy’s is there for us.–Doug Force, Homeowner The Memphis Zoo has been using the services of Inman-Murphy for our pest control needs for over four years. It is important to us that pest control not only be timely and effective, but that it also must be done carefully and safely, so it will pose no threat to our staff, animals, or visitors. We have been very pleased with the service we have received from Inman-Murphy and would recommend them highly.–James B. Jalenak , CAO, Memphis Zoo Get Your Free Estimate Discover how Inman-Murphy Pest Control can create a safer environment and help protect your property investment with a free on-site estimate.

My childhood Sedarim involved a slight disconnect. Perhaps yours did, too. Here we were, a big tableful of upper middle class white folks, reclining on pillows around a beautifully set dining room table, discussing our history as slaves… while Mrs. Dyer, our cleaning lady, bustled about in the kitchen, ladling out the matzoh ball soup and scrubbing the haroset-smeared dishes. A lot of us employ minority women in our homes — not just as Seder helpers, but as housecleaners, nannies and elder care providers. Many of these helpers are immigrants, just as our people once were. These women come from the Caribbean, Asia and Latin America rather than Russia and Germany, but they want the same American Dream our grandparents did. Our great-bubbes and -zeydes often began their lives as Americans working in low-wage jobs too. And unfortunately, like our ancestors who sweated in places like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, these immigrants have very little protection from exploitation. Domestic workers are exempt from protection under most labor laws. Most of us want to treat our employees humanely, but unfortunately, that’s not universally so. Every few months a story breaks about someone holding an immigrant woman as a virtual slave, paying less than minimum wage, forcing her to work horrid hours. Two years ago, a Long Island couple held two Indonesian women as prisoners in their home, beating them, slashing them with knives, working them day and night, making them sleep in closets and never allowing them outside except to take out the garbage. And for every Grand Guignol horror story like that one, there are thousands of small-scale tales of dehumanizing, un-mensch-like employer behavior. Yes, even among Jews. That’s why Jews for Racial and Economic Justice campaigns for fairness toward domestic workers. Its program, Shalom Bayit, or “peace in the house”, is based on the notion that justice begins at home. As Jews, people who’ve historically been active in the union movement, vocal about the need for fair and safe workplaces, fierce in our pursuit of justice on behalf of oppressed people in America and throughout the world, we need to look into our own kitchens and living rooms to make sure we’re being good employers. I’ve heard too many stories of people (yes, tribe members!) trying to underpay nannies, letting them go with little notice and no severance, expecting them to be on constant call. That’s why I think it’s cool that JFREJ, in partnership with Domestic Workers United, an association of immigrant women in the home-care labor force, helped pressure the City Council to pass New York’s first legislation to protect domestic workers’ rights. Now they’re aiming to pass a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in the New York State Senate. These rights would include at least one day off per week; up to 12 weeks of family and medical leave; paid sick-days, vacations and holidays; a health care stipulation; advance notice of termination, and severance in accordance with number of years worked. The bill seems realistic in its scope — it doesn’t address the immigration status of domestic workers, and doesn’t require anything massively financially untenable. It seems particularly appropriate to take a hard look at our own domestic-helper-related practices when Passover rolls around. After all, this holiday wouldn’t have happened without the efforts of Shifra and Puah — two midwives, the contemporary equivalent of domestic workers — who saved Jewish male newborns. And then we have Miriam, and Pharaoh’s daughter, who had their own big roles to play in the story of Jewish liberation from slavery. So JFREJ has produced a Haggadah supplement that draws parallels between our people’s experiences in Egypt and domestic workers’ current struggles. (There’s currently a link to it from JFREJ’s home page at jfrej.org.) The supplement includes a question from a kindergartner: “What does it mean to be a slave? Is it like being the cleaning lady who doesn’t speak English?” Often, when our kids say innocent things that feel racially insensitive to us, our instinct is to hush them immediately, to brush their comments away and to bobble the teachable moment. If a kindergartner at a Seder only interacts regularly with one person of color, the one who mops his family’s floors and doesn’t speak his language, it’s no wonder he’s jumped to certain conclusions. But educating him doesn’t mean hastening to stammer, “Consuela isn’t a slave! Ha ha! Someone fill the fourth cup, fast!” You owe it to the kid and to the planet to provide a diverse picture of our country. We now have a bi-racial president from a multiracial and multicultural family. Being insular doesn’t play anymore. The issue of treating people of color respectfully as well as with economic fairness is the subject of a whole other column. But I can’t tell you how many clueless, if well-meaning, comments I’ve heard about the fundamental suited-ness of entire ethnic groups as sitters. “I’d only hire a Filipino nanny!” one acquaintance of mine gushed. (Note: People who say things like this never know they mean “Filipina.”) “They’re so caring,” my acquaintance continued. “That’s why there are so many Filipino nurses.” I’ve also heard, more than once, “Jamaicans are good nannies for boys, because they’re the best disciplinarians and they play very physically.” And “Tibetans are the gentlest by nature. They’re Buddhist so they’re very loving.” (Tibetan nannies, in certain NYC communities, are huge status symbols. They make you look gloriously enlightened. They’re like human prayer beads, or a red string bracelet with legs! And I’m told you can pay them less than you do other ethnic groups — huge bonus!) Guess what, parents? Humans are individuals. No group is “by nature” anything. Hey, stop counting your gold coins and controlling the media and listen to me. Hiring someone to take care of your children is perhaps the most important decision you make as a working parent. This person cuddles, feeds, changes and disciplines the people you love most in the universe. How can you nickel-and-dime someone who has such a vital role in your family’s functioning? How can you view a caregiver as an ethnic signifier with given personality traits, instead of as a human being? The people who take care of our children are real heroes today, and in the Passover story. Correction: The March 27 East Village Mamele column, “Domestic Workers’ Rights: A Matter of Ethics,” misstated that the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights includes a living wage of $12 per hour. The bill does not include a living wage. It does, however, include a health care stipulation. Write to Marjorie at firstname.lastname@example.org.

I’m on page 37 of my book, "The Sociopath Next Door". It makes me think of my mother and other people I have had…. and I use this word loosely, loving relationships with. A sociopath has no conscience and apparently 4% of us are sociopaths according to my book. There are of course the sociopaths from movies that we can all recognize; but there are those who may have been an ex-lover who was just so cold, a mother so callous, a boss so cruel, a person that can steal, hurt and lie without any guilt at all. I think we have all met a few. I will now be looking a bit more closely at each person I meet to determine if they are indeed a sociopath, thanks to my handy checklist that I will keep in my purse at all times. I read a lot, mostly books about the human mind, health, spirituality because it amuses me and memoirs which are my favorite genre. There have been only a handful of fictional books that weren’t read to my children that I have enjoyed. My husband is a total fiction freak; aliens, zombies, demon hunting cowboys, the further out there the better. A few years ago he began to read the Twilight series. I made fun of him, saying that he and all the other 13 year old girls kept copies covered in smoochy cherry glittered lipgloss lips on the cover in their book bags. But then, after much coercion from him and all my 30 something friends, I read all 4 books. They weren’t so bad, not good enough to convert me into reading more sci-fi though. I like to learn through my books. I read memoirs by the likes of Augusten Burroughs, Jeanette Walls, Mary Karr, David Sedaris, Diablo Cody, Corrie ten Boom, Slyvia Plath, Lily Burana and my favorite book of all time is Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. I’ve read it no less than six times. I read these so I will know what to do if I’m ever in a situation where I must live with my crazy therapist and his family, I'm a peep show entertainer, I am hiding a Jewish family in my attic or I am reborn as a poor Irish boy. I do not feel that I would ever have to use a laser blaster against evil toad people on planet ZupidyDooWha, stake a vampire or stab an undead corpse in the brain with a screwdriver in a zombie apocalypse, so I don’t read those books that my husband enjoys so much. I have told him, if this were to happen…this zombie apocalypse, I would simply have a mimosa and a bullet for breakfast because I already have an issue with anxiety and adding zombies to this would not be ideal therefore would put just too much stress on our marriage. So as we end our day, all tucked into the covers of our bed, I continue to read my book about how to recognize a sociopath and he reads about zombies taking over the world. I shall protect him from sociopaths and he will protect me from zombies. We make a good team.

[[Appearance::Grand Theft Auto IV| The Lost and Damned]] |Full Name||Ray Boccino| |Date of Birth||1976| |Place of Birth||Westdyke, Alderney| |Date of Death||[[Error: Invalid time.|2008 (Age 32)]][[DOD::2008 (Age 32)| ]]| |Age at Death| The Pegorino crime family| The Lost Motorcycle Club The Irish mob |Voiced by||Joe Barbara| Boccino is first introduced in Grand Theft Auto IV, where he asks Niko Bellic to murder Teddy Benavidez, a Dominican gangster. He later orders Bellic, along with Joe DiLeo, Johnny Barbosa and Luca Silvestri, to retrieve the diamonds that were stolen from Anthony Prince, hidden in numerous trash bags throughout Algonquin. When the trio steal the diamonds for themselves, Boccino sends Bellic to retrieve them. Boccino then asks Bellic to pair up with the acting leader of the Lost Motorcycle Club, Johnny Klebitz, and sell the stolen diamonds to Jewish Mob associates Issac Roth and Mori Green. However, Luis Fernando Lopez ambushes the dealand takes the diamonds, while Klebitz steals the money. In retaliation, Boccino kidnaps Lost member Jim Fitzgerald, who later escapes with Klebitz, murdering one of Boccino's crew in the process. Seeking revenge, Boccino sends Bellic to murder Fitzgerald and orders his crew to find and kill Klebitz. Klebitz survives and plans to retaliate, but is told not to by Congressman Thomas Stubbs III, who tells Klebitz that Boccino and the Pegorino crime family are under surveillance and that half of the organization would be "either arrested or killed within a month." Roth blames the ambushed diamond deal on Boccino and threatens to kill him. In retaliation, Boccino again orders Bellic to murder Roth at Roth's penthouse at the Majestic Hotel. Afterwards, Boccino arranges an apartment in Alderney City for Bellic so he can can "keep a closer eye on him." As the Pegorino family's affairs fall further into turmoil, James Pegorino decides to send a message to any possible informants in the organization and orders Bellic to murder Boccino, believing he is an informant. Joe Barbara voiced Ray Boccino. - GTA IV - Harbouring a Grudge - A Long Way to Fall (Boss) - Taking in the Trash (Boss) - Meltdown (Boss) - Museum Piece (Boss) - No Way on the Subway (Boss) - Late Checkout (Boss) - Pegorino's Pride - Pest Control (Killed) - The Lost and Damned LCPD Database record First Name: Ray Place of Birth: Westdyke, Alderney Affiliations: Pegorino Crime Syndicate - 1990 - Posession of stolen property - 1991 - Grand larceny - 1995 - Hijacking - 1999 - Burglary - Boccino also acts as a representative between other crime organizations and his own. - He is the proprietor of the restaurant Drusilla's. - Niko is able to get Ray out of the car by killing the driver of the car, but he'll start shooting the player with a Combat Shotgun. - Ray is an obvious womanizer, sometimes he talks with other girls through the cellphone about their underwear. He also had an affair with Ashley Butler and always tried to bang Phil Bell's nephew's wife, since they have married, probably just because of sports interest. He also hinted to Phil, that he had sex with his ex-wife. - As a character, Ray is very similar to Vlad. He belongs to a mafia, owns a national restaurant in a national district, is a womanizer, likes to talk a lot, does not wear a shirt under jacket, had a conflict with protagonist who disliked him and later killed by him. - He is similar to The Sopranos character Mikey Palmice, both are called sleezy, both wear similar clothes and they drive BMWs. - Johnny Klebitz refered to him as Raymundo during the start of Collector's Item. - Both Johnny and Stubbs make references to Ray's eventual fate in GTA IV. Johnny remarks that a coffin would look good with Ray, and that Stubbs remarks that he would either be dead or in jail, foreshadowing Niko's killing of him under Jimmy Pegorino's orders. - Despite the fact he always was called slimeball and traitor, Ray never betrays nobody, but was betrayed many times. First by Johnny Klebitz who stole the two million from him. Second by James Pegorino who made order to kill him. And third by Niko Bellic who killed him after their long relationship.

Dear Rosie & Sherry, I'm dating a woman who's divorced, and I'm concerned about the baggage, and particularly the reasons why her marriage failed. When dating someone who has been divorced, at what point is it okay to ask the question, "What was the reason the marriage was terminated?" Timing can make or break a courtship, so the question you asked is very important. Prematurely asking a date about personal information will probably make them feel uncomfortable and could put the brakes on an otherwise promising relationship. We suggest that questions about the details of a date's prior marriage wait until you have gone out several times and have both started to talk about other personal matters. Some of our readers may shy away from dating someone who has been divorced, because they worry that the same problems that contributed to the end of the first marriage might affect a subsequent marriage. This narrow perspective closes one off from a large population with great potential. Marriages break up for many reasons, and often it isn't due to the "fault" of any one partner. Many divorces could have been averted if a couple had learned early on to continually nurture their relationship and develop skills in areas such as communication and conflict resolution. Many men and women learn from the mistakes of their first marriage and are able to have a much more successful relationship the second time around. Of course, there are individuals whose emotional handicaps or other problems made their first marriage extremely difficult. Don't expect this to come to light when your date explains why the first marriage failed. Few people can be objective about their own divorces, and you're most likely to receive an explanation that is your date's particular perception of the truth, peppered with some imaginative details. However, as you get to know your date better, you can put her explanation into better perspective. After a couple has dated for many weeks, varies what they do when they are together, sees each other in the presence of each other's friends and relatives, and observes how each other reacts when they are tired or under mild stress, they gain a more well-balanced understanding of each other's positive and negative qualities. If a date is challenged by personality traits that may make it difficult or impossible for them to have a stable, happy marriage, these will usually (but not always) become apparent once the couple becomes very comfortable in each other's presence. Our best advice at this point is to give a promising courtship the time it needs for the two of you to learn a great deal about each other and develop an emotional closeness. Trust in yourself to be able to put everything in perspective as time goes on. By the way, there is an excellent book that can help many engaged and married couples build stronger, happier marriages. It is called "What Did You Say? Making Yourself Understood in Marriage" by the well-known Israeli marriage counselor, Rabbi Simcha Cohen. The Hebrew version was an overnight bestseller in all sectors of Israeli society, and it is an excellent aid for interpersonal communication. It should be available in most Jewish bookstores. Rosie & Sherry

The late Yitzhak Shamir, from AP Israeli president Shimon Peres is calling the late Yitzhak Shamir, dead at 96, a “brave warrior.” What does that mean? It means he used terrorism with very important political consequences. As head of the Stern Gang, Shamir authorized the assassinations of Lord Moyne, the British minister in Palestine, in 1944, and Folke Bernadotte, the U.N. envoy (and Swedish count) in 1948. The Bernadotte murder is particularly important: Bernadotte wanted to internationalize Jerusalem and limit the borders of the new Jewish state. His murder helped shift partition from 55 percent of Palestine to the Jewish state to 78 percent. But will the obits tell you that? CNN whitewash: Born in Poland, Shamir moved to Palestine and fought for Israeli independence…. Shamir was a leader of the Jewish Zionist underground group that fought the mandate in the 1940s. It wasn’t just the mandate, he fought the U.N. There is a shameful statement by Hillary Clinton at the end of that piece. “From his days working for Israel’s independence to his service as prime minister, he strengthened Israel’s security and advanced the partnership between the United States and Israel,” she said in a statement. I know she’s a diplomat, but could she have kept her mouth shut on some of this? Shamir was the Israeli prime minister, after all, who helped force Hillary’s husband Bill to run to George Bush’s right on settlements in 1992, a position that helped him to defeat the incumbent Bush, who had opposed settlements. The British are clear about this. Here is the lead of the Financial Times obit for Shamir. Yitzhak Shamir, who has died at the age of 96, is most likely to be remembered as a terrorist against British rule in Palestine during the 1940s and as a man whose aggressive Jewish settlement policy on Arab lands may have stymied Middle East peace for a generation. Compare that to the New York Times’ wishywashy Israel-o-philic lead, by Joel Brinkley: Yitzhak Shamir, who emerged from the militant wing of a Jewish militia and served as Israel’s prime minister longer than anyone but David Ben-Gurion, promoting a muscular Zionism and expansive settlement in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, died Saturday at a nursing home in Tel Aviv. He was 96. What’s a militia? The Stern Gang. Why did they call it a gang? Haaretz is more honest, though it never mentions Bernadotte: When he was 20, he immigrated to Palestine and joined the Irgun two years later. By day he worked in an accountant’s office and at night took part in anti-British activities. Shamir said “we didn’t take any action blindly or automatically or just for the sake of violence. Our aim was to intimidate rather than to punish … reprisals were never a cause for celebration. They were simply an existential need.” In 1940, Shamir left the Irgun, following Avraham Stern, and became a leader of the Lehi − which the British called the Stern Gang. In December 1941 he was arrested and spent time in the Mizra prison near Acre. After escaping in September 1942, he was put in charge of operations. In this role he was responsible for the 1944 assassination of Lord Moyne, the British minister of state in the Middle East. As Shamir put it, Moyne “was a senior official in enforcing British policy in Palestine and didn’t for a moment hide his strong opposition to Zionism and his negative feelings toward the Jews.” The New York Times does not mention Bernadotte, and it gives Shamir a pass on Moyne. Because surgical assassination is a good thing, you see: Years later, however, Mr. Shamir contended that it had been more humane to assassinate specific military or political figures than to attack military installations and possibly kill innocent people, as the other underground groups did. Besides, he once said, “a man who goes forth to take the life of another whom he does not know must believe only one thing: that by his act he will change the course of history.” Several histories of the period have asserted that he masterminded a failed attempt to kill the British high commissioner, Sir Harold MacMichael, and the killing in Cairo of Britain’s minister of state for the Middle East, Lord Moyne. When Mr. Shamir was asked about these episodes in later years, his denials held a certain evasive tone. That’s evasive. The Financial Times uses the same “change the course of history” quote to bring up Bernadotte murder. As a leader of Lehi he approved the assassinations of Lord Moyne, Winston Churchill’s representative in Cairo, and Count Bernadotte, the Swedish UN Palestine mediator who during the war had saved many Jews from the Nazis. Years later Shamir reflected: “A man who goes forth to take the life of another, whom he does not know, must believe only one thing that by his act he will change the course of history.” Yes and the murder of Bernadotte changed the Partition line, divided Jerusalem as it had not been divided under the original UN Special Committee line of 1947. The New York Times has been more forthcoming about this in the past. Here is Clyde Haberman on Kati Marton’s biography of Folke Bernadotte, in the Times, 1995: [Shamir] she says, signed [Bernadotte’s] death warrant. He was part of a troika that led Lehi after its guiding force, Avraham Stern, was killed by the British in 1942. His name was Yitzhak Yezernitsky, a short bulldog of an immigrant from the Russian-Polish border. Four decades later, he became Israel’s Prime Minister under the name Yitzhak Shamir. Ever suspicious and tight-lipped, Mr. Shamir, nearly 80, still speaks elliptically about the Bernadotte assassination. In a recently published memoir, “Summing Up,” he acknowledges that Lehi wanted the mediator “removed from the arena.” But the group “took no responsibility for the deed,” he says. “The idea was conceived in Jerusalem by Lehi members operating there more or less independently.” Ms. Marton strips away this deliberate ambiguity. There is no doubt, she says, that Shamir and his co-leaders imposed a death sentence on Bernadotte and selected a four-man squad whose trigger man was one Yehoshua Cohen. Yes and now the Times restores that ambiguity. In her book, A Death in Jerusalem, Marton quotes a Haaretz report: “the decision to assassinate Bernadotte… was taken at a meeting of the Lehi [Stern Gang] Central Committee in which Yitzhak Shamir, former Lehi commander, participated. Who pulled the trigger is less important, [Shamir] said in another place, what is important is that it was the Lehi Central Committee which decided on the assassination.” She goes on to say that Shamir was the one man with no “milk in his veins”: [T]hose Israelis who have studied both the case and the man in the context of their country’s history insist Shamir was the key player. “It takes a strong man to give such an order,” says Shabtai Teveth [Ben-Gurion biographer]. … Shamir is such a man.” Not only has Yitzhak Shamir… never disavowed his role in the murder of the mediator; he has frequently stated that his time as Lehi commaner was the best time of his life. The Stern Gang was afraid that Ben-Gurion would accede to the U.N. and Bernadotte to give up Jerusalem. Marton says Shamir’s co-conspirator Israel Eldad “regards the murder of Bernadotte as one of Lehi’s [Stern gang’s] great achievements. In his view, it saved Jerusalem from the Arabs.”From Marton’s book, in the weeks before Bernadotte was killed: In his new plan, Jerusalem would belong neither to Israel nor to the Arabs, but would be internationalized along the original UN proposal. All of the fertile Galilee would go to Israel, while Ben-Gurion’s beloved Negev, would, in return, go to Transjordan. Here is a related entry from the late NYT foreign affairs columnist C.L. Sulzberger’s diary, A Long Row of Candles: August 24, 1948 On July 22 Bernadotte told a few people confidentially in Rhodes that he foresaw the following ultimate solution for Palestine: There will be a Jewish state, no matter what else happens. Its boundaries will have to be radically altered to proved a more compact and workable state. Its Arab neighbors must be given an ironclad UN guarantee against any move to expand. Bernadotte was murdered a month later. So much for a compact state and limits on expansion. Israel got the Negev and much of Jerusalem.

Lest he should seem to be hinting at them by delaying in his discourse so long over the unnatural sin, he next passes on to other kinds of sins also, and for this cause he carries on the whole of his discourse as of other persons. And as he always does when discoursing with believers about sins, and wishing to show that they are to be avoided, he brings the Gentiles in, and says, 1 Thessalonians 4:5 And again: sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 And so here too he shows that it was to them the sins belonged, and deprives them of all excuse. For he says, that their daring deeds came not of ignorance, but of practice. And this is why he did not say, as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge; as much as to say, that the sin was one of a perverted determination of obstinacy, more than of a sudden ravishment, and shows that it was not the flesh (as some heretics say) but the mind, to the wicked lust whereof the sins belonged, and that it was thence the fount of the evils flowed. For since the mind has become undistinguishing, all else is then dragged out of course and overturned, when he is corrupted that held the reins! (Plat. Phaedr. 246 A. B.) See how everything here is intensitive. For he says, being filled, and with all, and having named maliciousness in general, he also further pursues the particulars, and these too in excess, saying, debate, deceit, malignity; Whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, and classing things which to many seem indifferent among his charges, he further strengthens his accusation, going up to the stronghold of their wickednesses, and styles them boasters. For even worse than sinning is it, even though sinning to be haughty-minded. Wherefore also he charges the Corinthians with it, saying, You are puffed up. 1 Corinthians 5:2 For if in a good action he that puffs himself up loses all, if any one do so among his sins, what vengeance is there of which he is not worthy, since such an one cannot repent any more? Next, he says, inventors of evil things; showing that they were not content with those already existing, but even invented others. And this again is like men that are full purposed and in earnest, not those that are hurried away and forced out of their course; and after mentioning the several kinds of maliciousness, and showing that here too they stood against nature itself (for he says, disobedient to parents), he then goes on to the root of the great pestilence, calling them, Without natural affection, implacable. For this Christ Himself also pronounces to be the cause of wickedness, saying, When iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Matthew 24:12. This too St. Paul here says, calling them covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, and showing that they were traitors even to the gift of nature. For we have a sort of family feeling even by nature towards one another, which even beasts have got towards each other. For every beast, it says, loves his like, and every man his neighbor. Sirach 13:15 But these became more ferocious even than they. The disorder then which resulted to the world by evil doctrines, he proves to us by these witnesses, and clearly shows that the malady in either case came of the negligence of them that were disordered. He shows besides, what he did in the case of the doctrines, that they were here also deprived of all excuse; and so he says, Having assumed here two objections, he in the first place removes them. For what reason have you to say, he means, that you know not the things which ought to be done? At best, even if you did not know, you are to blame in having left God who instructs you. But as it is by many arguments we have shown that you do know, and transgress willingly. But are you drawn by passion? Why then do you both coöperate therewith and praise it? For they not only do such things, he says, but have pleasure in them that do them. Having then put the more grievous and the unpardonable sin first, that he might have done with it (Or convict you of it, ἵ να ἑλῃ); (for he that praises the sin is far worse than even he that trespasses;) having then put this the first, he by this method grapples more powerfully with him in the sequel, speaking on this wise, Chap. ii. ver. 1. Therefore you are inexcusable, O man; whosoever you are that judgest; for wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself. These things he says, with an aim at the rulers, inasmuch as that city then had the rule of the world put into its hands. He anticipated them therefore by saying, You are depriving yourself of defence, whoever you may be; for when you condemn an adulterer, and yourself committest adultery, although no man condemns you, in your judgment upon the guilty person you have also passed sentence against yourself. For lest any should say, until now I have escaped, to make him afraid, he says, that it is not so with God as it is here. For here (Plato in Theæt. et Phædon.) one is punished, and another escapes while doing the same thing. But hereafter it is not so. That he that judges then knows the right, he has said: but whence he knows it, he has not added; for it was superfluous. For in the case of ungodliness, he shows both that the ungodly was so even with a knowledge of God, and also whence he got that knowledge, namely, from the Creation. For inasmuch as it was not plain to all, he gave the cause also; but here he passes it over as a thing admitted. But when he says, whosoever you are that judgest, he is not addressing himself to the rulers only, but to private individuals and subjects also. For all men, even if they have no chair of state, nor executioners, nor stocks at command, yet even they judge those that offend, in conversations and public meetings (Gr. κοινοἵς συλλόγοις) and by the vote of their conscience. And no one would venture to say, that the adulterer does not deserve punishment. But it is others, he says, they condemn, and not themselves. And for this cause he stands forth vehemently against them, and says, For since he had shown the sin of the world to be great, from its doctrines, from its doings, and that they did yet sin though wise, and though they had the creation to lead them by the hand, and not by leaving God only, but also by choosing the images of creeping things, and by their dishonoring virtue, and deserting, in spite of nature's drawings back, to the service of vice even contrary to nature: he goes on next to show, that they who do such things are punished too. He did indeed at once point out a punishment by mentioning their very practice. For they received, he says, in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. But as they do not perceive that, he mentions another also, which they stood most in fear of. And indeed already he chiefly pointed at this. For when he says, That the judgment of God is according to truth, he is speaking of no other than this. But he establishes the same again upon other further grounds, saying thus, And do you think this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God? You have not been acquitted of your own judgment, and will you escape through God's? Who indeed would say this? And yet you have judged yourself (3 manuscripts and not been acquitted). But since the rigorousness of the judgment-court was such, and thou were not able to spare even yourself, how should not God, that cannot do amiss, and who is in the highest sense just, be much surer to do the same? But have you condemned yourself, and is God to approve of you and praise you? And how can this be reasonable? And all the while you are deserving of a greater punishment, than he who is of you condemned. For sinning merely, is not the same thing with falling again into the same sins you have chastised another for committing. See, how he has strengthened the charge! For if you, he means, punish a person who has committed less sins, though by it you will put yourself to shame, how shall not God cast you in your suit, and condemn you more severely, who have committed greater transgressions, and this too when He will never make Himself ashamed, and you are already condemned by your own reckoning. But if you say, I know that I deserve punishment; yet through His long-suffering thinkest slightingly of it, and art confident because thou dost not suffer punishment immediately; this surely is a reason why you ought to be afraid and tremble. For the fact that you have not yet suffered punishment, will not result in your not suffering any punishment, but in your suffering a more severe one if you abide unamended. And so he goes on to say: For after praising God's long-suffering, showing the gain thereof to be very great to them that heeded it (and this was the drawing sinners to repentance); he adds to the terror. For as to them, who avail themselves of it aright, it is a ground of safety; so to them that slight it, it is conducive to a greater vengeance. For whenever you utter this common notion, that God does not exact justice, because He is good and long-suffering, he says, You do but mention what will make the vengeance intenser. For God shows His goodness that you may get free from your sins, not that you may add to them. If then thou make not this use thereof, the judgment will be more fearful. Wherefore it is a chief ground for abstaining from sin, that God is long-suffering, and not for making the benefit a plea for obstinacy. For if He be long-suffering, He most certainly punishes. Whence does this appear? From what is next said. For if the wickedness be great and the wicked have not been requited, it is absolutely necessary that they should be requited. For if men do not overlook these things, how should God make an oversight? And so from this point he introduces the subject of the judgment. For the fact of showing many who, if they repent not, are liable, yet still are not punished here, introduces with it necessarily the judgment, and that with increase. Wherefore he says, For when a man is neither to be softened by goodness nor to be turned back by fear, what can be harder than such an one? For after that he had showed the goodness of God towards men, he then shows His vengeance that it is unbearable for him who does not even so return to repentance. And observe with what propriety he uses the words! You treasure up unto yourself wrath, he says, so making it plain what is certainly laid up, and showing that it is not He that judges, but he that is condemned, who is the author of this. For he says, you store up for yourself, not God for you. For He did all, whatsoever things were fitting, and created you with a power to discern between good and what was not so, and showed long-suffering over you, and called you to repentance, and threatened a fearful day, so by every means drawing you to repentance. But if you should continue unyielding, you store up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation and (so all manuscripts but two) the righteous judgment of God. For lest on hearing of wrath you should think of any passion, he adds, the righteous judgment of God. And he said revelation with good reason, for then is this revealed when each man receives his desert. For here many men often annoy and practise harm to one without justice. But hereafter it is not so. Ver. 6, 7. Who will render to every man according to his deeds, to them who by patient continuance in well doing, etc. Since he had become awestriking and harsh by discoursing of the judgment and of the punishment that shall be, he does not immediately, as one might expect, enter upon the vengeance, but turns his discourse to what was sweeter, to the recompense of good actions, saying as follows, Here also he awakens those who had drawn back during the trials, and shows that it is not right to trust in faith only. For it is deeds also into which that tribunal will enquire. But observe, how when he is discoursing about the things to come, he is unable to tell clearly the blessings, but speaks of glory and honor. For in that they transcend all that man has, he has no image of them taken from this to show, but by those things which have a semblance of brightness among us, even by them he sets them before us as far as may be, by glory, by honor, by life. For these be what men earnestly strive after, yet are those things not these, but much better than these, inasmuch as they are incorruptible and immortal. See how he has opened to us the doors toward the resurrection of the body by speaking of incorruptibility. For incorruptibility belongs to the corruptible body. Then, since this sufficed not, he added glory and honor. For all of us are to rise incorruptible, but not all to glory, but some to punishment, and some to life. But unto them that are contentious, he says. Again, he deprives of excuse those that live in wickedness, and shows that it is from a kind of disputatiousness and carelessness that they fall into unrighteousness. lorded over by, but who obey unrighteousness, that one may learn that the fall is one of free choice, the crime not of necessity. That is, if a man be rich, if a consul, if a very sovereign (so Field: several manuscripts and Edd. the emperor himself), by none of them is the account of the judgment out-faced. Since in this dignities have no place. Having then shown the exceeding greatness of the disease, and having added the cause, that it was from the carelessness of the disordered, and finally, that destruction awaits them and that amendment is easy, in the punishment also he again gives the Jew the heavier lot. For he that had enjoyed a larger share of instruction would also deserve to undergo a larger share of vengeance if doing lawlessly. And so the wiser or mightier men we are, the more are we punished if we sin. For if you are rich, you will have more money demanded of you than of the poor; and if wiser than others, a stricter obedience; and if you have been invested with authority, more shining acts of goodness; and so in the case of all the other things, you will have to bring in measures proportioned to your power. What Jew does he here mean? Or about what Gentiles is he discoursing? It is of those before Christ's coming. For his discourse had not hitherto come to the times of grace, but he was still dwelling upon the earlier times, so breaking down first from afar off and clearing away the separation between the Greek and the Jew, that when he should do this in the matter of grace, he might no more seem to be devising some new and degrading view. For if in the earlier times when this Grace had not shone forth in such greatness, when the estate of the Jews was solemn and renowned and glorious before all men, there was no difference, what could they say for themselves (τίνα ἂν ἔχοιεν λόγον εἰπεἵν;) now after so great a display of grace? And this is why he establishes it with so great earnestness. For when the hearer has been informed that this held in the earlier times, much more will he receive it after the faith. But by Greeks he here means not them that worshipped idols, but them that adored God, that obeyed the law of nature, that strictly kept all things, save the Jewish observances, which contribute to piety, such as were Melchizedek and his (οἱ περὶ), such as was Job, such as were the Ninevites, such as was Cornelius. Here then he is first breaking through the partition between the circumcision and the uncircumcision: and at a distance dissipates this distinction beforehand, so as to do it without being suspected, and to strike into it as compelled by another occasion, which is ever a characteristic of his Apostolic wisdom. For if he had showed it in the times of grace, what he said would have had a very suspicious look. But on describing the vice which possessed the world, and where end the ways of wickedness, to pass from that consecutively into the treatment of these points renders his teaching unsuspected. And that he means this, and for this purpose so put this together, is plain from hence: for if he were not intent upon effecting this, it were enough for him to have said, According to your hardness and impenitent heart you store up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath; and then to have dropped this subject, since it would have been complete. But in that what he had in view was not to speak of the judgment to come only, but to show also that the Jew had no advantage of such a Greek, and so was not to be haughty-spirited, he advances farther, and speaks of them in order. But consider! He had put the hearer in fear, had advanced against him the fearful day, had told him what an evil it is to be living in wickedness, had showed him that no man sins of ignorance, nor with impunity, but that even though he suffer no punishment now, yet he certainly will suffer it: then he wishes to make good next that the teaching of the Law was not a thing of great importance. For it is upon works that both punishment and reward depend, not upon circumcision and uncircumcision. Since then he had said, that the Gentile shall by no means go unpunished and had taken this for granted, and upon it had made good that he shall also be rewarded, he next showed the Law and circumcision to be superfluous. For it is the Jews that he is here chiefly opposing. For inasmuch as they were somewhat captiously disposed, first, of their haughtiness, not deigning to be reckoned along with the Gentiles, and secondly thinking it ridiculous if the faith is to do away all sins; for this cause he accused the Gentiles first, in whose behalf he is speaking, that without suspicion and with boldness of speech, he may attack the Jews. And then having come to the enquiry concerning the punishment, he shows that the Jew is so far from being at all profited by the Law, that he is even weighed down by it. And this was his drift some way back. For if the Gentile be on this score inexcusable, because, when the creation led him on and his own reasonings, he yet did not amend, much more were the Jew so, who besides these had the teaching of the Law also. Having then persuaded him to a ready admission of these reasonings, in the case of other men's sins, he now compels him even against his will to do so in the case of his own. And in order that what he says may be more readily allowed, he leads him forward with the better things also in view, speaking on this wise: But glory and honor and peace to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. For here whatever good things a man has, he has with fightings, even if he be rich, if a prince, if a king. Even if he be not at variance with others, yet is he often so with himself, and has abundant war in his own thoughts. But there it is no such thing, but all is still and void of trouble, and in possession of true peace. Having then made good from what was said above, that they too which have not the Law are to enjoy the same blessings, he adds his reason in the following words: For when he says that as well the Jew as the Gentile is punished if he sin, he needs no reasonings: but when he wants to prove that the Gentile is honored also, he then needs a foundation for it also; as it seemed wonderful and extravagant if he who had heard neither Law nor Prophets, were to be honored upon his working good. And this is why (as I also said before) he exercises their hearing in the times before grace, that he might afterwards more treatably bring in, along with the faith, the acquiescence in these things also. For here he is not at all suspected, as seeming not to be making his own point good. Having then said, Glory and honor and peace to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile, he adds, persons. But of such character God is not. And he does not say, for if this were not so, God would be a respecter of persons, but with more of dignity, persons, but difference of actions. Which He makes inquisition for. By so saying he shows that it was not in actions but in persons only that the Jew differed from the Gentile. The consequence of this would be thus expressed; For it is not because one is a Jew and the other a Gentile, that one is honored and the other disgraced, but it is from the works that either treatment comes. But he does not say so, since it would have roused the anger of the Jew, but he sets down something more, so bringing their haughty spirit yet lower, and quelling it for the admission of the other. But what is this? The next position. For here, as I said before, he shows not only the equality of the Jew and the Gentile, but that the Jew was even much burdened by the gift of the Law. For the Gentile is judged without law. But this without law (Gr. lawlessly) here expresses not the worse plight but the easier, that is, he has not the Law to accuse him. For without law (that is, without the condemnation arising from it), is he condemned solely from the reasonings of nature, but the Jew, in the Law, that is, with nature and the Law too to accuse him. For the greater the attention he enjoyed, the greater the punishment he will suffer. See how much greater is the necessity which he lays upon the Jews of a speedy recourse to grace! For in that they said, they needed not grace, being justified by the Law, he shows that they need it more than the Gentiles, considering they are liable to be punished more. Then he adds another reason again, and so farther contends for what has been said. For not the hearers of the law are just before God. Well does he add before God; for haply before men they may be able to appear dignified and to vaunt great things, but before God it is quite otherwise— the doers of the Law alone are justified. You see with what advantage he combats, by turning what they said to an opposite bearing. For if it is by the Law you claim to be saved, in this respect, says he, the Gentile will stand before you, when seen to be a doer of what is written in the Law. And how is it possible (one may say) for one who has not heard to be a doer? Not this only, he says, is possible, but what is much more even than this. For not only is it possible without hearing to be a doer, but even with hearing not to be so. Which last thing he makes plainer, and that with a greater advantage over them, when he says, You that teaches another, do you not teach yourself? Romans 2:21 But here he is still making the former point good. I am not, he means, rejecting the Law, but even on this score I justify the Gentiles. You see how when undermining the conceit of Judaism, he gives no handle against himself as villifying the Law, but on the contrary by extolling it and showing its greatness he so makes good his whole position. But whenever he says by nature, he means by the reasonings of nature. And he shows that others are better than they, and, what is more better for this, that they have not received the Law, and have not that wherein the Jews seem to have an advantage over them. For on this ground he means they are to be admired, because they required not a law, and yet exhibited all the doings of the Law, having the works, not the letters, graven upon their minds. For this is what he says, See how he again puts that day before them, and brings it close to them, battering down their conceit, and showing, that those were to be the rather honored who without the Law strove earnestly to fulfil the things of the Law. But what is most to be marvelled at in the discretion of the Apostle, it is worth while to mention now. For having shown, from the grounds given, that the Gentile is greater than the Jew; in the inference, and the conclusion of his reasoning, he does not state it, in order not to exasperate the Jew. But to make what I have said clearer, I will give the very words of the Apostle. For after saying, that it is not the hearers of the Law, but the doers of the Law, that shall be justified, it followed to say, For when the Gentiles, which have not the Law, do by nature the things contained in the Law, they are much better than those who are instructed by the Law. But this he does not say, but he stays at the encomium of the Gentiles, and does not yet awhile carry on his discourse by way of comparison, that so at least the Jew may receive what is said. And so he does not word it as I was doing, but how? For when the Gentiles, which have not the Law, do by nature the things contained in the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the Law, written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness. For the conscience and reason does suffice in the Law's stead. By this he showed, first, that God made man independent, so as to be able to choose virtue and to avoid vice. And be not surprised that he proves this point, not once or twice, but several times. For this topic was very needful for him to prove owing to those who say, Why ever is it, that Christ came but now? And where in times before was the (most manuscripts this mighty) scheme of Providence? Now it is these that he is at present beating off by the way, when he shows that even in former times, and before the Law was given, the human race (Gr. nature) fully enjoyed the care of Providence. For that which may be known of God was manifest in them, and they knew what was good, and what bad; by means whereof they judged others, which he reproaches them with, when he says, wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself. But in the case of the Jews, besides what has been mentioned, there was the Law, and not reason or conscience only. And why does he put the words accusing or else excusing?— for, if they have a Law written, and show the work of it in them, how comes reason to be able to accuse them still? But he is not any longer speaking of those only who do well, but also of mankind (Gr. the nature) universally. For then our reasonings stand up, some accusing and some excusing. And at that tribunal a man needs no other accuser. Then to add to their fear, he does not say the sins of men, but the secrets of men. For since he said, Do you think, that judgest them that do such things, and doest the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God; that you may not expect such a sentence as you pass yourself, but may know, that that of God is far more exact than your own, he brings in, the secrets of men, and adds, through Jesus Christ according to my Gospel. For men sit in judgment upon overt acts alone. And above too he spoke of the Father alone, but as soon as he had crushed them with fear, he brought in the mention of Christ also. But he does not do barely this, but even here, after having made mention of the Father, he so introduces Him. And by the same things he raises the dignity of his preaching. For this preaching, he means, openly speaks out what nature taught by anticipation. Do you see with what wisdom he has bound them both to the Gospel and to Christ, and demonstrated that our affairs come not here to a stand, but travel further. And this he made good before also, when he said, God shall judge the secrets of men. Now let each man enter into his own conscience, and reckoning up his transgressions, let him call himself to a strict account, that we be not then condemned with the world. 1 Corinthians 11:32 For fearful is that court, awful the tribunal, full of trembling the accounts, a river of fire rolls along (ἕ λκεται). A brother does not redeem: shall man redeem? Psalm 49:8, Septuagint Call then to mind what is said in the Gospel, the Angels running to and fro, of the bridechamber being shut, of the lamps going out, of the powers which drag to the furnaces. And consider this, that if a secret deed of any one of us were brought forth into the midst, today, before the Church only, what could he do but pray to perish, and to have the earth to gape for him, rather than have so many witnesses of his wickedness? How then shall we feel, when, before the whole world, all things are brought into the midst, in a theatre so bright and open, with both those known and those unknown to us seeing into everything? But alas! Wherewith am I forced to affright you! With men's estimation! When I ought to use the fear of God, and His condemnation. For what, pray, is to become of us then when bound, and gnashing our teeth, we are led away to the outer darkness? Or, rather, what shall we do (and this is the most fearful thought of all) when we offend (προσκρούσωμεν) God? For if any one have sense and reason, he has already endured a hell when he is out of sight of God. But since this does not pain, fire is therefore threatened. For we ought to smart not when we are punished, but when we sin. Thus listen to Paul wailing and lamenting over sins, for which he was not to be punished. For I am not meet, he says, to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church. 1 Corinthians 15:9 Hear also David, when he is set free from the punishment, yet, as thinking that he had offended God, calling vengeance down upon himself, and saying, Let your hand be upon me and upon my father's house. 2 Samuel 24:17 For to have offended God is more distressing than to be punished. But now we are so wretchedly disposed, that, were there no fear of hell, we should not even choose readily to do any good thing. Wherefore were it for nothing else, yet for this at least, we should deserve hell, because we fear hell more than Christ (several manuscripts. God). But not so the blessed Paul, but contrariwise. But since we feel otherwise, for this reason are we condemned to hell: since, did we but love Christ as we should love Him, we should have known that to offend Him we love were more painful than hell. But since we love Him not, we know not the greatness of His punishment. And this is what I bewail and grieve over the most! And yet what has God not done, to be beloved of us? What has He not devised? What has He omitted? We insulted Him, when He had not wronged us in anything, but had even benefited us with blessings countless and unspeakable. We have turned aside from Him when calling and drawing us to Him by all ways, yet has He not even upon this punished us, but has run Himself unto us, and held us back, when fleeing, and we have shaken Him off and leaped away to the Devil. And not even on this has He stood aloof, but has sent numberless messengers to call us to Him again, Prophets, Angels, Patriarchs: and we have not only not received the embassy, but have even insulted those that came. But not even for this did He spew us out of His mouth, but like those slighted lovers that be very earnest, He went round beseeching all, the heaven, the earth, Jeremiah, Micah, and that not that He might weigh us down, but that He might speak in behalf of His own ways Micah 6:1: and along with the prophets He went also Himself to those that turned aside from Him, being ready to submit to examination, and deigning to condescend to a conference, and drawing them that were deaf to every appeal into a disputation with Himself. For He says, O my people, what have I done unto you, and wherein have I wearied you? Answer me. Micah 6:3 After all this we killed the Prophets, we stoned them, we did them other cruel wrongs without number. What then? In their place He sent no longer Prophets, no longer Angels, no longer Patriarchs, but the Son Himself. He too was killed when He had come, and yet not even then did He quench His love, but kindled it even more, and keeps on beseeching us, after even His own Son was killed, and entreating us, and doing all things to turn us unto Himself. And Paul cries aloud, saying, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: be ye reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20 None of these things however reconciled us. Yet not even then did He leave us, but keeps on both threatening hell, and promising a kingdom, that even so He may draw us unto Himself. But we be still in an insensible mood. What can be worse than this brutishness? For had a man done these things, should we not many times over have let ourselves become slaves to him? But God when doing so we turn us away from! O what listlessness! O what unfeelingness! We that live continually in sins and wickednesses, if we happen to do any little good, like unfeeling domestics, with what a niggardly spirit do we exact it, and how particular are we about the recompense made, if what we have done has any recompense to come of it. And yet the recompense is the greater if you do it without any hope of reward. Why saying all this, and making exact reckoning, is language fitter for an hireling than a domestic of willing mind. For we ought to do everything for Christ's sake, not for the reward, but for Him. For this also was why He threatened hell and promised the kingdom, that He might be loved of us. Let us then so love Him as we ought to love Him. For this is the great reward, this is royalty and pleasure, this is enjoyment, and glory, and honor, this is light, this is the great happiness, which language (or reasoning) cannot set before us, nor mind conceive. Yet indeed I do not know how I was led so far in this way of speaking, and came to be exhorting men who do not even think slightly of power and glory here for Christ's sake, to think slightly of the kingdom. Yet still those great and noble men even attained to this measure of love. Hear, for instance, how Peter burns with love towards Him, setting Him before soul, and life, and all things. And when he had denied Him, it was not the punishment he was grieved for, but that he had denied Him Whom he longed for, which was more bitter to him than any punishment. And all this did he show before the grace of the Spirit was given. And he perseveringly pressed the question, Where are you going? John 13:36 and before this; To whom shall we go? John 6:67; and again; I will follow You wherever You go. Luke 22:33? Thus He was all things to them, and neither heaven nor the kingdom of heaven did they count of, in comparison of Him they longed for. For You are all these things unto me, he means. And why doest thou marvel that Peter was so minded? Hear now what the Prophet says: What have I in heaven, and what is there upon earth, that I should desire in comparison of You? Psalm 73:25 Now what he means is nearly this. Neither of things above nor of things below desire I any, save You only. This is passion; this is love. Can we so love, it will not be things present only, but even things to come, which we shall reckon as nothing compared with that love-charm, and even here shall we enjoy the Kingdom, delighting ourselves in the love of Him. And how is this to be? One may say. Let us reflect how oft we insult Him after numberless goodnesses, yet He stands and calls us to Him, and how often we run by Him, but He still does not overlook us, but runs to us, and draws us to Him, and catches us in unto Himself. For if we consider these things, and such as these, we shall be enabled to kindle this longing. For if it were a common man that so loved, but a king who was thus beloved, would he not feel a respect for the greatness of the love? Most assuredly he would. But when the case is reversed, and His Beauty (S. that beauty) is unspeakable, and the glory and the riches too of Him that loves us, and our vileness so great, surely we deserve the utmost punishment, vile as we are and outcasts, who are treated with so exceeding great love by One so great and wonderful, and yet wax wanton against His love? He needs not anything of ours, and yet He does not even now cease loving us. We need much what is His, and for all that we cleave not unto His love, but money we value above Him, and man's friendship, and ease of body, and power, and fame, before Him who values nothing more than us. For He had One Son, Very (Lit. true-born) and Only-Begotten, and He spared not even Him for us. But we value many things above Him. Were there not then good reason for a hell and torment, even were it twofold or threefold or manifold what it is? For what can we have to say for ourselves, if even Satan's injunctions we value more than the Laws of Christ, and are reckless of our own salvation that we may choose the works of wickedness, before Him who suffered all things for us? And what pardon do these things deserve? What excuse have they? Not one even. (5 manuscripts οὐδὲ μιἵς.) Let us stop then after this in our headlong course, and let us grow again sober; and reckoning up all these things, let us send up glory unto Him by our works (for words alone suffice not thereto), that we may also enjoy the glory that comes of Him, which may we all attain unto by the grace and love toward man of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom, and with Whom, to the Father be glory, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. Source. Translated by J. Walker, J. Sheppard and H. Browne, and revised by George B. Stevens. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 11. Edited by Philip Schaff. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1889.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210205.htm>. Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005 I thought it might be interesting to list some famous people who share (or did share) the same birth date and some who died on this date. I also listed some moments in history that happened on November 30th. November 30 Who Was Born on This Day? 1554 Philip Sidney poet, statesman, soldier d: 1586 1667 Jonathan Swift satirist d: 1745 1835 Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens] riter d: 1910 1874 Sir Winston Churchill British statesman and prime minister d: 1965 1912 Gordon [Alexander Buchanan] Parks photographer, poet, filmmaker, novelist 1922 Virginia Mayo actress 1923 Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. actor 1924 Shirley Chisholm politician, author 1924 Allan Sherman [Copelon] comedian d: 1973 1927 Richard CrennaEmmy Award-winning actor 1928 Rex Reason actor 1929 Dick Clark TV producer, host 1930 G. [George] Gordon Liddy politician, radio host 1931 Teddy [Thurman] Wilburnsinger 1931 Bill Walsh Football Hall of Famer 1932 Bob Moore instrumentalist 1935 Jack Reno country singer 1936 Abbie Hoffman activist d: 1989 1937 Robert Guillaume [Williams] Emmy Award-winning actor 1937 Ridley Scott director 1937 Paul [Noel] Stookey singer 1943 Leo Lyons musician, bassist 1944 Rob Grill musician, singer, bassist 1944 Luther Ingram musician, singer 1945 Roger Glover musician, bassist 1947 David Mamet director 1950 Craig Swan baseball 1950 Paul Westphal basketball 1952 Mandy Patinkin Tony Award-winning actor 1953 Shuggie [Johnny] Otis, Jr.musician, guitarist, bassist, harmonica player, keyboardist 1954 George McArdle musician, bass guitarist 1954 June Pointer singer 1955 Billy Idol [Broad] musician, guitarist, singer, songwriter 1955 Kevin Conroy actor 1957 John Aston musician, guitarist 1957 Richard Barbieri musician, keyboardist 1962 Bo [Vincent] Jackson baseball 1965 Ben Stiller actor, director 1970 Des’ree singer What happened this day in history? 30 B.C. - Cleopatra died. 1016 - English King Edmund II died. Known as "Ironside" for his fierce resistance to the invading Canute who eventually defeated him and became King on Edmund's death. 1700 - Eight thousand Swedish troops under King Charles XII defeated a force of at least 50,000 Russians at the Battle of Narva. At least 10,000 Russians died. The army lost 600. Charles XII died on this day in 1718 during an invasion of Norway. 1782 - The United States and Britain signed a treaty in Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. 1838 - After the French occupation of Vera Cruz three days earlier, Mexico declared war on France. 1853 - In the Crimean War, the Russian fleet attacked and destroyed the Turkish fleet and part of the harbor at the battle of Sinope. 1864 - The United States Civil War Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, took place. 1875 - Akron, Ohio's A.J. Ehrichson patented the oat-crushing machine. 1887 - In Chicago, Illinois, the first softball game was played. It was actually called indoor baseball; using a broomstick for a bat and a boxing glove for a ball. 1922 - Actress Sarah Bernhardt made her last stage appearance in the final performance of "Daniel", in Turin, Italy. 1936 - London's famed Crystal Palace was destroyed in a fire. 1939 - The Soviet Union invaded Finland. 1939 - More than 20 Russian divisions - almost half a million men - invaded Finland in the "Winter War." 1939 - On Columbia 78s, Harry James and his big band recorded "Concerto for Trumpet". 1940 - Lucille Ball and Cuban musician Desi Arnaz married. They would divorce in the 1950s, after the 1954 season run of "I Love Lucy". 1943 - On Capitol Records, Nat ‘King’ Cole and his trio recorded "Straighten Up and Fly Right", the first recording for the King Cole trio. 1947 - Only one day after the United Nations decrees Israel's right to exist, Jewish settlements are attacked. 1950 - Clover Dairy of Wilmington, Delaware offered Sealtest concentrated milk for sale. 1953 - Playwright Eugene O'Neill died in Boston, Massachusetts, at age 65. His vast collection of plays included Anna Christie, Ah! Wilderness, The Hairy Ape, Desire Under the Elms, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and Mourning Becomes Electra. O'Neill was awarded the Nobel prize of literature in 1936. His daughter, Oona, married silent film star Charlie Chaplin. He left several unpublished plays and an autobiography. O'Neill's will stipulated that these were not to be produced until 25 years after his death. 1954 - In London, England, Sir Winston Churchill celebrated his 80th birthday. The festivities were supossedly the greatest ever held for a British subject. 1954 - The first meteorite known to have struck a woman lands in Sylacauga, Alabama. 1956 - New York's Floyd Patterson became the youngest man, at 21, to win the world heavyweight boxing championship when he knocked-out light-heavyweight champ Archie Moore in the fifth round of their Chicago bou. 1958 - The Dewey - the first guided missile destroyer was launched in Bath, Maine. 1959 - Joe Foss was named American Football League commissioner and made about $30,000 a year as his salary for the job. 1962 - U Thant of Burma was elected secretary-general of the United Nations after the death of Dag Hammarskjold. 1964 - The unmanned Soviet spaceship "Zond 2" took off for Mars but communication was lost in May 1965. 1966 - Barbados gains independence from Britain. 1967 - Yemen, then Aden, gains independence from Britain. 1968 - Diana Ross and the Supremes hit t#1 on the music charts with "Love Child", a controversial song for the times. It stayed at #1 for two weeks. 1971 - As the "ABC Movie of the Week", ABC-TV presented "Brian’s Song". The story was about Chicago Bears Brian Picolo and his friendship with Gayle Sayers, who watched him die a tragic death. The movie rated a 32.9 and a 48 share. "Brian’s Song", performed by Michel Legrand, was the movie's theme. 1974 - The Eagles released their hit, "Best of My Love", but it would take until March 1, 1975 for it to hit #1 on the top 40 charts. 1977 - Eric Severied retired from CBS-TV after 38 years in television news. Among those he worked with were: Morrow, Collingwood, Trout, Cronkite, Edwards, Rather, Kuralt, Wallace, Dean and others. 1982 - The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 36.43 points, giving the fourth largest gain in the it’s 87-year history. 1986 - Ivan Lendl became the world's first tennis player to have career earnings over $10 million. 1988 - Radio Liberty, the American-financed Soviet radio station with an audience of 16 million, was opened to the airwaves on this date, along with two other radio stations. The Russians began jamming foreign radio broadcasts in the early 1950s after declaring them tools of subversion. 1989 - A bomb killed Alfred Herrhausen, the chairman of West Germany's largest bank. The Red Army Faction terrorist group claimed responsibility for the killing. 1991 - Archaeologists unearthed a statue of Pharaoh Ramses II in Akhimim, Egypt. Tuesday, November 29, 2005 This is truly a victory for religious free speech, ability to share the truth of the Bible when sharing the gospel, and freedom of association on moral matters and truth! "The U.S.-based Alliance Defense Fund, which filed friends-of-the-court briefs in support of Green, called the high court's ruling "a huge victory for religious liberty everywhere." From ADF newsletter: FROM: Alan Sears, President You Prayed and God Answered! Pastor Ake Green Acquitted of “Hate Speech” by Swedish Supreme Court! We just received word this AM that the Swedish Supreme Court – in an unanimous decision - has acquitted Pastor Ake Green of charges that he engaged in “hate speech” when he delivered a sermon on homosexual behavior to his small church. This is a MAJOR victory for religious freedom worldwide, as a loss would not only have sentenced Pastor Green to jail, but also set an international precedent that radical advocates of homosexual behavior would have attempted to use to legally silence the uncensored preaching of the Gospel around the globe. ADF Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull, who traveled to Sweden to advise Pastor Green and observe the trial, says: “This is a huge international victory for fundamental human rights, religious freedom, and freedom of speech. Voicing one’s conscience is a fundamental human right. In this contest between religious freedom and the radical homosexual agenda, religious freedom prevailed. As David slew Goliath, Ake Green slew the radical homosexual agenda in this case. We can only hope that will deter other attempts to censor Christian ministers from delivering Bible-based messages against harmful homosexual conduct. Ake Green is a hero and we are grateful for his stand and his perseverance.” ADF coordinated and funded the filing of friend-of-the-court briefs for the case as well as the translation of trial transcripts into English. Numerous international groups have used these transcripts to prepare their friend-of-the-court briefs on Green’s behalf. Thank you for your prayers – which along with God’s grace – made this pivotal victory possible! Some people may still want to label Pastor Green's comment 'hate speech' when he called homosexuality a 'deep cancer tumor' on society. His terminology may not have been pleasant. However, the medical truths and dangers of homosexuality should alarm and concern us all. Today's (and yesterday's) broadcast at Straight Talk Radio covers this in depth. From the website: Today, Straight Talk Radio concludes one of the most important subjects very few are truthfully addressing within the medical community: “The Medical Truths and Dangers of Homosexuality.” Dr. John Diggs, MD, is a Board-Certified Internal Medicine Specialist in South Hadley, Massachusetts, who has been treating homosexual individuals since the discovery of HIV/AIDS (originally known as GRIDS) in 1981 – and the increase of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases.) Dr. Diggs speaks from his first hand, professional experience, about the real mental, emotional and physical consequences of those individuals who engage in dangerous and risky homosexual behavior. Dr. John Diggs, a highly respected professional in the medical community, covers a gamut of issues that every listener can benefit from. *Warning and Disclaimer on Today’s Broadcast: Some medical language may be graphic in nature. Dr. Diggs is sensitive due to the nature of the broadcast and listening audience, however, some terms and diseases that are discussed may be troublesome for some individuals. Sunday, November 27, 2005 First, unfortunately, we have to see and face just one example of the depths of depravity permeating our world today. Then, we will see who is behind it all and why. Several weeks ago, my daughter and I watched a Lifetime movie called, "Human Trafficking." I have to admit, the horrendous treatment of women, girls (and sometimes even little boys) who are sold into sexual slavery haunted me for days. I wondered how anyone could ever be so cruel as to be involved in such a horrible, despicable industry. In my current Bible Study on the book of Genesis, we all read the following verse which described what man was like just before the flood: Genesis 7:5 - The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. I thought of that verse when I was watching Human Trafficking because it perfectly described the type of people involved in such a horrendous trade that inflicts continual pain, harm, and death on its victims. It is evil depravity at its worse! Then, I thought of the verse in the New Testament where Paul tells us that "God gave them over to their sinful lusts," (another Bible version states it as "gave them up unto.") I can better understand that verse in the context of realizing Genesis 7:5. When a person reaches the point where every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time, what else could be done for them? The terms "vile affections" include all types of sexual sin. "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet." 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, *sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, *unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. In the following excerpt from the book "Captivating," I was given some new insight about why sexual violence against women is rampant throughout the world: " It is also rampant against little girls and boys, but more than one million girls are sold into the sex trade every year! Dear God - what is to account for the systemic, often brutal, nearly universal assault on femininity? Where does this come from? Do not make the mistake of believing that "men are the enemy." Certainly men have had a hand in this, and will have a day of reckoning before their Maker. But you will not understand this story - or your story - until you begin to see the actual Forces behind this and get a grip on their motives. Where does this hatred for women, seen all over the world, come from? Why is it so diabolical? For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms. (Eph. 6:12 NLT) The assault on femininity - its long history, its utter viciousness - cannot be understood apart from the spiritual forces of evil we are warned against in the Scriptures. This is not to say that men (and women, for they, too, assault women) have no accountability in their treatment of women. Not at all. It is simply to say that no explanation for the assault upon Eve and her daughters is sufficient unless it opens our eyes to the Prince of Darkness and his special hatred of femininity. Turn your attention again to the events that took place in the Garden of Eden. Notice - who does the Evil One go after? Who does Satan single out for his move against the human race? He could have chosen Adam...but he didn't. Satan went after Eve. He set his sights on her. Have you ever wondered why? It might have been that he, like any predator, chose what he believed to be the weaker of the two. There is some truth to that. He is utterly ruthless. But we believe there is more. Why does Satan make Eve the focus of his assault on humanity? You may know that Satan was first named Lucifer, or Son of the Morning. It infers a glory, a brightness or radiance unique to him. In the days of his former glory he was appointed a guardian angel. Many believe he was the captain of the angel armies of God. The guardian of the glory of the Lord. "You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stone." (Ezek. 28:12-14) Perfect in beauty. That is the key. Lucifer was gorgeous. He was breathtaking. and it was his ruin. Pride entered Lucifer's heart. The angel came to believe he was being cheated somehow. He craved the worship that was being given to God for himself. He didn't merely want to play a nobel role in the Story; he wanted the Story to be about him. He wanted to be the star. He wanted the attention, the adoration for himself. ("Mirror, Mirror, on the wall...") Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. (Ezek. 28:17) Satan fell because of his beauty. Now his heart for revenge is to assault beauty. He destroys it in the natural world wherever he can. Strip mines, oil spills, fires, Chernobyl. He wreaks destruction on the glory of God in the earth like a psychopath committed to destroying great works of art. But most especially, he hates Eve. Because she is captivating, uniquely glorious, and he cannot be. She is the incarnation of the Beauty of God. More than anything else in all creation, she embodies the glory of God. She allures the world to God. He hates it with a jealousy we can only imagine. And there is more. The Evil One also hates Eve because she gives life. Women give birth, not men. Women nourish life. And they also bring life into the world soulfully, relationally, spiritually - in everything they touch. Satan was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). He brings death. His is a kingdom of death. Ritual sacrifices, genocide, the Holocaust, abortion - those are his ideas. And thus Eve is his greatest human threat, for she brings life. She is a lifesaver and a life giver. Eve means "life" or "life producer." "Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living" (Gen. 3:20). Put those two things together - that Eve incarnates the Beauty of God and she gives life to the world. Satan's bitter heart cannot bear it. He assaults her with a special hatred. History removes any doubt about this. Do you begin to see it? Think of the great stories - in nearly all of them, the villain goes after the Hero's true love. He turns his sights on the Beauty. Magua goes after Cora in The Last of the Mohicans. Longshanks goes after Murron in Braveheart. Commodus goes after Maximus's wife in Gladiator. The Witch attacks Sleeping Beauty. The stepsisters assault Cinderella. Satan goes after Eve. This explains an awful lot. It is not meant to scare you. Actually, it will shed so much light on your life's story, if you will let it. Most of you thought the things that have happened to you were somehow your fault - that you deserved it. If only you had been prettier or smarter or done more or pleased them, somehow it wouldn't have happened. You would have been loved. They wouldn't have hurt you. And most of you are living with the guilt that somehow it's your fault you aren't more deeply pursued now. That you do not have an essential role in a great adventure. That you have no beauty to unveil. The message of our wounds nearly always is, "This is because of you. This is what you deserve." It changes things to realize that, no, it is because you are glorious that these things happened. It is because you are a major threat to the kingdom of darkness. Because you uniquely carry the glory of God to the world. You are hated because of your beauty and power. Add on 11/28/05: Stasi (co-author)mentioned that the term that God gives Eve when she is created is ezer kenegdo. God states, "It is not good for the man to be alone, I shall make him [an ezer kenegdo]" (Gen. 2:18 Alter) Robert Alter, who has spent years translating the book of Genesis, says that this phrase is "notoriously difficult to translate." Alter gets closer when he translates it "sustainer beside him." The word ezer, is used only twenty other places in the entire Old Testament. And in every other instance the person being described is God himself, when you need him to come through for you desperately. Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is your shield and helper, and your glorious sword. (Deut. 33:26,29, emphasis added) I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. (Ps. 121:1-2, emphasis added) May the LORD answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help. (Ps. 33:20, emphasis added) O house of Israel, trust in the LORD - he is their help and shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD - he is their help and shield. You who fear him, trust in the LORD - he is their help and shield. (Ps. 115:9-11, emphasis added) Most of the contexts are life and death, by the way, and God is your only hope. Your ezer. If he is not there beside you...you are dead. A better translation therefore of ezer would be "lifesaver." Kenegdo means alongside, or opposite to, a counterpart. Stasi goes on to describe:"... that God calls us to a life involving frequent risks and many dangers. (Isn't that the truth!) Why else would we need him to be our ezer? You don't need a lifesaver if your mission is to be a couch potato. You need an ezer when your life is in constant danger." (Jesus told us in John 16:33 - These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you *will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.") Stasi also mentions: "That longing in the heart of a woman to share life together as a great adventrue - that comes straight from the heart of God, who also longs for this. He does not want to be an option in our lives. He does not want to be an appendage, a tagalong. Neither does any woman. God is essential. He wants us to need him - desperately. Eve is essential. She has an irreplaceable role to play. And so you'll see that women are endowed with fierce devotion, an ability to suffer great hardships, a vision to make the world a better place." Now, I have done a lot of "skipping around" in the Captivating book within these last two posts. I do want to make it clear that this beauty being described is not just physical beauty. In the "What Eve Alone Can Tell" chapter, we discover why beauty matters and it is vividly described in many different ways. Now, we will see that because every woman bears the image of God, she has a beauty to unveil. Beauty is an essence that is given to every woman at her creation. Every experience of beauty points to [eternity]. - Hans Urs von Balthasar There are powerful descriptions of what beauty is within the book. For now, I will just list them. Beauty is powerful because it matters. First, beauty speaks. (see Psalm 99:3) Beauty says "all shall be well." Beauty also invites. Recall what it is like to hear a truly beautiful piece of music. There is something profoundly healing about it. A life of beauty calls us to something higher. Beauty is transcendent. It is our most immediate experience of the eternal. Beauty says, There is a glory calling to you. And if there is a glory, there is a source of glory. Beauty is, without question, the most essential and the most misunderstood of all of God's qualities. All of these things are true for any experience of Beauty. But they are especially true when we experience the beauty of a woman - her eyes, her form, her voice, her heart, her spirit, her life. She speaks all of this far more profoundly than anything else in all creation. Knowing a woman's beauty requires an unveiling. Whatever else it means to be feminine, it is depth and mystery and complexity, with beauty as its very essence. Please don't take this wrong. Don't despair. Remember this: Every woman has a beauty to unveil. Because she bears the image of God. She doesn't have to conjure it, go get it from a salon, have plastic surgery or breast implants. No, beauty is an essence that is given to every woman at her creation. Pause for a moment and realize this. We did not say that a woman is prized only for her good looks. We did not say a woman is here merely to complete a man, and therefore a single woman is somehow missing her destiny. What we said was, first, that Eve is the crown of creation. There is something uniquely magnificent and powerful about a woman. We tried to reveal the immeasurable dignity, the holiness of your feminine heart by showing that it is God who longs for Romance; it is God who longs to be our ezer (helper, companion, help meet); it is God who reveals beauty as essential to life. You are the image bearer of this God. That is why you long for those things too. There is a radiance hidden in your heart that the world desperately needs. Did you know that the word "beauty" appears 49 times in 49 verses of the KJ Bible? Here are just a few: Psalm 27:4 - One [thing] have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. Psalm 29:2 - Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. Psalm 50:2 - Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Psalm 90:17 - And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. Psalm 96:6 - Honour and majesty [are] before him: strength and beauty [are] in his sanctuary. Psalm 96:9 - O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth. Again, realize that there is a radiance hidden in your heart that the world desperately needs. Don't let the enemy of our souls prevent you from revealing just who you truly are in Christ Jesus our Lord! The subtitle of the book, "Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul" is highly descriptive and inviting. Reading just 4 chapters has already revealed such valuable, ministering information to me. I can't wait to share and discuss this book with my friends! I have already discovered that what is being shared in each chapter is an unveiling of many things I have thought, felt, experienced, dreaded, hated, loved, feared, over the years. I have come to recognize the reality most of such feelings through reading God's Word over the last 15 years. However, this book is written in a way that also shows me things that I may not have experienced in my own life, but have seen occurring in the lives of many women I know. I now can see much more clearly how, and why, such things have affected other women in my life. This includes those painful, often unspoken but deeply felt times and emotions that women sometimes do not understand and cannot find the answers for. It culminates in that disturbing type of experience(s) that cause us all to ask the question, "why me?" On the positive side of the coin, the book describes and explains the tremendous experiences of love and joy (thank God) that life can bring despite our pain and suffering. We are shown the true heart of a woman, what she needs, and why she needs it. We are shown the beauty that is a woman's soul; the kind of beauty that is in every woman's soul even if it hasn't been revealed to her yet! I will admit that the first chapter may seem a bit hokey to some women; especially the "feminist type" of woman. I'm not one of them. Never have been. But I could just imagine those who are feminists rolling their eyes as they toss the book aside thinking that it only contains that typical "fairy tale" stuff of their childhood. My advice? Keep reading! Because if you don't you will probably miss out on the greatest unveiling of your own soul save that of what you'd learn through what is revealed in the Bible. This book is perfect for gift giving. My own list of women with whom I want to share this book with has already reached 10! I'm sure that even more friends/relatives who would enjoy this book will come to mind. There is also a companion book that was written for men called, Wild at Heart. Captivating includes some excerpts from it and it looks excellent as well. Here is what is written on the Captivating book jacket: "Every woman was once a little girl. And every little girl holds in her heart her most precious dreams. She longs to be swept up into a romance, to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventrue, to be the Beauty of the story. Those desires are far more than child's play. They are the secret to the feminine heart. And yet - how many women do you know who ever find that life? As the years pass by, theheart of a woman gets pushed aside, wounded, buried. She finds no romance except in novels, no adventure except on television, and she doubts very much that she will ever be the Beauty in any tale. Most women think they have to settle for a life of efficiency and duty, chores and errands, striving to be the women they "ought" to be but often feeling they have failed. Sadly, too many messages for Christian women add to the pressure. "Do these ten things, and you will be a godly woman." The effect has not been good on the feminine soul. But her heart is still there. Sometimes when she watches a movie, sometimes in the wee hours of the night, her heart begins to speak again. A thirst rises within her to find the life she was meant to live - the life she dreamed of as a little girl. The message of Captivating is this: Your heart matters more than anything else in all creation. The deisres you had a s little girl and the longings you still feel as a woman - they are telling you of the life God created you to live. He offers to ocome now as the Hero of your story, to rescue your heart and release you to live as a fully alive and feminine woman. A woman who is truly captivating." Although I haven't read it all yet, I can already sense where the story goes and how it ends. And, of course, it has to do with Jesus Christ. But as with the first few chapters I have already read, I'm sure to experience the "ah ha!" type of reaction as I see more clearly why many women are missing out on all that God intended for them to be! For my male readers here, I would like to include a brief excerpt from Wild at Heart: "But God made the masculine heart, set it within every man, and thereby offers him an invitation: Come, and live out what I meant you to be. Permit me to bypass the entire nature vs. nurture "is gender really built-in?" debate with one simple observation: Men and women are made in the image of God as men or as women. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Gen. 1:27). Now, we know God doesn't have a body, so the uniqueness can't be physical. Gender simply must be at the level of the soul, in the deep and everlasting places within us. God doesn't make generic people; he makes something very distinct - a man or a woman. In other words, there is a masculine heart and a feminine heart, which in their own ways reflect or portray to the world God's heart." Saturday, November 26, 2005 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1 NKJV) What is very important to note is that the serpent twisted Scripture and told a lie in his question to Eve. Notice that Eve actually corrected his lie: 2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" (Genesis 3:2-3 NKJV) But Satan, in the form of the serpent, twists Scripture again and adds another lie: 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Here we see the temptation. Instead of obeying and trusting God for all that He has provided them, Eve and Adam let the temptation overcome them and they disobeyed God and thus trusted Satan's lie. The seduction was complete. 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Unfortunately, mankind has been falling for Satan's lies ever since. We see this over and over again throughout the history of man. In Genesis 3:12-13 we see the evidence of the very first "blame game" between Adam and Eve. Lies lead to deception, deception leads to temptation, temptation leads to sin, sin lead to division. So, where do we go to discern truth from error? There is only one place. God's Word, the Bible. Just like Satan's twisting of the Scriptures in Genesis, man has also done this. How do we discern truth from error then? The Scriptures tell us how. In Titus 1, Paul tells us how to live godly lives, and how those, such as himself, are trusted to tell others the truth actually received such truth, "3 And now at the right time he has revealed this Good News, and we announce it to everyone. It is by the command of God our Savior that I have been trusted to do this work for him." (Titus 1:3 NLT) Notice what the preceding verse says, "2 This truth gives them the confidence of eternal life, which God promised them before the world began-and he cannot lie." (Titus 1:2 NLT) God cannot lie so His Word is trustworthy and true. Paul goes on and describes how elders of the church should conduct themselves. This verse is particularly important, "9 He must have a strong and steadfast belief in the trustworthy message he was taught; then he will be able to encourage others with right teaching and show those who oppose it where they are wrong." (Titus 1:9) The trustworthy message that was taught was to teach, "Jesus Christ and Him crucified." The New Testament of the Bible reveals the awaited Messiah that was prophesied in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ fulfilled more than 300 prophecies (with more to be fulfilled at his second coming). Notice that the above verse tells us that those who oppose the "right teachings" must be exposed and shown where they are wrong. The next several verses tell us that there are many who rebel against right teaching. Verse 10 specifically warns us that these types engage in useless talk and deceive people. 10 For there are many who rebel against right teaching; they engage in useless talk and deceive people. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. 11 They must be silenced. By their wrong teaching, they have already turned whole families away from the truth. Such teachers only want your money. 12 One of their own men, a prophet from Crete, has said about them, "The people of Crete are all liars; they are cruel animals and lazy gluttons." 13 This is true. So rebuke them as sternly as necessary to make them strong in the faith. 14 They must stop listening to Jewish myths and the commands of people who have turned their backs on the truth. 15 Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are defiled. 16 Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are despicable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good. (Titus 1:10-16 NLT) Or have only one wife, or be married only once; Greek reads be the husband of one wife. Notice verse 14 says that they have listened to "myths" and "commands" and have turned their backs on the truth. Paul is talking about those who appear to be believers in the church! He goes on and reveals why they have turned from the truth: 1. They are corrupt and unbelieving. 2. Their minds and consciences are defiled. 3. Such people claim to know God, but deny him by the way they live. 4. They are despicable and disobedient. 5. Worthless for doing any good. These are harsh words, are they not? The result is devastating! For verse 11 tells us that they, have already turned entire families away from the truth. Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron labeled such people as "false converts" in their book The Way of the Master. This is not a new concept. False converts existed at the time of Paul and throughout history. How do we recognize them? They are guilty of one or more of the 5 traits listed above. We have such people in the midst of our churches today. Be strong and discerning in your faith and hold onto the truth, otherwise you could be led away by such people. 1 Corinthians 2:14 - But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned. (NKJV) 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 - All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (NKJV) Read 1 Corinthians 1:1-31 . In verse 2, Paul addresses the people at the church of Corinth as, "those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, both theirs and ours." Paul describes the true, blameless saints in these verses: 4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, 5 that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul tells us his concern for division: 10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. There are not to be contentions among you: 11 For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. What are the current contentions and divisions caused by in our day and age? Many have to do with "works of the flesh." 26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the *base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. 30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God--and righteousness and sanctification and redemption-- 31 that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord." Only God gets the glory! No act of the flesh, no wisdom from man, ONLY the wisdom from God and the righteousness, sanctification and redemption through Jesus Christ!! 1 Corinthians 14:31-33 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. 32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. 33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. 1 Corinthians 2: 6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."* 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the *Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?"* But we have the mind of Christ. NU-Text reads mystery. NU-Text omits human. NU-Text omits Holy. New King James Version, ? 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission. You may still wonder, how do we know and recognize who is genuinely following God or being deceived by the "author of confusion?" Paul says it quite well in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (below in last paragraph). A good indicator is this: You can discern where a person is, spiritually, through the evidence of whether or not their faith appears to be in the wisdom of men or genuinely in the power of God! The evidence of a person's faith can be seen through their knowledge of, and adherance to, God's Word. The difference between recognizing those who have "turned from the truth" (see 5 examples above) and those who cling to Christ and His Word make this truly obvious when discerning such matters. 2And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the *testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of *human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Wednesday, November 23, 2005 We can be thankful about many things and to many people. But giving thanks to God with a grateful heart should be first and foremost, for when we do, it is only natural to follow that up with thankfulness for the people in our lives. Materialistic things never matter as much as the Lord and our loved ones. Just ask those who lost every material possession they had in the hurricanes named Katrina and Rita. What was most important to them? Finding their scattered loved ones alive. During the recovery efforts, it was quite understandable to learn that the survivors asked for the physical needs of water, food, and shelter. But did you know what the fourth most requested item was? Those disasters drove people towards the desire to know God and His Word. We are hearing not only of stories of survival, but also, hundreds of stories of redemption. That's what God does in the midst of tragedy. He redeems. My GodBlog friend, Charlie LeHardy has a wonderful post called A Season of Thanksgiving at his Another Think blog. In it, he shared a quote from Cicero: "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." - Cicero Pro Plancio 54 B.C. I have been meaning to tell Charlie that I love the name of his blog. It reminds me of the verse in Isaiah that says: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. Isaiah 55:8 (NKJV) Until I started studying the Bible diligently about 15 years ago, I'd have to admit that my thoughts were hardly ever in tune with the Lord's (as revealed in the Bible) and my ways were certainly not according to His ways. It is obvious that we can never completely "arrive" at the desired destination of acquiring the complete thoughts and ways of God while here on this earth. But we gain glimpses and enormous revelation through reading His Word. A relative of mine once said to me, "you've been studying that thing [Bible] for 10 years...don't you know it yet? The answer is no. I can never reach the point of "knowing" it completely. Fellow believers, wouldn't you agree that we can never stop learning from the Word of God? It is unique in that way; unique from any and all other books in existence today. However, what can be accomplished and is of infinite value is that the more we study, the more we can then see the vast difference and transformation that the Lord has made in our own individual lives. We can look back and see the vivid evidence of God's sanctification process since that moment of being born again! We can see the transformation and sanctification of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ; especially when they share their testimonies. How you ever noticed that no two testimonies are ever alike? There may be similarities, but no two lives are ever completely the same. That's because the Lord redeems us individually. That's what having a personal relationship with the Lord is all about. Your redemption is between God and you! He saves us "one soul at a time." Whether it happened in a stadium filled with thousands of people, at your church filled with hundreds, or when you were in your home on your knees at the side of your bed. When I prayed about this post last night, I didn't know that the Lord would show me so much! He revealed songs and Scripture to me while I was laying in bed, in the state of being half asleep and half awake. I felt prompted to wake up, get my coffee and start typing! One song's lyrics stood out in my mind this morning. We often sing it at our church during each year's season of Thanksgiving : With a grateful heart For the Holy One Because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son. And now, let the weak say I am strong Let the poor say I am rich Because of what The Lord has done for us. When I think about what the Lord has done for me, for us, at the cross it makes me weep. Jesus Christ loves us so much that he paid the price that we could not ever pay for our sins at the cross. An instrument of execution became the tool of redemption for us all. Jesus came to "make all things new." Sometimes I wonder how anyone cannot see the gifts of love, mercy, forgiveness and grace through God's provision for our salvation! But some people look at the cross of Christ very differently. In fact, I got an email message requesting prayer for an individual named "Mike" who had made a derogatory post against Christ at another message board. In it, he listed objections to how and where Christians should pray. But one paragraph was particularly sad and unsettling. He wrote the following about the cross of Christ: "Your corpse nailed to a board is disturbing, and I don't necessarily think kids should see it. Again, just saying. Worshipping it is all well and good, but don't be surprised if other people feel the same way as I do. " 1 Corinthians 1:18 - For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:21 - For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Scripture informs us that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing! But it goes even further and deeper. Many non-believers find the cross not only foolish, but also offensive. Why is that? Jesus himself clearly tells us why: John 7:7 - The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. Without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the "natural man" cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God! 1 Corinthians 2:14 - But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned. What Christians view as salvation, is viewed as contemptuous by the unredeemed world. Their attitude is anathema towards repentance. In order for the world to break away from such deception, Christians need to continually share the gospel of Christ. It is our duty to do so. We need to keep the unredeemed in prayer, for it is our most powerful tool against the enemy of our souls. One of my favorite contemporary Christian music groups is Mercy Me. I'd like end with the song that the Lord recalled to my mind this morning: "Here With Me" I long for your embrace Every single day To meet you in this place And see you face to face Will you show me? Reveal yourself to me Because of your mercy I fall down on my knees And I can feel your presence here with me Suddenly I'm lost within your beauty Caught up in the wonder of your touch Here in this moment I surrender to your love You're everywhere I go I am not alone You call me as your own To know you and be known You are holy And I fall down on my knees I can feel your presence here with me Suddenly I'm lost within your beauty Caught up in the wonder of your touch Here in this moment I surrender to your love I surrender to your grace I surrender to the one who took my place I can feel your presence here with me Suddenly I'm lost within your beauty Caught up in the wonder of your touch Here in this moment I surrender I surrender to your grace I surrender to the one who took my place I can feel your presence here with me Suddenly I'm lost within your beauty Caught up in the wonder of your touch Here in this moment I surrender to your love Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving! Mercy Me music clips! Go Here for a music clip of this and other Mercy Me songs. (at site, click on "Listen to all", then scroll for song of choice) Added on Thanksgiving Day, 11/24/05 - “Remember ever, and always, that your country was founded, not by the ‘most superficial, the lightest, the most irreflective of all European races,’ but by the stern old Puritans who made the deck of the Mayflower an altar of the living God, and whose first act on touching the soil of the new world was to offer on bended knees thanksgiving to Almighty God.” - Former U.S. Senator Henry Wilson (1855-72), and Vice-President under Ulysses S. Grant (1873-75). November 24, 2005 In Abundance, Gratitude Thanksgiving arrives once again and families are gathering across the nation. The traditional Thanksgiving feast has deep roots in our nation's history when the colonists paused to thank God for sustaining them through many dangers. Those who attended the first Thanksgiving feast had tasted the pain of adversity before they tasted the abundance of the great meal.In truth, most of us have never truly been hungry--we have never known the hardships previous generations assumed to be normal. For this reason we are not as urgently thankful as we should be. Our safety, comfort and material abundance can blind us to the fact that we, just like those pilgrim colonists, depend upon the grace and provision of God.So let's remember what Thanksgiving is all about--giving thanks to God for the abundance we have received and the blessings we have enjoyed. Resist the temptation to think of this day and this feast as simply one more holiday occasion. Happy Thanksgiving from Salem Communications. Albert Mohler is the host of The Albert Mohler Program. Read Albert Mohler's blog on Crosswalk. Tuesday, November 22, 2005 I can't wait! Narnia Movie News If you haven't already heard about it, just what was the news of the day that Matt exposed on Hannity and Colmes last night? It was the fact that CNN (a.k.a. Corrupted News Network) flashed a huge "X" over the face of Vice President Dick Cheney during his speech yesterday where he excoriated the Democrats who have recently decided to ratchet up their anti-war rhetoric by spewing such hate, contempt and lies about President Bush and the decision to go to war. The liberal left haters just seem to never be able to restrain themselves from bashing and defaming anyone in the current administration. The personal attacks that have been hurled by them against our President, Vice President, Secretary of State Condi Rice, Donald Rumsfeld etc. are truly shameful! They spew lies about Dick Cheney and Halliburton. Yet, look at the liberal hypocrisy of Michael Moore, Barbra Streisand, Al Franken, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Noam Chomsky, and Hilary Clinton. You tell me whether or not their lifestyles reflect their rhetoric. Personally, I am sick of each and every one of them and I hope that Peter Schweizer's book embarrasses and inflames them all! Have you noticed that Michael Moore has basically disappeared from the news limelight since this book has exposed his profits made with Halliburton and Boeing; companies that he previously viciously denounced? Hmmm....what's the matter Mikey boy...no protestations that the book is incorrect? To close my latest political rant, I must draw your attention to Doug Powers blogpost on the mystery of the big X. The end of his post is hilarious! (Note: don't get mad at me for the vulgarity written on the man's t-shirt...just thought I'd warn you.) Another good post. Another add on: "Nobody is saying we should not be having this discussion or that you cannot reexamine a decision made by the president and the Congress some years ago." "What is not legitimate -- and what I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible -- is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence," Cheney said. Another add on: Democrats rewriting history regarding Iraq intelligence. Sunday, November 20, 2005 Here is what it said: "Bertrand Russell on public opinion" One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways." This has got to be the most difficult mind game an entrepreneur must play. On the one hand, you must follow your well-honed instincts. On the other hand, you must respect public opinion, in so far as it is required to remain solvent. But I've noticed lately that rather than create a brand that some people absolutely love, most people are trying to create brands that nobody hates. Big mistake! Awhile back a friend was bemoaning the less than stellar rating he had received from an attendee at one of his seminars. One a scale of 1 - 5, he had received a lowly 1. "What's so bad about that?" I asked. "It was a [darn] 1!" he replied. "That [stinks]." "No it doesn't," I assured him. "What [stinks] is receiving a whole bunch of 3's." Today, you want to be either loved or hated. A "5" or a "1." You must discover who YOUR audience truly is and be a protagonist for something which THEY believe in and feel passionately about. And as far as the rest . . . kindly thank them for their opinions and then ignore them. As Bill Cosby once opined: "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." (Note: I changed some inappropriate words in the quote.) That Russell quote sums up how many in the atheistic, skeptical, non-believing world think. My message board/blogging conversations with skeptics, unfortunately, often boils down to this negative opinion about Christians and God: "voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny." The rejection of the Bible as inerrant and absolute truth are causing many Christian churches and denominations to compromise the Bible and the bottom line, "politically correct" reason for this is their efforts in "trying to create brands that nobody hates." Isn't this glaringly evident in the liberal leaning churches? The last paragraph (above, in bold) is the one that stood out for me. Isn't it true that when Christians share the gospel, the recipients often either will love it or hate it? I have seen other blogs which continually mock the Lord Jesus Christ, Christianity, and religion in general. The mockers, skeptics, atheists, agnostics, followers of cults etc. have some common traits. My experience in discussions with non-believers often leads to the life and death issue. I have also found that such people have other views and experiences in common. One, is anger and/or disappointment with God; two, is mistreatment of some sort at a former church where they attended; three, is hatred for the God of the Bible; and fourth, is rejection of Jesus Christ and an attitude that "it's all just a myth". Such attitudes are often very relevant as to whether one believes in God or not and thus where a person ends up in eternity. This paragraph could apply to Christian blogging, but it is missing one key element: "You must discover who YOUR audience truly is and be a protagonist for something which THEY believe in and feel passionately about." In Christian blogging, it is often the opposite. We counter what the audience currently believes. The purpose of a blog like mine isn't so much discovering who my audience is because the people visiting can be quite diverse. The crucial point that isn't included in that quote is the fact that each Bible believing born-again Christian that visits and posts at this site absolutely share the belief in the gospel message and feel passionate about sharing it with others. We have that fact in common. This, we do, despite the rejection we might inevitably receive from visitors. Those in the "audience" who are not Christians will likely disagree with most of what is shared here. I do agree that as Christians we are to be compassionate and display the 'fruit of the Spirit' (see Galatians 5:2; Ephesians 5:9) whenever possible to those who visit. However, as we have seen, tempers can flare and people can get angry, hurt, or feel rejected no matter how loving we try to be. Sometimes even the best efforts NOT to cause hurt, angry feelings do not work. The reason is because the person is searching for compromise. Therefore, accepting what we share is outrightly rejected because it is not what the reader wants to hear. If they are looking for approval of sin, then they reject God's call for repentance. The result of this kind of dialoguing is not always "successful" for those who refuse the gospel message. In their minds, it will be viewed as failure. Let's face it, the disciples, apostles, and even Jesus himself had rejection! We will most likely continue to appear as antagonists towards them. Sharing "the truth in love" does not appear as love to those who will not accept the truth. Have you noticed that? No matter how "loving" one presents the truth, the person sharing can still be regarded as "hateful," "bigoted," "intolerant," and any other negative adjective you could think of. I think that a big reason this is so is because many do not want to face their own sin, the truth of the Bible and who Jesus is. So, in reality, they are rejecting Him and not really us. We are just the sharers of the gospel message. Whether or not one accepts it is up to God and the unsaved person. Bill Cosby's quote (above) is half correct for the part where he says, "you can't please everybody" is often very true. If our aim as Christians is to please everybody, then it is likely that this means we would be compromising something in God's Word. Staying true to God's Word in this life IS success. It's not the success that the world focuses on, but it is the success we want to adhere to while following Jesus Christ. Saturday, November 19, 2005 The transformed Christian is always prepared for every ministry opportunity he or she faces. 1. The transformed Christian stays focused on ministering to the needs of others. (See Mark 8:1-3). Making oneself more and more useful to God in ministry is key. We are to focus on the needs of others. We can become more discerning of other people. Doing so in a compassionate way is a method that 'gets us down' to where the person is 'living', so to speak, and allows us to 'feel their pain' with them. Christine's comments: I see this more as empathy than sympathy for them. Sometimes, sympathy for a person can be misconstrued. They may see the Christian believer as someone who thinks of themselves as "holier than thou." This is a common misconception of non-believers. Christians are reminded in God's Word of the fact that, "for such were some of you" so, the reality is very clear. It is ONLY because of Jesus Christ that we are washed, sanctified and justified in the sight of God the Father. No room for a "holier than thou" attitude with that fact! 1Cr 6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. I also think that a believer who has been transformed and saved from a certain kind of sin can often (but, of course, not only) be the one chosen to help rescue others who are wallowing from the deception of that same type of sin. Ministries that are geared to help others out of the sins of porn addiction, or alcoholism, or adultery etc. are often led by people who suffered such addictions in the past; but are now set free by Jesus. 2. The transformed Christian honors God with their resources. (See Mark 8:5-9). By the term "resources" we don't only mean money, but also knowledge, gifts, talent and time. We are to make it available to Him. Realize that even our very lives belong to Him! Christine's comments: You might be thinking, how can anybody meet this great need? The answer is to let God make up the gap. We are to do what we can with all we have as often as we can with those the Lord places in our path each day. A devout Christian friend of mine once told me, "Chris, the one person you may have influenced and led to the Lord is just as important as when Billy Graham holds a crusade to reach thousands." She said this to me when I was wondering if my posting on atheist/agnostic message boards was worthwhile. At the time, I was sharing with our Bible study group (that was meeting in my home) that an internet acquaintance who used to mock me about my faith three years ago has now accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. But that was only one person out of hundreds that probably read my posts. He re-connected with me 3 years later to tell me of his transformation. He is now a brother in Christ! You can read more about it at this blogpost. What this tells me is that we never know what "seeds have been planted" by what we share on message boards or in the blogosphere. The saving is up to God, of course, but we are to follow Jesus' command to go into all the world and share the Good News of the Gospel. Mar 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Look at the attitude of the Apostles: Acts 5:42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Remember Saul's reaction when Jesus appeared before him on the road to Damascus: Acts 22:10 And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do. And, remember "where he came from." He was a persecutor of Christians! Acts 8:1 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. Act 8:2 And devout men carried Stephen [to his burial], and made great lamentation over him. Act 8:3 As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed [them] to prison. Read the entire chapter in Acts 8 to see the transformation of Saul, to Paul. In my current Bible study, we were discussing the significance of names in the Old Testament. In the ancient Near East a person's name was intertwined with the essence of his or her being and personality. In the Bible, name-giving has great importance. A change of name (e.g. Abram to Abraham; Sarai to Sarah) is an event of major significance, symbolizing a new character and destiny. We see such significance regarding the name change of Saul to Paul here in the New Testament as well. In addition, notice that each of the patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - received his name from God himself. These names, as well as those of the great biblical heroes like Moses and Aaron, David and Solomon, are unique, not given to any other person in the Bible. If you are a frequent reader here, you may recall a previous post about the significance of names given in Genesis. 3. The transformed Christian commits all of their works to the Lord. When God tells you to do something, it is not always comfortable! Can anyone say Amen to that? Realize that you will have opposition. Comes with the territory! We are to work through it! The Rock church is going through opposition and persecution during the recent efforts to purchase and build at a bigger site. I have heard of this same scenario time and time again! Personally, I can't think of hearing about any church that has NOT been opposed by some politician or community when it is proposed. But the great news is this...they get built anyway. That is what trust in the Lord is showing us. Pastor Miles stated the obvious when he said, "you know you are transformed when you are scared, but you do it anyway." He concluded by saying we are to pray and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ! Don't spread you're (or anyone else's) doubt; even when the naysayers are babbling, "it can't be done" or when obstacles might be thrown in your way. The best revenge is success! Friday, November 18, 2005 Our military is in harms way, fighting an insurgency THAT WANTS us to leave Iraq to early so that they can take the country over from the newly trained Iraqi soldiers, and democratic leaders in Congress WANT THE SAME THING! One congressman (John Murtha) made a profoundly ignorant and HUGELY ILL-TIMED CALL to demand withdrawal of our troops from Iraq. He did this just one day before two mosques in Iraq were blown up with about 74 people dead and 75 people wounded. This is terribly irresponsible and insane!! And it's appalling that a man in congress thinks he knows better than our military commanders in the field! And, don't even get me started with Bill Clinton. John Gibson got it right when he said on his show, " Clinton has definitely gone off the deep end!" Go see the video at Fox News and hear the details of Clinton's stupidity in front of Arab students in an Arab country. Does this man even think before he speaks anymore? Sheesh!! Have you seen the commercial that shows several democratic leaders saying the SAME THINGS that President Bush said back in 2003 about Saddam Hussein and the need for regime change in Iraq? It then shows what they are saying today is the complete opposite of what they believed and said back then. It is so painfully evident that they are now accusing the President of lying to the American people when they obviously thought and said the same thing about the intelligence information at the time! This is outrageous, people. I hope they show this commercial over and over again to show the sad hypocrisy that is going on with this liberal, anti-war, "we hate Bush" crowd. Keep showing it until the election in 2008. The democrats will lose again. And Cindy Sheehan...STAY HOME. Let our President have a peaceful Thanksgiving at his Texas ranch. This woman has lost all credibility she had (if, she even had any in the first place) when she took up with the likes of Michael Moore and his ilk. Speaking of Moore, it's time to get back to the book review. Do As I Say (Not As I Do) by Peter Schweizer Hypocrisy has proved to be a wonderful weapon for liberals in their war against conservatives. When a pro-family politician gets caught cheating on his wife, or a conservative pundit turns out to have a bad habit or addiction, their enemies use the charge to good effect. Fair enough. But what happens when the spotlights are turned on liberals themselves? Do the supporters of progressive taxes, affirmative action, strict environmental safeguards, and unionized labor practice what they preach? In a word: NO. Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy is Hoover Fellow Peter Schweizer's hard-hitting exposé of the contradictions between the public stances and real-life behavior of prominent liberals like Hillary Clinton, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Ralph Nader, Barbra Streisand, and many more. "Much of what follows," writes Schweizer in his introduction, "will strike many people as a revelation precisely because liberal hypocrisy gets a big fat pass from the liberal press, which fails to subject prominent liberals to the kind of intense personal scrutiny that is commonly meted out to conservatives." Some of the shocking hypocrisy Peter Schweizer reveals: *"I don't own a single share of stock," Michael Moore declares. No, his tax returns show he has owned hundreds of thousands -- profiting from some of the very companies (like Halliburton and Boeing) he viciously denounces. *How Moore's working-class, "regular guy" pose is contradicted by his lavish lifestyle and prima donna behavior -- such as traveling the country in a private jet accompanied by a fleet of private SUVs and bodyguards. *Moore also relentlessly exposes those who fail to meet his standards of racial fairness and equality. So, of the 134 producers, editors, cinematographers, composers, and production coordinators Moore he hired to work on his many movies, how many do you think were black? *Hillary Clinton supports the right of thirteen-year-old girls to have abortions without parental consent -- yet she forbade thirteen-year-old Chelsea to pierce her ears and enrolled her in a school that would not distribute condoms to minors. *The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel: ultra-left class warrior, defender of the inheritance tax -- and trust-fund heiress who fought the IRS all the way to the Supreme Court to avoid paying $2 million in estate taxes. * Princeton "ethics" professor Peter Singer crusades for euthanasia for the severely disabled and terminally ill. But when it comes to his own mother, he operates according to more humane principles (fortunately for her). *During the 2004 campaign, John Kerry complained that the "super-rich" don't pay their fair share in taxes. Care to guess what percentage of their income Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry -- who are worth over $700 million -- are paying in taxes? *Noam Chomsky opposes private property and calls the Pentagon "the most vile institution on the face of the earth" -- yet he has made millions in contract work for the Pentagon, owns two luxurious homes, and set up an irrevocable trust to protect his assets from Uncle Sam. *Ted Kennedy favors racial set-asides on federal contracts -- but when it came to his own investment in an entire city block of Washington, DC, he got his political friends to help him waive an affirmative action set-aside. *Another of Kennedy's great causes has been support of the estate or inheritance tax. But, he has repeatedly benefited from an intricate web of trusts and private foundations that have kept most of the family pie from ever ending up in the hands of the IRS. *Kennedy has introduced dozens of pieces of legislation over the years to encourage alternative energy sources. But he helped block the Cape Wind Project -- an effort to provide clean energy for thousands of homes on Cape Cod -- because the project would be built in one of the family's favorite sailing and yachting areas. *Al Franken habitually calls conservatives "liars" and "mean and nasty" -- yet as a writer for "Saturday Night Live" he penned jokes and skits so mean-spirited they appalled even his colleagues, and he uses brazen lies for his bestselling books all the time. *Ralph Nader: how he speculates in the stocks of companies that might be influenced by his political activism. How he conceals enormous wealth and a lavish lifestyle behind a façade of pretended frugality. *Nancy Pelosi has made supporting labor unions a cornerstone of her public career. Yet the vineyards and hotels that comprise her $35 million fortune have one thing in common: they don't use union labor. *Barbra Streisand: how, on the three causes with which she seems most concerned -- poverty, environmentalism and feminism -- she engages in the very behaviors she says she deplores. Schweizer makes it clear that when it comes to the things that matter most in our lives -- protection of family, property, and privacy -- even the most outspoken liberals jettison their progressive ideas and adopt conservative principles. In short, he writes, "these do-as-I-say liberals don't trust their own ideas enough to apply them at home... Which can only make one wonder: If their liberal prescriptions don't really work for them as individuals, how can they work for the rest of us?" One more thing. Senator Kerry's home state of MA has a check-off box on its tax return form to enable people to give MORE MONEY IN TAXES if one so chooses to do so. Guess what? Kerry didn't check the box!! This extremely rich man is not willing to give more in taxes in his own home state but wants to raise taxes for all the so-called 'rich people' in the U.S. for the federal government? Talk about hypocrisy!! Thursday, November 17, 2005 Here are the five questions: 1. What makes a Christian blog different from a secular blog in the material that they cover? Why have a “Christian blog” and not a neutral blog that’s written by a Christian? What are you, as a Christian blogger, hoping to communicate to your audience? 2. What was the purpose of having a “Christian Blogosphere Convention,” especially if you could just have an online chat? 3. I’ve heard that the Christian bloggers are hoping to hold TV Evangelists and other mainstream Christians accountable through their blogs. How and why do they hope to do this? 4. What kind of effect do you think the bloggers have on the rest of Christian culture? 5. What effect do you you think Christian bloggers could have on the rest of the blogosphere? Again, hat tip to djchuang for posting these questions. His answers are excellent, too, but don't peek!! ;-) It is my hope that my friends here will answer the questions in their own words first! Wednesday, November 16, 2005 The photographs alone told the story. Boats jackstrawed like bathtub toys. Buildings ripped from their foundations. Corpses mingled with debris, bobbing in the tide. A little boy, head pulled low in sorrow, teddy bear at his feet. Katrina. “Our tsunami,” as one person put it. Time will pass on this tragedy, as it has since 9/11, and since the events of April 20, 1999, when the lives of fourteen teenagers were extinguished at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. But in one sense these things will never be old news. The question on the lips of so many is an age old query: “Where was God?” ONE WRONG ANSWER One answer is not going to work: The picture of a broken-hearted God, victimized, agonizing over events out of His control. This “finite God” view is Rabbi Harold Kushner’s answer in Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? Evil is bigger than God whose hands are tied by the laws of nature and the will of man. Limited in power and perfection, He weeps with us at a world out of control. According to Kushner, this should bring us comfort. “God, who neither causes nor prevents tragedies, helps by inspiring people to help,” he writes.1 Clearly, the God Kushner has in mind is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the One who brought the universe into existence with a single thought. This is not the God of the Exodus and the empty tomb. A God equally victimized by the march of evil may commiserate with other victims, but He cannot inspire or rescue. He is not worthy of praise, prayer, or trust. Nor is there any real comfort to be gained from one so impotent. ANOTHER WRONG ANSWER But what alternative is there? How can anyone believe in God in the wake of the kind of devastation and suffering wrought by Katrina and Rita? The great 20th Century British philosopher and atheist Bertrand Russell wondered how anyone could talk of God while kneeling at the bed of a dying child. It is a powerful image. Like the three-word sound byte “Where was God?” it strikes many Christians dumb. How can anyone cling to the hope of a benevolent, powerful sovereign in the face of such tragedy? They might consider Christian philosopher William Lane Craig’s response: What is the atheist Bertrand Russell going to say to that dying child – or to thousands of dead or homeless in Katrina’s wake, or to the parents of 14 murdered highschoolers in Colorado, for that matter? Too bad? Tough luck? That’s the way it goes? No happy ending, no silver lining, nothing but devastating, tragic, senseless evil? No, that also won’t work for a very important reason. In a world bereft of God, there are many ways to characterize hurricane Katrina, the devastation of 9/11, or the killings at Columbine High: unpleasant, sad, painful, even ghastly. Yet if God doesn’t exist, the one thing we can never do is call such human destruction tragic, or wanton murder wicked. If in virtue of these tragedies one concludes God doesn’t exist, then the carnage ceases to be tragic at all, if by that word we mean a genuine breach of goodness. Judgments like these require some transcendent reference point, some way of keeping score. Words like “evil” or “tragic” are parasitic on a standard of moral perfection. C.S. Lewis pointed out that a portrait is a good or bad likeness depending on how it compares with the “perfect” original. But if there is no standard, then there is no “good” or “bad.” “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust,” Lewis reasoned. “But how had I gotten this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call something crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?....”2 Evil is spoiled goodness. That’s Lewis’s point. We already know this. Note the words we use to describe it: unrighteousness, immorality, impurity. Evil depends on the good. Where does such goodness come from, though? This point was explored in the movie, “The Quarrel.”3 The main characters, Hersh and Chiam, were boyhood friends who separated in a dispute over God and evil. Then came the Holocaust; each thought the other had perished. After the war, they reunite by chance and immediately become embroiled once again in their boyhood quarrel. Hersh, now a rabbi, offers this challenge to the secularist Chiam: If there's nothing in the universe that's higher than human beings, then what's morality? Well, it’s a matter of opinion. I like milk; you like meat. Hitler likes to kill people; I like to save them. Who’s to say which is better? Do you begin to see the horror of this? If there is no Master of the universe, then who’s to say that Hitler did anything wrong? If there is no God, then the people that murdered your wife and kids did nothing wrong. If there is no God, it’s hard to even begin making sense of the notions of evil or moral tragedy. The events that trouble us are reduced to mere “stuff ” that happens. There are different kinds of “stuff,” to be sure, some we like (Mother Teresa), and some we don’t (Katrina & Rita), but in a universe bereft of God it’s all reduced to “stuff ” in the end. But we know better. Words like “wicked,” “tragic,” and “evil” are on the lips of everyone constantly. We cannot describe the events in New Orleans in August, 2005 without them. But the questions remain: Why didn’t God intervene? Why is He inactive – apparently impotent – when He could restrain both the winds and the wicked? This protest rings hollow, though, because we don’t really want God to end evil, not all of it. PICKING AND CHOOSING OUR MORAL TRAGEDIES Why does this question come up only with magnum tragedies – like hurricane Katrina or the Littleton massacre – or when we are personally stunned by deadly disease or financial ruin? What about the enormous mass of evil that slips by us every day unnoticed and unlamented because we are the perpetrators of the evil, not its victims? On August 30, 2005 – the same day that the failure of the first two levees submerged some New Orleans neighborhoods under 20 feet water – I wonder how many Americans were committing adultery around the country? What of the cumulative effect of the personal pain and destruction that resulted from all those individual acts of sin? What of the unplanned pregnancies (and subsequent abortions), the sexually transmitted diseases, the shame and embarrassment? On August 30, a day that left so many homeless in the Gulf states, what of the children whose homes were broken through marriages destroyed by infidelity? What of the severed trust, the emotional wounding, the sting of betrayal, the shattered families? What of the traumatized children cast emotionally adrift, destined as adults to act out the anguish of this disloyalty? One careless act of unfaithfulness leaves in its wake decades of pain and destruction and often generations of brokenness. And – to be sure – this evil was multiplied thousands of times over on the same day the levees broke in Louisiana. I saw no outcry, though, no moral indignation in the local papers or national news because God permitted this evil. Why not? Because we don’t complain when evil makes us feel better, only when it makes us feel bad. If the truth were known, we do not judge disasters based on unprejudiced moral assessment, but rather on what is painful, awkward, or inconvenient to us. We don’t ask, “Where is God?” when another’s pain brings us profit instead of loss. We don’t want God sniffing around the dark recesses of our own evil conduct. Instead, we fight intervention. We don’t really want Him stopping us from hurting others. We only cry “foul” when He doesn’t stop others from hurting us. The problem of evil is much bigger than hundreds of drowned people or thousands of homeless. It includes all the ordinary corruptions that please us, the hundreds of small vices you and I approve of every day. It entails not only what offends us, but what offends God. The answer to the question “Why doesn’t God stop the evil?” is the same answer to the question, “Why doesn’t God stop me every time I do wrong?” There is a virtuous quality to human moral choice that both dignifies us and makes serious evil possible. The rules God applies to a serial killer are the same rules He applies to you. If you want God to clean up evil, He might just say, “Okay, let’s start with you.” If you want Him to stop murderers, then you have to be just as willing to let Him stop you every time you do what is evil by His standards. And that covers a lot of ground. Most people won’t sit still for that. Sometimes the consequences of our evil actions are longlived. It’s hard to know how much has been spoiled by man’s initial rebellion. However, the prophecy that Adam would now encounter thorns and thistles is suggestive (Genesis 3:18). Ever since man has ventured forth from Eden, the world has been a dangerous place. All the forces of nature are wonderful things in their right place, but ominous foes in a world twisted by sin. WHAT SHOULD GOD DO? When people ask “Where was God?” I ask “What precisely do you expect God to do? If you were in His place, what would you do?” If you would use your power to stop evil, would you punish it or prevent it? Either choice presents you with problems. One reason God doesn’t wipe out all evil immediately is that the alternative would be worse for us. This becomes evident by asking a simple question: If God heard your prayer to eliminate evil and destroyed it all at midnight tonight, where would you be at 12:01? The discomfiting reality is that evil deeds can never be isolated from the evil doer. Our prints are on the smoking gun. Each one of us is guilty in some capacity, and we know it. That’s the problem. While reading on the Littleton shooting several years ago, I stumbled upon a refreshing bit of honesty and moral clarity by John Hewitt in a piece entitled “Seeking to Make Sense Where There Is None.” Hewitt wrote: "We would rather think of bad acts as the unfortunate consequences of discoverable and remedial social and personal conditions. Yet it is precisely the account we do not wish to believe that may best capture what happened in Littleton. The two dead members of the “Trenchcoat Mafia,” together with their fellows, may simply have chosen evil in circumstances where others choose to play football or to crave membership in the National Honor Society."4 [emphasis added] Any judicial action God would take today would pin us all under the gavel. When God wipes out evil, He’s going to do a complete job. C. S. Lewis soberly observed, “I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when He does....When the author walks on the stage the play is over.”5 No, God hasn’t banished evil from His kingdom – yet. The Bible describes a time when God will wipe away every tear and repair the effects of evil on the world. Men will no longer endure the ravages of wickedness or be victimized by bouts with nature. And no one will ever ask the question, “Where was God?” Until then, God has chosen a different strategy, a better plan, one that’s moral on a higher level. It’s a plan that ultimately deals with evil, but allows room for mercy as well. It’s called forgiveness. THE PATIENCE OF GOD God is waiting. Patience, not lack of goodness or lack of ability, stays God’s hand from writing the last chapter of human history. “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness,” Peter reminds us, “but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God is patiently waiting for us to turn to Him. Suffering, tragedy, and profligate evil now function as warning signals. Like the ache of a limb out of joint, the pain of living in a broken world tells us that something is amiss. If God took away the pain, we’d never deal with the disease. And the disease will kill us, sooner or later. Why doesn’t God do something about evil? God has done something, the most profound thing imaginable. He has sent His Son to die for evil men. Because we are ultimately the source of evil, God would be entirely justified in punishing us. Yet He chose instead to exercise mercy. He took the punishment due you and I and poured it out on His Son, Jesus, so He could offer forgiveness to anyone who asks. God is not the author of evil. Neither is He incapable of responding nor unwilling to act. But His remedy for evil is not impulsive. He doesn’t obliterate us, the offenders, with one angry blow. Instead He waits. Bertrand Russell had nothing to say while kneeling at the bed of a dying child. He could have spoken of the patience and mercy of God. He ought to have mentioned the future perfection that awaits all who trust in Christ. He might have remembered that a redemptive God “causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). He should have considered the Gospel, the only source of hope for a broken world. But Russell could not. As an atheist he had surrendered those resources. We can do better. Our dilemma should not be why God allows evil. Instead, our wonder should be why He would pay such an incredible price to rescue us at all when we have rebelled so completely against Him. When this reality grabs our hearts, we will get down on our knees and ask forgiveness instead of criticizing God for not doing enough. Your partner for the truth, President, Stand to Reason 1 Rabbi Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (New York: Schocken, 1981), 140, quoted in Norman Geisler and William Watkins, Worlds Apart (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989), 203. 2 C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1952), 31. 3 “The Quarrel,” directed by Eli Cohen, released 1992. 4 John P. Hewitt, “Seeking to Make Sense Where There Is None,” Los Angeles Times, April 23, 1999, sec. B, 7. 5 Lewis, 66. Solid Ground © Gregory Koukl Stand to Reason 1438 East 33rd St. Signal Hill, CA 90755 1-800-2-REASON www.str.org firstname.lastname@example.org solid ground solid ground from Stand to Reason This letter may be reproduced or forwarded via e-mail without change and in its entirety for non-commercial purposes without prior permission from Stand to Reason. ©2005 Gregory Koukl

Aaron Nicodemus ON BUSINESS Published Sunday December 23, 2012 at 6:00 am Updated Sunday December 23, 2012 at 9:25 am The Internal Revenue Service has seized the building at 22 Newton Ave. that houses Yeshiva Achei Tmimim synagogue and Yeshiva Academy, a Hebrew day school. The notice says the seizure is for “nonpayment of internal revenue taxes.” According to the IRS and the Worcester County Registry of Deeds, Yeshiva owes $435,235.31 in federal taxes, dating back to 2004. The vast majority of those taxes owed represent payroll taxes. The IRS has been pursuing Yeshiva for a decade, fruitless in its attempts to get the religious organization to turn over payroll taxes on the 30 or so employees who work at the Hebrew school. A public auction had been scheduled for this month, but has been rescheduled to Jan. 4, according to the federal agency's auction website, irsauction.gov. The bidding will start at $472,000, and only sealed bids will be accepted. Despite the IRS action, things appear as normal at Yeshiva. The school and synagogue continue to operate, and the IRS, so far, has not moved to force the religious organization out of its longtime home. But if and when a sale goes through next month, that scenario is a possibility. Yeshiva has been led for decades by Rabbi Hershel Fogelman, a well-known city figure with the ability to speak to anyone, at any time, about all things Jewish. Every major Jewish holiday the Telegram & Gazette's newsroom gets a call from Rabbi Fogelman, who seeks to discuss the meaning behind that particular religious event and remind us of the need for news coverage. In the past, he would show up unannounced and insist on an audience with a reporter, and he usually found one. Rabbi Fogelman called the newsroom several weeks ago to discuss Hanukkah. Since then, though, the health of the 90-year-old spiritual leader of Yeshiva Achei Tmimim has taken a turn for the worse. Rabbi Fogelman is recovering at the Jewish Healthcare Center. I found him resting peacefully when I visited him last week. Rather than wake him, I left a note and my phone number. I called his son, Rabbi Mendel Fogelman, at the Newton Avenue synagogue and school last week to discuss the IRS action. “I have no comment,” he said. I also contacted the IRS field office in Boston. IRS media relations specialist Peggy Riley replied in an email: “We cannot comment on specific tax cases due to Section 6103, privacy and disclosure laws.” The news that Yeshiva could lose its home has been a long time coming. The religious organization has struggled for years to pay its bills, and while the IRS is the largest creditor, it is by no means the only one. According to an IRS document called “notice of encumbrances” that the agency filed to notify potential bidders of liens and other complications connected to the 22 Newton Ave. property, the city of Worcester is owed $8,523.78 in property taxes. I could find no record of those taxes with the city, which classifies Yeshiva as a tax-exempt religious organization. Yeshiva owes the city $12,399 in water and sewer charges for Newton Avenue and 24 Creswell St., the rabbi's residence. A company called Acme Pre-Pak Corp. is owed $10,461. As recently as 2010, Yeshiva owed more than $31,400 to National Grid, and owes $25,000 on a 2001 mortgage with Commerce Bank & Trust on 22 Newton Ave. The Bais Chana High School at 15 Midland St., still operating and run by Yeshiva, is owned by Robert Kirsch. The property is not tax-exempt, according to city tax records. Last year, Yeshiva lost another property when Commerce Bank & Trust foreclosed on the former school dormitory building at 9 Midland St. The property was purchased by Steve Gaval, a longtime member of Yeshiva Achei Tmimim, for $61,000. I spoke to Mr. Gaval's wife, Michelle Gaval, at her Worcester home last week. She said the couple is renovating the property, which was in terrible shape when they bought it. “We bought it for ourselves,” she said, when I asked if, perhaps, the couple bought the property to allow Yeshiva to continue to use it. She said they intend to move into the home as soon as renovations are completed next year. “We wanted someone in the community to keep it, rather than let someone else take it,” she said. “We just felt like, someone Jewish should own it.” Perhaps someone from Yeshiva's congregation — or someone within the larger Jewish community in Worcester — will step up and buy the school and synagogue's property when it goes on the auction block next month. Contact Aaron Nicodemus by email at email@example.com or at (508) 793-9245.

Last week, Stand for Israel told you about skirmishes between the IDF and the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group that occurred along Israel's border with Syria. While ISIS certainly looms as a major threat to the Jewish state, JNS' Ariel Ben Solomon reports that Israel faces many other enemies to its north, as well: Israeli forces killed four fighters from the Islamic State-affiliated Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade Nov. 27 after the terrorists had fired at Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in the Golan Heights border region. The exchange drew significant attention because it was the first report of an Islamic State attack on Israel from Syria. Islamic State has previously threatened Israel, but until now the terror group did not appear to open such a front at the Israel-Syria border. Yet despite the numerous news headlines that followed the Islamic State attack, the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade does not have nearly as large of a footprint in the region as Hezbollah or its patron, Iran, which have been increasing their presence in Syria to back President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in that country’s civil war. The IDF estimates that about 120,000 Hezbollah rockets are aimed at Israel. Hezbollah has a full-blown army with around 45,000 members, 21,000 of whom are regularly in service, Haaretz reported in July. By contrast, the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade has between 600 and 1,000 fighters, according to a report in The Economist in January. The report quoted Israeli officers as calling the brigades “Daesh lite,” using an alternative name for Islamic State. Given that Hezbollah’s forces amount to a far greater security threat to Israel, the Islamic State attack may have been no more than an effort by the jihadist group to distract from its losses in Syria and Iraq...

April 1998 News and Events 1998 News Month-By-Month - “Orders” Blamed in San Salvador Killings (April 2): Four imprisoned guardsmen reported to have said they obeyed authority from above in slaying three American nuns and one lay worker 17 years previously. - Indonesia Reaches Third Pact With I.M.F. (April 7): Agreement offers new proposals for rescuing economy. It is new effort to get Indonesia to meet conditions allowing $43 billion in aid. - Experts Dispute Iraq's Germ Warfare Stand (April 9): After review, independent team rejects contention by Saddam Hussein that Baghdad has made progress in eliminating biological weapons. - Northern Ireland Accord Reached (April 10): Landmark settlement exacts concessions from both Protestants and Roman Catholics. Under plan, both groups will govern jointly. Britain retains Ulster, with Republic gaining voice in affairs. Two referendums scheduled. - Japanese Propose Economic Stimulus (April 10): Prime Minister suggests $75 billion package of tax cuts and new spending to reverse economic decline. - Pope's Easter Message Sounds Warning (April 12): John Paul II decries “fratricidal strife and slaughter” that are “sowing in the earth the seed of death.” - Iraq Executes at Least 1,500 During Year (April 13): Most were for political reasons, according to report for United Nations Human Rights Commission. - Algeria Eases Abortion Ban (April 13): Under pressure from women's groups, officials make exception for those abducted and raped by militant Islamic rebels. - Somali Gunmen Kidnap Nine Foreigners (April 15): Capture Red Cross workers in the capital, Mogadishu, even as main faction leaders reach agreement in Nairobi conference to set up a new government. - Israel Improves Human Rights Standards (April 15): Releases Ahmad Quatamesh, 46, longest-serving Palestinian prisoner held without trial. He was jailed on suspicion of being a leader of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. - Pol Pot, 73, Dies in Cambodia (April 15): Heart attack fatal to founder and leader of Khmer Rouge movement that killed more than a million people in 1970s. (April 18): Khmer Rouge rebels rush body to cremation without chance for an autopsy. - Free Trade Zone for Americas Planned (April 19): Leaders of 34 nations schedule talks and set goal of signing agreement in 2005. - China Releases a Top Dissident (April 19): Wang Dan, a leader in Tiananmen Square democracy movement, enters exile in United States. Move viewed as step to win favor with Clinton administration. - Europeans Drop Challenge to Cuban Embargo (April 20): Union withdraws legal opposition to U.S. penalties on Havana over properties seized by Castro. - Irish Parliament Backs Peace Agreement (April 22): Gives nearly unanimous approval to accord for British Ulster reached by Protestants and Roman Catholics. - U.S. Bans Arms Exports to Britain (April 22): Revokes all pending licenses in first step to halt sales of weapons to all 15 nations of European Union. - Parliament Approves Yeltsin Appointee (April 24): Lower house votes 251–25, after long dispute, to confirm Sergei Kiriyenko, 35, as Russian Prime Minister. - Crowds View Rwanda Executions (April 24): Tens of thousands watch as police shoot 22 prisoners convicted of genocide crimes. Government had rejected international appeals for stay of executions. - Canadian Wins Concession in Havana (April 27): Prime Minister Jean Chrétien gets agreement from Castro for foreign investment protection. - U.N. Extends Sanctions Against Iraq (April 27): Security Council ignores threats from Baghdad of disruption of future arms inspections. - Yeltsin Keeps Many Ministers (April 28): Russian President, confirming predictions, renames heads of Foreign, Defense, and Finance Ministries. He also reappoints Boris Y. Nemtsov, young champion of economic reform, as one of three Deputy Prime Ministers. - Israel Reaches 50th Anniversary (April 29): Many indifferent to jubilee because of internal divisions, high unemployment, lack of security, and other factors. - Court Throws Out Paula Jones Case (April 1): In victory for President Clinton, Federal judge in Arkansas rules “there are no genuine issues for trial” in sexual misconduct case brought against the President by former state employee when he was Governor. (April 16): Jones announces she plans to appeal. - C.I.A. Accuses Dismissed Spy (April 3): Charges Douglas F. Groat, 50, sent two foreign nations secret U.S. information after failing in attempt to extort $500,000 from agency in exchange for loyalty. - Energy Secretary Resigns (April 6): Federico Peña, 51, former Transportation Secretary, will focus on his family. - Sonny Bono's Widow Succeeds Him (April 7): Mary Bono wins special election in California for Republican seat in Congress, defeating Ralph Waite, Democrat. - U.S. Treasury Seeks Economic Reforms (April 14): Secretary outlines plan for updating world financial systems to prevent future economic convulsions. - U.S. Appeals Court Bars Hiring Plan (April 14): Voids government program that requires radio and television stations to seek minority job applicants. Ruling called setback to affirmative action. - U.S. Trade Deficit Biggest in Decade (April 17): Exports to Japan plunged in February, showing wide effects of Tokyo's stagnant economy. - NOW Bars Support for Paula Jones's Appeal (April 22): Women's group says lawsuit against President charging sexual misconduct is legally weak and tainted by right-wing political motivations. - Senate Votes for Tax Breaks for Education Savings (April 23): Passes Republican measure for modest concessions for parents who save for school expenses. - Hillary Rodham Clinton Questioned on Legal Work (April 25): Interrogated for five hours by Whitewater prosecutors about connection with failed Arkansas savings and loan institution. Session videotaped for legal use. - U.S. Court Rejects Campaign Spending Limits (April 27): Appeals bench in Cincinnati holds restrictions are an unconstitutional limit on free speech. - Senate Votes for NATO Expansion (April 30): Decides, 80–19, in ballot crossing party lines, to accept resolution to add Poland, Hungary, and Czech Republic. U.S. will become fifth of 16 existing members supporting change in treaty dating from 1949. - Clinton Confidant Indicted (April 30): Webster L. Hubbell, former law partner of Hillary Rodham Clinton, charged by Whitewater special prosecutor with tax evasion, including failure to pay taxes and penalties of more than $850,000 over previous four years. - Third Toll-Free Code Put in Service (April 3): New 887 number will provide 8 million more lines for callers. - Dow Jones Average Exceeds 9,000 (April 6): Industrial index above level for first time. Increase spurred by news of biggest corporation merger in history, between Travelers and Citicorp. - More Side Air Bags Planned (April 7): Ford to become first major auto maker to install safety devices on all cars and minivans over next few years. - Insurance Panel Set Up for Holocaust Victims (April 8): Agreement reached by four European companies, state regulators, and two Jewish organizations. - Plant Species Reported Endangered (April 8): Study finds at least one of every eight varieties around world is threatened by extinction. - More Than 100 Muslim Pilgrims Killed in Stampede (April 9): Crushed to death at Mecca during religious practice of “stoning the devil.” - Tornadoes in South Kill Dozens (April 9): Rescue workers frantically seek survivors after storms destroy whole communities in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. - Paraguayan Executed in Virginia (April 14): Supreme Court denies clemency for Angel Francisco Breard, 32, for murder despite pleas from International Court of Justice and Paraguayan Government. - Reactions to Medications Often Found Fatal (April 14): Researchers report more than 100,000 people die yearly in American hospitals. Adverse reactions to medication called one of leading death causes. - Findings from Two New Studies on Breast Cancer Drug Released (April 20): Suggest that second substance, raloxifene, can prevent disease in short term but does not appear to raise danger of cancer of uterus. - Three Abortion Foes Found Liable (April 20): U.S. court jury in Chicago rules anti-abortion leaders violated Federal racketeering law by conducting nationwide campaign to intimidate clinics and patients. - Man Convicted of Killing Martin Luther King, Jr., Dies (April 23): James Earl Ray, 70, succumbs to liver disease and kidney failure. He was serving 99-year sentence for assassination of civil rights leader. - Sierra Club Rejects Anti-Immigration Stand (April 25): Influential environmental group reaffirms by wide margin policy against restrictions on immigration as means of controlling population growth. - Student Kills Chaperoning Teacher (April 25): Shoots science teacher at Edinboro, Pa., school's graduation dance. Wounds another teacher and two students. - Smoking by Minorities Reported Rising (April 27): Surgeon General warns of trend that threatens to reverse significant declines in incidence of cancer.

NASA is pleased to share a short documentary highlighting the history of the Santa Susana Field Lab and its contribution to America’s space flight program. NASA produced the seven-minute video as part of NASA’s effort to record the history of the site and the test stands used for rocket engine testing. NASA’s June 2017 edition of FieldNOTE describes NASA’s most recent activities as it advances toward cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. On May 2, 2017, DTSC released a white paper, SSFL Technical Memo on the Brandeis Bardin Campus, with results of a review of data from investigations conducted at and near the Santa Susana Field Laboratory and the American Jewish University Brandeis-Bardin campus. Also available is the DTSC May 2017 Community Update summarizing their findings. 2016 was another active year for NASA at SSFL. The 2016 Year in Review summarizes the year’s progress toward cleaning of its portion of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in the areas of demolition, soil and groundwater investigations, stormwater management, and community outreach. We look forward to another busy year as the regulatory process progresses and we move closer to a final cleanup. NASA welcomes Dr. Keith Thomsen as NASA’s Remedial Project Manager for the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL). He will join Peter Zorba, NASA SSFL Project Director in the continuing characterization and cleanup efforts in NASA-administered areas at SSFL. Dr. Thomsen is an Environmental Engineer with 30 years of international experience in environmental engineering, renewable energy and sustainability. He holds a Bachelor of Science in General Engineering from Oregon State University, a Masters of Business Administration from California State University Fresno, and a doctorate in Environmental Science and Engineering from UCLA. Prior to his NASA appointment, Dr. Thomsen served as the Assistant Director of Washington State University Tri-Cities where he was a key member of the leadership team responsible for starting and developing the Bioproducts Science and Engineering Laboratory, a world-class applied research and development laboratory focused on renewable energy, environmental science and engineering, sustainability, emerging technologies and climate change. As Remedial Project Manager for NASA at SSFL, Dr. Thomsen will be responsible for developing soil and groundwater cleanup plans, and ensuring various aspects of onsite environmental compliance, including air monitoring, stormwater and hazardous waste management. "I'm looking forward to using my experience and education to help the NASA team continue to develop and implement cost-effective and technically sound remedies for Santa Susana that meet NASA’s goal of a cleanup that is protective of public health and the environment," said Thomsen. NASA continues to make headway with demolition of obsolete buildings and infrastructure to prepare the site for final cleanup. FieldNOTE newsletter NASA kicked off Phase 2 of demolition in the Skyline Area to remove obsolete water tanks and pipeline. The photos below show the progress made with demolition of the Skyline water tanks and the pipeline leading from the water tanks to the Coca Test Area. The photos below show the growth of vegetation in former location of Building 2204. Following demolition, a hydroseed mulch containing a seed mixture of native plants was applied. The hydroseed mix promotes revegetation, aiding in the process of restoring the natural habitat. The newest edition of the FieldNOTE newsletter (PDF) provides an overview of NASA’s progress with groundwater characterization, profiles the new SSFL Project Director, and describes NASA’s preparations for wildfire season. Allen Elliott retires from NASA this week, capping nearly 25 years of service with the agency on the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) environmental cleanup and closure. Highly respected and admired by program regulators, the responsible parties and the community, Elliott leaves an extraordinary legacy at SSFL that will lead the way forward as NASA continues cleanup activities at the site. Peter Zorba, onsite project manager since 2011, will assume the duties of project director as Elliott retires. Notable achievements under Elliott’s leadership include an Interim Soil Remediation Action (ISRA) cleanup that removed approximately 12,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil from NASA-administered areas, completion of the RCRA soils investigation, the NASA EIS and Section 106 Process, completion of a robust series of remedial technology treatability studies, and significant progress of demolition activities in NASA-administered areas at SSFL. Elliott has also been a strong advocate for the protection of the Native American cultural resources on the site. Under his vision and leadership, the Sacred Sites Council, a body of tribal members from various tribes affiliated with the SSFL site, was created to increase communication and address tribal concerns regarding the protection of the sacred sites throughout the cleanup process. “Allen’s leadership will be greatly missed,” said Peter Zorba. “Over the past five years he has been my great friend and mentor. He is leaving big shoes to fill and I will do my best to carry his vision forward with a cleanup that honors NASA’s broader legacy.”

Founded in 1976, this museum is devoted to preserving and sharing American Jewish history. An abundance of artifacts charts the more than 360 years of Jewish culture in the States, elucidating domestic and work lives, culture, immigration, sports, and much more. Photos and interactive exhibits present an encompassing experience, addressing politics, religion, Jewish institutions, and individual profiles of people who distinguished themselves and their heritage. The museum (a Smithsonian affiliate) moved to an expansive new building in late 2010, directly across from the Liberty Bell and welcomes tourists and locals alike to come in and experience American history from a unique and different vantage point. Recommended for Museums because: This place offers visitors a unique chance to experience history from a very different perspective. Sharon's expert tip: Try to be a part of a tour, as the guides have great anecdotes and fun facts to add to your experience. This internationally-renowned museum dates back to 1812 and serves as a public forum for environmental research and education. Numerous interactive exhibits are particularly fun for children, and include live animals, dinosaurs, and insects. Greeting visitors when they enter are huge dinosaur skeletons, which are showstopping in their reconstructed size. Throughout the rest of the four floors of the building are exhibits and displays and interactive opportunities for kids to discover and learn about animals. Many are featured at times as part of live demonstrations so that children can see and hear and often touch the creatures that are being talked about. Recommended for Museums because: This is the oldest natural history museum in the Americas. Perfect for children who love dinosaurs. Sharon's expert tip: This museum is great for creature-loving kids. The butterfly exhibit room is especially cool, and don't miss the hissing cockroach. With one of the best archeology and anthropology collections in the United States, this museum boasts over 30 galleries displaying items from around the world. Exhibits range from Egyptian mummies to Greek coins, from musical instruments from Africa to Native American totem poles. The collections were enhanced by expeditions run by the school to various areas, and even contain several world famous items. Hands-on exhibits appeal to the kids as well. The café, overlooking the courtyard garden, is a great place for lunch or a quick snack. The museum opened in 1899 and even its building is lovely to look at, both inside and out. Recommended for Museums because: This building houses one of the most important University collections in the country. Sharon's expert tip: Admission is free for the last half hour of every day. The building itself is a National Landmark and a worthy example of American architecture. The museum offers a variety of works by renowned American artists such as Andrew Wyeth, Mary Cassatt, and Thomas Eakins, as well as contemporary artists like Faith Ringgold and Richard Diebenkorn. The noteworthy collection features 18th through 21st century paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. Tours here are free with your paid admission. The museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th and 20th century art, including sculptures, paintings and works on paper. In its archives are housed important items related to the study of art history, museums and training. Recommended for Museums because: This is the oldest art museum and school in the United States. Sharon's expert tip: They often hold special events here so check their schedule for artists and activities of interest. Though it's officially called The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Mutter Museum, it's best known by its nicknames, the Mutter Museum or just the Museum of Medical Oddities. Whatever you choose to call it, this is not an attraction for the faint-of-stomach. Unborn fetuses in jars, petrified body parts, conjoined twins and, as part of an exhibition, Albert Einstein's brain, are just a few of the artifacts that chronicle the fascinating and sometimes gruesome story of medicine through the ages. One thing is for sure, however, you won't see anything like it anywhere else! Those interested in science and medicine will be especially fascinated. You certainly won't forget this place once you've visited! Recommended for Museums because: There is nothing quite like this collection of medical oddities all assembled in one place. Sharon's expert tip: If you need a break, step outside for a stroll though the Medicinal garden, which contains more than 50 different types of medicinal herbs and their corresponding historical and medicinal descriptions. This museum, located on between the Barnes Foundation and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is known mostly as a sculpture museum. It is solely devoted to the works of Auguste Rodin and the largest collection of his works outside of Paris. It including bronzes, plaster studies, drawings, and prints. There are 124 sculptures, including bronze casts of "The Burghers of Calais," "Eternal Springtime," "The Gates of Hell," and Rodin's seminal work, "The Thinker." The museum is small, but powerful, and tours run regularly. Being small, it doesn't get lots of crowds, making it a great place to slow down and enjoy the works. Recommended for Museums because: Everything in the museum, except for The Kiss, is an original work by truly talented sculptor, Auguste Rodin. Sharon's expert tip: Admission is free with your paid ticket to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, so go to both if you can. Built on the grounds of a historic black community, and just a few blocks from the Liberty Bell, this is the country's first museum devoted to African-American history and culture, with more than 400,000 items on display. Exhibits cover the arts, education, the Civil Rights Movement, family life, medicine, politics, sports, and technology as these issues relate to African-American culture. Frequent lectures, workshops, performances, and seminars take place at the museum, as well. Children may be interested in the section dedicated to how stars of the Negro leagues compared to white players of the time. Singers, artists and prominent city African Americans are featured. Recommended for Museums because: Known for its cultural diversity, Philadelphia seems a fitting destination for a museum dedicated to the history of the African American citizen. Sharon's expert tip: The museum is an affiliate of the Smithsonian, so watch for exhibits based on national and international trends. No "Do Not Touch" signs – a dream come true in a kid's museum setting! Designed to promote the arts, sciences, and humanities, exhibits here promise educational entertainment for the young and the young-at-heart. There is an incredible collection of toys and a 3D interactive playground based upon popular children's books. Art exhibits feature work from children in the Philadelphia area. On the bottom floor is a pretend grocery store where kids can "shop" and "pay", and a maze to explore. There are ample opportunities for role-playing and dress-up, as well as to try out all kinds of machines and tools and grown-up devices! Recommended for Museums because: Kids love to experience their world "hands-on". This place offers them a chance to do that in so many ways, using all of their senses. Sharon's expert tip: Parking is free on the street, and there are discount admission nights as well as special exhibits. Check their calendar. A visit to the National Constitution Center starts with a powerful multi-media theater presentation that describes the main points of our country's most important document. After the presentation,visitors are free to roam about the building exploring the hows and whys of the Constitution. As a family-oriented museum, the set-up is not heavy on reading plaques and boards. Instead, many of the exhibits are interactive, as guests may vote for their favorite president, or even take the presidential oath of office. Though it's possible to purchase walk-in tickets, you may also purchase timed tickets in advance, which is recommended during busy seasons. Recommended for Museums because: New to the Independence National Park scene, this museum offers visitors a Presidential experience, and interactively explores our country's history. Sharon's expert tip: The constitution center hosts some of the most prominent political and media-related speakers and public events in the world; check the website to coordinate your visit with one of these educational events. The Philadelphia Museum of Art offers a stellar collection from artists such as Van Gogh, Monet, Pissarro, Picasso, and Rodin. Surrealist art is well represented by Dali, De Chirico, Max Ernst, and Magritte, with pre-modernist work from the likes of Canaletto and Guardi. Numerous theme rooms display international art and artifacts, including Thomas Eakins's "Collection in the Country" furniture. A on-site restaurant and a cafe offer hungry guests sustenance and the gift shop is a great place to pick up a souvenir to remember your visit. Sunday is pay what you wish day. Check their website for featured guest artists and displays. Recommended for Museums because: No visit to Philadelphia is complete without a visit here, whether you head inside or just run up the steps! Sharon's expert tip: Be sure to leave time to enjoy the azalea gardens behind the museum if you're there on a sunny day.

Reading this recap gives a very clear insight into the complete mess of this world. If you look closely, especially at the situation in Israel, we see this is way beyond a tinder box. Notice how desperate the Golan with Syria and the US SEC of Defense won’t even address it with Israel on his visit. Notice how the finger is on the trigger in North Korea, and yet Trump hits breaks and calls for more sanctions. ANALYSIS : The Holy Spirit is restraining the Global meltdown. All is in place, the stage set, past the breaking point. The only event we now wait is the RAPTURE. Then… ALL HELL breaks loose. Even so come Lord Jesus, Amen! Maranatha! See you all very soon! ——— Forwarded message ———- Date: Apr 30, 2017 07:06 Subject: DEBKA Newsletter, April 29, 2017 Mattis leaves Israel with unanswered questions DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis The Syrian shells exploding on the Golan were ringing in Israel’s ears on Friday, April 21, when US Secretary of Defense James Mattis flew out after talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The IDF spokesman accounted for the first mortar shell dropping on northern Golan as an accidental stray from the fighting in Syria. When the shelling continued, it was countered by an Israeli strike on a Syrian military target on the other side of the Golan border. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that this incident, far from inadvertent, followed on the surreal scene Thursday of a Hizballah officer taking reporters on a “tour” of Israel’s defense lines and proudly pointing a finger across the border to “explain” how the Zionist enemy was reduced to defense.. No less divorced from reality was the short Mattis visit to Israel. After the mandatory smiles were exchanged between hosts and visitor, the situation on Israel’s northern fronts with Syria and Lebanon remained as enigmatic as before his arrival. Secretary Mattis was clear on how the United States proposes to help Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi fight the Islamic State terrorist menace on three fronts, Syria, the Red Sea and Libya. His answers with regard to Syria were in sharp contrast vague and noncommittal. Israel’s leaders were unable to draw the US defense secretary on those questions before he ended his visit Friday. They have mostly themselves to blame. By their policy of abstention from military initiatives on Israel’s northern frontiers, its prime minister, defense minister and chief of staff have made the government non-players in a crisis that vitally affects national security. Unlike Jordan, which took the chance of going into action, Israel was left on the sidelines and therefore kept waiting for answers. French vote for president on edge after Champs Elysees terror attack The 50,000 armed police and troops called up to secure France’s presidential election were much in evidence as some 47 million eligible voters headed for polling stations Sunday, two days after an Islamist terrorist murdered a police officer and injured two on Champs Elysees. Of the eleven candidates, four are rated realistic. The top two will contest a run-off on May 7. For the first time in 15 years, the far-right National Front led by Martine Le Pen, 48, has a real chance of winning. She is challenged by center-left Emmanuel Macron, 39, center-right Republican Francois Fillon, 62, who has gained ground lost over alleged misuse of public funds, and the far-left Jean-Luc Melenchon, 65. Taliban attack kills or wounds 160 Afghan soldiers at northern army base In one of the deadliest Taliban attacks on the Afghan army, more than 160 soldiers were killed or injured at the Afghan National Army’s 209th Corps base near Mazar e-Sharif in the northern Balkh province. They breached the base defenses with suicide bombers and targeted the canteen and soldiers coming out of Friday prayers. Fighting there lasted for several hours, in which Taliban fighters disguised in army uniform were also killed. The 209th Corps is responsible for security in that part of Afghanistan including also Kunduz. Sign Up Now February 28, 2014 Mattis in Djibouti amid high Red Sea stakes DEBKAfile Special Report US Defense Secretary James Mattis arrival in Djibouti Sunday, April 23 coincided with Egyptian President Abdul-Fatteh El-Sisi’s landing in Riyadh. Both capitals are pivotal for the Arab face-off with Iran over control of the strategic Red Sea, which is of overriding concern to both visitors. Mattis was the first US defense chief to visit Djibouti since 2005. America’s only African base at Camp Lemonnier is important for the former French colony’s geographic location on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between Djibouti and Yemen and as a springboard for offensive US operations on Al Qaeda jihadists (AQAP) in Yemen and Al-Qaeda-linked al Shabaab in Somalia. The Trump administration’s drive to crush terrorism in its main arenas has shifted from defense operations to “additional precision fire” For El-Sisi, the Red Sea is an essential component of Egypt’s national security. However, since 2015, he has taken good care not to let the Egyptian army become mired in the Yemen conflict. All he was prepared to contribute was a naval presence alongside the Saudi and Emirate fleets for maintaining Arab control of the narrow Bab El-Mandeb Strait, which commands access to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and is one of the world’s busiest oil, merchant and naval shipping routes from the Persian Gulf to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean. Neither Riyadh nor Abu Dhabi, which donate many billions to the Egyptian economy, will be satisfied with a partial Egyptian commitment to the contest for control of the Red Sea or the Yemen conflict. They regard both contests as fateful struggles for containing expanding Iranian influence over the Yemeni insurgent movement and strategic shipping routes. Tehran’s success would not only place their shores at risk but also their navies. US drone strike kills 5 Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen, three civilians A presumed US drone strike Sunday killed five suspected members of Al-Qaeda and three civilians in the Al-Said area of the southern Shabwa province. They were not identified. Three civilians who went to their aid were killed when a second missile struck, the official said. Washington has sharply intensified its air war against jihadists in Yemen and Somalia since President Donald Trump took office, said to be shifting “from self-defense to additional precision fire.” Palestinian stabs four people in Tel Aviv hotel A Palestinian, aged 18, from Nablus stabbed four people in the lobby of the Herods Hotel on Hayarkon Street in Tel Aviv Sunday. One was a member of the staff. They were taken to hospital with light injuries. The terrorist was apprehended. Police are investigating whether he acted alone. Egyptian president on two-day trip to Saudi Arabia President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi arrived in Riyadh Sunday for two days of talks with Saudi leaders. He came with a large party of ministers and high military officers. The object of his visit is to bridge the differences between Riyadh and Cairo over the wars in Syria and Libya and the fight against the Islamic State, and repair the rift that emerged at the last Arab summit. The Saudis recently spurned Cairo’s offer of 40,000 Egyptian soldiers to take part in the Yemen civil war alongside Saudi troops. Mattis lands in Djibouti from Qatar US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Djibouti on Sunday to visit an important military base at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, which is used as a launch pad for operations in Yemen and Somalia. This base,which has 4,000 US military personnel, was recently given broader authority to strike Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab in Somalia. Mattis came from talks in Qatar Saturday with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on the fight against the Islamic State group, the conflict in Syria and Iran’s “destabilizing” regional role. Qatar is home to the Al-Udeid air base which houses around 10,000 US troops. Israel marks annual Holocaust Remembrance Day National events marking the annual Holocaust Martyrs ‘and Heroes’ Remembrance Day begins Sunday evening with a state ceremony at the Warsaw Ghetto Square in the Yad Vashem compound, addressed by President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Along with other dignitaries, the event is to be attended by 2,500 Holocaust survivors, six of whom will light torches. Monday at 10 a.m., Israel will pause for two minutes silence, while, in Poland, the traditional March of Life takes place at the Auschwitz camp led by the IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkott. The commemoration events end later that evening with a ceremony at Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot, which was founded in western Galilee in 1949 by heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and fellow-survivors of the Holocaust. Sign Up Now February 28, 2014 WHouse calls all US Senators for NKorea briefing DEBKAfile Special Report In view of escalating threats from North Korea, all 100 US senators were invited to the White House Wednesday for a rare classified briefing on the crisis from the administration’s top security chiefs: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, National Intelligence director Dan Coats and Chairman of the US chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford. Vice President Mike Pence has interrupted his Asian trip to attend. The briefing is set for 1900 hours GMT. President Donald Trump, who spoke Sunday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: “The status quo in North Korea is unacceptable. It’s a big problem, has been for decades and we must finally solve it.” As North Korea prepares to mark the 85th anniversary on Tuesday of the founding of its Korean People’s Army – a possible date for the regime to test military hardware – its official website warned Monday that Pyongyang will “wipe out” the United States if Washington starts a war on the peninsula. US commercial satellite images have indicated increased activity around North Korea’s nuclear test site, while Kim has said that the country’s preparation for an ICBM launch is in its “final stage.” Earlier, Pyongyang threatened to sink the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier which is leading a strike group toward the Korean peninsula along with two Japanese destroyers. UN Security Council members lunch at White House US President Donald Trump said on Monday the UN Security Council must be prepared to impose new sanctions on North Korea as concerns mount that it may test a sixth nuclear bomb as early as Tuesday. He had invited the 15 UN Security Council ambassadors to lunch at the White House. “The status quo in North Korea is also unacceptable,” Trump said. “The council must be prepared to impose additional and stronger sanctions on North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile programs. This is a real threat to the world, whether we want to talk about it or not. North Korea is a big world problem and it’s a problem that we have to finally solve,” he said. “People put blindfolds on for decades and now it’s time to solve the problem.” Trump calls all 100 US senators for North Korea briefing In view of escalating North Korean threats, President Donald Trump has invited all US senators to the White House for an urgent rare briefing on North Korea Wednesday to be given by Secretaries Tillerson and Mattis, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats and Chairman of US chiefs of staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, It will be classified. Vice President Mike Pence has shortened his Asian tour to attend. Trump spoke Sunday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Pyongyang has threatened to sink the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group which is on its way to the Korean peninsula along with two Japanese destroyers. Kim Jong-un is also apparently preparing a sixth nuclear test and an official North Korean website warned Monday that Pyongyang will “wipe out” the United States if Washington starts a war on the peninsula. The US imposes 271 new sanctions on Syrians for chemical attack The Trump administration Monday announced new sanctions on 271 individuals involved in Syria’s chemical weapons program. This is the largest issue of sanctions on record. The new measures freeze assets and prevent US entities from doing business with 271 employees of a Syrian government agency tasked with producing non-conventional weapons. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the measures show “we will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons by any action and we intend to hold the Assad regime accountable for its unacceptable behavior.” Less than a month ago, the US fired 59 cruise missiles on a Syrian airfield in retaliation for a chemical attack on Syrian civilians. Mattis on unannounced visit to Kabul. Afghan defense and army chiefs resign US Secretary of Defense James Mattis arrived in Kabul Monday on an unannounced visit on the day that Afghan’s defense minister Abdullah Habibi and Army Chief of Staff Qadam Shah Shahim stepped down after the deadliest Taliban attack on a military base on Friday. The Taliban assault on a base at the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif left at least 140 National Army Afghan troops dead. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced he had replaced the commanders of four army corps after the attack, and defense officials said eight army personnel were arrested, raising suspicions that the attackers had inside help. Mattis will hear a push for more US troops when he meets Afghan officials and US commanders. The Trump administration is currently holding a review on strategy in Afghanistan. Trump on Yom Hashoah pledges “Never again!” In a recorded speech to the World Jewish Congress marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Donald Trump said: “On Yom HaShoah, we look back at the darkest chapter of human history. and we pledge: Never again. I say it, never again. The mind cannot fathom the pain, the horror, and the loss. Six million Jews, two-thirds of the Jews in Europe, murdered by the Nazi genocide. They were murdered by an evil that words cannot describe, and that the human heart cannot bear. “In memory of those who were lost, we renew our commitment and our determination not to disregard the warnings of our own times. We must stamp out prejudice and anti-Semitism everywhere it is found. We must defeat terrorism, and we must not ignore the threats of a regime that talks openly of Israel’s destruction. We cannot let that ever even be thought of. “To all of you tonight, who have come from around the world, let it be known, America stands strong with the State of Israel. “ Israel commemorates the six million victims of the Nazi Holocaust Across the country, Israelis pause for two minutes silence at 10 a.m. Monday in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Nazi Holocaust. In the Knesset, members read out victims’ names. In Poland, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkott leads the March of Life at the Auschwitz death camp. Addressing the state ceremony at Yad Vashem Sunday night, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that the lesson of the Holocaust “is that we must be able to defend ourselves, by ourselves…Those who plan to annihilate us, place themselves in danger of annihilation.” He went on to say: “Just as anti-Semitism will not disappear in the foreseeable future, so too has the apathy of the world to barbarity against others not fundamentally changed.” President Reuven Rivlin referred to anti-Semitism in other parts of the world and said: “We must remember our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora and our obligation to [ensure] their safety and welfare.” Macron and Le Pen go to French runoff in two weeks In final voting figures, centrist Emmanuel Macron led in the first round of France’s presidential election Sunday, with 23.75 percent of the vote. He and far-right Martine Le Pen, who won 21.53 percent, face each other in the runoff on May 7. Fillon with 19.91 percent and far-leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon with 19.64 percent, dropped out of the race. Macron and Le Pen offer France diametrically opposed policies. Macron, a former banker who served as economy minister, is socially liberal, pro-globalist and supporter of the euro and the European Union. Radical nationalist Le Pen told her supporters Sunday night: “The European Union will die, globalism will be defeated because the people do not want any more … arrogant and hegemonic empires” A girl soldier injured in stabbing attack by female terrorist In an terrorist attack at the Kalandia checkpoint outside Jerusalem early Monday, a Palestinian woman stabbed in the back – and moderately injured – a female soldier on guard there, before she was shot herself. Sunday, a Palestinian from Nablus was detained after knifing four people at a Tel Aviv hotel. March 7, 2014 North Sinai Bedouin take multiple casualties from ISIS car bombs Two car bombs exploded Tuesday evening in northern Sinai south of the divided town of Rafah, inflicting heavy casualties on members of the Tarabin Bedouin tribe. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State which is in feud with the tribe after a section broke away from its support for ISIS, which involved a share in the terrorist group’s smuggling operation and hiding its fugitives. Claiming responsibility for the attack, ISIS accused the tribesmen of “spying and betrayal.” Senior IDF officer: North Korean crisis may affect Israeli security An Israeli military spokesman referred for the first time to the North Korea crisis Tuesday when a senior IDF officer, who withheld his identity, spoke at a briefing to reporters about Israel’s concerns lest a confrontation with North Korea divert the United States from its support for Israel at a time of need. Turning to the immediate region, the officer revealed that the Israel air force had smashed more than a hundred missiles destined for Hizballah in order to withhold from the Shiite terrorists weaponry of high strategic value. US President Trump vows to confront anti-Semitism In an address for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual Days of Remembrance event on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said, “The State of Israel is an eternal monument to the undying strength of the Jewish people. We are here today to make sure than humanity never ever forgets. The Nazis massacred six million Jews. Two out of every three Jews in Europe were murdered in the genocide. Those who deny the Holocaust are an accomplice to this horrible evil.” Trump went on to say: “Denying the Holocaust is only one of many forms of dangerous anti-Semitism that continues all around the world. “This is my pledge to you – we will confront anti-Semitism,” he said to a round of applause. “As president of the United States, I will always stand with the Jewish people and I will always stand with our great friend and partner, the State of Israel.” Netanyahu refuses to receive visiting German foreign minister Visiting German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel’s scheduled Tuesday meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was called off after the minister declared he would not give up on seeing the two radical anti-government B’Tselem and Breaking Silence groups in the face of the prime minister’s ultimatum. Gabriel was received by President Reuven Rivlin and opposition leader Labor’s Yitzhak Herzog. “Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s policy is not to meet with diplomats who visit Israel and meet with organizations that slander IDF soldiers and seek to prosecute them as war criminals,” said the prime minister’s office. “It wouldn’t cross those diplomats’ minds to meet in the US or Britain with representatives of organizations that call to prosecute American or British soldiers.” French police defuse a suspicious vehicle outside Metz synagogue A suspicious vehicle parked outside the synagogue in the northeastern French town of Metz was de-activated by a large police contingent deployed at the scene Tuesday afternoon. The police said the explosions reported by witnesses were linked to this operation. They cleared the street and closed it to traffic, with soldiers from “Operation Sentinel” securing the site. After the event, several sources said it was a false alarm. Turkish warplanes strike Kurds in Iraq and Syria The Turkish military early Tuesday carried out air strikes against Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) fighters near Iraq’s Sinjar Mountains and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in the northeastern Syria province of Hasakeh. The two regions have become “terror hubs”, the Turkish army said, for channeling militants, weapons, bombs and ammunition into Turkey. The Syrian YPG is backed by the United States as part of its coalition for fighting the Islamic State. This militia said the Turkish bombardment hit a media center, a local radio station, a communications headquarters and some military posts killing an undetermined number of militiamen. Turkish spokesmen reported 200 dead in the two attacks, although other sources provided much lower figures. Austrian Chancellor visits Jerusalem, meets Netanyahu Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern warmly congratulated Israel as a “start-up nation regarded by the world as a model for emulation” at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem after their talks. Netanyahu praised the chancellor, who attended Holocaust Day events at Yad Vashem with his wife, for his steadfast campaign against Holocaust deniers and work against anti-Semitism. Spain rounds up 8 Moroccans in anti-terror raids The Spanish police Tuesday arrested eight people and raided 12 properties in Barcelona, in an operation against suspected Islamist terrorists, some of which were linked to the Belgian airport-metro suicide bombings last March which left 31 dead. Spain cooperated with Belgian police in the operation. The detained were all Moroccans aged between 21 and 39. Spanish police have been investigating an Islamist cell with links to organized crime in the Barcelona area for eight months. Japanese PM hopes to implement peace treaty in Moscow visit Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Russia Thursday for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said Tuesday. While the North Korean crisis will no doubt be discussed, as well as political, trade, humanitarian and economic cooperation, Abe hopes to implement a historic agreement for formally ending World War II which was not signed when Putin visited Tokyo eleven years ago. They were unable to agree on a chain of islands the Soviet Union seized off Japan’s northern coast in 1945. This dispute has marred relations ever since. Netanyahu will not see visiting German FM if he meets radical groups Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s scheduling meeting Tuesday with visiting German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel was not listed on his day’s agenda after the visitor did not cancel his plans to meet representatives of the radical anti-government B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence groups Tuesday evening. Opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog condemned the prime minister’s ultimatum as harmful to Israel’s foreign relations with a true friend of Israel. Government sources commented that the German government, like any other, would not find acceptable an Israeli foreign minister’s meetings with radical groups. The Social Democratic Gabriel has often slammed Israel as an “apartheid state.” North Korea stages massive artillery drill. US nuclear sub docks in South Tensions around Korea shot up further Tuesday when the North began a large-scale, long-range artillery fire drill in Wonsan on the east coast, and the USS Michigan nuclear submarine docked in South Korea. Kim Jon-un is said to be supervising the drill which marks another anniversary, the founding of the North Korean army. The submarine will join the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group which is heading for Korean waters. US, Japanese and South Korean are meeting in Tokyo, a day before the entire US Senate is received at the White House for briefings by top security officials on the North Korean crisis. March 7, 2014 US THAADs to South Korea. China launches carrier DEBKAfile Special Report The US early Wednesday, April 26, began moving the THAAD missile defense system to central South Korea opposite the border with the North – months ahead of schedule. A South Korean military official said two road-mobile launchers had arrived at the Osan Air Base. One THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) unit includes six launchers. Tuesday, the USS Michigan nuclear submarine docked in South Korea, after the North began a large-scale, long-range artillery fire drill in Wonsan on the east coast. More than 4,000 artillery guns are reported to be taking part in the “exercise.” The Michigan is in place ready to join the USS Carl Vinson carrier and its strike group which are steaming towards the peninsula, along with two Japanese destroyers. Later Wednesday, all 100 US senators are scheduled to gather at the White House for a briefing by US security and military chiefs on the North Korean crisis, as the buildup to meet North Korean belligerence continues apace. Facing US steps to meet the Korean crisis, China made ready to launch its second aircraft carrier, the Shandong, also known as the Type 001A. The new vessel, the first to be manufactured from prow to stern in China, is bigger than the Liaoning, China’s first Russian-made aircraft carrier. It is due to be operational in two or three years. Beijing has voiced objections to the deployment of an American missile shield in South Korea, a country it regards as its back yard. The Chinese Air Force remains on high alert over the Korean crisis, although this is denied in Beijing, and Russia continues to pour troops, tanks and missiles to its short 18-km border with North Korea in the Vladivostok district. Japan too is placing its army on a war footing. Israel will not let Iranian, Hizballah buildup on Syrian border Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman arrived in Moscow Tuesday for a two-day international conference on Security. After meeting Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Lieberman said that Israel would not stand for Iranian or Hizballah concentrating military forces on the Syrian-Israeli border. He praised the coordination mechanism between the IDF and the Russian Syrian command as working effectively and preventing unnecessary friction. Officers of the two militaries had so far met nine times. Lieberman will also meet Russian Defense Minister Gen. Sergey Shoigu during the visit. US test-fires ICBM traveling 4,000 miles to South Pacific Amid high tension with North Korea, the US Air Force Wednesday test-fired an intercontinental Minuteman III ballistic missile which traveled over 4,000 miles (6,400km) before splashing down in the South Pacific. It was fired from Vandenberg Air Force base in California. The nuclear-capable missile was unarmed, according to the Air Force. Officials laying groundwork for Trump visit to Israel in late May: sources DEBKAfile sources said Wednesday that there are discussions underway between US and Israeli officials to lay the groundwork for a visit to Israel by President Donald Trump in the second half of May after his visit to Brussels for a NATO conference. It is already clear that the president’s trip to the region will include a meeting with Saudi King Salman and possibly with Egyptian President Abdul Fatteh El-Sisi, although such a visit to Cairo is highly sensitive in terms of security. In other words, it will be a quick visit to the Middle East. It is still not clear how long Trump will visit Israel, and it may be for no longer than a day. The question now is whether Trump will stay overnight or depart in the evening for one of the Arab countries. Ex-Marine general takes helm of US Secret Service Retired US Marine Gen. Randolph “Tex” Alles was sworn in on Tuesday as the new director of the Secret Service. He previously served as the deputy head of the US Customs and Border Protection agency. In 2011, he retired from the marines as a major general after a 35-year-career as a naval aviator. The Secret Service, part of the Department of Homeland Security, is responsible for protecting the president and other senior government officials, protecting the White House and investigating financial fraud such as counterfeiting. The service has recently been struggling to overcome a negative image, attrition of staff and a series of errors including a number of intrusions into the White House grounds. Two security-related officials chosen for senior Pentagon posts The Trump administration nominated two security-related officials for senior Defense Department jobs on Tuesday. Kari Bingen was tapped as principal undersecretary of Defense for intelligence, the Pentagon’s second-most-important intelligence position. Bingen, who served as an aide of the House Armed Services Committee and a senior staff member of several subcommittees, is very familiar with a number of US intelligence services. The second nominee, Robert Story Karem, was picked to serve as assistant secretary of Defense for international security affairs. He has significant experience in White House posts including adviser to then Vice President Dick Cheney during the George W. Bush administration. If confirmed, he is expected to deal with a range of issues including NATO policy, Russian provocations, the Middle East, the military and security implications of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, and the results of the presidential election in France. Stabbing attack by Palestinian knifeman thwarted near Nablus A Palestinian wielding a knife tried to stab two Israelis Wednesday afternoon at a square adjacent to the headquarters of the IDF’s Samaria Regional Brigade, about five kilometers south of Nablus. The terrorist was shot and subdued. No Israelis were wounded. China calls on US to remove missile interception system from SKorean soil The Chinese government on Wednesday told the US and South Korea that it is concerned about the overnight deployment of the American-made THAAD anti-missile system in South Korean territory. During a daily press briefing in Beijing, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman called on the US to withdraw the system. China fears that the radar of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system can be used to monitor its military and civilian aviation. Washington has said that THAAD is only intended to provide defense against North Korean short-range missiles. Iran’s defense chief, in Moscow, expected to meet Russian counterpart Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan arrived Tuesday in the Russian capital to attend the Moscow Conference on International Security, which is being held in the city for the sixth consecutive year. Dehqan is expected to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu as well as participate in a trilateral meeting with Shoigu and the defense minister of Syria. The Iranian minister is leading a delegation of senior defense officials and military officers. Court rejects request for extradition of Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece An appeals court in Athens on Tuesday turned down a request for the extradition of three Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece and received political asylum following last year’s attempted military coup in Turkey. The three are part of a group of eight Turkish soldiers who received asylum. The date for the proceedings regarding the five other soldiers has yet to be set. The prosecutor in Athens claimed that the evidence presented by the Turkish government was not sufficient for extradition. According to the statistics of the Greek immigration authorities, a total of 236 Turkish citizens have requested asylum since the July 2016 attempted putsch. As tension over NKorea rises, US deploys THAAD ahead of schedule The US military started deploying its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in South Korea on Wednesday. The step came about two months ahead of schedule in light of soaring tensions with North Korea. The advanced THAAD system defends against short-to-medium range ballistic missiles. For details on the deployment and on China’s launching of an aircraft carrier, see DEBKAfile’s special report. Iranian ship charges US destroyer in Persian Gulf In an incident in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard ship sped toward a US destroyer, the USS Mahan, and reached within 1,000 yards of it before changing direction and sailing away. The Iranians were manning the weapons on the deck of their ship at the time of the incident. The crew of the Mahan ordered the Iranian ship by loudspeaker not to approach, sounded the ship’s danger signal, fired flares and sent out warnings on the emergency radio frequencies used by all the vessels in the Gulf, but to no avail. A senior US officer later described the Iranian ship’s action as “obviously provocative behavior”. Iranian vessels carried out 35 provocative maneuvers against US ships in international waters during 2016, 50 percent more than they did the previous year. Sign Up Now March 7, 2014 Golan tension: Pro-Iran troops move on Quneitra DEBKAfile Special Report Early Thursday, April 26, a mixed Syrian-Iranian-Hizballah force embarked on a general offensive in southern Syria ready for a leap on Israel’s Golan border. They moved forward in the face of Israeli warnings that were relayed from Moscow to Tehran and Hizballah. This latest warning was issued by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is visiting the Russian capital this week to attend an international security conference. After meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Gen. Sergey Shoigu, the Israeli minister stated clearly on Wednesday: “Israel will not allow the concentration of Iranian and Hizballah forces on its Golan border.” By Thursday morning, it was evident that a decision had been taken in Moscow, Tehran, Damascus and Beirut to ignore Lieberman’s warning. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that early Thursday, Shiite militias under the command of Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers, alongside Hizballah troops, organized as the Southern Shield Brigade, launched their offensive at Mt. Hermon southwest of Damascus, on their way to the Syrian-Israeli Golan border in the region of Quneitra. The Syrian contingents taking part in this push are the Syrian army’s elite 42nd Brigade and elements of the 4th Mechanized Division. Their first objective is to capture a string of villages held by Syrian rebel groups in the region of Hadar on the Hermon slopes. They are advancing towards the Golan along the Beit Jinn route. There is no word yet on whether the warning issued by the defense minister from Moscow has produced a direct Israeli response to the provocation. Very possibly the five explosions and ball of fire they set off at Damascus international airport Thursday morning may prove to be connected to that response. An Israeli Patriot intercepted a small drone from Syria A small drone penetrated northern Israeli airspace Thursday night. It was shot down by an Israeli Air force Patriot missile before it landed. This incident highlights the rising tension on the Syrian-Israeli border. Palestinian with concealed knife arrested in Hebron Israeli border policemen manning a security checkpoint next to the Cave of the Patriarchs complex in Hebron on Thursday evening arrested a Palestinian found to be carrying a knife. The suspect was taken in for questioning. Man carrying knives arrested near parliament in London A man armed with knives was arrested Thursday afternoon in London near the Houses of Parliament. There were no casualties during the incident. Some of the policemen who carried out the arrest wore protective suits. The incident happened in the Whitehall area near 10 Downing Street. A Scotland Yard spokesman said in a brief statement that the man, who is known to the security services, is suspected of possessing an offensive weapon and of planning to carry out a terrorist attack. Two US troops killed during anti-ISIS operation in Afghanistan A Pentagon spokesman said Thursday that two American soldiers were killed Wednesday night during an operation against ISIS forces in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. Armed man captured in Berlin after exchanging fire with police A man was arrested and taken into custody after exchanging fire with police at a hospital in the Kreuzberg district of central Berlin on Thursday afternoon. The police cordoned off the area. The circumstances behind the incident are being checked. Kremlin slams latest Israeli airstrike in Syria Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday slammed the alleged Israeli airstrike at Damascus international airport earlier in the day. He said Israel and other countries should respect Syria’s sovereignty and avoid actions that heighten regional tensions. Peskov added that there is a “constant dialogue” between the general staffs of the Russian military and the IDF. Russia’s ‘Liman’ spy ship collides with freighter, sinks near Bosphorus Strait A Russian reconnaissance ship, the Liman, collided with a Togo-flagged freighter in the Black Sea, north of the Bosphorus Strait, and sank on Thursday afternoon. However, the entire crew of the Russian vessel was rescued by the Turkish coast guard and a number of ships that rushed to the area near the Turkish port of Kilyos. The freighter was said to have been transporting livestock. Terrorist shoots two intervention force members on Indian Ocean island A terrorist described as a radical Islamist by the French security services shot two police officers who came to arrest him Thursday morning on Reunion island in the Indian Ocean. The officers from a French police intervention force were moderately wounded but the terrorist was subdued and taken into custody. Prosecutors from the counterterror division of France’s Justice Ministry have launched an investigation of the incident, which took place in the city of Saint-Benoit. Reunion island, a French overseas territory, is located about 900 kilometers east of Madagascar and about 200 kilometers southwest of Mauritius. Syrian military source: Israel carried out Thursday’s attack at int’l airport A Syrian military source Thursday accused Israel of carrying out the attack earlier in the day that caused major damage to buildings within Damascus international airport, Syria’s SANA news agency said. According to the report, a number of air-to-ground missiles struck the buildings, causing a series of explosions and fires within the airport’s area. Hamas opens fire on IDF force near Gaza border; no casualties A force of IDF troops operating along the border fence across from southern Gaza was targeted by gunfire on Thursday morning. The shooting did not cause any Israeli casualties or damage. The IDF spokesman’s office said IDF tanks returned fire. According to Palestinian media reports, the IDF boosted its presence in the area, including drones, following the attack. Houthi rebels attempt boat bomb attack on Saudi oil terminal Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Wednesday attempted to bomb a Saudi oil distribution terminal near the Yemeni border by remote control using an unmanned boat packed with explosives. According to a statement by the Saudi Interior Ministry, the country’s coast guard sighted the boat, opened fire and blew it up about 1.5 kilometers away from the terminal of the Saudi Aramco company. The incident near the facility in Jizan province on the coast of the Red Sea was the second such attack by the Houthis on a Saudi target this year. On January 30, two sailors were killed when a boat bomb was used against a Saudi frigate in the Red Sea near the Yemeni port of Hodeidah. Latest Damascus airport incident was in line with Israeli policy: intel minister Yisrael Katz, Israel’s minister for intelligence affairs, said Thursday during a radio interview that the incident several hours earlier at Damascus international airport was completely in line with his country’s policy of preventing the transfer of advanced weapons to Hizballah. Katz, who is visiting Washington, made the comment in an interview by IDF radio station Galei Tzahal. Several hours earlier, he met with Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East. US to press NKorea to return to talks, senators told at closed-door briefing At a classified briefing on Wednesday for all 100 US senators, the Trump administration said that Washington seeks to pressure North Korea to return to the negotiating table in order to peacefully end Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, but at the same time the US is ready to defend itself and its allies from the North. The briefing was given by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State James Mattis, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford. Meanwhile, senior Pentagon officials said that the THAAD anti-missile system that the US deployed in South Korea during the day will be operational within a week to deal with North Korean threats. Series of large explosions at Damascus international airport A number of strong explosions were heard early Thursday morning near the military section of the Syrian capital’s international airport. According to reports on Syrian social networks, witnesses said there was a large mushroom cloud over the area. Sign Up Now February 28, 2014 Woman shot in UK anti-terror police raid A woman in her 20s has been shot by police and four people arrested in an anti-terror operation in Willesden, north-west London and Kent, Scotland Yard said Friday. The woman was one of the persons suspected of “the commission, preparation and instigation of terrorist acts.” She is in a serious but stable condition in hospital. The arrests came after a man was arrested at outside Parliament Thursday with a bagful of knives. Police said the two incidents were not connected. Trump on embassy move to Jerusalem: Ask me in a month US President Donald Trump refused to confirm the prediction by Florida Republican Rep Ron DeSantis that he would announce the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem when he visits Israel in late May. In answer to a question, the president said: “Ask me in a month on that.” He went on to say: “I want to see peace with Israel and the Palestinians. There is no reason there’s not peace between Israel and the Palestinians — none whatsoever.” Trump receives Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the White House on May 3. You are currently subscribed to debka as: firstname.lastname@example.org To unsubscribe click here For more information: C/O The J Media Group 5455 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1000 Los Angeles, CA 90036

Current Events is a mini-magazine for middle school students published by Weekly Reader, a company whose materials are used in over 90 percent of American public school districts and which describes itself as “a leader in the educational field.” Unfortunately, the Sept. 7, 2001 issue of Current Events carried a Special Report entitled “Will Violence Engulf the Middle East,” which includes many serious factual errors and distortions. I. Language: Consider how language can affect the meaning of a news report, whether by giving false information or by unfairly favoring a certain point of view. 1) First, the article repeatedly refers to “Palestine” as if it were a present day place, stating, for example: “If you think that is an exaggeration, take a look at Palestine, the part of the Middle East mainly occupied by Israel. Palestine, also known as the Holy Land, is held sacred by three religions. . .” In fact, there is no present day place called Palestine. Land currently under control of the Palestinian Authority (which is the government of the Palestinian people) is properly referred to as Palestinian Authority areas. Nor is Israel currently “occupying” what was once Palestine. Israel was legitimately established by the League of Nations Mandate and later by the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan on land which had previously been a British Mandate (and before that under Turkish control.) Never was Palestine an independent state, and thus it cannot be said that Israel is in any way “occupying” it. Current Events‘ wording reflects the views of the most extreme Palestinian radicals who believe that Israel has no legitimate right to exist. 2) It is inaccurate to describe the current Palestinian violence as an armed uprising “against Israel’s continued presence, especially its settlements and army installations, in the West Bank and Gaza.” That language ignores the fact that Palestinians rejected Israel’s offer at Camp David in the summer of 2000 to withdraw from all of Gaza and more than 90 percent of the West Bank. (Palestinians were offered land within Israel, in the Negev, in exchange for the small piece of West Bank land to remain under Israeli control.) If the Palestinians’ goal was for Israel to leave the West Bank and Gaza, they could have accepted this plan. At the least, they could have used it as a basis of negotiation, instead of rejecting it and attacking Israelis. (A few paragraphs down, the author attributes the current Palestinian uprising to “disagreements over peace accords.” Which one, then, was the real cause of the violence–anger about Israeli settlements or disagreements about peace agreements? In the Israeli viewpoint, the Palestinian desire to destroy all of Israel was the reason for the violence.) Questions: Why is it important for journalists to choose their words carefully in news reports? How can reporters be sure that they are using the most accurate and fair language? What should they do if they made a mistake in their language? II. Getting Your Facts Right: Factual errors can be errors of omission or commission. Omission means that something important was not said, and as a result, readers are misled. In errors of commission, the reporter gives information which is not true. See if you can tell if the following errors are errors of omission or commission. 1) The article incorrectly states that the intifada broke out Sept. 28, 2000, after Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount. The violence actually began before Sharon went up on the holy site. On the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 27, an Israeli soldier was fatally injured by a roadside bomb at the Netzarim Junction in Gaza. Moreover, while Current Events reports the Palestinian charge which blames Sharon’s Temple Mount stroll for causing the violence, it ignores the overwhelming evidence–including statements by Palestinian officials–which contradicts this view. Among the Palestinian leaders who admit that Sharon’s walk on the Temple Mount did not cause the widespread violence is Palestinian Communications Minister Imad al-Faluji, who stated March 3, 2001: Whoever thinks that the Intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon’s visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque, is wrong, even if this visit was the straw that broke the back of the Palestinian people. This Intifada was planned in advance, ever since President Arafat’s return from the Camp David negotiations, where he turned the table upside down on President Clinton. (quoted in Al-Safir, March 3). Faluji had made similar statements in December 2000. Similarly, Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the riots in the West Bank, acknowledged that the uprising was pre-planned since Camp David: The explosion would have happened anyway. It was necessary in order to protect Palestinian rights. (quoted in the New Yorker, Jan. 29, 2001) 2) The writer continues with the mistaken claim that six “infants” were killed in the Aug. 9 bombing at the Jerusalem pizzeria. While six Israeli children between the ages of two and 16 were tragically murdered, no infants were killed. 3) In another factual error, the reporter writes that “Palestinians villages have been bulldozed to make way for Jewish settlements.” This claim is patently false; while settlements have certainly grown over the last few decades, this growth has not occurred as a result of bulldozing or displacing Palestinian villages. While Israel has bulldozed Palestinian structures, these are usually buildings that Palestinian gunmen use for cover when they shoot at Israeli civilians and soldiers. 4) Current Events further distorts reality when it falsely suggests that Arafat does not support terrorism, stating: “On the Palestinian side, many have turned away from Arafat and given their support to anti-Israel terror groups such as Hamas.” Likewise, the article asserts that it is Hamas which is providing Palestinian schoolchildren with an “education in killing.” This is misleading. In actuality, it is Arafat’s Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, which is responsible for the education of the majority of children who attend the government-run schools which teach children to kill Jews. In addition, following the June 21 bombing in Tel Aviv, in which 21 young Israelis were killed, Arafat sent a letter of congratulations to the family of the suicide bomber. Questions: Do you think it is easy for reporters to get the facts straight concerning conflicts in faraway places? What difficulties might they encounter? How can they overcome them? What should be done when errors are pointed out to journalists after the story is already printed? III. Biased Reporting: Reporters of news stories should not include their own opinions in the articles. If two sides have conflicting points of view, the reporters should record both. If one side is giving false information, and the reporter is able to determine it is false, he or she should say so. 1) Current Events‘ characterization of “hotly debated issues” identified as “roadblocks to a final peace agreement” is highly biased. The issues noted are: the status of Jerusalem, full Palestinian nationhood, and settlements. All of these are issues which the Palestinians ha ve placed on the agenda; entirely ignored are the issues that Israel considers key “roadblocks to a final peace agreement,” including the many Palestinian violations of the peace accords such as terrorism, anti-Semitic incitement (hateful statements which encourage violence), the widespread presence and use of illegal weapons, and a hugely oversized Palestinian “police” force. Questions: What is bias? Is there such a thing as news reports that are not biased? How can you recognize bias? IV. False Comparisons This article also falsely and outrageously equates the official hate education of the Palestinian school system to the hateful views of some Israeli individuals: Maps of the West Bank used in Palestinian schools, for instance, show only the names of Palestinian villages destroyed by Israel [sic]. They do not show the names of Israeli communities erected in their place. Israeli maps make no reference to destroyed Palestinian towns. Israel is portrayed as the enemy is Palestinian schools, and in many communities, Palestinians are seen as Israel’s enemy. It is hardly surprising that maps that American students like you use do not identify the sites of ruined Native American villages. Likewise, Israeli maps do not label the lost Arab villages. Yet, even this comparison is unfair to Israel since Europeans did wipe out Native American lands and culture. In contrast, in the Israeli-Palestinian case, it was the Palestinians who attempted to destroy Israel in a war they started in 1948. (Had they won, Israel no doubt would have been destroyed.) In fact, it was Arab leaders themselves who were responsible for the flight of Palestinian Arabs, who left behind empty villages. When five neighboring Arab countries declared war on the brand new Jewish state in 1948, the leaders urged the Palestinian Arab residents to flee, promising them they could return after the expected Arab victory. Even Haled al Azm, the Syrian Prime Minister in 1948-49, acknowledged the Arab leadership’s responsibility in creating a mass Arab exodus from Mandate Palestine: “Since 1948, we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave. Only a few months separated our call to them to leave and our appeal to the United Nations to resolve on their return” (The Memoirs of Haled al Azm, p. 386-7). Questions: When two situations are not equivalent, should journalists nevertheless present them as if they are, so as not to be “unfair” to one side? IV. What Can You Do?? Make your voice heard!! 1) Choose a couple of the issues discussed above, and in your own words, write to Current Events’ Editor Charles Piddock at [email protected] . Let him know that the story was inaccurate and biased in some places. Be sure to give a detailed example. 2) Discuss the “Will Violence Engulf the Middle East” article and its many problems in your class. You may want to draft a letter as a group. Also, look for other sources of information which may have presented information in a more accurate way. You can use those alternative sources to help gather information for your letters to Mr. Piddock. 3) One helpful source of information is CAMERA’s web site (www.camera.org). Please check under “New Material” for the latest updates on bias and inaccuracy in the media. The information will help you respond to the Current Events Special Report and others like it. 4) Write a column for your student newspaper discussing problems of media bias, and use “Will Violence Engulf the Middle East” as an example.

South Jersey artist Peter Ehlinger has been exhibiting since the 1960s, yet he still continues to explore new ways to create "something so beautiful, you can't resist it," he says. Ehlinger, of Haddonfield, is featured in a new exhibit at the Hammonton branch of the Atlantic County Library System that runs through November. The exhibit is sponsored and curated by the Hammonton Arts Center. Ehlinger, a longtime member of the HAC, works in watercolors with pen and ink. The majority of his art is Asian influenced. In his artist's notes he describes his treatment of watercolors as "heavy handed," incorporating multiple washes and intricate design and color. In addition to the Asian impressions, he uses watercolors and pen to create works resembling detailed stained glass windows. Originally an oil painter, Ehlinger participates in many art and craft fairs on the east coast and has won several awards in juried exhibitions. His work has been featured in galleries and in the homes and businesses of clients who have commissioned him. The public can view his works for the rest of the month at the library gallery, located inside the library at 451 Egg Harbor Road, in Hammonton. Library hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. For more information call the library at 609-561-2264 or the Hammonton Arts Center at 609-567-5360. •The Jewish Community Center will host a bagel lunch program 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6, to meet and greet three artists from the community of Arad from the center's Partnership 2Gether program. The event will be held in the JCC board room, 501 N. Jerome Ave., Margate. The artists will speak about the growing artisan population in Arad and show a variety of their works. The program is free and open to the community. Call 609-822-1167 or email JCutler@jccatlantic.org. •The Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton College presents an artist talk and slide show by portrait artist Seth Camm 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 5. Camm's work is currently on view in the exhibition "Finding Home: Seth Camm." The exhibit presents portraits of the homeless, painted primarily at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, and are accompanied by audio recordings of the stories of the individuals themselves. Admission: $5 adults, $4 students and seniors. Call 609-652-8848 or go to www.noyesmuseum.org •The Hammonton Arts Center, 219 Bellevue Ave., Hammonton, hosts a juried "Fine Arts & Crafts Exhibit" Monday, Nov. 5, to 27. An artist's reception will be held 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2. Refreshments will be served and the event is open to the public. Go to www.hammontonartscenter.org •Two new fall exhibits are scheduled for the Stockton College Art Gallery through Nov. 17. "Learning from New Jersey" will be housed in the upper gallery, with paintings by Tim Daly and Valeri Larko. "Perception Shift" will occupy the lower gallery, featuring Wade Aaron, Sienna Freeman, John Langdon, Bovey Lee, Kristen Neville-Taylor, Ryan Livingstone, Michelle Vitale Loughlin and Mat Ollig. The gallery is located adjacent to the Performing Arts Center, main campus, off Jimmie Leeds Road, Galloway Township. Hours are noon to 7:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m. Sundays. Admission is free. www.stockton.edu/artgallery •Great Bay Gallery, 829 Bay Ave., Somers Point, will present a group exhibit by the art students from Mainland Regional High School, through Nov. 17. Gallery hours during the exhibit are 1 to 6 p.m., Wednesdays through Saturdays.Call 609-653-4991 or go to www.greatbayartgallery.com •Photographs of Atlantic City boss Enoch "Nucky" Johnson and other Atlantic City icons and landmarks can be viewed in "The Atlantic City Experience: The Roaring '20s," a new exhibit at the Atlantic City Historical Museum, located on Garden Pier, New Jersey Avenue and the Boardwalk in Atlantic City. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is free. Call 609-347-5839 or go to www.atlanticcityexperience.org •Currently on exhibit at The Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton College, located at 733 Lily Lake Road, Galloway Township: "Noyes Signature Artists Exhibition," through Nov. 25; "Feast for the Eyes: The Art of Food," through Jan. 13; "Dendrology: The Nature of Trees," through Jan. 20; "Finding Home: Seth Camm," through Jan. 27. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, with extended hours until 8 p.m. Thursdays; and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Admission: $5 adults, $4 students and seniors. Call 609-652-8848 or go to www.noyesmuseum.org •"101 Quilts," new exhibit at the African American Heritage Museum of Southern NJ, runs to Dec. 15. The museum is located at the Martin Luther King Center, 661 Jackson Road, Newtonville. Admission is free, donations accepted. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays to Fridays; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays by appointment. Call 609-704-5495 or go to www.aahmsng.org •A new exhibit by Phyllis C. London, "18 Collected Images," featuring watercolors, acrylics and giclee prints, can be seen in the upstairs gallery of Latz's By The Bay Restaurant, 801 Bay Ave., Somers Point. The exhibit will continue through December. Call 609-788-8838 or go to www.LatzsByTheBay.com. Call Great Bay Gallery at 609-653-4991. Cape May County •"Nature and Art," the final show of the 2012 season at William Ris Gallery, opens Nov. 24 with a reception to meet the artists from 4 to 8 p.m. The exhibit runs through January. The gallery is located at 9400 Second Ave., Stone Harbor. The reception is free to the public and will feature live music by The City and Horses. Call 609-368-6361 or go to www.williamris.com •Artwork from the "Art on Asbury" gallery of the Ocean City Fine Arts League will be displayed through March 2013 in Shore Medical Center's Surgical Pavillion gallery, located on the second floor. All artwork on display was created by local artists who reside in the South Jersey area. A gallery reception will be held 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Nov. 2. It is open to the public and light refreshments will be served. All artwork is for sale. In addition to the "Art on Asbury" artwork, a special wall is dedicated to the works created by the Arc of Atlantic County students and their teachers. The students, with the help of "Art on Asbury" artists Susan Rau, Jennifer Bird and Thelma Snyder, recently completed a mural at the Arc of South Jersey offices on Delilah Road in Egg Harbor Township. Call 609-814-0308 or go to oceancityfineartsleague.org •Harbor Gallery, located at the Nature Center of Cape May, 1600 Delaware Ave., presents "Holiday Artists Marketplace" during November and December. The public is invited to meet the artists at a reception 6 p.m. Nov. 2. This show features works with a focus on nature. All art is original and for sale, with a portion of sales supporting the Nature Center. The gallery plans to have artist demonstrations throughout the two months. Call 609- 898-8848. •The Cape May Artists' Cooperative will feature the work of members Barbara Colosi, Lee Hajduk and Jody Swope, in its gallery at the West End Garage, 484 West Perry St., Cape May, through Nov. 8. Call 609-770-8261. •Harbor Gallery's new exhibit, "Raptors," shows the works of local award-winning photographers Tina Giaimo and Don Merwin. Harbor Gallery is located at the Nature Center of Cape May, 1600 Delaware Ave., in Cape May. All artwork is for sale. A portion of sales will support the Nature Center. Call 609-898-8848. •"Anything Goes," the November show by the Ocean City Fine Arts Leage, opens Nov. 9 with a meet-the-artist reception and awards presentation, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the "Art On Asbury" Gallery, 608 Asbury Ave., Ocean City. The event is free and open to the public. The show will run through the end of November. Call 609-814-0308 or go to oceancityfineartsleague.org •Call to Artists: The annual Juried Art Show will be held at the Ocean City Arts Center throughout November. An awards ceremony will be held 7 p.m. Nov. 9, the public is invited. Go to www.oceancityartscenter.org or call 609-399-7628. The Ocean City Arts Center is located in the Community Center, 1735 Simpson Ave. •SOMA NewArt Gallery exhibits Sandra Bloodworth's "Urban Principals," and new watercolors by Samuel Donovan through Nov. 25. The gallery is located at 31 Perry St., in Carpenters Square Mall. Hours are: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursdays through Mondays. For more information visit SOMA online at www.somagallery.net or call 609-898-7488. •Rosalie Hettenbach is the featured artist in the newly renovated A Ca Mia restaurant, 524 Washington Street Mall in Cape May. Her exhibit of 29 oil paintings is on display through December. Call 609-465-6008. Cumberland County and West •Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts, 22 N. High St., Millville, exhibits the following through Nov. 10: Associate Artist Show II, in the North Gallery; Rae Jaffe, Mary Ann Kline, Debra Kayata and Seppo Siimes, in the Witt Gallery; Emily Leurtzing and Cheryl Knowles-Harrigan in the Associates Artist Alcove. Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays, extended to 9 p.m. on third Fridays; and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays. Call 856-327-4500 or go to www.rrcarts.com •Pine Shores Art Association will hold an open house reception 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 4, to kick off the annual Art Harvest Show at its gallery, 94 Stafford Ave., Manahawkin. The show will remain hanging throughout November and be open to the public 1 to 3 p.m. Sundays, 7 to 9 p.m. Mondays and 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesdays. Go to www.pineshoresartassociation.org •""Samantha Palmeri: New Paintings," on exhibit Nov. 11 to Dec. 31, at the Art House Gallery, located at 182 N. Main St., Manahawkin. An opening reception with the artist will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Nov. 11. The gallery is open year round. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Call 609-978-4278 or go to www.arthousegallery.net • Pine Shores Art Association is co-sponsoring an art show and art history lecture 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 12, at the Stafford Library, 129 N. Main St., Manahawkin. From 6 to 7 p.m., the public is invited to a free Holiday Artist Reception featuring the works of Pine Shores' artists Carol Sapp, Mary Walker-Baptiste, Paul Hartelius, Elaine Burnett, Irene Bausmith, Pat Morgan and Ilomay Pedicini. Their group exhibit will be on display in the library's gallery from November to the end of January, and art is available for purchase. Art History Professor Lisa Festa of Georgian Court University will discuss "Master Artist Henri Matisse: Color, Form and Pattern," at 7 p.m. The event is free, but preregistration is requested. Call Pine Shores at 609-597-3557 or the library at 609-597-3381. •Pine Shores Art Association, 94 Stafford Ave., Manahawkin, weekly open studio sessions: Sundays: Portraits, 1 to 3 p.m.; Mondays: Portraits, 7 to 9 p.m.; Tuesdays: Artists Helping Artists, 7 to 9 p.m.; Wednesdays: "Do Your Own Thing" 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Thursdays: Life Drawing, 7 to 9 p.m. Call 609-597-3557 or www.pineshoresartassociation.org Items for Art Gallery should be sent two weeks in advance to email@example.com or mailed to Lucia C. Drake, The Press of Atlantic City, 11 Devins Lane, Pleasantville, N.J. 08232.

on orders of $85 or more An excerpt from www.HouseOfNames.com archives copyright © 2000 - 2015 Where did the English Samuel family come from? What is the English Samuel family crest and coat of arms? When did the Samuel family first arrive in the United States? Where did the various branches of the family go? What is the Samuel family history?It was among those Anglo-Saxon tribes that once ruled over Britain that the name Samuel was formed. The name was derived from the baptismal name for the son of Samuel. This ancient Hebrew font name meaning name of God was not common in the Middle Ages, but was not necessarily of Jewish origin. There were many records of the surname Samuel of English descent. Until the dictionary, an invention of only the last few hundred years, the English language lacked any comprehensive system of spelling rules. Consequently, spelling variations in names are frequently found in early Anglo-Saxon and later Anglo-Norman documents. One person's name was often spelled several different ways over a lifetime. The recorded variations of Samuel include Samwell, Samuel, Samuell, Samway, Samuels and others. First found in Cornwall where they held a family seat from early times. The family name first appeared on the early census rolls taken by the early Kings of Britain to determine the rate of taxation of their subjects. This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Samuel research. Another 151 words(11 lines of text) covering the years 1559, 1628, 1628, 1676, 1654, 1694, 1689, 1690, 1690, 1694 and 1705 are included under the topic Early Samuel History in all our PDF Extended History products. Another 139 words(10 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Samuel Notables in all our PDF Extended History products. Some of the Samuel family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt. Another 51 words(4 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products. Thousands of English families boarded ships sailing to the New World in the hope of escaping the unrest found in England at this time. Although the search for opportunity and freedom from persecution abroad took the lives of many because of the cramped conditions and unsanitary nature of the vessels, the opportunity perceived in the growing colonies of North America beckoned. Many of the settlers who survived the journey went on to make important contributions to the transplanted cultures of their adopted countries. The Samuel were among these contributors, for they have been located in early North American records: Samuel Settlers in United States in the 17th Century - John Samuel settled in Nantasket in 1630 - Edward Samuel settled in Virginia in 1643 - Robert Samuel, who arrived in Maryland in 1673 - Daniel Samuel, who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1678-1679 - Lydia Samuel, who landed in Pennsylvania in 1678-1679 Samuel Settlers in United States in the 18th Century - Jonas Samuel, who landed in New York in 1709 - Elizabeth Samuel, who arrived in Boston, Massachusetts in 1718 - Levy Samuel, who arrived in New York in 1740-1741 - Myers Samuel, who arrived in Maryland in 1740 Samuel Settlers in United States in the 19th Century - Meirs Samuel, who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1806 - Charles Samuel, who landed in New York, NY in 1831 - Fanny M Samuel, who landed in New York, NY in 1846 - Morris L Samuel, who landed in New York, NY in 1846 - S Samuel, aged 43, arrived in Boston, Massachusetts in 1849 Samuel Settlers in United States in the 20th Century - Otto Herman Samuel, who arrived in Wisconsin in 1914 - Gustaf Albert Samuel, who arrived in Wisconsin in 1923 Samuel Settlers in Canada in the 19th Century - George Samuel, aged 16, arrived in Saint John aboard the ship "Condor" in 1838 Samuel Settlers in Australia in the 19th Century - Barnett Samuel, English convict from London, who was transported aboard the "Anson" on September 23, 1843, settling in Van Diemen's Land, Australia - John Samuel arrived in Adelaide, Australia aboard the ship "Hooghly" in 1848 - Thomas Samuel arrived in Adelaide, Australia aboard the ship "Hooghly" in 1848 - John Samuel, aged 26, a miner, arrived in South Australia in 1856 aboard the ship "Switzerland" Samuel Settlers in New Zealand in the 19th Century - James Samuel, aged 21, a labourer, arrived in Auckland, New Zealand aboard the ship "Reiherstieg" in 1864 - Elizabeth Samuel, aged 49, arrived in Auckland, New Zealand aboard the ship "Reiherstieg" in 1864 - Mr. Owen Wilmore Samuel (d. 1912), aged 41, English Saloon Steward from Southampton, Hampshire who worked aboard the RMS Titanic and died in the sinking and was recovered by CS Mackay-Bennett - Hon. Peter Samuel, British Banker - Adrian Samuel, British Company Director - Herbert Samuel, Hospital Director - Sir John Samuel, Company Director - Richard Samuel, British Diplomat - Mr. E Samuel, British Ordinary Seaman, who sailed in to battle on the HMS Prince of Wales and survived the sinking - Burke, Sir Bernard. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry: Including American Families with British Ancestry. (2 Volumes). London: Burke Publishing, 1939. Print. - Burke, Sir Bernard. General Armory Of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Ramsbury: Heraldry Today. Print. - Weis, Frederick Lewis, Walter Lee Sheppard and David Faris. Ancestral Roots of Sixty Colonists Who Came to New England Between 1623 and 1650 7th Edition. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1992. Print. (ISBN 0806313676). - Shirley, Evelyn Philip. Noble and Gentle Men of England Or Notes Touching The Arms and Descendants of the Ancient Knightley and Gentle Houses of England Arranged in their Respective Counties 3rd Edition. Westminster: John Bowyer Nichols and Sons, 1866. Print. - Hitching, F.K and S. Hitching. References to English Surnames in 1601-1602. Walton On Thames: 1910. Print. (ISBN 0-8063-0181-3). - Marcharn, Frederick George. A Constitutional History of Modern England 1485 to the Present. London: Harper and Brothers, 1960. Print. - Fairbairn. Fairbain's book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, 4th Edition 2 volumes in one. Baltimore: Heraldic Book Company, 1968. Print. - Browning, Charles H. Americans of Royal Descent. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing. Print. - Hanks, Patricia and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. Print. (ISBN 0-19-211592-8). - Skordas, Guest. Ed. The Early Settlers of Maryland an Index to Names or Immigrants Complied from Records of Land Patents 1633-1680 in the Hall of Records Annapolis, Maryland. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1968. Print. The Samuel Family Crest was acquired from the Houseofnames.com archives. The Samuel Family Crest was drawn according to heraldic standards based on published blazons. We generally include the oldest published family crest once associated with each surname. This page was last modified on 8 January 2015 at 12:49. on orders of $85 or more

- READER REVIEWS (No longer in theaters) Phil Rosenthal, Jim Czarnecki Samuel Goldwyn Films Apr 29, 2011 The newest auto-documentary, Exporting Raymond, is amusing and annoying in the wrong ratio, maybe 30/70. Directed by its protagonist, Phil Rosenthal, creator of the hit sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, it has a fertile comic premise. Rosenthal is dispatched by Sony Pictures International to translate the series into Everybody Loves Kostya, for a Russian audience, with Russian collaborators, and he sets out to document the inevitable culture clash. Although campy shows like The Nanny and Married … With Children have done well in the Russian market, Raymond, says Rosenthal, is a more realistic, “relatable” series, inspired by his own Rockland County family and the life of his star, Ray Romano. So he’s taken aback when, in Moscow, the Russian costume designer thinks Kostya’s wife should wear “trendy” clothes even while doing housework, and the writers look blankly as he explains the humor of, say, a suitcase left out after a vacation that neither the husband nor the wife will put away—an obvious (and funny) metaphor for the couple’s daily power struggle. Rosenthal is a tall, slightly manic Jewish male given to blurty, stammering one-liners in the Woody Allen mode. He gets laughs when he sardonically notes the wild dogs roaming outside the run-down studio or wonders aloud whether the dank rooms were used in the filming of Saw. He’s less likable when he tries to instruct the Russians in “relatable” comedy. He and Romano created a household of wishy-washy, often childlike men and dominating mothers and wives, and when told that the dynamic is different in Russian homes, he thinks they’re practicing self-deception. This is how it is everywhere, he says, and they just won’t admit it. Rosenthal might be right in one respect: Given their history, Russians don’t vent like American Jews or Italians in a therapeutic culture. But he shows little curiosity about how differently their conflicts might be expressed in this newly capitalist society. He doesn’t consider the possibility that the flamboyantly fashionable costume designer might have insights into Russian housewives, who grew up wearing crap Soviet clothing and probably want to dress up more than their Long Island counterparts. Eventually, Rosenthal gets around to visiting a typical middle-class home and throwing back vodkas, but he spends most of his time searching for similarities instead of differences. He’s the sitcom creator as bubble boy. I don’t mean to lambaste Rosenthal, who seems a decent man and created one of the more bearable sitcoms of recent years. But his sense of entitlement is all too scarily American. Like many critics, I had harsh words for Albert Brooks’s Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, in which the comedian protagonist projects his own neuroses onto a foreign culture and flees in disgrace: Brooks was so self-hating that he forgot to give his alter ego any stature. But it’s no accident that Brooks has never done a TV sitcom; he lacks the requisite complacency. Maybe Brooks and Rosenthal could meet in the middle and make a great comedy of Americans abroad.

What Happens When the Trees Die? “What happens when the trees die?” February 7, 2015 Gathering for study a few days after Tu’B’shvat, fruit, nuts, wine encircling our altar, check-ins turned to encompass our relation to the trees, and by extension, to other parts of the natural world. People spoke of the trees in their yards, the threat of death that the cottonwood trees of the Rio Grande face because of climate change and the lack of adequate flooding of the flood plain, the understanding our ancestors had that you plant trees for future generations not for immediate gain, and the blight that so many of our local trees face. And we heard of visitations from the animal world: the blue jay arriving in 2 days (or was it 3 days?) at the offering made of bird food in the back yard; the mountain lion coming around; others. Rather than going right into text study after check-ins, the discussion continued with personal stories, observations, and questions. And more questions. The trees are the lungs of the planet. What happens when the trees die and there’s not enough oxygen to breathe? What is the role of the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam? How do we respond? Do we respond? Will the “market forces” take care of it in the end, or do the market forces represent a non-benevolent force that should not be allowed to run it’s course? Do we choose blessings or curses? Are we engulfed in the pessimism of how we are leaving the planet for our grandchildren, or do we have an optimism that things will work out for them? How do we change our minds? How do I change myself? The question arose during the discussion of the drought, attempts at water conservation, the recognition that most of the water use is through agriculture (e.g. do you know how many gallons of water it takes to export almonds?), rather than being determined by personal use of individuals. So does it really matter if we personally don’t flush the toilet every time, or take shorter showers? Do we live in a blessed time, whereby humans have figured out how to feed the masses through large agri-business? Or are we cursed due to our disconnection from our own food sources? What is your relation to the chicken on your dinner plate? What is the mind frame that our ancestors had, when one raised the animals and the plants that later were served at the table? How does that alter one’s consciousness and relation to earth and spirit, compared to bopping into Ralphs to pick up some chicken for dinner? What is the difference in one’s mind, in one’s being, between observing the laws of kashrut when it comes to killing the animal you yourself have raised, compared to purchasing a lamb roast at the kosher market? What does it mean to change your mind, and how can that possibly change the magnitude of what is happening in the greater culture? Or by changing our minds, is there a ripple that goes out to those we contact, such as our students, patients, co-workers, and then those they contact, and ultimately things undergo major shift? How does our situation on the planet compare to the concepts of complexity theory – are we bubbling and churning in a field of chaos and turmoil, approaching a quantum frame shift into another field entirely? Isn’t that what is described in the opening verses of the book of B’ray’sheet (Genesis) – the bubbling and turmoil of Tohu v’vohu, followed by the shefa of light that changed everything? Or at the moment on the shore of Red Sea – leaving the chaos and confusion of the narrow way of living in Mitzrayim, but facing . . . what? The step with pure faith into a new way of being offered the only way out. Every Shabbat we read the words that Shabbat is about remembering the original Creation, AND the going out of Egypt. Is the world now approaching a Y’hi Ohr / Red Sea moment? Will we have the courage to take the step into the water? Questions, more questions. Can we live a life of blessing? This is Jewish mindfulness. Everything is blessed. The Zohar says, take every action by first creating a space for God to fill so that when you raise your hand to strike someone you must ask, “Would the Divine Presence strike this person in this way?” or when you comfort someone with a hand on the shoulder, it is empowered with Divine Comfort. An old siddur, handed down through the family, pages yellowed and ragged, listing a blessing for every scenario. The prayer on seeing trees and animal: Source of Blessing are You, Infinite Being, our Wellspring of Creation, Teacher of the hidden worlds that such as this exists in the world. A question: what does this week’s Torah portion have to do with Tu’Bishvat? This week’s Parshat Ha Shavuah is Yitro (Jethro), the giving of the 10 Instructions. “I have carried you to Me on the wings of Eagles (or Vultures?)”, to witness, each and every one of you, the revelation of how to live a life of consciousness and justice in relation to Spirit and fellow beings. Then, after revelation, climb the altar of earth, get back to the earth, get back to living as a human. There is no need to meditate only for the sake of achieving understanding of the Divine, or how we were before we came to this physical plane. But rather to bring that consciousness back into this world, that avodah (sacred service) is about sewing the mitzvot into this physical world. The disconnection of the Jewish people from the earth and the land, a result of our being forcibly exiled from our earth-based practices to a religion of prayer and thought. This makes it possible that the cantor in a synagogue does not even know that there are olive trees on the synagogue property. Can we return to a state of being in right relation with the earth and beings around us? Can we take the rote prayers, learn them, transform them (as each Sefirah does with the Presence it receives) and let them flow from our hearts in a new way? A chant: Aitzim Zaitim Omdim – the olive trees are standing. Finally, we get to the text of Perekh Shirah: Trees of the field declare: “Then shall the trees of the forest sing before Infinite Being” (1 Chron 16:33) Vine declares: “This is what Infinite Being says – Just like when fresh wine is found in the cluster, people would protest ‘Don’t destroy it, for it holds blessing’, so too will I act” (Isaiah 65:8) Next gathering: Saturday March 7, at Devorah’s. We invite all in the PV community who wish to take part In planning this year’s event to come. Brief Torah study (~1/2 hour), then an hour of planning, then a pot luck lunch.

Though my heart goes out to the families of Regev and Goldwasser, I am truly in mourning for the state of Israel. The policies in place for the Jewish country have led to a tactic of kidnapping in order to force lopsided prisoner exchanges, such as the one we have just been witness to. However, as we have seen during the Pomp and Circumstance for the returned Lebanese murderers, such policies are merely propaganda for the emboldened enemy. Israel is a country that desires peace. It is a country that has been under siege since the British pulled out, leaving the fledgling country in charge of it's own fate. And her people... her people are resolved to live in a country of their ancestors, under rule of law, in peace with their neighbors. The hate filled policies of muslims within and from beyond the borders of Israel make peace a distant dream. Where Israeli citizenship, voting rights, and even equal opportunity for success has been granted to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, they have been met with hatred, terror and murder. Call it racism, call it religionism, call it what you will... The muslims in the middle east have no moral ground for their struggle. They have been invited to live in a society offering opportunity for all under a largely secular government. Instead they choose violence. What is worse is that Israel has seemingly lost her resolve, as a country, and the enemy smells blood. The muslims celebrate the continued murder of innocent Israelis, dancing on the graves of their fellow man. It may be that the battle for resolve is being lost, though I hope and pray otherwise. In the mean time, I mourn the loss of the Israeli soldiers, the loss of Israeli resolve, and the loss of progress in the middle east.

The existence of the state of Israel is one of the biggest miracles in the world today! We are thankful to the one above who has acted through our guardian angels, the IDF soldiers. And it is on this day, that throughout Israel we are remembering them and their sacrifices for us.Love Yehuda Lave Yom HaAtzmaut Observance in United StatesApril 10, 2013 Jews all over the world observe Yom HaAtzmaut because it is Israel's Independence Day. Even those who are living in the United States solemnly observe it by holding little celebrations. This year, Yom HaAtzmaut falls on April 16, which is the 5th of the month of Iyar in the Jewish calendar. Although it is not considered a federal holiday, people with Jewish descent observe it together with others. History says that the proclamation of Yom HaAtzmaut was made on May 14, 1948 by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Israel was declared independent 8 hours before the end of British Mandate of Palestine due to finish on May 15, 1948. Israel became the State of Israel by virtue of the people's natural and historic right and strengthened by the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly. Both the Soviet Union and the United States recognized the newly-formed state but not by other Arab countries surrounding it. Because of the way the Hebrew calendar works, there is a variance of as much as a month between how the date falls out on the English calendar each year, similar to how Easter falls out on a different day each year. Celebrations begin on the evening of Yom HaAtzmaut in accordance with the Jewish traditions. This is observed by Jews in the US, in Israel and anywhere else in the world. Small Israeli flags are often attached to cars' windows and majority of the people in Israel decorate their balconies with a huge national flag, although in the US there are not many who do this anymore. On the eve of Yom HaAtzmaut, families eat together in a little barbecue or pizza party. Others stay all night singing and dancing. In Israel, town squares are often closed to cars to allow people to celebrate joyfully their Day of Independence. Popular Israeli celebrities, singers and dancers often hold concerts and shows in line with the celebration. In other words, Israel is one of the countries that openly and merrily celebrate their independence every year. There is a few Arab Israelis that treat Yom HaAtzmaut as 'Nakba' (al-nakba is translated as 'the catastrophe'). These people march through streets in protest every year during the celebration of Yom HaAtzmaut with a slogan "Jewish independence is our day of mourning." Subject: WoW!--Natures Ice storms This should keep you busy quite awhile.... Check out some of the many links at the end......Great info...... Visit my Blog: http://yehudalave.blogspot.com

10in x 10in Juvenile Nonfiction: Biography 8 to 14 "A powerful presentation of comparative experiences of oppression and persecution, told through real-life heroes Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank. The two lived on different continents, unknown to one another, yet both offered inspiring hope despite suffering through two of the 20th century's most horrific and tragic times. I would have welcomed this thought- and emotion-provoking story when I taught my 8th grade human rights' literary unit, connecting The Diary of a Young Girl with various literary works from the American Civil Rights Movement." — Jennifer Moore, Assoc. Professor, School of Library and Information Studies, Texas Woman's University “Nancy weaved together a stunning picture book biography that celebrates the theme that love is stronger than hate. The illustrations by Yevgenia are soft and beautiful. The back of the book has a timeline of both Martin and Anne which gives readers more information about them. This is a perfect nonfiction text to share in the classroom or at home.” — Picture Books 4 Learning “The time for Martin & Anne is right now, and their parallel story can be a valuable, satisfying addition to school, library, and home bookshelves.” — Gary Anderson, Goodreads Martin & Anne: The Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank By Nancy Churnin Illustrated by Yevgenia Nayberg They seem to be from different worlds, different lifetimes, but they were born the same year, 1929. Across the ocean, they faced similar racial hatreds and reacted to that hate with words of love, reaching out to build understanding rather than divisiveness. Martin & Anne tells their inspiring stories, encouraging all of us to choose kindness whenever we can. Notable Book for a Global Society "As the teenage diarist and civil rights leader stand together, the timeless, powerful themes they heralded form the conclusion: 'Love is stronger than hate. Kindness can heal the world.'" — Publishers Weekly “A surprisingly successful and enlightening combination strengthened by striking artwork.” (Picture book/biography. 5-9) — Kirkus Reviews "With foresight, the emphasis is on recognizing and resisting the threat of bigotry in all its forms and in nurturing the bonds of our common humanity." — Susan Faust, San Francisco Chronicle "These peacekeepers’ goodwill messages burst to life in a heartfelt book with bold, sleek illustrations by artist Yevgenia Nayberg." — Emissourian, March Book Buzz Picks “The variety of Nayberg’s images balances the simplicity of Churnin’s message, adding depth to this story of unvarying optimism which concludes, “Love is stronger than hate. Kindness can heal the world.” — Emily Schneider, Jewish Book Council “This is an important book, and even though it’s not explicitly stated, Hitler’s policy of exclusion of Jews from daily public life was based on the discrimination and Jim Crow laws that existed in the US at that time. It’s a perfect addition to any school library and a wonderful read aloud to children of all ages.” — Pamela Kramer, Six Fabulous Picture Books to Celebrate Black History Month "What a powerful picture book! The story and illustrations are inspirational, beautifully relaying to readers of all ages Dr. King’s and Anne Frank’s uplifting messages of hope and social justice." — Trudy Ludwig, bestselling author of The Invisible Boy

But there is yet another significance to blowing the shofar that is revealed in the verses of a Psalm hymn recited on Rosh Hashana at the end of the service, and which was also recited in the Temple in Jerusalem on Rosh Hashana. The poet instructs his listeners and readers as follows: Sound the shofar on the New Moon?For it is a statute for Israel, the judgment of the God of Jacob. And the reason given for sounding the shofar is historical: As a testimony for Jehoseph, He ordained it, when he went forth over the land of Egypt, [when] I understood a language that I had not known. (Psalms 81, 4 ? 6) As is often the case, complex verses in the Bible induce commentators to propose various interpretations. We will examine interpretations given by two of the important commentators of the Middle Ages: Rabbi David Kimchi (commentator and linguist, Provence, 12th century) and Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra (commentator, poet, and philosopher, Spain, 12th century). They explained the name Jehoseph as a term for the Jewish nation with the reason being that God decreed that sounding the shofar was testimony for Israel of the historic event that occurred when they were in Egypt when God heard an unknown language. Such an obscure reason demands clarification. In the biblical story of the Jewish nation being enslaved in Egypt, we find God?s response to the nation?s difficult circumstances: Now it came to pass in those many days?and the children of Israel sighed from the labor, and they cried out, and their cry ascended to God from the labor?God heard their cry. (Exodus 2, 23-24) Note ? we are not reading the description of the Israelites? prayer in Egypt. We are reading the description of pain – sighs and cries ? which God heard and responded to, ultimately redeeming His nation and liberating them. This is what the poet is referring to in Psalms: ?I understood a language that I had not known.? A new language was revealed in the Exodus from Egypt, a wordless language, one that was unknown and had no rules of syntax; the language that God hears: the language of the heart. God took the sighs and cries of the despairing and turned them into a new language ? the language of prayer. This is the language of the shofar. We sound a wordless shofar that expresses a cry emitted by our hearts, crossing all barriers, opening all gates, and wordlessly expressing the dependence of man on God, Creator of all. The prayers of Rosh Hashana barely contain any personal requests. But, we blow the shofar and make a sound that is nothing but the cry of all our needs and desires. This way, we express the faith and confidence that God ?hears the voice of the blasting of His nation with compassion?, as we recite on Rosh Hashana, and that He will bequeath to us a year full of joy, health, fulfillment, and redemption. Ktiva Vechatima Tova

"We don't get lost in show business" during the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics, says Danny Boyle, who directed the show. Boyle spoke with reporters before Friday's ceremony, which begins at 9 p.m. London time. Every recent opening ceremony of the Olympics went for glitter and glamour, in an escalating war of excess. Ceremony fanatics consider the Beijing opening ceremony the gaudiest of all — and Oscar-winner Danny Boyle (the director of Slumdog Millionaire) had $42 million to try to outdo the Chinese organizers. Instead, Boyle says, "You can't get bigger than Beijing. So that, in a way, kind of liberated us. We thought, 'Great. Oh good. We'll try and do something different, then.' " From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: And I'm Audie Cornish. A battle for Syria's largest city appears to be drawing closer. After nearly a week of fighting in the streets of Aleppo, both government and rebel forces are arming and reinforcing their ranks for a decisive showdown. Aleppo has two and a half million residents. And as NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Beirut, there are worries that civilian casualties could be heavy. It's been a tough decade for the music industry. Revenues have tumbled — from more than $14 billion in 1999 down to $7 billion last year. EMI, one of the big four record labels, was taken over by venture capitalists and then taken over again, after they defaulted, by Citigroup. Now, Universal Music Group wants to buy the recorded music division of EMI for $1.9 billion. But critics say if the two companies merge it will create a superlabel that will dominate the music industry. President Obama is flanked Friday by congressional sponsors and officials with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee at a signing ceremony in Washington, D.C., for legislation increasing U.S. security aid to Israel. It may have just been a coincidence that on the eve of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's visit to Israel, President Obama signed legislation that increases U.S. military and security aid to the Jewish state. But the timing was nonetheless fortuitous for the president, and showed once again the benefits of incumbency in an election year. Originally published on Fri September 7, 2012 1:34 pm Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson is the epitome of a modern-day troubadour. Known for his crooning voice and acoustic folk tunes, Matsson recently released his fourth full-length album under the name The Tallest Man on Earth, entitled There's No Leaving Now. However simple his formula may seem, The Tallest Man on Earth is much more than just a man with a guitar. His intricate fingerpicking, thoughtful lyrics and big voice give his work great height — and help him live up to his stage name. Getting the word out about HIV was a major goal of the Global Village. Helena Nangombe from Namibia holds up a sign written by her friend during a session that aimed to promote communication about HIV. Music and dancing filled the Global Village from morning to evening, often spilling out into other parts of the convention center. Khadijan High, a member of the Dance Institute of Washington, performed a hip-hop routine for The Condom Project. A fashion show on Tuesday evening featured dresses decorated with female condoms. Here Olwin Manyanye from Zimbabwe prepared backstage for the show, which raised awareness for the growing need of female condoms. Sophia (left) and Sarah Denison-Johnston of Berkeley, Calif., are 16-year-old twins, who are HIV-negative even though their mother was HIV-positive while pregnant with them. Their mother took part in one of the first clinical trials testing whether anti-retroviral drugs could successful block HIV transmission from mother to infant. Safe, Stupid or What? The Ashe Performing Arts Company, based in Kingston, Jamaica, performed a musical television game on Thursday in the Global Village. The show used song and dance to explain how HIV is transmitted. Small steps forward and international cooperation are ingredients in the fight against AIDS. Elizabeth C. Otieno of Allentown, Pa., embodies this spirit. She was born in Kenya but is now an HIV case manager in the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke appears before the House Financial Services Committee July 18. Economists expect Fed policymakers to consider further steps to boost growth when they meet next week. A worker at a Colorado National Guard construction site funded by federal stimulus funds in 2010 in Lakewood, Colo. Economists say the latest gross domestic product report shows the recession was less severe than previously thought. That's because government spending helped prop up the economy. Now, eyes are turning to the Federal Reserve to boost growth.

The unwarranted assumption in the explanations above is that Kryptonians are not Jews. I dissent from that notion. While they are not direct descendents of the Judeans of the Middle East from whom the term "Jewish" comes, I always ascribed effectively Jewish doctrine and ritual to the Kryptonian tradition. In fact, the Kryptonian tradition is congruent with and certainly predates the Judean, so they have at least as much claim to the tradition as any of us. I give all my characters religions, so I've thought this through - really. The Kents are Methodist (as is Clark), Lois is Catholic, Perry is Baptist, Jimmy is Lutheran (no surprise there) and Bruce Wayne and Batman are both Episcopalian (even less of a surprise there). And Superman (like the Siegels, the Shusters, the Weisingers, the Schwartzes, the Maggins and the Luthors) is Jewish. This is so self-evident that it may as well be canon. Atom (Ray Palmer) is a lapsed Jew. Batwoman (Kate Kane, DC Comics) Her current incarnation is both a Jewish as well as openly lesbian superheroine. The God of Cartoons By; Paul Palnik Creative Light Press. Iceman (Bobby Drake, Marvel Comics) - half-Jewish. Justice (Vance Astrovik, formerly Marvel Boy of the New Warriors) (Marvel Comics). Legion (son of Charles Xavier and Gabrielle Haller, a Jewish Holocaust survivor) Magneto (Marvel Comics) - born Max Eisenhardt, a Jewish boy in Germany during the Nazi era, Magneto is a survivor of Auschwitz, but turned his back on his human ethnicity and religion and has for years only identified himself as a mutant. However, his experiences with anti-Semitism during the Holocaust in Europe were and are a major influence on his quest to fight against anti-mutant oppression. Masada (Team Youngblood). Moon Knight (Marc Spector, Marvel Comics) Moon Knight (1st series) #37 May 1984 Marvel Comics. Prime (Kevin Green, Malibu Comics). Quicksilver (Marvel comics) -- Pietro Maximoff, son of Magneto and twin brother of Scarlet Witch. Paternally half-Jewish and maternally half-Roma. Nyssa Raatko (DC Comics) -- Jewish mother, non-practicing. Sabra (Ruth Bat-Seraph, Marvel Comics). Doc Samson (Dr. Leonard Samson, Marvel Comics). Sandman (Golden Age DC Comics) - half-Jewish. Scarlet Witch -- Wanda Maximoff—self-identifies with the Roma people, raised by Roma, her mother Magda was Roma, and an Auschwitz survivor, but her father Magneto was born Jewish. Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde) of the X-Men (Marvel Comics). The Thing (Benjamin J. Grimm, Marvel Comics) A former non-practicing Jew who recently (and belatedly) had his Bar Mitzvah Volcana (Marsha Rosenberg, Marvel Comics). Gertrude Yorkes of the Runaways (Marvel Comics) - Jewish family, currently agnostic. Ragman (Rory Regan, DC Comics). Wiccan (William Kaplan, Marvel Comics). He is Jewish and an openly gay male. « Older I can see the future - with a bionic eye... | In the early 1930s, William Va... Newer » This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments Buy a Shirt

I think we can we can all agree that we have some serious problems with our government. Maybe we can even agree that the government is the serious problem. Our government’s continuing threat to nuke Iran has revealed once more the depths of depravity and treachery that exist in Washington DC, if you hadn’t already noticed them in 2001, or before that in 1991, or in 1941, or in 1861. 1861 may be a little remote so let’s pin it to the significant year of 1911. This was the year that a strange little man with the fake rank of “Colonel” wrote an anonymous and rotten little novel he called Phillip Dru: Administrator. He didn’t admit his authorship for twenty years. It really has to be seen to be believed. The book was a fantasy-blueprint for seizing control of the United States government and placing it under a world government, using a “lone hero.” Col. Edward Mandel House had the unmitigated gall to appoint himself as a king-maker who should choose for America who would be the Democrat Party’s presidential candidate for 1912. Where did he get the monumental self-confidence to assume such a role? He got it from the fact that someone gave him the power and authority to do exactly that. That someone was J.P. Morgan, who was the king of America at that point, serving at the pleasure of the Rothschild empire in Frankfurt, Paris and London, the same way that the Rockefellers serve today. House’s assignment was to take America to war in the opening act of the perpetual war for perpetual control of humanity. The simplest solution is always the best one. The simple solution to most of our problems is the removal of what’s causing them. And what is that? The answer is: a poisonous little club of psychopaths in Manhattan. These guys have done it all and they’ve been in charge of our country since 1911. They’ve run the military, the State Department, the White House and the Congress. They have seized control of the government beginning with Edward Mandel House in 1911 choosing Woodrow Wilson as the Democrat candidate for 1912. In one year, House managed to create the Federal Reserve and its criminal collection agency, the Internal Revenue Service. He also managed to nullify the US Constitution, already declared meaningless by Lincoln, by arranging the 17th Amendment and the direct election of senators. By the next year he organized the First World War. He and his cronies, FDR and Churchill, got the Lusitania sunk in 1915. His crowning achievement of 1917 was to send Leon Trotsky from New York City to join Lenin in St. Petersburg where they made the Bolshevik coup and prepared the slaughter of scores of millions of humans and the unspeakable suffering of hundreds of millions more. House’s only notable failure in his program of doom was the American rejection of his precious League of Nations following WWI and the Versailles dictate. So, another world war was planned by House’s assistants, namely the Dulles brothers, Alan and John Foster, and their uncle, Robert Lansing. These were three of the founding psychos of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1921. Their plan was to design a new war to end all wars, to be followed by a real world government body that could not be denied. The war only took them eighteen years to foment, and the world government framework six years after that. Their body count was approximately 60 million humans, plus the degradation and suffering of a billion more. The world was never the same after the catastrophe of 1939-45. Everything we are enduring today is the aftermath of those six years, all deliberately designed and executed by the Council on Foreign Relations. Americans don’t realize what this little toxic club has done to the world in our name. The CFR was set up to seize total power of the US government while masquerading as a think tank, a free association of industry, academia and labor or just a friendly watering hole for vacationing drunks from Versailles, or whatever harmless legend we get from decade to decade. The CFR is in fact the Club of Death, a private ministry of war. All wars and revolutions since World War I and the Bolshevik bloodbath were planned within those walls at the corner of Park Avenue and 68th Street in Manhattan. That would include the Second World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the War against Islam, plus many other lesser known slaughterhouses, such as the terror war in Rhodesia. The Chinese bloodbath of 1949 was the biggest of them all, which created the perfect slave-labor gulag for American corporations chaired by CFRs. A year before that, the CFR put some crazy Russian Jews in power in Palestine. All of these disasters came from the CFR. The wars were designed to destroy resistance to them, the world conquerors, and to steal our wealth. For the moment, pretend I know what I’m talking about and that what I say is true. If this is the case, then what do you suppose should be done about this Council on Foreign Relations? If this incredible assertion is true, that a tiny number of psychopaths could seize control of the machinery of American political power and use that power to destroy hundreds of millions of people, and plan the destruction of billions more, what is to be done? How do we respond? There is only one response, obviously. You know what it is and they know what it is. If there is a gang in your neighborhood that attacks kids and women and the elderly, kills and rapes and steals and the cops refuse to go see them, then people sometimes do what they need to do to survive. When there is no law, or when the law is run by the gangsters, men sometimes take the law into their own hands, where it belongs anyway. When we farm out the law to lawyers and hired cops, we lose our power over our lives. Restraint is always called for, but we’ve obviously been pretty restrained for almost a hundred years. Too restrained. The Council on Foreign Relations has asked for this. What it has done has been to amass an obscene amount of power over our lives – with absolutely no responsibility. They used their oil and banking and tax-exempt foundation money to buy the US Department of State and the Congress and the White House and the US Army and Air Force and Navy. They created the United Nations. The CFR has created American policy since its inception in 1921, and of course for the ten years before its official start. So, it’s like the gang in the neighborhood that is raping and killing people. The gang pretends it’s harmless. It’s like a horror movie, only it’s real. The CFR has a program that calls for the killing of about 90% of the world’s population, first enunciated by CFR member Henry Kissinger. Why do they want such a thing? Well, they want all of us who might resist them to be gone and only very docile slaves be left to do their bidding for them. Somehow they think that with about five hundred million mind-controlled slaves in the whole world they can enjoy life much better without worrying that they might get an ass-whipping from some real men. What I am describing here is some rich punks who want to be protected from reality. They are so afraid of the big bad world that they demand that real humans be exterminated so they can enjoy life without being shown up as incompetents and phonies. What I propose is very simple, which it has to be. The Council on Foreign Relations, for starters, has to be destroyed. I’m referring both to the actual building known as Harold Pratt House at 58 E. 68th Street as well as the membership of the Council on Foreign Relations, those two thousand or so anti-humans who have declared war on humanity. It is easy to find the membership of this malicious gang of limp-wristed cutthroats. About ninety percent of our problems will evaporate with the liquidation of these parasites. The bloated US government will shrink to nothing in no time, the Federal Reserve will disappear, the warmongers and military whores will be gone. The strange and fatal relationship with Israel will be no more. America will become a good neighbor with the removal of our permanent war party. This is how to prevent war, by hanging the warlords. In the future, anyone who calls for a war of aggression would be hanged as quickly as Bush hanged Saddam and his assistants – and they were only resisting the CFR’s war of aggression against Iraq. Anyone who suggests from an official position that a country such as Iraq or Afghanistan or Iran be attacked would be quickly disappeared and heard from no more. Obama, the drunken buffoon, is married to a CFR, but I’m not talking about Obama now. It’s too soon to talk about Obama. Bush, the drunken buffoon, and Cheney, need to be arrested and hanged as the supreme war criminals of the decade. Bush’s CIA father needs to be arrested and hanged as he predicted he would be if the American people ever caught on to his scam, which we are beginning to do. The scam is privatization, which it has always been since the days of Alexander Hamilton, who privatized the monetization of debt and credit and pioneered what became the king of scams, the Federal Reserve Corporation, with his privately-owned “First Bank of the US.” The Rothschild scam is hard to detect because Americans are so unsophisticated and dumb when it comes to the government and how the banks make money – literally make it. They lend it into existence, at a huge price. The one good thing the government can do is provide debt-free currency but this was hijacked by the private bankers for good in 1913, which is why we’re broke and in receivership today. This can be fairly quickly reversed by the issuance of US Notes by the Treasury Department, but this will require the destruction of the Federal Reserve System, something that will occur automatically with the liquidation of the CFR membership. All good things will happen when this proposal is put into effect. I have been promoting the idea of exterminating the membership of the CFR for twenty-five years, in speeches, on radio and in my book, The New American Man – A Call to Arms, published in 1989 – and I’m still here. All the ills of this miserable century (from 1914) can be laid at the door of this evil organization, a concept which seems preposterous to people who can’t accept that rich men could be Communists. They didn’t understand that Communism is not a movement of the downtrodden but a power-grab by the super-rich – in the name of The People. For those who are afraid of the charge of “sedition,” the CFR is a private group and destroying it does not involve us in “the violent overthrow of the government.” The CFR is the invisible government and is not protected by any legal fiction. It is actively engaged in the subjugation and the mass slaughter of mankind. Its removal will benefit mankind beyond my ability to describe. Either we destroy the CFR soon or it will destroy us and the rest of humanity. Again, pretend that I know what I’m talking about. But if I’m wrong and we wipe out two thousand CFRs, what’s the harm in that? Two thousand amoral, conniving murdering psychopaths – gone. The worst troublemakers in world history – gone. Why don’t you do a little reading and see if I’m wrong about this club of degenerates and what they like to brag about? Here’s their website: www.cfr.org They expect this. They’ve wondered for decades when Americans or someone would catch on and put a stop to their crazy power trip. The old child molester, George HW Bush, reportedly admitted as much in an interview with Sarah McClendon in December, ’92: “Sarah, if the American people had ever known the truth about what we Bushes have done to this nation, we would be chased down the streets and lynched.” But it’s not just the Bushes or the Rockefellers – it’s the whole gang of criminals that run with them. A handful of good writers have described these monsters over the decades since Dan Smoot first did it in 1961. But no one but myself has called for their extermination, and I’ve been doing just that since around 1968. I went to Gary Allen in ‘79, who also described the true nature of the CFR, and said I needed his help, in the form of research, to attack these sadists. A year later, when I was under indictment and awaiting trial for my attempt on David Rockefeller, Gary called me and said I was right and what could he do to help? He didn’t know of my legal problems and he was dying of diabetes. I said, “Gary, you’re a little late – I’m in a little trouble.” Now, here was a guy who understood the CFR better than anyone in the world but it took a year for him to realize – after I brought it up – that these psychos have to be exterminated. And why might that be? Am I that radical and unique? I doubt that. Maybe the reason is that Americans have been disarmed mentally, as I have suggested over the years. Maybe we have lost the urge to defend ourselves from easily identified aggressors and those who openly plan our enslavement. Maybe it’s something in the water. Maybe it’s the Hollywood syndrome. The most damaging effect of Hollywood movies is the lone hero. We all like to identify with the lone hero, whether it’s Gene Autry or James Bond, but this is poison to our survival. The lone hero has undermined the vital sense of cooperation that is necessary for our survival. This was the secret of the German economic recovery of the 1930s, their willingness and ability to work together and produce superior products with virtually no raw materials and certainly no capital other than German productivity, which was the basis of their re-invented money after we had stolen all their gold and material wealth after World War I. This German spirit of cooperation was also the secret of their ability to defeat the mighty Soviet army on the Eastern Front and American and British and French and Polish armies for so long on the Western Front, until American money and brute force finally wore them out. It was only American money and massive weapons systems, also given at our expense to the Soviets and British, that defeated the Germans. Americans and others love to watch the lone hero go against the gang – in the movies. That’s as far as it goes. The very worst example of this mass brainwashing was the movie HIGH NOON, in which the beloved town marshal is going to be attacked by four killers. He appeals for help from his friends in town, who all abandon him. So he must face the killers by himself and winds up depending on his insulting, Quaker pacifist wife! It’s the opposite of what really happened in western towns, which were pretty peaceful due to everyone packing heat. That’s the way Americans used to deal with organized crime, before living in cities turned their guts to water and their brains to Swiss cheese, before Jewish and Italian and Sicilian and Mexican criminals brought their corrosive ways here. But a lot of it, too, is the result of Hollywood brainwashing. Carl Foreman, who wrote the HIGH NOON screenplay, was a Hollywood Communist and he knew what he was doing, as did all his Red colleagues. The Red writers, actors, producers and directors made war against Germany and Japan a glorious and manly thing when most Americans weren’t going for it. Hollywood, including the great Frank Capra, served the warlords of Washington by glamorizing war, making it fun and telling us “Why We Fight.” Some of the Disney and Warner Bros cartoons were hideously bloodthirsty and genocidal, although Walt Disney himself was extorted by Hollywood Jews to make the horrible cartoons. They shut his studio down for the first seven months of the war, putting all his people out of work, until he agreed to their demands to glamorize the war with some cartoons. The film industry was collectively responsible for millions of people being wiped out. They were serving the Council on Foreign Relations program for general and permanent world war. The War Department, which, in 1947, changed its name to the Defense Department, avidly reads scripts and gives billions of dollars worth of actual weapons systems and military bases and technical advisors to Hollywood for the right kinds of war movies, movies that follow the CFR party line, which is magically known by Hollywood writers and producers sometimes years in advance. How do you suppose that works? It doesn’t take a lot of imagination. The top CFR members in the military work with reliable contacts on studio executive boards. Writers and producers get assignments and millions of dollars borrowed from friendly banks get spent to make the world’s deadliest and most expensive celluloid garbage. The movies all make tons of money and the IRS never gets involved. The Hollywood scam is an important segment of the mind control machine that is directed by CFR members at the Federal Reserve level. I’m not too interested in who is ultimately in charge, as if we don’t get the exactly right one it’s all pointless. My idea is that we just keep going until all the CFRs are gone, and we’ll get enough of the important guys to wreck their plans and their machinery of mass murder. Equally as important in the business of mind control as Hollywood are the religion and education rackets. Hard to say which is most effective device, but they have all worked well in combination. The CFR is above the law because the CFR makes the law. There is absolutely no legal way to beat them, which is why what I’m saying has to be. Once this defensive program starts, the CFRs will of course try to become invisible and avoid the inevitable, but it will be no use. There is just too much knowledge at our disposal now, thanks to the amazing technology of information. Let’s make good use of it before we get our own China syndrome, which the CFR is plotting right now. They call it Internet 2. They will try to shut us down before we shut them down.

Clinton: E-Mailgate Only a matter of “Convenience” I’ve got two people I’d like to bring together on behalf of the voters of the United States of America. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Preet Bharara. Clinton of Chappaqua, New York wants to be President. She has already served as a U.S. Senator and Secretary of State but there is no doubt that for years she has been positioning herself to be president. First time around a little known U.S. Senator named Barak Obama got in her way. These days, even though Clinton still hasn’t officially declared she’s running for president, she seems like a shoo-in to be the next democratic nominee. [click to continue…] Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Okay, so let me get this straight. We need to add the conflict in the Middle East to the list of things our politicians cannot agree upon. Is that right? Our schismatic U.S. Congress – the body that makes the laws we are all bound to live by – can’t agree on what to do about immigration, long overdue tax reform, environmental issues, economic policies, budgetary matters and now they’re also divided on how to treat Israel — our strongest ally in the never ending war of ideologies in the Middle East? Really? [click to continue…] The Justice System Has to be Fair – to Everyone There is a lot of unfairness in the world. The American justice system stands ready to counter that, right? Not so fast. When it comes to men and allegations of paternity women have a decidedly upper hand. Whatever the woman claims in court most often becomes fact. And once a court has ruled on paternity and established child support it can be next to impossible change. Not even if a DNA test excludes the man from any possibility of parenthood. [click to continue…] Need Help? Who Do You Call? Each day across this country lives are saved because a dedicated 911 operator dispatched emergency personnel to help a panicked person. Every year there are some 240 million urgent calls made to this ‘one nation, one number’ system. The value of the 911 organization is beyond question. But how many times have you heard a recording of a 911 call in which the operator seems bored, uninterested or downright rude? The latest incident occurred when a 14- year-old called from the back seat of a car to report her father and his fiancé had been struck by a hit-and-run driver while changing a tire. Sitting alone on the Baltimore-Washington Beltway she and her little brother were scared to death. [click to continue…] Elder Fraud is a Massive Problem ~ These despicable crimes amount to a $36 billion-a-year underground industry ~ Ruth is a retired school teacher living in Indianapolis. She’s led an exciting and rewarding life as a wife and mother. She dedicated a few years to serve as an elementary school teacher in Congo along with her husband. Even today, as a 93- year-old widow, she remains active thanks to a recently acquired walker. Sometime in her early 80’s Ruth began to lose track of whether she had written her regular monthly check to her favorite charity. [click to continue…] This is What the Death Penalty Looks Like If we, as a nation, are going to allow the execution of convicted murderers, rapists and traitors can’t we get our act together about how to take their lives? Back in 2010, European countries began a movement to abolish the death penalty around the world. European pharmaceutical companies began to refuse to sell any anesthetics to the U.S. that could be used to facilitate an execution. And that left our prisons, in the more than 30 states that carry out the death penalty, without easy access to the medications needed to kill the condemned. [click to continue…] State of the Union Speech – January 2015 As a young radio reporter on Capitol Hill I used to be full of anticipation for the annual State of the Union address. Fresh notebook on hand I’d dutifully mark the highlights of the speech and plot out what portions to report to the public. My desk under the Capitol dome was just steps away from the House chamber where the country’s political elite gathered each January to hear the president’s national report card. For a kid from Albuquerque it was always a heady experience. Today, at home, I still take State of the Union notes and count the number of times the crowd breaks into applause. Old habits are hard to break. [click to continue…] Outside the Offices of Charlie Hebdo – 1/7/2015 Who among us was not horrified at the spasm of deadly terrorism that has swept through Paris? Religious extremists — using Islam as justification – caused the deaths of 17 people in three separate instances and plunged the French nation into a state of fright. There are so many layers to this tragedy. A stark reminder that anti-Semitic hatreds still exists following the coldblooded murders of four Jewish customers at a kosher grocery store. An entire religion tainted in the minds of some. And a brazen display of evil as terrorists methodically gunned down twelve staffers at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in broad daylight. [click to continue…]

What First Amednment? Proselytizing and Christians in the US Military By Lee Russ Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 07:38 PM You may be under the impression that our constitution prohibits the government from attempting to convert people to Christianity--you know, that separation of church and state, First Amendment thing. But it doesn't seem to be stopping our military from proselytizing it's ever-more-Christian butt off, or assuming that nonbelievers are, at a minimum, defective in some way. I guess they think it's hard to fight for God & Country if you have the wrong (or no) God.There's been a series of incidents reported in the last couple of years in which members of the military have taken it as their duty to spread their version of the Christian gospel to people serving under them. And having been in the military, I can tell you that there is no more captive audience than a crowd of soldiers being lectured by their superiors. Here are a few--hardly all--of the examples. Case in Point # 1: Mikey Weinstein's detailing of anti-Semitism at the Air Force Academy From a review of Weinstein's book With God on Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military, by Robert C. Koehler of Tribune Media Services: Until I read the newly published “With God on Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military” (St. Martin’s Press), Michael Weinstein’s disturbing account of anti-Semitism at the U.S. Air Force Academy, I shrugged off each of these remarks, and so much more, as isolated, almost comically intolerant noises out of True Believer Land. Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do . . .Case in Point # 2: H.O.P.E. Ministries International allowed to spend two days inside the Pentagon proselytizing to government employees Now my blood runs cold. Weinstein, a 1977 graduate of the Academy and former assistant general counsel in the Reagan administration, and a lifelong Republican, has devoted the last several years of his life to battling what he has come to regard as a fundamentalist takeover of the Academy, turning it, in effect, into a taxpayer-supported Evangelical institution. He charges that the separation of church and state is rapidly vanishing at the school, which routinely promotes sectarian religious events, tolerates the proselytizing of uniquely vulnerable new recruits and, basically, conflates evangelical interests and the national interest. If you think this is just a fight over some abstract principle, with ramifications only for atheist, Jewish, Buddhist and other cadets who may be “offended” by fundamentalist God talk, I urge you to check out Weinstein’s book or website (militaryreligiousfreedom.org). He documents a chilling phenomenon: The whole U.S. military, up and down the chain of command, is coming to be dominated by members of a small, characteristically intolerant sliver of Christianity who truly regard themselves as Christian soldiers, on a God-appointed mission to harvest souls and battle evil. Weinstein, whose family tradition of national service is pretty impressive, does not do battle lightly with those who now run his alma mater. One of his sons is a recent graduate of the Air Force Academy and the other is still a cadet there. His eldest son’s wife, a Christian, was his son’s classmate at the Academy, and Weinstein’s brother-in-law, also a Christian, is a grad as well. And his father graduated from Annapolis. The fact that both sons endured anti-Semitic harassment initially spurred him to take action. But this goes deeper than disrespect for other faiths. The attitude he has encountered in his attempt to hold the institution, and the rest of the military, accountable smacks of a coup: “The Christian Taliban is running the Department of Defense,” he told me. “It inundates everything.” Can you imagine a contingent of religious zealots, with their contempt for secular values (and such manifestations of secular order as the U.S. Constitution) — and with their zest for holy war — in control of the most potent fighting force and weaponry in human history? Is this possible? Well, said Weinstein, consider the 523rd Fighter Squadron, based at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., which calls itself The Crusaders, and whose emblem consists of a sword, four crosses and a medieval knight’s helmet. Check ‘em out at globalsecurity.org, which reports that the payload on the F-16s they fly consists of “a wide variety of conventional, precision guided and nuclear weapons.” From the Baltimore Chronicle: According to documents obtained by the watchdog group the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and made available to Truthout, David Kistler, President of Hickory, North Carolina-based H.O.P.E. Ministries International, embarked on a "DC Crusade" along with dozens of members of the evangelical organization for two weeks that included two days inside the Pentagon proselytizing and preaching the "gospel" to government employees and "saving souls."I can't imagine why the Pentagon didn't want to discuss this at length, can you? Kistler is a somewhat controversial figure whose sermons contain apocalyptic messages and bizarre prophecies. He believes certain Democratic lawmakers will burn in hell while "good Christians," such as President Bush, will be swept up into the heavens. The Rapture will soon vacuum up good Christians, including George W. Bush, to Heaven, he said in a past sermon to his congregation. Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton will not be Raptured up to Heaven. Following The Rapture, the Anti-Christ will appear and children will be "micro-chipped." Col. William Broome, the Pentagon chaplain, and his deputy, Maj. Alan Pomaville, invited Kistler's group to speak to DOD employees at a Pentagon prayer breakfast June 6 and in the Pentagon auditorium June 7, according to a copy of a recent newsletter published by H.O.P.E Ministries. Kistler, according to written statements made to his congregation, spent a considerable amount of his time at the Pentagon proselytizing to DOD employees in violation of federal law. "I am thrilled to report that three souls were saved among those who attended those events," Kistler wrote in the newsletter sent to members of his congregation. Neither a Pentagon spokesman nor a representative for H.O.P.E. ministries returned numerous calls for comment. And who exactly is David Kistler, a man who finds Bush heavenly but Kennedy, Biden, & Clinton hellish? Evangelist Dave Kistler was called to preach at the age of 17. Having grown up in a pastor’s home, and coming to Christ at the age of 5, Evangelist Kistler, as a high school student felt a strong pull toward the legal profession. It was during his junior year in high school, that Brother Kistler gave up a focus toward secular law, and yielded to proclaim God’s law. Upon completion of his undergraduate and graduate training, Evangelist Kistler and his wife Betsy, entered into a two-year youth ministry in Tampa Florida.Case in Point # 3: Pat Tillman and his parents--problem atheists It was during that time that the Lord began working strongly on Dave’s heart, drawing him toward the field of evangelism. Mary Tillman, Pat's mother, testified [before congress] that she was "appalled" by comments from Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, an officer in Tillman's unit, that implied the family was not at peace with Pat's death because they are atheists who believe their son is now "worm dirt."It's actually worse than that. The colonel who was the Exec Officer of Tillman's outfit in Afghanistan actually had all of this to say according to a piece on ESPN (emphasis added): "When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt" Kauzlarich stated in an interview with ESPN. According to the Army officer who directed the first official inquiry, the Army might have more of a clue about the shooter's identity than it has let on. Asked whether ballistics work was done to identify who fired the fatal shots, Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich told ESPN.com, "I think, yeah, they did. And I think they know [who fired]. But I never found out."Case in Point # 4: Air Force rule allowed chaplains to evangelize military personnel who were not affiliated with any faith Mansfield and other Rangers who attended the post-incident meeting said — both in interviews with ESPN.com and in documents from the Army investigations — they were advised by debriefers that night that the unit as a whole bore the responsibility for Tillman's death and they should avoid placing blame on any one person. In his interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich also said he was not driven to identify Tillman's killer. "You know what? I don't think it really matters," Kauzlarich said. "And the reason I say that — you got to look at the overall situation here that these guys were fighting in. And somebody hit him. So would you hold that guy [who] hit him responsible for hitting him, when everybody was shooting in that direction, given the situation? We'll see how the [Defense Department Inspector General's] investigation comes out. But I had no issue on not finding a specific person responsible for doing it." Kauzlarich said he is confident the current probe will not result in criminal charges against the shooter or shooters. He said investigators would not still be examining the incident at all if it were not for Tillman's NFL celebrity — he walked away from a multimillion-dollar contract with the Arizona Cardinals when he enlisted — and the pressure brought to bear by Tillman's family on a number of Washington politicos. "His parents continue to ask for it to be looked at," Kauzlarich said. "And that is really their prerogative. And if they have the right backing, the right powerful people in our government to continue to let it happen, then that is the case. "But there [have] been numerous unfortunate cases of fratricide, and the parents have basically said, 'OK, it was an unfortunate accident.' And they let it go. So this is — I don't know, these people have a hard time letting it go. It may be because of their religious beliefs." In a transcript of his interview with Brig. Gen. Gary Jones during a November 2004 investigation, Kauzlarich said he'd learned Kevin Tillman, Pat's brother and fellow Army Ranger who was a part of the battle the night Pat Tillman died, objected to the presence of a chaplain and the saying of prayers during a repatriation ceremony in Germany before his brother's body was returned to the United States. Kauzlarich, now a battalion commanding officer at Fort Riley in Kansas, further suggested the Tillman family's unhappiness with the findings of past investigations might be because of the absence of a Christian faith in their lives. In an interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich said: "When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more — that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough." Asked by ESPN.com whether the Tillmans' religious beliefs are a factor in the ongoing investigation, Kauzlarich said, "I think so. There is not a whole lot of trust in the system or faith in the system [by the Tillmans]. So that is my personal opinion, knowing what I know." Asked what might finally placate the family, Kauzlarich said, "You know what? I don't think anything will make them happy, quite honestly. I don't know. Maybe they want to see somebody's head on a platter. But will that really make them happy? No, because they can't bring their son back." Kauzlarich, now 40, was the Ranger regiment executive officer in Afghanistan, who played a role in writing the recommendation for Tillman's posthumous Silver Star. And finally, with his fingerprints already all over many of the hot-button issues, including the question of who ordered the platoon to be split as it dragged a disabled Humvee through the mountains, Kauzlarich conducted the first official Army investigation into Tillman's death. The Air Force, facing a lawsuit over alleged proselytizing, has withdrawn a document that permitted chaplains to evangelize military personnel who were not affiliated with any faith, Pentagon officials said yesterday.Case in Point # 5: Three Evangelical Christian Army chaplains at Fort Stewart, Georgia allegedly subjected Rabbi to displays of swastikas and Nazi uniforms The document was circulated at the Air Force Chaplain School until eight weeks ago. It was a "code of ethics" for chaplains that included the statement "I will not proselytize from other religious bodies, but I retain the right to evangelize those who are not affiliated." The code was written by the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces (NCMAF), a private association of religious bodies that provide chaplains to the military. It was never an official directive of the Defense Department, but the fact that it was handed out at the chaplains school at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., "might have given the impression that it was Air Force policy," said Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, a retired Navy chaplain who is a special adviser to the secretary of the Air Force. The Air Force distanced itself from the code of ethics after complaints by Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein, a 1977 Air Force Academy graduate who has accused the academy's current leaders of fostering pressure on cadets to convert to evangelical Christianity. Last week, Weinstein filed suit in federal court in New Mexico, alleging "severe, systemic and pervasive" religious discrimination in the Air Force. Among other evidence, the suit cited a July 12 New York Times article that quoted Brig. Gen. Cecil R. Richardson, the Air Force's deputy chief of chaplains, as saying: "We will not proselytize, but we reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched." Weinstein said yesterday that before filing the lawsuit, he asked senior Air Force officials to explain whether Richardson was speaking for the service. "They say the bad guys we're fighting, the jihadists, represent a theocratic, fascistic movement," Weinstein said. "If the United States Air Force, probably the most technologically lethal organization ever assembled by man, has a policy of evangelizing 'the unchurched,' you tell me how that makes us look." ... Weinstein called the [new] guidelines insufficient, but evangelical Christian groups attacked them as overly restrictive. "Mikey Weinstein might not like it, but it is the job of an evangelical Christian chaplain to evangelize," said Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy for the Colorado-based Focus on the Family. "It's protected by the First Amendment's guarantee of free exercise of religion." [Rabbi Arnold] Resnicoff [retired Navy chaplain who is a special adviser to the secretary of the Air Force] said the "amazing, positive thing that people are missing" about the NCMAF code of ethics is that "even the most evangelical chaplains are agreeing not to try to change the religion of a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu -- anyone who has a religious faith." A former Army chaplain who has been listed as a deserter by the Department of Defense intends to file a civil rights lawsuit against the United States military for refusing to discipline three Evangelical Christian Army chaplains at Fort Stewart, Georgia. The three allegedly subjected Rabbi Jeffrey Goldman to vulgar displays of anti-Semitism in 2001 and 2002. Goldman, 35, a native of Toronto, said the Army listed him as a deserter in retaliation for speaking out about other chaplains' anti-Semitic behavior at Fort Stewart. Goldman contends that he legally resigned from his stint as an Army chaplain in January 2002 when his transfer requests were rebuffed. Mikey Weinstein, head of the watchdog group The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said Goldman approached him last month after reading a story reported by Truthout in which Weinstein exposed a pattern of anti-Semitism displayed in Biblical teachings by chaplains at Fort Leavenworth. Rabbi Goldman's civil rights "were perniciously raped in a literally mind-boggling, intentional manner," Weinstein said in an interview. "The Army retaliated against him for speaking out. The Army refused to lift a finger to address Rabbi Goldman's complaints despite documentary evidence that supports his claims. And now the Army is going to find itself the defendant in a lawsuit our organization will file on behalf of Rabbi Goldman for grossly violating his civil rights." According to documents obtained by Truthout, an investigation by the Army Inspector General into Goldman's claims of anti-Semitism shows that in May 2001, Captain Robert Nay, a Christian chaplain at the Fort Stewart Army base, hung Nazi uniforms and swastikas on the wall of the officers' club at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia, during a May 23, 2001 interfaith prayer breakfast Goldman was ordered to attend. In an interview, Goldman said seeing the Nazi uniforms did not entirely surprise him. A month earlier, Nay had informed Goldman that he thought it would be "funny" if he dressed up soldiers in the Nazi uniforms on Holocaust Memorial Day, a time when the world memorializes the six million Jews who were slaughtered by the Nazis during World War II. When contacted for comment, Nay hung up the telephone. A public affairs official at Fort Stewart would not comment for this story, nor would he disclose his name. Goldman says he complained about Nay's anti-Semitic tirades to his Fort Stewart chaplain supervisor, Major Larry Sharp. In a sworn affidavit, Goldman said Sharp told him that he "needed to get along with people who hate Jews." Moreover, Goldman was then informed by Sharp that he would now be reporting directly to Nay. Goldman said he immediately contacted Rabbi David Lapp, head of the Jewish Chaplains Council in New York, who had sponsored Goldman's chaplain service in the military. Lapp said he was made aware of the Nazi paraphernalia and the episode of anti-Semitism Goldman says he was subjected to, but he dismissed that as "no big deal." "Lots of people collect Nazi material and swastikas," Lapp, now retired, said in an interview from his New Jersey home. "Sure, he told me about it. But that's not the issue here. The issue is he ran away from his commitment when he found out he was going to be sent to Afghanistan in 2001." Goldman disputes that account. He said he was never privy to information regarding "troop movement" and that Lapp's accusation is an attempt to cover up the fact that he "turned a blind eye" to Goldman's numerous complaints of anti-Semitism and his requests for a transfer. "I would have willingly gone to Afghanistan," Goldman said. "I just didn't want to be subjected to anti-Semitism at Fort Stewart. The whole reason I volunteered to become a chaplain is because I was eager to help Jewish kids who chose the military and needed spiritual guidance while being far away from home serving" in the Army. "Rabbi Lapp told me over and over again not to rock the boat in the military and that I should just do what the goyim(gentiles) want and keep four meters away from the people who were anti-Semitic." .... Weinstein said he expected the Army's denials to Goldman's claims, so he demanded that the rabbi take a lie detector test to measure the validity of his allegations of anti-Semitism. The administrator of the test, John McClinton, a forensic polygrapher and former Canadian military intelligence officer, said Goldman scored a "+21" in response to questions about claims of anti-Semitism at Fort Stewart, which McClinton says suggests Goldman is "being more than truthful." What?! An Air Force unit calling itself Crusaders? Those darned Christians have gone too far this time. Oh, wait... The 523rd already had that nickname way back in 1977 when Mikey first joined the Air Force. Whoops. The info on the 523rd is a small blip in a much larger story about a pretty frightening tendency of the military, especially the Air Force, to push Christianity on a captive audience. The fact that the Crusaders name may predate Weinstein's service (accepting for the sake of argument that it does) really doesn't change the underlying problem. Reader Russ is right--it's a much larger story than one or seventy-one of Mikey's out-of-context horror anecdotes. The real story should be the fawning media's eagerness to attack Christianity in all its forms. Read Mikey's litany of complaints against the Air Force Academy filed by the "Americans United for the Separation of Church and State." As I recall from following that story, not a single one of them was confirmed by either the Air Force or Department of Defense. What? You didn't read about that? I'm shocked; SHOCKED! And Mikey's "massive lawsuit" he was gonna file to cause "sucking chest wounds"? Thrown out by the courts. How about the time Mikey read that a retired U. S. Navy Jewish Chaplain was going to assist in looking into military chaplain religious guidelines? Well, Mikey--as I recount with more than a little shame for the former Captain Weinstein--referred to him as "Rabbi Bootlicker." On the other hand, it's a matter of historical fact that the U.S. was founded largely by Episcopalians and that protestantism, especially that denomination, was embraced by the United States military chaplaincy as the "in" faith. Everybody else, though tolerated, was of secondary importance. You can go on just about any military base, visit a chapel, and see that it's so. Now, why is that "constitutional"? Because it existed at the framing of the constitution and thus the framers accepted it without comment. "On the other hand, it's a matter of historical fact that the U.S. was founded largely by Episcopalians and that protestantism, especially that denomination, was embraced by the United States military chaplaincy as the "in" faith...Now, why is that "constitutional"? Because it existed at the framing of the constitution and thus the framers accepted it without comment." So why don't we declare the US a Protestant nation? I'm sure Catholics in the country will love paying taxes to support Protestant churches. James Madison pushed for the First Amendment so that no one sect of any religion could be declared the national religion and receive official government sanction. Thomas Jefferson even more vehemently defended the idea that church and state should be separated. Were our nation's founders dangerous secularist liberals out to destroy Christianity? Hardly. But the bloody history of the Protestant/Catholic wars in Europe and discrimination of Puritans in England was still fresh in their minds; they knew the disastrous consequences of building a religious state. "The real story should be the fawning media's eagerness to attack Christianity in all its forms" I think that demonstrates the nature & value of your views well enough that no other response is needed from me. "I'm sure Catholics in the country will love paying taxes to support Protestant churches." You should ask them. At Mikey's Air Force Academy, that beautiful, seventeen-spired cadet chapel you see is a protestant house of worship. Hindus, Muslims, Jews and Catholics have to go downstairs in the basement if they want to worship there. Another protestant church built in your name is the National Cathedral in Washington. It's an Episcopal church, too.

Jewish World Review March 21, 2014 / 19 Adar II, 5774 The emptiness of the right side of history By Jonah Goldberg http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The right side of history is bunk. In domestic politics, people (mostly liberals) tend to say, "You're on the wrong side of history" about social issues that are breaking their way. It's a handy phrase, loosely translated as, "You're going to lose eventually, so why don't you give up now?" Philosophically, the expression is abhorrent because of its "Marxist twang" (to borrow historian In fairness, I doubt Still, this administration has used the "wrong side of history" phrase more than any I can remember. They particularly like to use it in foreign policy. In his first inaugural, Obama declared, "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." Ever since, whenever things haven't gone his way on the international scene -- i.e., on days that end with a "y" -- he or his spokespeople have wagged their fingers from the right side of history. Lately, Obama and Kerry have been talking a lot about how Russian strongman Vladimir Putin is on the "wrong side of history." Before that, Obama announced that Putin was on the wrong side of history for supporting the Assad regime in Note the difference in usage? In domestic affairs, it's a sign of strength. But in foreign affairs, invoking history as an ally is a sign of weakness. On social issues like, say, gay marriage, it amounts to a kind of impatient bullying that you can afford when time is on your side; "Your defeat is inevitable, so let's hurry it up." But in international affairs, it is an unmistakable sign of weakness. When the president tells Putin that he's on the wrong side of history, the upshot is: "You're winning right now and there's nothing I can (or am willing to) do to change that fact. But you know what? In the future, people will say you were wrong." The phrase is utterly lacking in feck because it outsources the bulk of the punishment to an abstract future rather than the concrete here and now. But the fecklessness goes deeper than that because people like Putin and Assad either completely disagree about what the future holds, or they think they can change the future. And the people who try to bend the future to their benefit tend to be the sorts of people who believe they can. Now, I don't think in the long run things look great for the tyrants and totalitarians either, but that's just a guess. As Yogi Berra said, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." Maybe there is a direction to history. But if there is, it doesn't move in anything like a straight line. It zigs and zags and U-turns all the time. And there's no telling how long any detour will last. In the meantime, people can't eat the future judgment of history. They can't live decent, free lives because history might eventually work out for their grandkids or their great-great-great grandkids. In short, being on the right side of history in the long run counts for little when in the here and now the guy on the wrong side of history has his boot on your neck. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. include "/home/jwreview/public_html/t-ssi/jwr_squaread_300x250.php"; ?> © 2006 TMS

Charles Scaglione Sr. recently has published a self-styled memoir chronicling his adventures in operating Rounds, a reputed NYC gay hustler bar that opened in 1979, and he's telling some secrets and naming some names. In Camelot Lost (RoseDog Books 2009) Scaglione offers a rarely-revealed insider's perspective into the business side of a gay nightlife establishment -- or "store" as it's referred to in the industry -- and as a straight man provides unique cultural insight into the gay scene as it leaves the wild seventies for the AIDS-ravaged eighties. Rounds, often euphemistically referred to by Scaglione as a "cruising bar," was located at 303 East 53rd Street in an upscale midtown area known as "the loop" where johns would seek to hook up with hustlers, and its owners apparently intended from the beginning to capitalize on the neighborhood vibe: "The street is a perfect location for a hustler bar. That is what it shall be." Scaglione, a former executive in the high rise office building industry in Manhattan, had no experience with gay nightlife but his two partners did. One partner was Seymour Seiden, a reputed mob-connected figure who was behind the Sanctuary at 407 West 43rd Street -- perhaps the first modern gay dance club and an alleged mob drug drop -- which was closed by the city in 1972, and the other was Ken Gersberg a/k/a Ken Gaston, a theater producer who had a successful track record with event promotion. The three men each contributed $50,000 although the apparently penniless Gaston needed to borrow his funds from three friends of Scaglione. In light of Seiden's reputation -- he was known as the "Velvet Mafioso" according to Scaglione -- securing a liquor license could be problematic, and apparently his involvement in Rounds was not disclosed to the State Liquor Authority. Seiden told Scaglione: You and Ken have clean records. Because of my relationship with my partners, I can't be on the liquor application, or even suspected of being a partner with you and Ken. There is some prejudice against Italians at the Authority. Italian mobsters as my ex-partners are suspected of undisclosed ownership in our clubs. We will have no problem. You have a Jewish partner. It helps with the bigots at the Authority. Some may hate Jews, but they know we're not mobsters. Ha! In all likelihood Seiden was correct that the SLA would deny a license if his name were on the application. In an article ("Inside the Disco Boom") from the July 21, 1975 issue of The Village Voice, reporters Richard Szathmary and Lucian K. Truscott IV expressly alleged that the Sanctuary was a "mob-run joint which featured pills (ups, downs, hypnotics) sold at the door and behind juice bars." And after authorities shut down the Sanctuary, in 1973 Seiden allegedly opened Hollywood at 128 West 45th Street. The venue was previously known as the gay hustler bar Peppermint Lounge, and subsequently as the circus-like gay disco GG Barnum's. In 1986 reputed Genovese capo Matty Ianniello was convicted for a skimming racket involving several gay bars including the Peppermint Lounge a/k/a Hollywood a/k/a GG Barnums which operated at 128 West 45th Street. Moreover, Seiden was arrested in 1975 for allegedly bribing an undercover police officer to provide him with advance notice of enforcement action concerning a gay bar. Seiden further allegedly may have had a role with reputed Genovese associate Carmine Cardello in the Limelight, a gay bar which operated from 1973 until 1980 at 91 Seventh Avenue South in Sheridan Square, as reported by Henry Post in his December 4, 1978 article ("The Front") for New York Magazine. Seiden's name allegedly surfaced during a mid-1970s investigation dubbed Operation Together which was looking into, among other things, the involvement of the mob in gay bars and several murders of gay club operators including Shelley Bloom who was Seiden's partner in the Sanctuary. Bloom was murdered in March 1972 the night before he was to testify before a federal grand jury investigating a South American cocaine-smuggling network. The grand opening of Rounds in 1979 was a star-studded event according to Scaglione in Camelot Lost, and he alleges that record producer David Geffen, Studio 54 owner Steve Rubel, and fashion designer Calvin Klein were among those in attendance. Other celebrities and glitterati who allegedly patronized Rounds over the years included Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Andy Warhol and Vladimir Horowitz. The opening night did not end well for everyone, however. One patron, a friend of Gaston, was shot dead in his apartment later that evening, and apparently he had picked up some rough trade from the Hay Market, a gay hustler bar at 772 Eighth Avenue in the Times Square area. (The Hay Market was another bar which was part of the skimming operation for which Matty Ianniello was convicted in 1986.) The story does not end well. Ken Gaston died of AIDS in May 1983 -- Shelley Winters delivered his eulogy -- and Seymour Seiden died of AIDS in April 1988. For anyone who doubts whether a straight man can offer a compelling memoir about the gay world, Scaglione offers some of his best writing in recounting the madness as AIDS took his business associates, close friends and Rounds patrons. Indeed, Scaglione writes with remarkable candor about the sexual freedom that generally prevailed during the gay liberation days -- a period which Seiden characterized as Camelot -- until so many were lost to AIDS. Rounds was closed in 1994 following an NYPD raid.

The Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney will visit Israel in the coming weeks to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two first met in 1976 when they both worked for The Boston Consulting Group, and have remained friendly since. Mr Romney is also expected to meet the Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, as well as Israel's President and the leaders of the opposition Labour Party in Jerusalem, and the American ambassador Daniel Shapiro. Foreign visits are often used by presidential nominees to bolster their diplomatic and foreign policy credentials. In Mr Romney's case, commentators have suggested that this is another attempt at convincing Jewish voters who are disillusioned with the Democrats. His fourth visit to the Jewish state may also help cement his as standing among America's Evangelical Christians, a key constituency for the November vote. Historically, the majority of American Jews have supported the Democratic Party. In 2008, Obama gained 78 per cent of the Jewish vote. But the Romney campaign is hoping to capitalise on disappointment with Obama among Jewish voters, particularly over the president's stance on settlement expansion. In the past, Mr Romney has accused Obama of throwing Israel "under the bus", and suggested should he be elected, his policy towards the Jewish state would be to "do the opposite" of Obama.

Gerald Horne says Trump comments seek to disperse the culpability of white nationalists in the murder of Heather Heyer JAISAL NOOR: Welcome to the Real News Network. I’m Jaisal Noor in Baltimore. On Wednesday, Baltimore became the latest city to take down its Confederate monuments after activists said they would take them down if the city did not act. This comes a day after Donald Trump on Tuesday again said both sides were to blame for the clashes in Virginia over the weekend, adding that protestors on the political left violently attacked White Nationalists, rallying against the decision to remove a confederate statue. Here’s a bit of what he said. DONALD TRUMP: Those people, all of those people … Excuse me, I’ve condemned Neo-Nazis, I’ve condemned many different groups, but not all of those people were Neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were White Supremacists by any stretch. Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. JAISAL NOOR: Fallout from that press conference continues to grow. The New York Times is reporting President Trump’s council of corporate leaders is on the verge of disbanding after Trump’s latest comments. Now joining us to discuss this and more is Dr Gerald Horne. Dr Horne holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. He’s the author of many books, most recently The Counter‑Revolution of 1776. Thank you so much for joining us. Give us your reaction to what you just heard from Donald Trump and the news that’s coming out of cities like Baltimore, and as well as the fact that corporate leaders have finally had enough it seems like with Donald Trump. GERALD HORNE: Let us hope that we’re on the verge of a turning point in terms of driving Donald J. Trump out of office. I think it’s important to take a long-term, long time historical point of view in order to analyze how we got to this juncture. That is to say that since its founding in 1776, the United States has been operating on two tracks. One, plundering people of color, particularly enslaved African and Native Americans, and taking their land, and secondly, welcoming European settlers of various tribes. Fortunately, the US Constitution pursuant to the first amendment tried to install freedom of religion and broke with the European pattern of religious sectarianism, principally Protestant versus Catholic. Intermittently, this include those who were Jewish, but what we saw in the past few days, particularly in the march in Charlottesville on Friday involving what could fairly be called vanilla ISIS terrorists, was a determination by the ultra right to signal that they were willing to break with the First Amendment, they were willing to break with historic compromise of the United States in welcoming people of various religious persuasion, and seeking to expel Jewish Americans from the hall of halls of whiteness. This is a very ominous turning point, and given that Jewish Americans were able to push back against antisemitism rather successfully in recent decades, it does not surprise me at all that the New York Times and the mainstream media, and now corporate chief executive officers, are now railing against Mr. Trump. Let us hope that this is just the beginning of the end. JAISAL NOOR: I want to play another part of Trump’s press conference, where he questioned if statues of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington will also need to come down by the logic of those who oppose these confederate monuments. Here’s what he said. DONALD TRUMP: George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So will George Washington now lose his status? Are we going to take down … Excuse me, are we going to take down statues to George Wa … How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You like him? Okay, good. Are we going to take down the statue? Because he was a major slave owner. Now, are we going to take down his statue? You know what, it’s fine. You’re changing history, you’re changing culture. JAISAL NOOR: Gerald, what’s your response? Are we changing history? Are we changing culture by these demands? GERALD HORNE: It reminds me of the sleight of hand that Republican Conservatives used in the 1960s when they were objecting to MediCare, the government extension of medical assistance to those 65 and older. Republican Conservatives argued at the time that this was a slippery slope, that would inevitably lead to a socialist USA. Mr. Trump is engaging in a similar of logic. That is to say, that if statues are removed from places of honor, this means somehow that we’re rewriting history and it also suggests an interpretation of US history that is not widely shared. As far as I know I’m the only historian to this point who has raised questions about the bona fides of Jefferson and Washington as being apostles of liberty and equality. Mr Trump fundamentally is trying to throw dust in the eyes of the US people in order to enact and execute a more diabolical scheme, which is to rationalize white supremacy and keep white supremacy in its preferred place in the U.S. body politic. JAISAL NOOR: To be clear, the white supremacy Trump wants to preserve and these Neo-Nazis white nationalists want to preserve aren’t just on statues. They exist in law, they exist in the criminal justice system today. GERALD HORNE: Absolutely. I think we need to realize and understand that these statues were put in place not necessarily to ennoble and honor those who had given their lives in order to overthrow the United States government to perpetuate slavery forevermore, they were put in that place in order to administer a slap in the face to black people and any other people who would challenge white supremacy. White supremacy, which as your comment suggests, is deeply embedded in the law and customs of the United States of America. Therefor, when these vanilla ISIS terrorists marched on Friday, they were marching not only to preserve a statue to Robert E. Lee, they were also marching to preserve white supremacy. JAISAL NOOR: Trump also blamed both sides for the violence in Charlottesville that resulted in the death of Heather Heyer and left dozens injured. Let’s play that clip. DONALD TRUMP: There was a group on this side, you can call them the left, you’ve just called them the left, that came violently attacking the other group. So you can say what you want but that’s the way it is. REPORTER: You said there was hatred, there was violence– DONALD TRUMP: I do think there’s blame. Yes, I think there’s blame on both sides. You look at both sides, I think there’s blame on both sides. I have no doubt about it and you don’t have any doubt about it either. And if you reported it accurately, you would say. JAISAL NOOR: These comments earned the praise of the likes of David Duke, former KKK leader. They also echo from previous fights, including the civil rights movement. Was these same comments not the same comments used by the right to denigrate civil rights activists at the time? GERALD HORNE: You are correct. Keep in mind that David Duke is not necessarily the kind of fringe figure that some tend to imagine. Recall that in 1991 in a race for governor of Louisiana, he received 55% of the Euro-American vote and would have won but for an amazing and astonishing turnout by the black voters in particular. Keep in mind as well that Mr. Trump is seeking to evade responsibility, that is to say, to help white supremacists evade responsibility for murder or assassination in broad daylight, while being monitored by tape. That is to say that the so-called alt-left, a term that he and Fox News have invented in recent days, that the alt-left did not kill this young women, a member of the white supremacist right killed this young woman. Seeking to disperse culpability and responsibility is a way, once again, to let white supremacists off the hook and make sure that they keep their preferred place, or the place they would prefer, on the front lines of U.S. life. JAISAL NOOR: Professor Horne, the term alt-left has also been used for some time by liberals to condemn those on the left that are calling for universal healthcare or are trying to challenge tenets of the Democratic party, the corporate ownership of the Democratic party as well. That term has been around for a little longer than the few days in which Trump has gotten it front page headlines. Final comments here, do you think that we’re witnessing the … I guess, America coming to term on its original sin, this nation born on genocide and slavery? GERALD HORNE: Well, hopefully it’s coming to terms with the enslavement of people of African descent in particular. It may take a while longer for the people of this country to come to terms with the dispossession of the indigenous population, because that requires a reckoning with regard to land. Secondly, it does not necessarily surprise me that this term, quote, alt-left, unquote, comes from our so-called liberal friends because if you think about it for a nanosecond, much of the rhetorical armor that Mr Trump uses is imported from the left. I’m thinking of the term political correctness, which was often times invoked by some of our liberal friends to beat back anti-racist barrages. I think of the term, quote, identity politics, which somehow applies to Black Lives Matter, but does not apply to the construction of whiteness. I would hope that in reaction and response to what has happened in recent days, that many of our friends on the left, particularly our liberal friends, recognize that they should be careful not to pave the way for the rise of white supremacists like Donald J. Trump and his comrades in arms, like David Duke. JAISAL NOOR: Alright, Gerald Horne, thank you again for joining us. GERALD HORNE: Thank you. JAISAL NOOR: You can watch all of our extensive interviews with Professor Horne at TheRealNews.com. We’ll link to them on the story. Thank you so much for watching.

On the occasion of his exhibit, Double Trouble at P.S. 1, which will be on view till November 20th, Rail’s Consulting Editor Robert Storr and Publisher Phong Bui paid a visit to Ron Gorchov’s studio in Brooklyn one afternoon to discuss with the painter his life and work. Robert Storr: Were you ever a student in the conventional sense, or did you paint on your own, moving into the world through a rather unorthodox path? Ron Gorchov: When I was fourteen I went to Saturday classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was in 1944, and a few service men were coming back from WWII at that time. They were taking art classes with great G.I. Bill benefits that paid for art materials. A veteran named Jered Hoffman gave me a paper bag with all his half-squeezed oil paint tubes and a whole bunch of old brushes and he said that they’d be good luck. Phong Bui: Then you went to college in Mississippi? Gorchov: I didn’t plan my education. My high school grades were terrible—I read a lot but I hated school. Ol’ Miss was the most unlikely place I could go. The deep south was exotic. I did well in my freshman classes. I went fishing with William Faulkner and friends once when I was down there, so that was a highlight. Anyway, while I was there, because of the horrific racial problem (this was 1947), I was mentally not at all able to think about art; instead I spent a lot of time with people who had more advanced ideas that helped me grasp this intense situation. I was surprised to meet a few such people in a motorcycle club who went further on equal rights and took risks. After spending a year in Mississippi, I went back to Chicago–-Roosevelt College and the Art Institute for academics and art classes. Storr: When did you come to New York? Gorchov: We (Joy and my three-month-old son, Michael) landed here in New York with eighty dollars in 1953. We moved immediately into the Marlton Hotel, right across from what was the old Whitney Museum, now the New York Studio School on 8th Street. The next day, there was a listing for lifeguards to test at the 54th Street swimming pool. I went for the test and passed and in less than a week I was working at Coney Island. We found a place near the beach but my paycheck wouldn’t come for almost a month so I sent my family to stay with relatives in Philadelphia for a while until I received a few checks and Joy could get a job. By then I was teaching swimming evenings at the old Summit Hotel across from the Waldorf-Astoria. We moved to a cold-water flat in 12th street between Avenue A and B. It was a small 1st floor with 12 ft ceilings. The room I used for a studio was 64 sq. ft but the high ceiling gave it something extra. I was painting a lot but really I had no idea what I was doing. Bui: Did you have time to see shows in museums and galleries? Gorchov: In the early ’50s we had to time things close with subways to get to jobs and relieve each other with our son. Our neighbors who had five young children helped us a lot with cooking, childcare and understanding. But somehow we had time for everything. We had parties with friends. Took Michael everywhere. Joy had a piano and singing coaches and studied acting. I could see all the shows in one afternoon, after midnight talk to artists in bars, then paint all night and sleep three hours in the morning. It was exciting and we didn’t want to miss out on anything. Storr: Just to fast forward to the present, in a very short order, you had two shows: one last summer at Vito Schnabel’s temporary space, and now one this summer at P.S. 1. In both cases new and old work, and I would guess that this has very much changed the kind of situation that you’re in. Many people knew your work, some who knew it had lost track of it, but many younger people are not familiar with it. I wonder what it’s like to be at the receiving end of this attention: how it has affected your work process and your general sense of yourself in the New York community and beyond. Gorchov: When I was about 10 years old, I was thrilled that in the year 2000 I would be 70 years old. For whatever reason, I didn’t think that that was very old. I loved modernism, and believed that there is progress. I thought the world would be great; there’d be spaceships and everything. I remember when Pop Art led discourse in the ’60s shortly after I had an early success, I said to myself, fine, I don’t want to be a ’60s artist. In the ’70s, I had new work and considered being a ’70s artist, I had support from artists. Two Whitney Biennials and Alanna Heiss at P.S. 1 provided major spaces for “Set” and “Entrance” but no strong interest from any gallerist. Nothing worked well for me in the ’80s. The ’90s passed quickly. I don’t know if many artists have thought about picking their time. But I’d like it to be now. Storr: The general tendency is in fact to date artists’ work to the moment when they become visible on the scene, so they’re locked in that. De Kooning is a ’50s artist, even though he painted for the next 40 years. It goes like that pretty predictably. You’re right. Artists are not allowed to pick their decade. It is picked for them. Gorchov: I had at least a couple of gallery shows in every decade. The best part of that was being able to show artists what I was up to. I’m aware that selling art is hard. When gallerists couldn’t sell my work, the easiest way for me to handle it was to assume that my art had to get better. I wasn’t desperate for more exposure. Bui: So that was the sole reason why you pulled away for two decades? To most artists, that would be considered a professional risk since most have learned slowly to accept their retreat by force, not by choice, and very few share your introspective view of making work without feeling the pressure of meeting all the demands from the art world. Gorchov: I don’t think these things are calculated. One thing that I never feel comfortable with is the so-called mid-career artist. I think it means the work is undervalued. An artist whose work is undervalued must produce the show, and then have a hard time capitalizing for the next show even if there are sales. Storr: By capitalizing you mean having enough money to build structures and pay for materials? Gorchov: Yes. The only time any value was ever created for my work was last year with the adventurous cooperation of Vito and his dad, Julian. They understand that artists probably like to be able to work and also live well. Storr: That’s a good principle that we all agree with . So, you see yourself as a 21st century artist, but you did in fact, more than any other group, have real ties to the generation of the ’50s. For example, I remember once you mentioned having known John Graham, who is a mysterious and emblematic figure because he always remained somewhat outside the art world’s establishment. Did you feel that there was a disadvantage with being associated with older artists, or that there was a particular lesson to be gained? Gorchov: The professor/student relationship has some inherent problems. I wrote John a letter in the summer of 1954, telling him who I was and what I was trying to do, and that I gave up painting the figure after I saw his work. After two months he wrote me back a very polite letter saying, perhaps in cooler weather we’ll see each other. I thought that was cryptic. Then suddenly he showed up two or three weeks later at my studio. Bui: This happened while Graham had his show at the Stable Gallery? Gorchov: No, months later. I actually wrote in care of Stable Gallery. The first time Graham visited my studio (then at E. 70th St) he looked around and said, I like that painting over the piano and I’d like to buy it. As for this painting over here it’s like a child pissing on the street, it’s charming, but absolutely not made by a thinking adult. So his immediate opinion of my work was mixed. We became friends. There was a hard period for him for two years but he called in 1957 and Joy and I saw him almost every day until he left for Paris and finally London in 1959. We corresponded until his death in 1962. Storr: Now you were in the New Talent show at the Whitney in 1959, which means you were making abstract paintings at a time when the tenor of things was changing back towards counter figuration, you were going one way and they were going another. Can you describe the paintings you were making at the time? From what I can tell through reproductions they look like they were quite heavily painted, with rather intense color. Gorchov: They were abstract surrealist paintings. Even though my work was being well received—I was very conscious of not wanting to make that kind of painting and I ended up painting quite a lot of them. I had a couple of shows with that body of work. I felt I had to get my feet wet in the art world. An artist who was gently critical of my work was Carl Andre. He said, my work was retardétaire, which I took seriously enough to go underground. Years later I reminded him that he said my old work was retardétaire, and he said, “I didn’t say that. I said you were a retarded terror! Bui: When I first came to know your work I thought of you as being a part of the generation of painters like Stuart Hitch, Thornton Willis, Peter Pinchbeck and Ralph Humphrey, whose work have significant links to abstract expressionism, but nonetheless came at the tail end of its decline. Yet at the same time, you were all questioning the validity of the New York School’s second or third generation and the rise of Pop Art, in addition to the complex climax of that decade, in which emerged so many directions taken in the art world: Neo Dada, Environments and Happenings, perceptual realism and so on. In your case, how did you manage to stay close to your vision? Gorchov: For one thing, I never wanted to be a second or third generation artist of any kind. Also, I think painting, per se, is an ideal way to criticize the work you already admire because that way you can take the best things in it and try to make your work to be the next consequential step. I mean, to me, that’s a given tradition in creative thought: to build on what you’re seeing that you love and try to bring it to new and unknown terrain. Storr: In that regard, you did two pretty decisive things. One was that you dealt with the structure of the support in a way that nobody had done before. I mean, I can only think of a handful of people who had found similar ways of expanding the conventional structure, but it’s still your territory, and the other thing was this ambidextrous way of painting with the left and right hand as to free the gesture—one is simultaneously informed by the other, therefore this deviation created a very unique tension. Gorchov: I think it began on a walk with Al Held when he was looking for a studio space in 1962. He said that Ronnie Bladen and David Winerib thought that the forms in his work would make more sense if he adapted them to shaped stretchers, and he refused to do it. And Al was right, because for what he was doing, he didn’t need to fuss with all of that carpentry. Held believed the rectangle was the inviolate static and his forms were the variables that he could play with. He called them “dancing angels”. But for me, I was thinking about what Richard Smith was doing with a hyperbolic canvas built out in extreme three-dimension that I saw at the Jewish Museum. The work itself felt somewhere between Minimal and English Pop, but the strong 3D got me thinking that even if you start cutting or building a structure onto a 2D rectangle or a square, it’s still a rectangle or a square—it isn’t a major change. But I thought I could use that idea. Since I didn’t have any woodworking skills, in ’66 I made the first negative curve structure with wire dipped in a plastic liquid. And I realized that when you stretch a saddle shape on a frame it had properties that were unusual: the whole thing got stronger. And it could make less acute corners. I also discovered that, with the new structure, it creates an even tension throughout the whole surface. What I’ve finally learned was the right way to build it was to start with a rectangle, and the curved part has to spring off of it. Therefore, the structure itself becomes an argument to the rectangle, and that interested me. In 1968 I made “Mine” the first complete painting from this line of thought. It disturbed me because the corners were even more acute than a regular rectangle. It had something I liked, but the structure was all wrong. I had to give the structure a form that I would want to draw into. I taught myself to work with wood as I began “Entrance,” “Set” and “Strand” as exercises that had to be large so I could see small errors of form easily. Bui: During that time in the ’70s, there was a strong sentiment of anti-action painterliness, which, for better or worse, was a product of the Greenbergian School of Painting: the surface is more varied, form and field became more soft and lyrical, technique more loose, like the crustily painted surface of Olitzki or stained paintings of Frankenthaler, Morris Louis and a few others. But there came a group of artists, you mentioned Richard Smith, but there’re others like Alan Shields, Richard Tuttle, Sam Gilliam, and Robert Ryman to some extent, who reacted against that doctrinaire formalism, took canvas off the stretcher, draped it around the room, resembled it on the floor, and tacked it directly on the wall. Were you a part of that discourse? Gorchov: We were all thinking about these related conflicts and doing it our own way. Lynda Benglis and I had breakfast and talked every morning from 1968 to 1972 about these questions. Soho was heaven then. It was very local. Few appointments. We just ran into each other. Malcolm Morley had a new exciting idea every week or so and would insist you come to Greene Street and see it. Jake Berthot would call at 2 AM if he was reading a great poem or something unusual was happening in his studio. That’s something I think is missing now. Storr: My sense is that there’s much less conversation among artists about what they’re doing now then when I first came to New York. Partly because there’s less agreement about what the central problems of the moment are; they just don’t have the same common culture that they once did. Gorchov: I mean you can learn from even those who didn’t paint; although they could, like Carl Andre. Storr: Yeah. He said a great thing to a friend of mine. At one point she was talking about how painters were getting beat up once again and he said, ‘Painting’s not bad, it’s just hard.’ which was a wonderful answer. Gorchov: Part of the difficultly in painting is the glut of images. I’ve come to fear images. They are randomly used: in a magazine, on a billboard, or in a film or a video. Vic Muñiz has directly addressed this confusion with his hypnotic photographs. Bui: That’s because pop culture enhances graphic image rather than images that emerge out of plastic form. That’s why I think the structure of your canvas not only increases the objectness of the painting, but it also amplifies the meaning of the image. I feel the image in some cases appeared almost like some kind of marking. They seem to have a strong connection to both John Graham’s paintings of the late 1940s, which were loaded with cuts and puncture wounds as in his land mark cross-eyed woman paintings, and Julian Schnabel’s paintings from the late 1970s particularly two paintings: Acetone, and St. Sebastian. These two artists, one older than you by 44 years, one younger by nearly two decades, you know intimately well. Does that sound adequate? Gorchov: Yes. Graham claimed he was using wounds formally—as punctuation. And that the crossed-eyes were a way of trapping space. As for Julian, he and I share a love for extreme forms, not necessarily tormented forms, but forms that imply expansiveness. When I think of Julian’s treatment of form, I think of Rodin’s monumental Balzac, according to some source, the nearly completed plaster torso didn’t look right to Rodin so he hit it with a sledgehammer, which gave it a new twist and energy. When I first met Julian I was immediately impressed by his energy. He has an admirable passion for work and a gift for overcoming obstacles that thwart most mortals. I’m lucky to have a studio near Julian and next to Ray Smith and St. Clair Cemin. Ray’s understanding of abstraction, his inspiring example of being a fearless art warrior would be a great gift in itself. St. Clair’s interest in chimerical phenomena has affected my dreams. Besides, with all of their impressive ability to produce constantly, I don’t know how they tolerate my way of working, which is painting that comes out of leisure. Bui: You mean you don’t have a puritanical work ethic like most good Americans? Gorchov: I hope not. My paintings are mostly made from reverie, and luck. Storr: Let me go to the gesture side. If you take Graham as an example whose work was hugely important to de Kooning and Gorky, this counters the myth that the gesture is totally spontaneous, because Graham rehearsed all the moves that he made, and so did de Kooning—that’s the Classical tradition. Over your shoulder there is a computer unless people hearing this conversation think that you’re a representative of the old school. I’ve seen you work on a computer as a way of developing an image which is the technological alternative to the old classical method of Graham, Gorky, and de Kooning, so how do you think about the business of pre-meditation, performance, the thing you know which relates to the thing that happens on the surface. Gorchov: The computer helped me at a time when I didn’t have enough space, and materials to do as many forms as I wanted, I could make a lot of shapes and just save them (I was brought up where you create a form after having gone through many trials and errors, and you couldn’t change anything, you can’t get back to where you were. Even stripping the painting changes it a lot.) I don’t use the computer that much; it was a novelty that I enjoyed for a while. Digital images don’t interest me much now. For me, it’s always the alchemy of mixing the paint that gives excitement to painting. Storr: Nearly two years ago when I was in the studio you had made a rather decisive change to go back to the rectangle. Could you talk about that since quite a few of them are included in the show, a change which to some viewers, who are familiar with your shaped canvas, may seem abrupt? Gorchov: I had about five or six curved stretchers left and since I had gotten in the habit of paying all my bills on time, my credit was good. I didn’t want to stress my credit by ordering $10,000 of the stretchers, and I thought, wow, it’s so great that people can just spend a few hundred dollars and they can have a supply of canvases and get to work right away. And some individuals have questioned the fact that my work is built on so much craft, that I could only paint on saddle-shape stretchers. So I was thinking about that, which led to an intuition I had relating to the great Blinky Palermo stripe paintings on aluminum at DIA. In this case two vertical stripes with three spaces in a rectangle. So the first one I did, called “Who’s Afraid Of Barney Newman,” 2003, turned out to be promising. I felt something from it; it was real enough that I was compelled to do more. Remember I called you up, and I asked you, what do you think? And you said, ‘Puzzling. They’re handsome paintings, you can handle paint, but they’re not everything you can do. You should go further with these before you look for a dealer.’ It was good advice. So I pushed it a little bit. I started to make forms, and the forms became disengaged from the stripes, you thought the project was okay, but not to give up painting on the curved form. Storr: Another issue of many of your paintings is that they are now very open, in terms of densities of tones, or where the edges are. Again, in the ’50s, the unfinishedness of paintings was thought of as an ideological proposition, but I remember when we did an interview years ago, you talked about how you faced a problem with finishing a painting, and you would give yourself a time limit, and I wonder if you could talk more about that? Gorchov: I don’t do that crazy stuff any more. But here’s the method I used some years ago when I had many paintings to complete for a show. I put large cards by each painting with a number in magic marker. The numbers were the hours I estimated that painting would take to complete—say, 32. In sessions of painting with no break until I estimated that I had halved the hours left to complete; crossed out the 32—and put 16, 8, 4, 2, etc. after each session. Storr: Well it was a great; crazy idea. But I wanted you to talk about what it is that makes letting go of a painting so hard, or that makes knowing where you are in the process so difficult to ascertain. Gorchov: The biggest problem I had with letting paintings go was the feeling that there was an expense to getting a fresh canvas. And if I could make this painting as good as I could make it and keep going with it, however long it took. It’s not rational; I ruined painting after painting to get to a better one. Then I realized that I couldn’t make a painting incrementally better. If you could make it one percent better, maybe, but who cares? A painting has to evolve. With all respect to Myron Stout, I’m not that kind of an artist. Lately, I’m alone in my studio, after the preliminary marks indicate the limits of the elements, I only get one chance. I test the colors that I want, mix them, get the right brushes. I talk to myself—that form will be eight strokes; this form will be 3 strokes—and paint goes down. The next part is hallucinatory and difficult to explain. A decision will be made about adjustments later. Or it will be renovated. Or it feels perfect and can’t be changed. Storr: Apropos to 21st century thinking, if one of the problems is getting the 21st century, another problem is actually making work in the 21st century. In both cases, it has to do with educating people to what they think about what they see, and to get people really past the point where they read certain kinds of surfaces, colors, or marks as metaphors for expressions of total spontaneity, which is what a painter does, and I would assume part of what’s confronting you is how do you show people how to look at the kind of paintings you make? Gorchov: I don’t know about the art public but I trust artists. Peter Acheson, a painter I met through Phong recently at my show at P.S. 1, had a response that made me happy. He knew a good reason why I was working the way I did. He said, this curved boundary allows you to be free, to paint in any way you like, you don’t have to have a signature paint style. Storr: But there is a kind of way of thinking, which is invested in this in the 1950s, which has been deeply engrained in the culture. That’s what I was trying to address. How do you get people to look, with fresh eyes, rather than eyes keyed to past explanations? Gorchov: I’ve been meeting more young artists now than in the recent past who that are interested in paint as a material. Storr: Do you sense that the time is right for people to look at painting again after quite a lot of attention has gone in other directions? Or is it now just a free-for-all? Gorchov: Even though it was always made for a small audience, I believe that painting will be looked at; it’s lasted 40,000 years, why not another 40,000 years? OK, let’s say it’ll only last another 10,000 years, why should it come to a dead stop? Bui: That’s true. The last time we saw each other we were talking about Gandy Brody, who was very visible in the 1950s but somehow his paintings have fallen out of favor in recent decades. All of the sudden, one of his painting ”Meditation on a Kosher Tag” appeared, along with other terrific paintings by Pollock, De Kooning, Frank Auerbach, Bill Jensen, Louise Fishman and many others in the great Soutine show that Maurice Tuchman and Esti Dunow put together at Cheim & Read this summer. I mean if one were to be critical about the differences between the painterly vs. the painted, then there were choices of certain paintings that didn’t quite fit Soutine’s feverish brushwork. Nonetheless it was a great feast to all of those who paint. Gorchov: Gandy was an eccentric character and a terrific painter. His work is a synthesis of his love for Soutine and Ryder. Storr: I remember in 1989 Elizabeth Murray, Bill Jensen, Brice Marden and I did a panel on Ryder at the American Art Museum in Washington DC when there was a big Ryder show. It was a real panel by painters on a painter, which is very rare by any measure. Bui: How about the brilliant traveling retrospective of Elizabeth Murray last year, and, soon, by late October, a similar event for Brice Marden! So painting is again pretty visible. Gorchov: Yeah. People like good food. People like good music, dance, etc. I think everyone, if they don’t have impediments, can love paintings.

TRAVELLING LEFT IN BOHEMIA By Freda Utley Before the war ended I had attained a position of some responsibility as a “Junior Administrative Assistant” at the War Office earning a salary of £250 a year which rendered life easier for me and mother before my brother came home from the war. Temple, after returning from Mesopotamia on leave following Dada’s death, had been posted to France where he was wounded and gassed at Le Cateau shortly before the Armistice in November 1918. Discharged from hospital early in 1919 he joined us at 68 Jessel House, Judd Street, opposite St. Pancras Station. His experiences and mine since our childhood and early youth had been so different as partially to account for the divergent paths along which our destiny or our characters were to lead us in the years to come. He had escaped my bitter experience at an English boarding school and had enjoyed a year at Cambridge University before enlisting in the army at the beginning of the 1914 war. Subsequently commissioned as an officer and posted to the Connaught Rangers, he had lived under the shadow of death, been wounded twice, and suffered far worse deprivations than I while fighting in the mud and cold of the trenches in France and in the desert heat in Mesopotamia. But his worst periods of danger and discomfort had been interspersed by joy and ease, love and laughter, whereas my life had been drab. Untroubled by our mundane cares he had enjoyed the war in spite of hardship, danger and wounds. Having faced the ultimate test life seemed wonderful to him as to others who have escaped death. As he was to write years later on his hazardous voyage across the Atlantic in a small sailing boat, the most wonderful feeling in the world, bar only the ecstasy of love, is that following escape from danger. In Edmond Spencer‘s words: Sleep after toyle. port after stormie seas, Ease after war, death after life, does greatly please. Now, together, again, after his high key and my low key sufferings, we confronted the difficulties and uncertainties of life in post-war England without money. At the War Office I had become a branch secretary of the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries. Through this trade union I obtained, in 1920, a bursary from the Ministry of Labor made available to war workers who could prove that their college education had been prevented or interrupted by the war. Thus, five years after I left school, and six years after I had passed Cambridge University’s entrance examination, I became a student at London University. Temple, a year previously, had obtained a grant from the Ex-Officers’ Fund to resume his university studies, and I now joined him at King’s College. Neither of us was really unfortunate in having had to wait so long to get a university education. The intervening years since Temple had left Cambridge and I had left Priors Field, had taught us both, through a variety of experiences, lessons rarely learned in the academic world. And because we had both had to wait so long to get our university education, we appreciated our opportunities more than most college students. The Librarian at King’s College told me that Temple and I were continually astonishing him by the variety of our interests. For both of us it was wonderful once again to be able to satisfy our hunger for knowledge, irrespective of whether the books we read would help us to pass examinations. Originally, my bursary of £2 a week covered only two years of study, which did not permit me to enroll for the B.A. degree. So, like Temple, I started work for the Journalism Diploma. Both of us specialized in psychology and attended most of the B.A. Honors lectures in this subject along with our regular journalism courses. Here I might mention a striking illustration of the difference between Temple’s mind and temperament and my own. One night during my first year at King’s College I had got home at 1:00 a.m. from a dance, to be told by Temple that our class would have a psychology test that morning. For an hour he coached me and I did so well that I gave 97% correct answers in our written test and came out top of the class. But Temple, who had enabled me to achieve this success in competition with a lot of Divinity students, got a rating of only 70%. The difference was that the challenge of an examination brought all my faculties to the highest pitch, whereas Temple was stymied by his greater and more profound knowledge of the subject, as also perhaps by lack of the competitive spirit which was highly developed in me. Moreover, he could not write as fast as I could because he had lost the use of one finger of his right hand when wounded in 1917 on the Somme. It is easier to answer questions when one does not know too much, as I have long since realized. Yesterday, I could write articles and books very fast. Today, I take much longer because I have learned enough to need to pause and reflect and ponder what I really think or believe. And, of course, today I no longer possess the exceptional memory of my youth. Encouraged by Temple, who believed I could do anything I set my mind to, and determined that after having at long last got to college I must obtain an Honors degree, I entered for the B.A. Intermediate examination in the Spring of 1921, without having attended the preliminary courses. For a few weeks I mugged up on my Latin and other subjects not included in the Journalism course, and thanks to the good grounding I had acquired at Priors Field, passed this preliminary first year B.A. examination. A feat which so impressed the King’s College authorities that they induced the Department of Labor to extend my scholarship from two to three years, thus enabling me two years later to obtain my B.A. degree in History with First Class Honors. Temple had tried to persuade me to take Honors in Psychology but I was more interested in history, economics and politics. He, having studied history during his pre-war year at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, had become interested in psychology during his years in the Army. But coming to realize that psychology without a knowledge of medicine was of little use, he became a medical student, after obtaining his Diploma in Journalism. Like my father, my brother was always as interested in the sciences as in the humanities and possessed a rare combination of “literary and scientific aptitudes” to quote from a testimonial given him by King’s College recommending him as a “stimulating lecturer alike in history and in elementary science.” Although we profited in other ways from our Journalism courses, neither Temple nor I ever learned how to make easy money by catering to popular tastes. We both had a try at writing stories for magazines but they were always rejected. I remember endeavoring to get a soap opera type of story of a poor girl gets rich boy accepted under the pseudonym of Felicity Fitzmaurice. My failure was no doubt due to my story sounding too much like a parody of popular fiction. Temple with memories of his pre-war years at Cambridge when he had been influenced by the literature of decadence and had been able to indulge his love of beauty and “gracious living,” fine wines and foods and furnishings, wrote stories in a neo-Oscar Wilde or early Waugh vein. His efforts were no more successful than mine for much the same reason since they read like a burlesque of such books as “The Portrait of Dorian Grey” and “Vile Bodies.” One of his stories I remember involved a millionaire aesthete who had his bathroom fixed up with two tubs enabling him to plunge from warm scented water into an icy tub – a procedure supposedly calculated to restore his sexual virility following a drunken orgy the night before. One writes well only when one writes as one pleases, not in conformity with actual or imaginary popular taste. Many years later, reviewers of the book Temple’s widow and I compiled from his log book jottings and letters, written while sailing across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on a small yacht, praised the charm of Temple’s fine writing which showed “the heights to which Utley might have risen had not death taken him.” Since my brother and I were supporting our mother, our bursaries were not sufficient for us to live on. We both gave lessons in English to foreigners, helped by our knowledge of French and German. We only got five shillings an hour and had to travel long distances by tube or bus to earn it in the late afternoon or evening after a day’s work at college. But we were lucky in that our pupils were interesting people with whom we established friendly relations and whom it was a pleasure to teach. Temple had pupils at the Czecho-Slovak Legation – his “Checks” we called them – with whom he was brought in contact by his friend George Silva, translator of Kapeck’s famous play, R.U.R., which gave the word “robot” to the English language. I taught Russian employees of the Soviet Trade Delegation and of Arcos, the equivalent of Amtorg in America. During the war years I had been more concerned with my own and my parents’ struggle for existence than with the class struggle or Socialism, or any idealistic notions of how to establish a more just and rational social and economic order. But once at college I began to take an active part in politics, becoming secretary of the King’s College Socialist Society, and later chairman of the London University Labour Party. I joined the Independent Labor Party and became well acquainted with Fenner Brockway. Jimmy Maxton and other dedicated Socialists who led, or inspired, this Left Wing tail of the official Labor Party and opposed its underlying imperialist concepts. As yet, I had no more knowledge or understanding of Communism and Marxist theory than the “Parlor Bolsheviks” or “Park Avenue Pinks” of the 30’s and 40’s. Nor did my first Russian pupils enlighten me. They were high Communist Party officials out to enjoy life in the “capitalist world” after the rigors of the “Workers Paradise” and for the most part confined their propaganda to jokes about England where they were enjoying the best years of their lives. Then I met Plavnik. an old Bolshevik who had lived long years in exile in Germany after the revolution of 1905. To him Bolshevik theory was the breath of life. He was honest and sincere, although extremely vain. His English lessons usually became my German lessons and instruction in Marxist theory. Boris Plavnik was the best type of “Old Guard” Communist: courageous and sincere and self-sacrificing in contrast to the hypocrites and self-seekers who assumed leadership of the Party following Lenin’s death. He was honest even in analyzing himself, which is a most rare quality. One evening he took me to listen from the gallery to a meeting of Russian Mensheviks in exile in England. The speakers were Abramovitch and Dan, leaders of the Social Democratic minority which had split with the Bolsheviks in 1905. As we listened to the speeches, Plavnik got more and more excited and finally exploded to me: “He is a very bad man.” “Why bad?” I replied. “Of course you disagree with him fundamentally, but that does not prove he is a bad man.” Plavnik kept saying that he knew Abramovitch (or was it Dan?) was bad, bad, and I kept on saying, “How do you know he is a bad man?” Finally Plavnik replied, “Because he does not like me.” All of us are inclined to see evil in those who dislike us, but how few are candid enough to admit it! Although so honest about himself, Plavnik shied away from realities when it came to his beloved Party. Whenever I pushed him into a corner by demonstrating the inconsistencies or contradictions of the “Party Line” he would tell me I had no understanding of dialectics. “Sprechen sie bitte dialektisch”, he would adjure me, looking at me severely down his long nose when I argued that it made no sense to attack and undermine the British Labor Party as “social fascist” while also hoping for a Conservative defeat. Plavnik was the most humane of men, and later on in Moscow where he and his devoted wife remained my friends, he sank more and more into his shell, unable to defend, but unwilling to condemn outright, the atrocities committed by Stalin. Like others among the best of the old Bolsheviks, he could not bring himself to face up to the fact that the revolutionary movement to which he had given his whole life had failed and degenerated into Stalin’s tyranny. As the years passed, we saw less and less of him because meetings were too painful between friends who dared not speak their thoughts to one another. Plavnik was lucky enough to go into an insane asylum just before the great purge began: at least that is where he was supposed to be in 1935, and we knew his mental faculties had been failing since the death of his beloved wife a year or two before. Shortly before my graduation in 1923 I defended the Soviet Union as the college speaker in a debate on Russia with H.N. Brailsford as the guest speaker on my side. Our opponents were Sir Bernard Pares, a “White Russian” emigre who had won high academic honors in England, and Cecil H. Driver, a fellow history student, who in later years became a Professor at Yale. When I next met Pares, thirteen years later, he had become a defender of the USSR, while I, back in England after my disillusionment in Russia, was holding my tongue for my husband’s sake, but hating Stalin’s totalitarian tyranny. The change, it seemed to me was not in us but in Russia. Like some other distinguished exiles Pares patriotism caused him to welcome precisely what I abhorred, namely Stalin’s transmutation of communism into national Socialism; and of the Comintern into the arm of Russian policy. Brailsford, meanwhile, standing steadfastly on his liberal principles, had become one of the all too rare British writers who dared to expose the horrors of Stalin’s Russia in defiance of the powerful ‘Popular Front’ of ‘Totalitarian Liberals’ and Communists which was exerting so great and baneful an influence on Western public opinion and policy. Cecil Driver’s subsequent career exemplifies the academic rewards which accrue to those who never compromise themselves through extra-curricular activity or any expression of “controversial” views. He and I were rivals at King’s College where his conservative bent endeared him to the head of the History Department, Hearnshaw, whereas my radical opinions and activities as Secretary of the King’s College Socialist Society were disfavored. Yet such was the impartiality in academic judgement which has generally distinguished British universities that it was to me, not to Driver, that Professor Hearnshaw awarded the Inglis Research Studentship, after I had won higher honors in London University’s B.A. examination. Three decades later, invited to speak at Yale University by such conservative stalwarts as Professor Willmore Kendall, William F. Buckley and Brent Bozell, I found Cecil Driver securely ensconced as a teacher of Political Science, in good repute in the liberal establishment. Whereas I, despite my more distinguished academic record, had found myself precluded from obtaining a university appointment in America on account of my strongly expressed anti-Communist views which made me too “controversial.” This is a later story referred to here to illustrate the “changes and chances” of life and the ambivalent meaning of “conservative” and “liberal” in our politically rotating world. The Inglis Research Studentship at King’s College paid only £ 50 a year and required that I conduct a weekly seminar on political theory. But it also gave me the opportunity to coach backward undergraduates for payment. A year later I was appointed to a resident research scholarship at Westfield College for Women in Hampstead where I enjoyed the luxury of a bedroom and study of my own. besides free meals and a bursary of £100. Of course, I still had to contribute to Mother’s support, but I earned extra money teaching Workers’ Education Association evening classes, writing occasional book reviews for the Daily Herald, and contributing articles to the Independant Labor Party’s New Leader (which, insofar as I remember, managed to pay only 10/ for an article) but was an influential weekly. Thus, I was enabled to study for London University’s M.A. degree which, unlike that of Oxford and Cambridge, is rated as the equivalent of the American PhD. The subject I chose for my M.A. thesis was research on the “Collegia,” (trade guilds) of the later Roman Empire, thus combining my knowledge of Latin and the interest in ancient history I had acquired in childhood and youth with my modern political interests and activities. During my two years’ work for my M.A. degree I spent long hours in the British Museum deciphering collected Latin inscriptions from tombs, studying the Theodosian Code and Gothofredus’ Commentaries thereon (available in a huge brown leather bound volume requiring a 2 ft. high stand to prop it up to be read) and reading translations from the Greek of the writings of such early Fathers of the Church as St. John Chrysostom in order to glean information on the status and condition of the workers in the last days of the Roman Empire. My Director of Studies, Norman H. Baynes, Professor of Ancient History at University College, was the most inspiring as well as profound scholar I ever knew, and had a delightful sense of humor. At his yearly series of public lectures on the Byzantine Empire you could “have heard a pin drop,” as the saying goes, except when his audience roared with laughter at his funny stories of saints and sinners, emperors and courtesans. hermits and foolish virgins, bishops and monks, and the ‘sports news’ in Constantinople where the chariot races between Reds and Greens at the Hippodrome were followed like American baseball games. The story I remember best, (which may be included in the small volume Baynes later wrote on Byzantium in the Home University series), concerned some beautiful girls in a Black Sea Greek City who mocked a Christian hermit who, being a ‘fool for Christ’s sake,’ was revered by the ignorant but regarded as a lunatic by the sophisticated. As I remember the legend, this otherwise kindly old man had cursed the foolish virgins who teased him, and rendered them all squint-eyed. When implored to lift the curse which marred their beauty he replied that it was better for them that he not do so since had they remained beautiful they would certainly have sinned. Being now ugly, they were sure to be virtuous and go to heaven. Norman Baynes, who died in February, 1961, at the age of 83 after a long illness, combined, in the words of his obituary in the London Times, “scrupulously exact scholarship with the gift of an imagination which he was not afraid to use.” For this reason, “his lectures and writings have meant so much to generations of undergraduates who were enabled by his bold reconstructions to understand something of Jewish, Greco-Roman and Byzantine life.” Because I had specialized in ancient and medieval history – a rare choice since most students took medieval and modern courses – I had attended Norman Baynes lectures and small seminars as an undergraduate before he became my Director of Studies while I worked for my M.A. degree. It is to him I owe the wide horizons of my historical perspective, as also more inspiration, help and encouragement than from any other Professor under whom I studied. Today I deeply regret having failed to get to England to see him once again before his death, following my extensive travels in the Middle East of recent years when I visited Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq; all the lands permanently influenced by Greece and Rome which after they became part of the Arab world preserved much of our classical heritage during Europe’s Dark Ages. And which, after having made so great a contribution to civilization in times past, are once again beginning to play an important role in history after centuries of obscurity under Turkish or Western imperialist domination. My debt to Norman Baynes as an inspired teacher is incalculable. I also owe a great deal to him as a friend. In 1926 after visiting him at his home at Northwood I wrote to Mother, “He was charming, and has made me feel so much happier and less worried. He has taken my thesis to read again in order to help me to put it into final form for publication. He was so nice about everything and so really friendly. Do you know, just because I mentioned earlier on that I had been very occupied with your affairs which were going badly, he said I should remember that if I were in difficulties there was always £50 ready with him for me. Isn’t he extraordinary?” Many years later, after I had escaped from Russia with my two year old son and was nearly destitute in England prior to the success of my book Japan’s Feet of Clay , Norman Baynes again wanted to help me financially. I can no longer remember whether or not my ‘bourgeois prejudices,’ not yet quite dead, prevented me from taking money from him, although I think I must have done so. The big thing was that Norman Baynes, the revered and beloved teacher of my youth, still held me in high regard and with considerable affection, despite my having abandoned the study of history to immerse myself in politics. Although he spent his own life in academic studies, he understood and sympathized with my descent to Avernus in the belief that the Soviet purgatory was Paradise, or at least a way station toward it. In contrast to Norman Baynes, whose profound historical knowledge and perceptive intelligence prevented him from having illusions about Stalin’s dictatorship, Dr. Laistner, Professor of Ancient History at King’s College, was to shock me when I met him again some fifteen years later in America. In the 20’s at King’s College he had been a dyed-in-the-wool conservative who disapproved of my radicalism but, like Professor Hearnshaw, did not let his political views affect his judgement of my academic merits. But in 1941 when I gave a lecture at Cornell University where Laistner had become a professor, he defended the Soviet Union against me. He was, of course, an Englishman and “Uncle Joe” Stalin was by then England’s “gallant ally.” Laistner was a handsome, blond Aryan type of fine physique, but a colorless personality who never married and lived with his mother. Baynes, rugged face, too wide mouth, beetle brows and angular figure was almost ugly, but his dynamic personality, character and intelligence rendered him singularly attractive. Although the perpetual problem of how to get money for Mother still made life difficult for Temple and me, by 1924 we were much better off than when he first came home from the war. We still lived in a small cold-water, three-room-and-kitchen flat at Jessel House. Judd Street, close to St. Pancras Station on the outer edges of Bloomsbury. But we now had a gas fire in the living room and a bathroom with a geyser to heat water, instead of having to light a fire under the “copper” in the little wash house behind the kitchen and transfer the heated water with a scoop into a tin tub in the kitchen which, when covered by a board served as a table. Remembering our poorest years as students in London Temple was to write from Suva in the Fiji Islands shortly before his death in 1935: “I have not to get up on a freezing, foggy London morning and light the copper before I get a bath. I have not to go dashing about all over London to earn 5/- an hour giving English lessons – I am probably a ‘spoilt child of fortune’ as I tell Zarathustra my half-caste Persian kitten, he is. I remember well that I have now got everything material I used to think I wanted when we could get nothing in Jessel House. Nevertheless, it was more fun in the Galapagos with Brun . . . . “ Today, as I sit writing this book in my centrally heated house in Washington, D.C., with the wolf far from my door instead of howling nearby as during many of the years of my youth, I look back on the Spartan years of my life with nostalgia. So true it is that material comforts have little to do with happiness. Many who have always enjoyed them say this without knowing what it means to be without them. But I can claim to speak from experience, having known real poverty in England, and far worse deprivations in Russia than even the most ‘underprivileged’ Americans can imagine. Although I was to experience far greater privation and discomfort in Moscow in the 30’s, the niggardly poverty of our life in London in the 20″s was harder to bear. Not only because it is in youth that one longs most for pleasure, pretty clothes, fun and gaiety, but also because it is far worse to be without money in an affluent society than to share the general poverty of neighbors and friends. Arcadi, my long lost Russian husband, whose gift of humor sweetened our lives and helped me to make light of hardships and discomforts in Russia, used to say how much easier it was to be happy there than in the “capitalist world” where everyone longed for all sorts of unnecessary things. “Look,” he would say with a twinkle in his eye, “in the bourgeois world people are never satisfied, but in Russia one feels fortunate if one manages to get a seat on a streetcar getting to work, or if one’s soup at dinner contains a bit of meat.” All values are relative as Hadow, who once loved me, used to say during our student days. Although I have forgotten his first name, I can still hear his melodious Scotch voice with its rolling r’s pronouncing this favorite aphorism of his, the truth of which has become ever clearer to me during the up and down course of my life. I have no idea what happened to Hadow or whether he is still alive today somewhere in the vast reaches of the declining British Empire which Scotsmen of his quality did so much to create, develop and sustain. But the memory of his healthy ruddy countenance, vivid dark eyes, thick black hair, warm smile and sturdy figure clothed in an ill-fitting reach-me-down suit, revives in my mind’s eye as I distinguish between the dim or well-remembered companions of my youth. He was one of the nicest men I ever knew and he would have cherished me and given me security and his mind was as good or better than mine. But he aroused no spark in me much as I valued his friendship and respected him for his goodness, intelligence and honesty. He was a down-to-earth Scot with his feet firmly planted on the muddy ground of reality who would have held me back from expending much of my life on an abortive quest for justice on earth. Mother was a good cook who managed to provide us with a tasty and satisfying dinner in the evening during the hardest years of our student lives. Dinners which ended with strong cups of coffee, ritually brewed by my brother from beans freshly ground at the corner of our kitchen-dining-room table. Until this welcome end to the day, Temple and I endeavored to stave off our youthful appetites, unsatisfied by the ham or cheese sandwich, which, with a cup of coffee, was all we could usually afford to buy for lunch at the King’s College underground cafeteria, except on the rare occasions when we won a few shillings, sometimes even a pound or two, betting on the horses. Many other students at King’s could be found running out into the Strand between afternoon classes to buy a paper giving the racing results. The attraction of betting is, no doubt, greatest among the poor, and in our case we had been lured into temptation by having been given a tip about Spion Kop who won the Derby in 1920 at odds of 16 to 1. Mother and Temple had dared to stake several pounds on this tip, given us by our once-a-week charwoman whose sister’s husband worked at a famous racing stable, and they enjoyed a long holiday together in Brittany that summer on their big gains. I. too, had won a few pounds and was able to buy some clothes, although unable to accompany them to France since I was then still working at the War Office. We occasionally got another good tip from our charwoman and Temple also worked out a “system” which required that he do complicated calculations based on weights and age and past performance of the horses. By and large I think we won more than we lost by the shilling or half crown bets we usually confined ourselves to. The main thing was that these “flutters” added a little excitement to the daily grind, and sometimes enabled us to enjoy a good dinner with wine at some Soho restaurant. As our economic situation improved we betted less and less and eventually abandoned the futile pursuit of fast horses as a means to make money. Although I had missed out on Spion Kop there were other summers when I enjoyed a vacation abroad. Temple and I knew how to enjoy a cheap holiday on the Continent by travelling “hard”-third class-with bread, wine and cheese to sustain us on the journey, and finding some auberge, or small hostelry in places where no tourists and few foreigners came, and prices were so low that we could afford to pay them. Speaking French fluently, and feeling ourselves carefree if we had a few pounds and a return ticket in our pockets, we went off together or separately to France or Italy on summer vacations returning home when the money was spent. At Camaret in Brittany, during that Spion Kop summer, Temple and Mother and Walter Field had discovered an inn where £2 a week covered the cost of room and board, including lobster or langouste, almost every day. Here, becoming friendly with the daughter of the house, I went fishing with her and her brothers at the dawn of many a happy day, and learned from them the words of Breton songs, still remembered. This fishing was quite different from mackerel drifting in Devonshire where one cast long nets at evening and hauled them in at daybreak. In Brittany the fishermen depended mainly on the langouste (crayfish) they caught off the Cornish shores from large sailing boats which spent weeks or even months away from home. The dawn fishing at Camaret was more of a pastime or only a minor means to earn money. Ground bait was cast around the boat attracting multitudes of fish which we caught with small harpoons. Besides holidays abroad I was lucky to have Marjorie, my Prior’s Field friend, whose story I have already told in the chapter entitled “My English School.” After marrying her fisherman in 1921 she was happy to have me visit her in Sidmouth whenever I could afford to leave London and enjoy the greatest of all pleasures to me: swimming in the sea. Nor was Marjorie my only good friend in Devon. There was also Kathy and her husband Stan Harris. Kathy was an educated girl whose widowed mother had run a boarding house and who had married an illiterate, but far more intelligent fisherman than Marjorie’s Ern whose views reflected those of the newspaper he happened to read that day. Many of my letters preserved through the years by my mother, now helping me to write this book were written to her while, for one reason or another, she was staying with Kathie and Stan Harris at their house on Old Fore Street, Sidmouth, ostensibly as a paying guest or lodger, but receiving the love and care and sympathy which are beyond price. Mother accomplished wonders in decorating our small flat, where her “bedroom'” with its black silk-covered divan and various-hued cushions was also our living room. We kept open house once a week with only beer or cheap Spanish wine and sandwiches with most of our guests sitting on the floor, but with good conversation and great argument lasting far into the night. Temple, after passing his medical examinations at King’s College, started clinical studies at St. George’s Hospital in 1925. One of his best friends was Dr. David Frost, who married my college classmate, Dora, who later became the wife of Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the British Labor Party. I remember Dora as a petite, very pretty girl with flashing dark eyes and beautiful curly black hair, who aroused the protective instincts of all the young men in our circle. although she was tough-minded, had a sharp and witty tongue and was eminently well able to take care of herself. In 1962 Teddy Joll, with whom I had long lost touch, wrote me a letter telling me about various members of the “Utley Circle” in Bloomsbury in the 20’s. and said: “And there is dear little Dora, maybe wife of a future Prime Minister and of an eventual Earl.” To judge from which remark, “steady Teddy” Joll. who became Deputy Registrar General of the United Kingdom before his retirement in I960, and was our neighbor and close friend while he lived with Bobby in Jessel House, still felt protective toward Dora. David Frost, unlike Dora, was the type of sensitive Jew without money and with an inferiority complex, which may have accounted, in part, for his joining the Communist Party years after I had already left it. After his and Dora’s son was born. Temple warned David that he might give the same complexes to their child as those from which he himself suffered. As Temple saw it, Jewish parents were inclined by excess of affection to store up trouble for their children by making them feel themselves to be the center of the universe. Later, confronted with the realities of life, a child thus reared reacts by developing either a superiority or inferiority complex, resulting, in turn, in behavior that alienates friends and creates prejudice. I don’t know what has happened to David and Dora’s son. His parents were divorced long ago and according to what Dora told me when I visited her in London in 1953, David had been such a brute to her that she had left him to marry Hugh Gaitskell. Since God works in mysterious ways one can count it a good thing that, thanks perhaps largely to David’s behavior to her after he became a Communist, Mrs. Hugh Gaitskell became uncompromisingly anti-communist, and no doubt also influenced her husband in that direction. Yet, I remember David with affection as a gentle, intelligent and kind young man. and wonder whether if Dora had been less hard and ambitious, although so feminine in appearance and behavior, he would ever have taken the Moscow road. Because David Frost was one of the most devoted, loyal and helpful friends Temple ever had, I am, no doubt, prejudiced in his favor. There were so many times when David “turned up trumps” when Temple was in trouble that I find it well nigh impossible to believe that he was ever the brutal husband Dora depicted. But I must admit that I never really liked Dora, no doubt because she possessed and exploited to the full all the feminine allure which I lacked. I was no doubt “catty” about her in those distant days, to judge from a letter written to my mother dated 5 July, 1926 in which I refer to “a man called Napier with whom both Robert and Dora have been very friendly but who seems to have fallen in love with me . . . Married of course, still it is quite pleasant and I have annoyed Dora very much.” Showing that I was as inclined to female joy in conquest as most women, I concluded my letter by saying: “I am feeling better about life.” There are several other references to Dora Frost in my letters to Mother which revive my memories of this clever and attractive woman whom I knew so well when we both studied at London University and who was to become the “first lady” of the British Labor Party. Since I am now dropping famous names, I should also mention Elsa Lanchester, another member of the 1917 Club who was a friend of Temple’s and came to our parties. Her “boy friend” in those days was a musician singer and comedian called Harold Scott who never won fame and fortune, but helped launch Elsa Lanchester on her successful career long before her association with Charles Laughton. Elsa then was a girl and Harold in his thirties, or maybe even older since he was one of those small, slight, blond, blue-eyed types who never look their age. Strange that although I never knew him well or liked him much, I can today still vividly remember Harold Scott dressed in grey flannel trousers and a worn tweed jacket, his high forehead surmounted by scanty golden hair and his long, thin nose slightly red at the tip above his full lipped mouth, strumming on the piano and singing a long forgotten song called “Thank God for the Middle Classes,” with the refrain: If His Majesty the King Wants any little thing He sends for the middle classes. One evening at our flat Philip Rabinovitch, chairman of the Russian Trade Delegation in London, “fell for” Elsa Lanchester after she and Harold had delighted us all by their comic skits. Philip Rabinovitch had been a tailor in New York before the Bolshevik revolution, had a fine baritone voice and enjoyed singing, fun and good company. His rendering of “Black Eyes,” and the “Volga Boat Song” (or Vulgar Boot Song as my friend Yaffle, the humorist and cartoonist of the I.L.P. called it) was superb. But he also took joy in singing such silly popular ditties of the time as “When it’s nighttime in Italy, it’s Wednesday over here.” That evening long ago in London he and Elsa Lanchester sang a duet I should otherwise long since have forgotten, in which two derelicts on the Thames embankment tell one another: “The Times, The Telegraph And all the papers says: Money is much cheaper today.” Philip Rabinovitch and his wife Sophie, also a Party member, were to remain my friends until the end of my life in Russia. He became a Vice Commissar of Foreign Trade but was never a party snob. He had a sense of humor, courage and a kind heart, and he owed his rise to a leading position in the Communist hierarchy to his great abilities, which was rare, since the road to preferment for most was paved with the bodies of those they had denounced, slandered, or falsely accused. Whenever in Moscow our housing difficulties were the greatest, Sophie Rabinovitch would invite me and my husband to take a bath in their well-appointed apartment – a tremendous boon in those days. And it was Philip Rabinovitch who secured us a room in the New Moscow Hotel when we were homeless. He respected my husband as one of the best “non-party specialists” working for the Commissariat of Foreign Trade, and there was doubtless an affinity between them since both were former members of the Jewish Social Democratic Bund. It required both social and political courage in the 30’s in Russia for Bolshevik “aristocrats” like Philip and Sophie Rabinovitch to welcome a “non-party specialist” such as my husband to their home. Looking back I realize that they were permanently influenced by the years they had spent in exile in America, where democratic personal behavior comes naturally. When I finally left Russia in April 1936 following my husbands arrest. Philip Rabinovitch was to send his official limousine to take my son and me to the station, a courageous act in those times when even to speak to someone connected to anyone else arrested in the Great Purge was dangerous. I do not know what happened in the end to Philip and Sophie or to their lovely daughter Nuria, whose piquant face, sylph like figure, and lovely smile revealing small perfect teeth which really were like pearls, are etched on my memory. She had been married three times before I left Russia in 1936 which was not unusual among the children of the Communist “aristocracy,” but she had followed her heart and never became a snob like so many others who married for privilege and status. Probably they were eventually liquidated since this was the fate of most of the best of the old Bolsheviks. Today, more than forty years after I first knew them in London, I can still hear Philip singing silly songs at Jessel House, in the days when it was still possible to be both a Bolshevik and a decent human being full of the joy of life.

Israeli archaeologists believe they have discovered an ancient temple in Tel Motza that operated alongside Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. - Israeli archaeologists uncover 3,000-year-old cistern in Jerusalem - Excavations uncover 3,000-year-old palace, believed to be that of King David - Unique Crusader-era monastery seal found in Jerusalem - The history of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem The findings of the excavations, which are being carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority due to the upgrading of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, are likely to change what we know about the days of the Israelite Monarchy and the ritual cult in the Temple on the Temple Mount. The Bible emphasizes the exclusive nature of the Temple in Jerusalem for Jewish ritual during the period of the monarchy. And in fact, archaeologists have had great difficulty finding buildings or objects related to ritual that date back to this period at sites identified as Israelite. Tel Motza, at the entrance to Jerusalem, was excavated during the 1990s and the early 2000s. Today it is clear that the site was an important Iron Age settlement. The excavators propose identifying it with the settlement “Mozah,” which is mentioned in the biblical Book of Joshua. A public building, a storage building and silos were found at the site, among other things. The researchers say that Motza may have been used as a kind of wheat storehouse for Jerusalem, which was run by officials sent from the capital. In the past year, excavations have been conducted in the area in preparation for a change in the route of Highway No. 1, and the construction of a bridge and a tunnel that will shorten the road to Jerusalem. In the excavation, archaeologists Anna Eirikh, Dr. Hamadi Khalaily and Shua Kisilevitz found a large building containing clear elements of ritual use, dated to the 9th century BCE. The massive building has a wide entrance facing east. Eirikh said that this conforms to the tradition of temple construction in the ancient Near East: The rays of the sun rising in the east would have first illuminated the object placed inside the temple, symbolizing the divine presence within. A cache of ritual objects made from pottery found near the building included tiny figurines of men and animals, mainly farm animals. The researchers believe the ritual of figurines was influenced by the Philistine coastal culture in the Land of Israel during that period. An analysis of the animal bones found at the site indicated that they belonged only to kosher animals – cows, goats, sheep and deer – most of them young and with signs of having been cut, which strengthens the theory that they were brought as sacrifices. The sacred vessels and the statuettes are rare finds in the archeological research of the period. Before Motza, such items were found only at Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Lakhish region. The researchers believe that these objects were used for domestic rituals, but finding a bimah (platform from which the Torah is read) or a public temple building is very rare. The only building outside Jerusalem identified with certainty as a temple was excavated by Yohanan Aharoni in Arad in the 1950s. Now the Antiquities Authority is indicating that there was another temple, whose discovery in Motza of all places, near Jerusalem, raises further questions about the status of the central Temple. “We’re talking about a settlement in the very heart of the Kingdom of Judea within walking distance of the Temple, and we’re finding vestiges of a temple and an altar and sacred vessels," an Antiquities Authority official said. "That’s very surprising, and we have nothing to compare it with.” In terms of biblical chronology, the building was apparently in use after the period of David and Solomon and in the time of the kingdom of Judea, and its use may have been discontinued with the ritual reform attributed to the kings Hezekiah and Josiah in the eighth and seventh centuries BCE. The reform banned worship of God outside of Jerusalem. “There has been nothing like it in the archaeology of the Land of Israel until now,” says Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of Hebrew University’s Department of Archaeology, who also visited the site. “It’s not one room; it’s a large complex with lots of animal bones all around. We have to recall that Arad is a two-day walk from Jerusalem. I assume that the population in the Negev needed a site for their ritual cult, but Motza is five kilometers from Jerusalem. Why did they need another temple?” Prof. Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University attributes less importance to the finds. “We have additional evidence of the existence of ritual cult sites in Judea up to the end of the eighth century BCE – in Arad, Be’er Sheva and Lakhish. But we can also learn of it from the biblical text, which is constantly demanding a centralization of the ritual cult. That’s the best testament to the fact that there were other such sites.”

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Responding to mounting signs of a resurgence of aggressive antisemitism in Europe and elsewhere, the British government recently hosted an unusual gathering to discuss ways of fighting the threat. Known as the London Conference on Combating Antisemitism, the mid-February gathering brought together 125 members of parliaments from 40 nations for two days of emotional calls to action, along with scholarly analyses of what speakers called “the new antisemitism.” The conference, staged in Britain’s magisterial Houses of Parliament, succeeded in bringing some needed attention to a genuine crisis. The lawmakers, most of them non-Jews, left London with 35 action proposals in hand, which they vowed to bring back to their respective governments. What most of them apparently didn’t know was that they had walked into the middle of an ongoing debate among Jews over how to define antisemitism and how to explain its causes. The debate pits those who believe that the latest waves of antisemitic attacks are simply the latest mutation of the ancient virus of anti-Jewish hate, versus those who believe the rise in antisemitism is at least partly a product of frustration and rage over the deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian conflict, spilling over into attacks on Israel’s closest allies and kin. That there is a crisis appears indisputable. Antisemitic attacks and threats have been rising in numbers and severity around the globe at an alarming rate for nearly a decade, roughly since the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada in 2000. In just one year, from 2003 to 2004, attacks in Britain jumped by 42%, according to Britain’s Institute for Jewish Policy Research. Moreover, as the visiting lawmakers were told, antisemitism has entered ordinary discourse throughout the West and has reappeared in state-sanctioned form in places like Iran and Venezuela. Just before the conference convened, however, antisemitism took a sudden, quantum leap. The month of January saw a virtual explosion worldwide, coinciding with the start of Israel’s three-week war in Gaza. There were more reported attacks and threats in Britain during the first three weeks of January than in the first six months of 2008. Totals for the rest of Europe are not known, but a catalogue of select incidents in January in 18 countries, compiled by the Anti-Defamation League, shows the severity. Included were nine openly antisemitic assaults on individuals, most of them with guns, knives or bats, and at least 17 fire-bombings or arson attacks on synagogues or kosher stores, plus dozens more cases of synagogue and cemetery vandalism, Nazi-style graffiti, slurs and death threats. “Ess brent — it’s burning,” said the ADL’s national director, Abraham Foxman, echoing a World War II-era Yiddish partisan hymn. “It’s a pandemic — not an epidemic that breaks out somewhere, but a pandemic that’s everywhere,” Foxman told the Forward shortly after returning from London. “We haven’t seen anything like this since 1945.” How to respond is as vexing as the problem itself, and the debate over the place of Israel in the crisis is never far from the surface. The prevailing approach was summed up in a pre-conference paper distributed to attendees at the London gathering, written by Canadian lawmaker and former justice minister Irwin Cotler. “Classical” antisemitism, Cotler wrote, means discrimination or attacks against Jews as members of various societies in which they live. “The new antisemitism,” he explained, “involves the discrimination against the right of the Jewish people to live as an equal member of the family of nations — the denial of, and assault upon, the Jewish people’s right even to live — with Israel as the ‘collective Jew among the nations.’” The alternative view, that Muslim anger directed at Jews is at least partly a product of the Middle East conflict, was not part of the official conference program. Nonetheless, it greeted conferees on February 16, the day after the conference opened, on the pages of the left-wing British daily The Guardian, in the form of an open letter addressed to the conference’s senior British host, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, minister of state for the foreign office. The letter was written by one of Europe’s most respected researchers of antisemitism, Antony Lerman, who was until very recently the head of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. The “obvious policy conclusion,” Lerman wrote, is to “make international efforts to achieve a just Israel-Palestine peace the top priority. This is probably the most constructive policy recommendation the parliamentarians could make.” It was one of several articles Lerman published in recent months on similar themes. Lerman was not invited to the conference, according to a source close to the organizers. The idea of linking global antisemitism to the vagaries of Israeli-Palestinian relations has been all but taboo in Jewish community discourse for years. It is commonly described at best as a covert way of pressuring Israel, and at worst as a form of blaming the victim. But the notion that Israeli actions have the potential to spark antisemitic attacks, and should perhaps be modulated accordingly, is appearing with increasing frequency in some surprising quarters. The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, a Jerusalem think tank created in 2002 by the Jewish Agency for Israel, issues an annual survey of the state of the Jewish community worldwide, which is submitted to Israel’s prime minister each year at a formal meeting. The first report, in 2004, called repeatedly for an institutionalized strategic dialogue between the Israeli government and Diaspora Jewish communities, in order to give Diaspora Jews a chance for input on Israeli decisions that may affect them. Every annual report has repeated the recommendation, including the latest report issued February 22. The recommendation is explicitly intended to let Israel adjust its defense measures in case of possible backlash against Diaspora Jews. This was spelled out in the institute’s second report, in 2005, which cited the deadly bombing of the AMIA Jewish communal center in Buenos Aires in 1994. According to Israeli intelligence estimates, the bombing was a direct retaliation for Israel’s assassination in 1992 of the head of Hezbollah, Sheikh Abbas Mussawi. “It seems that the question of whether the Israeli action might trigger an attack on Jewish people targets was not considered,” the report said. “There exists no formal mechanism in the Israeli government to systematically take into account considerations pertaining to the Jewish people.” The creation of the institute, and the recommendation of strategic dialogue, came directly from the then-chairman of the Jewish Agency, Sallai Meridor, currently Israel’s ambassador in Washington. “I was in the situation room of the Defense Ministry in 1991, when the decision was taken to go after Mussawi,” Meridor told the Forward in a 2005 interview. “I promise you that nobody in the room considered for a moment that it might end in an attack on Jews in Argentina.” “You have to be smart as well as strong,” said Rep. Gary Ackerman, the New York Democrat who chairs the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. “You’re not going to stop attacks against Jews all at once,” said Ackerman, who did not attend the London conference. “You’re not going to stop people looking for excuses.” Still, he said, by making progress toward peace and showing Palestinians that moderation yields results, “you remove the fertile recruiting ground that they have.”

...il brutto. You want a convincing Mexican bandit send for the Jewish guy from Brooklyn, amongst a hell of a lot of other parts Eli Wallach, one of the greatest character actors, played two of the best in two classic films. ...pitch. England were handed the ideal Headingley pitch for them to wrap up the two match series against Sri Lanka, it may have come down to the last over again but they blew it. ...the mark then. Highlight of England's tournament. Figured they'd lose by one goal to Italy, one or two to Uruguay and draw with Costa Rica before flying home before the postcards and Roy's boys didn't disappoin ...term. The deep rooted problems with the England national football team can't be fixed overnight but there a number of small things that can be done straight away to make things somewhat better in the near future. ...takes off from Brazil. Since England's exit from the World Cup after two straight defeats Roy Hodgson has done nothing to justify the F.A. not handing him his P45. ...our misery. After Italy's lacklustre defeat to Costa Rica, England's miserable World Cup is over before the postcards have been bought never mind sent home. ...Cup. After England's second straight 2-1 defeat in the first two group matches does anyone now truly believe England will get out of the first round? Does anyone believe in Roy? ...runs. England finally managed to get some runs on the board in a test match and they still couldn't win a game. Yorkshire runs it was that they wasted. ...it. Italy did what Italy do, that is just enough to win, in beating England 2-1 in their opening World Cup group game but the pundits just turn a blind eye. ...another piece of the childhood gone. Crude, rude, trashy, vulgar from Kevin Turvey to Bottom via The Young Ones, the Comic Strip and The New Statesman that was Rik Mayall's comedy and it made me laugh. ...final warm up game. England's final warm up match before they headed to Brazil was an amalgamation of the previous two outings the bad from the first and good from the second in a game of three halves. ...Hodgson. Much has been made of Roy Hodgson taking noted sports psychologist Dr Steve Peters with the England team to Brazil but maybe it's the manager he needs a look at not the players. ...saw. As England drew 2-2 with Ecuador in the humidity of Miami, did Roy Hodgson see what was glaringly obvious to everyone else watching on? Bring on the kids. ...footballer's style. Apparently Roy Hodgson has told his England players that they have to sing the national anthem when it's played before games and sing it with pride. ...game? Roy thinks it was “good form” England's right-back, Glen Johnson, brought to the Peru game in England's last warm up game at home before the World Cup.

Warsaw (Nov. 14) The plight of the Jewish population in Posen, the province formerly belonging to Germany and now a part of the Polish Republic, was described today by a delegation which called on Wladyslaw Grabski, Polish Prime Minister. The delegation, consisting of representatives of the Jewish Merchants Association in Warsaw, the Union of Jewish Merchants in Posen and the Union of Jewish Communities in Posen, complained bitterly against the terror and attacks carried on by bands organized by the anti-Semitic leader, Sekretarchik, against the expulsion of Jewish children from the Posen government and private schools and against the action of the Polish authorities in that territory, who confiscate Jewish synagogues and cemeteries. In reply, Prime Minister Grabski stated that the Polish Government is considering the situation of the Jewish population in Posen and realizes that the present state of affairs is harmful to the interests of the Polish Republic. He promised to take action in the matter.

Obama Hopes to Enact New Gun-Control Measures in 2013 England Warns America: Don't Let Them Take Your Guns HOLLY NOTE: We've TWO major warnings from allies England and Australia about skyrocketing crime after gun bans are in place. Will Americans quietly submit? Lawmaker: Tweak Constitution to Affirm Gun Rights: Amendments Would Deflect Leftist Plan to Register Firearms Barbara Simpson: Anti-gunners: Please Shut Up! Simpson Blows Holes in Deceptive 'Gun-Control' Logic Senate Committee Report on Benghazi Terrorist Attack Faults State Dept Obama Urges Illinois to Legalize Gay Marriage PC Police Ban 'Illegal' Language Sandy Hook Shooting:Suspect Car Linked to Christopher A Rodia and Drug Family of Norwalk Kitty Werthmann: Distorted Memories of Anschluss Indefinite Military Detention of US Citizens to be Signed into Law By Obama Civil War: Senate to Go for Handguns Feinstein: All Gun Owners Should Be Registered, Fingerprinted States, Cities Mulling Own Assault-Weapon Bans, Amid Doubt Over Federal Action Dueling Data on Gun Crimes Put New Laws in Crossfire Petition Calls for Gun Free Zones Around the President, VP, and their Families 3 Teenage Boys 'Kidnapped Woman, 22, on Christmas, Robbed Her and Raped Her for Hours Even After She Repeatedly Vomited on Them HOLLY COMMENT: A personal firearm would have prevented these unspeakable acts. Three in the Head Pruden: Taking Aim at the Easy Target Guns Gun Control Fact-Sheet DHS Insider Report: Coming This Spring: “Life for the Average American is Going to Change Significantly” 2013: It's Going to Be a Rough Year Hero Remembered: Gulf War Leader Norman "The Bear" Schwarzkopf Dies at 78 Stormin' Norman Passes Away from Pneumonia pics States Slowly Killing Capital Punishment Bad Laws Are the Worst Sort of Tyranny Sharia Threat to America Obama's Vacations Cost Us Millions for Security Obama's Smoky Little Fish Light Bulb Ban on Horizon: Future dims for Survival of Cheap, Reliable Illumination Ex-Feds and Wall Street Execs Are Going into Hiding - Why? FBI Labels Occupiers "Domestic Terrorists" If You Are on This List You May Be in Grave Danger Latest from “DHS Insider” Pt 1, Pt 2 Warning to Gun Grabbers and Collectivist Media: By Calling for Gun Control, You Are Unleashing Your Own Worst Nightmare Raft of Unusual State Laws to Take Effect in 2013 A Failed Congress Is This the Real Reason Behind Sandy Hook? Black Racism Unchained: Exclusive: Jesse Lee Peterson Declares, 'It's Time for Whites to Speak Out' Is Black America Lost? Outrage Over Newspaper Naming, Maping Handgun-Owners The Left's Alinsky Tactics in Gun Debate Grandpa Shoots, Kills Indiana Teen’s Attacker Someday They Will Have All Your Guns Firing an 'Irresistible' Woman Is Not a Victory for Family Values HOLLY COMMENT: The premise of this opinion piece echoed the first thought that popped into my head. It's not a victory for family values. Instead of firing this woman, the dentist should have exhibited some self-control. Glenn Beck: Obama Destined for Prison? And the Biggest Lie of 2012 Is ... Obama, News Media Fingered for Misleading Tales 25 Facts That Mainstream Media Doesn't Really Want to Talk About Right Now Cold War Christmas Messages We Must Not Forget Afterburner: Merchants of Despair Tens of Thousands Sign Petition to Deport Piers Morgan National Gun Ban Advocates Seek to Make Colorado Their Top Priority for 2013 Session Lawmakers Look to Restrict Gun Magazine Capacity Police in Every School Not Practical - There's Another Solution Testimony of Darrell Scott (Father of Columbine Shooting Victim) Before House Judiciary Committee Marine Back in US After Release from Mexico Prison White House Chef Joins the Obamas in Hawaii Could You Pass a US Citizenship Test? Inhofe : Benghazi Will Be Biggest Cover-Up in History Report: Jon Hammar to Be Released from Mexican Prison Today North Korea Arrests U.S. Citizen New York Gov: Gun Confiscation and Forced Buy-back an Option Obama to Grab the Guns Michigan Gov. Vetoes Bill That Would Allow Conceal-Carry in Schools, Churches and Sports Stadiums Stewart Rhodes: My Personal Pledge of Resistance 26 Bells Mark One-Week Anniversary of Newtown Shootings 'I Am the Devil': Former Classmate Reveals School Gunman Had 'Online Devil Worshiping Page' as Childhood Barber Recounts How He Never Spoke and Just Stared at Floors House Passes NDAA 2013 with Indefinite Detention Intact Obama Killing Another Coal Plant Obama Kills Not a Tear Was Shed, Not Even a Fake One It's Time for the Aware to Take Action The Best Bug-Out-Bag Essentials Newtown Teacher Called ‘Superhero’ at Emotional Funeral Piers Morgan: 'Of Course' I'm 'Gleeful Tragedy Happened' Krauthammer: The President Invoking Massacre of Children in Context of Fiscal Talks “Is a Sacrilege” 50 Million Reasons That Make People Think Obama Is Planning Civil War If Obama Is Opposed to Guns, Why Did His Administration Just Purchase 1.6 Billion Rounds of Ammo and Sniper Rounds? Gun Task Force Draws Cool GOP Reception Thousands Join NRA after Connecticut School Shooting Biden Flip Flop from 2008: If Obama ‘Tries to Fool with My Beretta, He’s Got a Problem’ Reality Check: Are Calls for Stricter Gun Laws Really About Guns Good Laws Will Never Abolish All Evil Marine Vet Stands Guard Outside School After Shooting MUST WATCH: Why Isn't Obama Trying to Secure the Release of Marine Reported Sex Assaults rise at US Military Academies Everyday 'Heroes' Recognized for Life-Threatening Rescue Attempts Across US, Canada Women Suing State Troopers Over Roadside Cavity Searches Fiery 40-Car Pileup in New York Kills 1, Injures 33 Benghazi Report Blames 'Systemic Failures' Within State Department HOLLY COMMENT: Conveniently, Secy. of State Hillary Clinton, suffers 'incapacitating concussion' what are the odds? State Department Dismisses John Bolton's 'Diplomatic Illness' Remark About Clinton Hillary’s Benghazi Cover-Up Diplomatic Illness and Travelgate Obama Tasks Biden with US Gun Law Review Cops, Detectives, FBI Agents, U.S. Soldiers Will Not Enforce Gun Confiscation Orders Piers Morgan Calls Pro-Gun Advocate 'Unbelievably Stupid,' 'Dangerous': 'You Shame Your Country' Essential Gun Charts And Facts No Matter Which Side of Firearms Control You Support Exclusive: Fear of Being Committed May Have Caused Connecticut Gunman to Snap Sandy Hook Massacre: Official Story Spins Out of Control Bilderberg Group Member Rumored to be Selected by President Obama as Next Secy of State Gun Sales Surge After Massacre 2 Million Gun Applications in November Alone Heads Up: One of the premiere ammo/firearms retailers, Ammo Man, is so busy they've put up this announcement: Phone lines will NOT be answered today so if you need to place an order, please do so online. We are swamped and will be trying to catch up with all hands. Please e-mail all requests and they will be responded to as soon as possible. Americans Turn in Guns After School Massacre Myth #3: Gun Control Has Reduced the Crime Rates in Other Countries Armed Task Force to Patrol Arkansas Streets Libor Scandal Grows as Fathers of 2 Mass Murderers Were to Testify Feds Look Other Way as Wind Farms Kill Birds -- But Haul Oil and Gas Firms to Court Feds Secretly Free Dangerous Criminals Instead of Deporting Them Sandy Hook Shooting: The Victims' Stories 'I Am Adam Lanza's Mother': A Mom's Perspective on the Mental Illness Conversation in America De-mystifying Mass Murder in America Antidepressant Induced Suicide & Violence Newtown: Two Movies, Two Mass Murders, and Questioning All the Facts. Torrid Political Implications Are at Stake Newtown School Shooting Story Already Being Changed By the Media to Eliminate Eyewitness Reports of a Second Shooter The Day Christmas Died Ind. Man with 47 Guns Arrested After School Threat Progressives Plan March on NRA in DC Monday Liberals Call for Murder of NRA President, Members & Repeal of Second Amendment Senate Democrats Renew Call for Gun Law Debate Sen. Durbin: Newtown Shooting May Lead Congress to Pass Gun Regulation Sen. Feinstein to Introduce Assault Weapons Ban First Day of New Congress Obama Politicizes Vigil in Newtown, Hints at More Gun Control Obama Implied During His Speech in Newtown Conn. "We Have to Give Up Our Freedoms" Stampeding Gun Control Through Crisis Supreme Court Fight Over Gun Rights Looms Pro-gun America Quiet, Contemplative in Wake of Sandy Hook Massacre South Australia Mother Plans Toy Gun 'Buy-Back' after Sandy Hook Shootings in Connecticut Sandy Hook & Batman Shootings Smoking Gun Gun Control is Evil Misspelled Stun Gun Used on 3 Elderly Mennonite Women More Than 2000 Children Are Murdered in the U.S. Every Single Day Ad War Erupts Over Meaning of 'Jihad' in U.S. 'Tea Party' Group Fights for Islamic Causes It Must Rescue Movement from 'Evangelical, Conservative Jewish Bloc' Camping at Home. The Easy Way to Prep Search for Answers Begins as Nation Mourns 26 School Massacre Victims 20-year-old Gunman Opens Fire in K-4 School in Newtown, Conn. Killing 26; His Mother Later Found Dead at Her Home; Gunman Shoots Self at School Outpouring of Sympathy from Around the World in Response to Connecticut School Shooting Concealed Carry: Court Strikes Down Illinois' Ban Could You Survive a Nuclear Meltdown? EPA Going Too Far in Virginia? Unions Prepare for ‘Civil War’ Michigan House Nullifies NDAA U.S. Marine Tortured in Mexico Jail Dennis Miller Slams Obama for Not Being the President of All Americans Proposed CA Law Would Grant Homeless 'Right' to Urinate on Sidewalks Gun Control, People Control and Thought Control Martial Law In NJ 1st Week of February John Moore Drops a Bombshell! Benghazi Explained: Interview with an “Intelligence Insider” (Part III) FEMA Trailers Sit Empty While Storm Victims Battle Cold in Brooklyn Sandy Victims Wait as FEMA Trailers Sit Empty Steven Crowder Speaks Out on Assault at Union Protest in Michigan Homeland Security Increasingly Loaning Drones to Local Police U.S. Air Force Sticking to Plans to Buy 1,763 F-35 Jets I-77 Reopens After Massive Gas Line Explosion in W. Virginia Obama at 'Max Damage Potential' Right Now Boehner Faces Ouster Threats Within GOP Paradise Lost: CA to Provide Free Cell Phones for Homeless California Exodus as Thousands Quit State Hey, Dude, My Pot's Caught in a Catch-22 Why Are Preppers Hated So Much? Florida Failing to Protect Children Navy SEAL Team 6 Member Killed Rescuing Doctor from Afghanistan Obama’s Broken Promises to Sandy Victims Obama's Money Plans Backed By Communists Study: Obama Won Swing States Thanks to Irreligious Voters Nuclear Smuggling Monitors for U.S. Cut Back Administration Moves Forward on Gun Control Obama's America: Tiny Homes for You Give 'Made in the USA' This Christmas American Made Products Directory American Made Gift Ideas American Made Building Products 120+ products from over 33 states China Goes Shopping for U.S. Business Obama Aims to Save Chickens, Limit Humans Louisiana Supreme Court Upholds Seizure of Motorist Cash Los Zetas vs. “Your” Government: The Dreaded Comparison Pearl Harbor Attack Exposed (starts 12:20 min. in) Are Your Neighbors Christmas Crazy? Fatal Attraction: US Flirts with International Speech Codes Bob Costas: Just Another Mindless Gun Control Nut EXCLUSIVE: FEMA Teams Told to 'Sightsee' as Sandy Victims Suffered Driven By Fear: Gun Sales Soaring On Obama Ban Jitters Insider vs Insider: “Stolen Stolen Stolen…” 'Gangnam' Rapper, About to Perform for Pres. Obama, Sang About Killing Americans Rent Hike Threatened for Obama Voters New Panama Canal Could Change Everything for US Imports Vader: Drone-Based System Automatically Spots, Tracks People from 25,000 Feet National Geographic's Doomsday Preppers Survey: How Prepared Are You? Are Preppers Responsible for the Unprepared? “Doomsday Prepper” Raided By Police, FBI After Criticizing Obama Preppers Who Make Surviving the Apocalypse Even Less Fun Senate Unanimously Passes 2013 NDAA; Power to Arrest Americans Remains America More European After 4 Years of Obama Detroit Councilwoman’s Rant: We Voted for You, Obama, Now Give Us Some of That Gov’t ‘Bacon’ Feds Expand Polygraph Screening, Often Seeking Intimate Facts Americans Are Most Spied on People in World History Lesbians "Marry" in West Point Chapel's First Same-Sex Wedding Obama to Pitch Unilateral and Unlimited Debt Ceiling Authority Today No Mubarak-Style Condemnation for Morsi Power Grab from Washington Santorum: UN Disabilities Treaty Troubling 'Everyone in US Under Virtual Surveillance' - NSA Whistleblower Moscow Times Predicts U.S. Collapse HOLLY NOTE This is a retred of a 2008 article Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. Chicago Teachers Union VP Busted Participating in Midwest Marxism Conference Krauthammer: 'Easy to Win Elections When You Give Away Candy That You Borrowed from the Chinese' Report: Fox News Shelves Rove Extreme Holiday Decorations 2012 Benghazi Storytelling: Too Many Answers, Not Enough Truthfulness Benghazi Explained: Behind the Lies U.S. Risks 'Another Benghazi' Under Mexican Rules Barring Agents from Arming U.S. Denies Iran's Reports of Captured Drone US Envoy Tries to Stop UN from Regulating Internet Andrea Shea King Says Internet Threat Has Reached Critical Turning Point It Takes 54 Trees to Make a Merry Marxist Christmas Newly Released Photo Shows Bloodied George Zimmerman from Night of Trayvon Martin Shooting Dirty Harry Is Ramming Gun Control Down our Throats Obama's Dismantling of American Might Has Worldwide Repercussions America Not Dealing with Reality Gay Conversion Therapy Law Temporarily Blocked By Federal Judge Good Bye Cable, It's Been Nice Sandy-ravaged Communities Dealing with Cold and Lack of Housing While FEMA Trailers Sit Idle in PA Disarming America: State Dept Advisory Board Urges Deeper Nuclear Force Cuts Including Unilateral Reductions NBC Uses NFL Murder-Suicide Tragedy to Make Plea for Gun Ban Krauthammer: Robert E. Lee Was Offered Better Terms at Appomattox Than Obama Is Offering Republicans La. Town Evacuates; Police Relocate 6 Million Pounds of Explosives What Will You Do When the Lights Go Out? Doomsday Preppers Are “Socially Selfish Preparing Themselves and the Hell With Everyone Else” Senate Votes Down Indefinite Detention of Americans or Does It? Amendment to Protect Americans from Indefinite Detention Passes Benghazi: Behind the Scenes (Part II) The Way Out of ObamaNation Is the Collapse of Agenda 21 Sandy Victims, in Tears, Beg FEMA for Help as Work Comes to a Standstill Staten Island Sandy Recovery Meeting Gets Heated, Victims Beg FEMA for Help What Happened to 'No Red Tape'? Rand Paul Renews Threat to Filibuster the NDAA Sinister Sites: IRS Headquarters, Maryland Rice Ends Second Day on Hill with Hopes of Nomination Appearing to Dim If Every US State Declared War Against the Others, Which Would Win? The Governing Class and the Decline of America Constructing and Finding Hiding Places Justice, House GOP Lawyers Will Meet to Discuss Fast & Furious Documents Obama vs. House on Guns. Who Will Prevail? The Left Continues to Revise America’s History First Transgender Elected to Office Asked to Resign Over Past Conviction Constitution in Peril BP Suspended from New US Government Contracts Following Gulf Spill Settlement, EPA Says What Environmentalism Really Means Obama to Bypass Congress to Ban Semiautomatic Firearms Black Friday Gun Sales Hit New Record High UN Global Gun Ban Flimflam Poll: 54% Dissatisfied with the Team Obama’s Handling of Benghazi Empty Embrace… Hurricane Sandy Victim Upset After Being Played By Obama Sandy Costs New York $42 Billion: Story reader comment: I saw the damage in Staten Island yesterday, still a lot of work to be done. Houses are blocking roads, many need to be demolished before they break under their own weight. Even those whose houses were not structurally damaged still have no electricity. One Month On: 30,000+ People without Power in New York and New Jersey President-for-Life, King of the World Paving Way for Messiahship Barack Obama: From Beginning to End What We Can Expect in Future Two and a Half Smut Stars Be Careful Who You Sleep With Beyond Collapse: Surviving and Rebuilding Civilization from Scratch Jamie Foxx: 'Our Lord and Savior Barack Obama' Sandy Victim Promised ‘Immediate Help’ by President Obama Still in the Cold Obama Promised: "We Are Here for You" LIPA Customers Who Spent Weeks Without Power Due to Sandy Get Zapped With Normal Electric Bills Confetti at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Contained Police Secrets Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, China Now More Free Than America in Notable Ways Dean Henderson's Picks for Obama’s 2nd Term Cabinet Gun Sales Soar Over Holiday Weekend Massive Number of Coffins Videotaped: What Are They Preparing For? Here’s How it Will be Done Winning the Battlefield of the Future I’m Tired and I Want to Go Home Cal State Long Beach Will Offer Queer Studies Minor Next Fall Presidential Memorandum: National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs Black Friday: Bargains, Brawls and Gunfire Melee! When Black Friday (and Shoppers) Go Bad 4th Straight Year, Obama's Thanksgiving Message Doesn't Thank God Voting for Obama Kept Families Away from Each Other for Thanksgiving Obama Mocks Romney During Thanksgiving Turkey Pardon West: Counting Blessings Despite Election Bruises Feds Want Obama's Internet Instructions Kept Quiet Stop the UN's Takeover of the Internet What's at Stake, What You Can Do US: We Initiate Terrorism to Create Terrorists to Overthrow Governments Over 3,000 Leaks Found in Study of Boston's Natural Gas Pipelines Quiet Rimfire Shooting Without a Suppressor Unskewed Polls’ Founder Sets Up Site Claiming Obama Stole Election Judge Jeanine to Obama: You Either Sent Help or You Didn't. You're Either Telling the Truth or You're Not. Did You Give the Order to Save American Lives? Army, Navy Suicides at Record High Thanksgiving 50 Years Ago California Dreamin': Survey Shows More Drugged Drivers Than Drunken Drivers The Surrealistic States of America Senate Bill Rewrite Lets Feds Read Your E-Mail HOLLY NOTE: You think they haven't been doing this all along? Wal-Mart Draws Battle Line: Fights Union's Black Friday Job Action TSA Unionized Americans Screwed TSA Issues Warning Over Opt Out and Film Week How to Survive Societal Collapse in Suburbia Thanksgiving, Colonists & Early American Law Nearly 100 House Republicans to Obama: Don't Nominate Rice as Secretary of State When Law and Order Break Down: “People Are Afraid Right Now. You Can See It in Their Faces.” Indiana Explosion Now a Homicide Investigation Homeless in New Jersey Stunning Photographs of 3,200-Year-Old Giant Sequoias as High as 20-Story Buildings Iran Moving Sleeper Cells Into America? Congress to Probe WH 'Talking Points' on Benghazi Anonymous Claims They Hacked GOP on Election Day Gun Store: Obama Voters Not Welcome What Seceding from the U.S. Will Cost You We Pray for President Obama HOLLY COMMENT: Not be cause we like him, but we respect the Office and are commanded to pray for our leaders. 1Tim 2:1-3 Obama Admin. Must Account to Congress for Targeted Assassinations Left with Tornado Damage, Ala. Town Blames FEMA Horrors of FEMA Disaster Relief National Heritage Sites and Agenda 21 TVA Installing New Sirens at Nuclear Plants TSA Abuses the USA: The Final Solution Hal Lindsey: Atlas Shrugged Impeach Obama Petition Reaches Threshold for Official Response 22 Signs That Voter Fraud Is Wildly Out of Control and the Election Was a Sham One Good Thing the Reelection of Obama Has Accomplished Hurricane Sandy, Martial Law, and FEMA Camps: Rehearsal for Future America? The Ground We Are Standing on Is Quicksand 3 Myths About Secession Wild Bill: Secession... Dumb Idea. BTW, Signing a Petition on a Govt Site Paints a Target on Your Back GOP Leaders Back West’s Call for Recount 32 Questions That All Americans Must Answer FEMA Shelters in Northeast Resemble Police State Prison Camps CNN Report: Petraeus Knew “Almost Immediately” Terrorists Responsible for Benghazi Attack Tulsa: Muslims Tell Interfaith Dhimmis to Abide By Sharia Ron Paul's Farewell to Congress Thousands of U.S. Military Votes Uncounted or Missing Distraught Homeowners Take Post-Sandy Obama Visit with Grain of Salt Obama Reportedly Signs Classified Cyberwarfare Policy Directive with Troubling Implications The Nuts on Doomsday Preppers Wouldn’t Last a Week Warning of Fault Danger to Reactors Given With Over 100,000 Supporting Texas Secession, Ron Paul Weighs In No Joke: The GOP Can Not Legally Help Stop Vote Fraud Death of Key West Man Linked to Obama's Reelection Top 10 Items to Stockpile for Emergencies Another Building Explodes in Indiana: 3 in Less Than a Week! Insider: CIA Is Purging the U.S. Military in Globalist Coup Busted: Obama’s Fieldworks Office Admits Funneling Money to Defeat Allen West Cracks Found in South Carolina Nuclear Plant Louisiana State Police Confirm a Small, Unmanned Bunker Exploded The Susan Rice Disaster African Al-Qaeda to 'Export' Violence to US Is U.S. Reaching Unsustainable Energy Path? White House ‘Secede’ Petitions Reach 675,000 Signatures, 50-State Participation Anti-secession Forces Fight Back with White House Deportation Petitions Drew Zahn on US States Signing Petitions to Secede (starts 5:11 min. 38:50 min.) AOW Rick Wiles on Allegiance to Obama and His Revolutionary Agenda (starts 4 min. in) AOW Petraeus Will Testify Before Congress on Benghazi Attacks Pelosi to Remain as House Leader What China's Nuclear Missile Subs Mean for the U.S. Colorado SWAT Team Will Be Met By 1500 Member Organized Militia? What Are the Odds Petraeus Would Be Forced to Resign Rather Than Expose the Libyan Scandal? Nullification and Secession - What You Must Know! CBS News Admits FEMA Camps Are Real US Democracy: Have We Passed the Point of No Return? Patriots Declare: We Shall Not Let Vote Fraud Stand! Allen West: 'Unconscionable' Vote Shenanigans Was the 2012 Election Stolen? Here’s How Touchscreens Killed Romney Votes The Big List of Vote Fraud Reports 2012 Presidential Election Popular Vote Made It a Lot Closer Appreciation from an Australian for the US Constitution and Freedom NTSB: No Evidence of Gas-Line Leak in Ind. Home Blast A Nation Adrift Breaking Up with Mainstream Media Petitions Seeking White House Approval to ‘Secede’ Now Come from 47 States Texas Petition Reaches 25,000 Signatures, Triggering WH Review Secession Not a Reality, Despite Petition Efforts Did Civil War Just Become Inevitable? Moving to Canada Drivers Questioned on Guns at Federal Checkpoint Teachers Flock to Northwestern University for 'Marxist Conference' Philip Hoezel's Upside Down Flag Protest Upsets Neighborhood on Veterans Day Marijuana Laws: Growing Outcry in Latin America Over Colorado, Washington Votes Obama Nativity Figurine Popular in Italian Shops America Isn't the Greatest Country Anymore All the President's Scandals: Petraeus and Benghazi: A Time for Truth Election is Over - Be Prepared for the Fall Out Obama Considering John Kerry for Defense Secretary San Diegans Face 6 Years In Prison for Washing Their Car Skype Rats Out Alleged Wikileaks Supporter Without Waiting for Court Warrant 20 States Including Texas Have Filed a Petition to Secede from the United States HOLLY NOTE: Though this article was just written yesterday, it's already behind as other states have since submitted secession petitions. Altogether there are now 20 states disgruntled enough to pursue action. Few like to contemplate the break up of our Country and this may turn out to be 'something' or it may be 'nothing'. "A House divided against itself cannot stand." Pres. Lincoln, 1858 Status of Signed Secession Petitions in 19 States HOLLY NOTE: When looking at the signatures on the White House site, Stan discovered that there is a core group of people signing these petitions for each of the various states making it look worse than it is. But, signatures are growing hourly in number. Texas Judge Says Obama Re-Election Might Trigger Civil War Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. Obama and America's End Did Voter Fraud Swing the Election? CAIR Poll: More Than 85% of American Muslims Picked Obama New Petition to WH: Do Away with Electorial College, Go Back to Popular Vote HOLLY NOTE: Anyone can create or sign a petition. You simply must have an account. US Guns Sales Soar After Obama's Re-Election To Our Veterans --Thank You For Your Service Elmo 'Voice', Embraced by Obama During Election Campaign, Charged With Homosexual Child Molestation Is Obama’s Cybersecurity Executive Order Imminent? Obama Image Replaces Stars on American Flag in Florida Lawmakers Raise Questions on How Petraeus Affair Was Handled Cover-up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue 6,125 Proposed Regulations and Notifications Posted in Last 90 Days Average 68 per Day Explosion Destroys at Least 31 Homes in Indiana, 2 Dead; Cause Unknown Remember This Before The Election: Obama Has Won Already CBS Accidentally Airs Nov 6, 2012 Results 19 Days Before Election FEMA's Wasteful "Disaster Socialism" Terror on the Tarmac as Southwest Jet Carrying 125 Passengers Slides Off Frozen Runway Yes, This Is the Obama Cover for Newsweek’s Post-Election Issue What Happens with Keystone Now that Obama is Back In? Before You Get Too Depressed About Obama Coming Back, Read This After Sandy: A Few Tips 40 Outrageous Facts Most People Don't Know Just Before Hurricane Sandy, Obama Signed E.O. Merging Homeland Security with Private Sector to Create Virtual Dictatorship Read This E.O. America Has Shifted to the Left and the Culture War Is Over Defense Department Can't Put Soldiers, Ballots Together 16 Million Missing White Votes! Where Did They Go? Gun Ban Back on Obama’s Agenda Gun Sales Continue to Rise NRA Skeptical of U.S., U.N. Arms Treaty CIA Head Gen. Petraeus Affair Forces Resignation HOLLY NOTE: Peculiar timing since Obama saw Petraeus as a threat regarding upcoming Benghazi testimony. If a person ever steps sideways, govt will find it, expose it and hold otherwise good people hostage to its will. The Billion Dollar Election: Who Got Paid? Kuhner: Obama’s America Path Is Clear for Socialism’s Triumph Romney "Shellshocked" By Loss Store Owner Explains Decision to "Mourn" Election Outcome Ron Paul: 'We're So Far Gone' ‘Republicans’ Rush to Help Obama Destroy America: Sean Hannity, “I’ve Evolved on Immigration” The First or Last Tytler Election: We're All Greeks and Spaniards Now How to Re-elect a Tyrant: Step-by-Step Instructions for Lovers of Tyranny! 10 Little-Known Consequences of a Second Obama Term School Children Taught About Gay Foreplay, Saran Wrap Eric Holder Under Fire Again Poll: Nearly 1/3 of Americans Would Accept ‘TSA Body Cavity Search’ in Order to Fly America Commits Suicide Sifting Through the Wreckage A Grim 4 Years Lie Ahead Napolitano: 4 More Years to Crush Personal Freedoms Second Term May Deliver Authoritarian We Fear The Lull Before the Social Storm Ron Paul’s Election 2012 Lesson: Obeying the Constitution, No Sure Path to Freedom What Does a Second Obama Term Mean for Gun Owners? U.N. Celebrates Obama Re-election by Pushing Global Gun Control Turn Them Over: Feinstein Moves to Ban ALL Assault Rifles, High Capacity Magazines, and Pistol Grips Anti-Obama Protests Escalate at Miss. University Cal Thomas: 4 More Years of Decline 'Whites-to-Hell’ Pastor to Join Obama HOLLY COMMENT: It's pretty hard to make the case that Obama is NOT broadening the racial divide. One Nation Under Socialism - Jon McNaughton Bringing the Dirty Tricks Back Home An Ancient Evil Awakens 11-6-2012: Hoover Dam False Flag Soon? Obama Already Creating More Jobs... in Pakistan Nuclear Event in USA on Wednesday 10 Dire Consequences of Obama’s Re-Election Victory Report: 2 Ohio Election Judges Removed for Allowing Unregistered Voters to Cast Ballots Washington Legalizes Pot By Wide Margin GMO Foods Labeling Fails in California, But Lifts Awareness ALIPAC to File Official Protests of Illegal Immigrant Voters Detected In Nevada More Illegal Immigrant Voters Documented in Massachusetts Vote Glitch Reports Pile Up in US Election Voters and FBI Put on Alert: Massive Deceptions Documented in Prop. 37 Campaign UN Poll-Watchers 'Amazed' US Doesn't Require ID's to Vote Election 2012: How the Winner Will Destroy America In US Election, He Who Lies Wins Connecting the Dots of the Obama Story: Chicago Backdrop Colorado Legalizes Recreational Marijuana and Industrial Hemp Saudis Helped 'Muslim Side' of Obama's Kenyan Family Go from 'Rags to Riches' Top Dems ‘Engaging’ Groups Tied to Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood Puerto Ricans Weigh in on Future Statehood Divided States of America Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation America No Longer Dreams Winner of US Elections Will Be President of a Divided, Disillusioned Nation Be Afraid America, Very Afraid Vote Fraud Underway - What Candidates Must Do The Fundamental Transformation of America Thousands of Military Ballots ‘Too Late’ Forensic Profiler: Obama Driven by 'Revenge' Key Reasons for a Romney Win on Tuesday Dick Morris: Romney 325, Obama 213 Valerie Jarret: “After We Win This Election, It’s Our Turn. Payback Time.” Did Team Obama Just Show Their True Intent? Black Panthers Return to Patrolling Philly Polling Site Warning! Obama Has Post-Election 'Surprise' If President Gets 2nd Term, He'll Spring These Regulations on America November Surprise: EPA Planning Major Post-Election anti-Coal Regulation Unions Under Fire: Accused of Trying to Force Illegal Immigrants to Vote Will We Sacrifice the Nation? Priebus: America Needs Mitt Romney A Real Leader: Our Nation Can’t Survive 4 More Obama Years Joseph Farah: Vote for Mitt Romney 'America as We Have Known It' Is at Stake How Many Paths Are There to the White House? Is Barack Obama Really A Saudi / Muslim "Plant" in the White House? Romney Casts Himself as Uniter, Obama as Divider Romney Votes as Candidates Hold Final Campaign Rallies Election Day: Most Predictions of the Next 4 Years Will Be Wrong Obama Ordered "Stand Down" Benghazi-Gate: A Disgrace to the Nation Medal of Honor Winner Blasts “Ditherer-in-Chief” Obama Over Benghazigate Piedmont Boy, 3, Gets $2,500 Ticket for Urinating in His Front Yard Will a Prophet Assume Command? 32 Large Newspapers That Endorsed Obama Last Election Now Endorse Romney MINI PIC HOLLY NOTE: Add to these 28 The New York Daily News, Long Island Newsday, Illinois Daily Herald, Los Angeles Press-Telegram Pueblo, Colo GOP: Machines Switched Romney Votes to Obama HOLLY NOTE: During the live interview exposing this story, one election official noted these vote switches were only occurring in swing counties, in swing states and ONLY from Romney to Obama. Of course, it's just a coincidence... Poll Finds Romney Leading Obama in Montana Romney Hits Back at Obama’s ‘Voting Is the Best Revenge’: ‘Vote for Love of Country’ Jon Voight Warns Against Obama Agenda to Destroy America Romney Rallies Wisconsin Obama Campaigns with Celebs as Sandy Devastation Continues Parsing the Polls; If Gallup Is Right, Tuesday Will Be a Long Night for Dems Nonvoters: Too Busy, Fed Up, or Say Their Vote Doesn't Count Paul McGuire: Election Day Who Will Rule Tomorrow? On Election Day You Have the Duty and Responsibility to Vote Was Obama an Indonesian Citizen? Here’s What We Found When We Went There Looking Prepare! On Wed Obama Took First Major Step to Ban All Firearms in the US Henninger: Romney's Secret Voting Bloc Dick Morris Stands by Romney Landslide Prediction Troubles Await Next US Admin. What Went Wrong in Libya Mother of Seal: 'I Believe Obama Murdered My Son' Liberal Media, WH Owes Preppers, Survivalists Massive Apology in Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy Lessons from the Ultimate Safe Houses China to Take Over a U.S. Airbase in Azores Mitt: I Can Bring America Together. I Believe in America. Obama Flip-Flops on 'One-Term Proposition,' Says Fixing Economy Takes More Than 4 Years Sandy Power Outages Could Last 10 More Days; New Storm Coming? Utility Workers Pelted With Eggs After Bridgeport, Conn. Mayor Blasts Provider As Blackouts Linger, Northeasterners Try to Adjust SHOCK: 72 Hours After Grid-Down: Starvation, Supply Shortages, Food Lines, No Clean Water, No Gas, Transportation Standstill ‘We Need Food, We Need Clothing’: Staten Island Residents Plead for Help 3 Days After Sandy New Jersey Town Turns Away Alabama Volunteer Utility Workers Because They're Nonunion Seaside Heights and Nearby Towns Under Martial Law in NJ In Areas Hit By Sandy, Lawmakers Ask U.S. to Pay the Whole Cost FEMA to the Rescue After Sandy But Will Agency Need Saving Too? HOLLY NOTE: This is the BEST example of why you should prepare yourself and your family. Depending on government for supplies or our personal needs and safety, chills my blood. Those who personally prepare are best served. East Coast Fuel Shortages Wave Took Out 5 of 6 Critical Pumps That Cool Reactor at NJ’s Salem Nuke Plant Still Operating on Emergency Cooling Military Trucks to Serve as Election Day Polling Places WH Insider “Governor Romney Is Gonna Win This Thing” Ruger Blows Away Expectations: Gun Sales Surge Ahead of Presidential Election 10 Lessons for Armed Citizens from the Aurora Theater Mass Murder Abandoning America’s Honor Obama and Biden Indicted by Grand Jury HOLLY NOTE: But will it have any 'teeth'? Conservatism Is Calling October Surprise - Hurricane Sandy Wins Election and Aftermath Obama Issues Executive Order Merging Federal and Corporate Effort in War on Terror Tempers Flare: Residents Complain Government Is Too Slow Distributing Food and Supplies After Sandy, a Desperate Search for Power Millions Cope With No Power from Superstorm Sandy Why Election Day Won't Be Postponed More Electronic Voting Machines Changing Romney Votes to Obama SMOKING GUN? Cable Warned Consulate Staff Felt Like Sitting Ducks Benghazi Reveals Obama-Islamist Alliance Libyan Attack Was Botched Kidnapping Attempt Ordered By Obama Obama Just Does Not Like People Very Much $43 Trillion Lawsuit Awaits Obama White House and Banks Uninstalling Obama 1.0...94% Complete 2013: The Death of Free Speech Andrew P. Napolitano: Reflections on the Loss of Liberty Oklahoma Prepares for Open Carry Gun Law Pipeline to Be Built in Seismically Active Area, 1 Mile of Nuclear Plant Joel Skousen on Hurricane Sandy and the New World Order (starts 7:15 min. in 45 min. long) Behold the Illuminati MSNBC Trashes Romney for Collecting Food, Supplies for Sandy Victims Could Sandy Postpone the Election? McCain: Obama Might Be Conducting ‘Massive Cover-Up’ With Libya Attack "Mr. President THEY KNOW" Beck: Obama May Go to Prison and Be Impeached Killing Our Own Libyan Leaks: Secret Document Reveals Al-Qaeda ‘Brother’ Put in Control of U.S. Embassy in Tripoli Presidential Polls for Ohio: Romney 50%, Obama 48% Individual Preparedness, Not Big Government ‘Management,’ Would Have Helped Most FEMA Funds May Dry Up with Looming Budget Cuts Confused Whom to Vote For? Take This Fun Quiz to See Who Most Matches Your Views Despite Mainstream Media's Attempts to Silence It, 2016: Obama's America Is the #4 Best-Selling DVD The Ground War Federal Court Approves Use of Hidden Surveillance Cameras on Private Property Without Warrants Voting "YES on 2" Means Getting the Gold Standard for Gun Rights in Louisiana Hurricane Sandy Drowns Coverage of White House Scandals Obama Uses Storm for Campaign White House, FEMA Send Storm Victims to Internet for Help HOLLY COMMENT: This is exactly why you can only depend on yourself in times of disaster and not FEMA or the government. Oliver Stone's New Book Rips Obama What Will Be Sandy's Effect on Economy? Commander GEN Carter Ham Relieved of Duty for Wanting to Help Our Ambassador to Libya Pentagon Denies Firing Why Was Chris Stevens Allowed to Die? OPED Media Slammed for Not Challenging Obama on Coverage of Libya Attack NEW VOW Obama Signs New Executive Order Expanding Homeland Security Mission in the U.S. White House Hiding Dead Gulf Wildlife in Garbage Bags Just When Was Obama Born? Detailed Look at Obama’s Radical College Past... and We’re Not Talking About Barack EMP-warning Pioneer in Bitter Fight 'Transnational Gang' Merges with Drug Cartel Illinois County Lands $100 Million Federal Waiver Why You Can't Trust Government OPED The 'Lord of the Flies' Administration Obama Personifies Cloward-Piven Strategy Obama’s October Surprise - Exposed by Benghazi? Rush Military Caller Says That Obama Ordered NO RESPONSE to Benghazi Attack Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer: My Sources Tell Me Obama Was in the Room Watching Benghazi Attack ‘He (Obama) Ordered the Stand Down. The CIA Is a Family & They Are Pissed Off. They Followed Orders.’ Father of Slain Benghazi SEAL to Obama: “It’s Better to Die a Hero Than Live a Coward” Father of Former SEAL Killed in Libya Wants the Truth Operation Bengazi Accountablity-1 Million Calls Monday Oct 29 A Great Tsunami Is Headed Our Way Benghazi, Libya Biopsy from a Malignant, Failed Presidency Obama Admin's 'Loose Lips' Under Investigation Ohio Governor Predicts Romney Win There Gov. Kasich: Romney Will Take Ohio Democrat: Why I'm Voting for Romney Obama Has Disdain for Everyone, Not Just Romney OBAMA IS FINISHED! Leftist ‘Main’stream Media Goes All-In for Mitt Romney 12 Reasons to Vote for Obama Army to Assign Reserve Units to NORTHCOM, Other Regional Commands Damning: Emails Reveal WH Told of Militant Claim 2 Hours After Benghazi, Libya Attack CBS Obama Avoids Question on Libya Requests for Help HOLLY COMMENT: Is this the man you want for YOUR Commander-in-Chief? Think long and hard... CIA Operators Were Denied Requests For Help During Attack on Consulate McCain: Pentagon Was Not Prepared Petraeus Throws Obama Under the Bus Blockbuster Report Contradicts Panetta's Claim of 'No Real-Time Intel' During Libya Attack Dad of Ex-SEAL: Those Who Denied Request for Help 'Murderers of My Son' Biden Joke about Dead SEAL Goes Below the Belt: Asks Hero's Dad: 'Did Your Son Always Have Balls the Size of Cue Balls?' President Calls Romney a 'Bullsh**ter' HOLLY COMMENT: Really nice talk... Obama has got to be the least presidential president Romney Stands By Concerns About Shrinking Navy Fleet, After 'Bayonets' Zinger Presidential Election Preview 2: Where They Stand and Why It Matters Last Chance Election Primer Absentee Ballots Sent to U.S. Military Serving in Afghanistan 'Destroyed in Crash' Groups Use Fake Letters, Felony Threats to Suppress Republican Vote How Hurricane Sandy Could Affect the Election Mexican Point of View of Obama's Presidency "We've Heard It All Before" If Not 'Apologizing,' Mr. President, What Would You Call It? Feds: 'Cannibal' Cop Plotted to Eat 100 Alleged Nanny Killing, ‘Cannibal Cop’ Present a New York Gone Mad The SAME Unaccountable Government Agency Which Spies on ALL Americans Also Decides Who Gets ASSASSINATED by Drones Globalists Plan for Civil Unrest if Obama Loses Gets Leaked What's the Other Obama Saying These Days? National Guard Whistleblower: “Doomsday Preppers Will Be Treated as Terrorists” Ted Turner Apologizes for Saying It’s “Good” U.S. Soldiers Are Committing Suicide Letter from a Brother in Christ: I Can't Talk About ... Trading Liberty for Cybersecurity US Control of Canyon Not So 'Grand'? Beck: How Obama Used Ambassador Stevens to Funnel Arms to Libya and Syria Obama Void of Vision Video Snags Dem Boss Plotting Vote Fraud The Liar President Pray for an End to 'the Obama Tribulation' America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U. S. President Texas Farmers Face Off Against Keystone Pipeline Biden: Who Am I? Why Am I Here? How to Change the World State Department Emails from Day of Libya Attack Show Al Qaeda-Tied Group on Radar N. Carolina County Voters Say Ballot Cast for Romney Came Up Obama on Machine Disturbing: CBS Declares Obama Winner of Election 2 Weeks in Advance Colorado Finds 300 More Suspected Noncitizens on Voter Rolls Fake Voter Registration Letters Raise Alarm in Florida with Early Voting Set to Begin Underestimating Nation's Voter Fraud Vulnerability What States Do Obama, Romney Need to Win? Dominion Investigates Shutdown of North Anna Nuclear Reactor Romney Accuses President of 'Weakness' Abroad, as Obama Calls Rival 'All Over the Map' Rasmussen: Uh-Oh for 'O': Daily Presidential Tracking Poll Ditto Gallup: Romney 51%, Obama 46% “Voter Fraud is a Felony” Billboards Removed Amid Outcry From Critics Krauthammer on Obama's 'Unequivocal' Loss: 'Romney Went Large' Image of Romney Crops Up in Iowa Farm Field U.S. Congress Introduces Bill Ordering FEMA to Conduct 'Mass Fatality Planning' Romney Passed the Test 10 Urgent Preparations for Possible Riots after the Presidential Election Military Forces Chaplains to Perform Gay Marriage Report: Islamist Radicals Find Warm Welcome in Obama White House Obama Receives Endorsements from 3 Dictators 358 U.S. Generals and Admirals Support Mitt Romney Trevor Loudon: An Urgent Message for America 1 Donald Trump Claims Barack Obama Bombshell 3 Top 5 Reasons Not to Re-elect Obama 2 Should Barack Obama Resign Tonight? Obama's Class Warfare: Don't Get Fooled Again OPED UN Deploying Teams to Monitor U.S. Election WH Denies US, Iran Agreed to 1-on-1 Talks PM ‘Knows Nothing’ of Iran-US Talks Agreement Guess Where U.S. Troops Go Next Super Storms of Consciousness - Seductive Winds of Armageddon Latest Ammo Purchase Reeks of Collusion and Chicago Style Politics Banned for Life: Armstrong Stripped of All 7 Tour Titles Obama on Libya Terror Attack: 'Not Optimal' Voter Fraud Fears in Swing State Ohio Romney, Obama Roast Each Other, Themselves at Annuall Al Smith Dinner HOLLY NOTE: Regardless of candidate preference, this is the best laughs we'd enjoyed in a while. Prepare yourself, they were cordial and funny. Clinton: I Thought Obama 'Was Going to Cry' Andrew Wilkow: Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin and Dr. John Parnell Andrew Wilkow: Slide Towards Socialism DoD: Population Control Part of US “Stability Operations” CIA Seeks to Expand Drone Fleet How Obama & Friends Helped 'Advance' the Middle East Obama Needs to Pack His Bags? Just 3.4% of U.S. Adults Identify as LGBT yet they dictate many PC policies Gallup Shows Disparity Increasing Romney 52%, Obama 45% Sen. Inhofe Warns of Unfettered EPA in Second Obama Term Obama Prosecuting Whistle-Blowers as Spies To More and More Women, Romney Is the Safer Choice The Second Debate Obama-Biden: Playing the Liar Card Who Is Responsible for the Mess in Libya? Unconstitutional? Chicago Official Proposes Bullet Tax to Curb Crime Russia Drops Bombshell on U.S. Nuclear Safeguard Plan and Few Notice Feds Say Trust Us Wwith Your DNA In Rematch, Obama and Romney Get Testy Over Jobs, Energy, Immigration Debate Fact Check: Romney, Obama Make Stumbles in Round 2 'Moderator' CNN’s Crowley First Plays Umpire, Then Joins Team Obama Crowley Gives Obama 9% More Time What I Heard at the Debate OPED Israeli Views of Obama Increasingly Unfavorable State Department Paints Obama and Biden as Liars, Uninformed or BOTH Military Insider: Ambassador Rice Just Confirmed Obama White House Lie The Muslim Agent Who Pulls Obama’s Strings Nationwide Guns Ban Coming to America? HOLLY NOTE: Remember the experiences of these Aussies people who feel they've been severely wronged with gun confiscation when Obama comes for your weapons. Their govt sold them a bill of goods and see their freedoms stolen. Utah Spy Center Uses Terror Tactics to Keep the Public Away Surveillance State: From Inside Secret FBI Terrorist Screening Room to TrapWire Training “Sir, You Must Come with Us” Mobile Record (the videographer spends the first 6 minutes presenting his credentials. To get to the meat of this vid, skip to 6:15 min. in) Build a DIY Rocket Stove Pressure on Obama as Romney Gains Momentum Poll: Romney Near Landslide In Rural Swing Counties In Swing States: Women Push Romney into Lead Obama Supporters Threaten to Kill Romney If He Wins Election How Will Romney Handle Benghazi Attack at Debate? Documents: Despite Obama’s 2008 Claims, Political Relationship With Rev. Wright Began as Early as 1987 Obama's Family Funding Sharia Stan's Take on Atlas Shrugged Part 2 Tea Party Versus Agenda 21: Saving the U.S. or Just Irking It? Clinton Falls on Sword in Benghazi Scandal: 'I Take Responsibility', But ... Behind the Benghazi Cover-up Black Mob Picks on 'the Wrong Guy' Your Right to Resell Your Own Stuff Is in Peril Seller, Beware: Feds Cracking Down on Garage Sales Webster Parish Sheriff Office Confirms Bunker Explosion at Camp Minden Voter Fraud: The Way to America's Destruction Another Obama Executive Order Allows Seizure of Americans’ Bank Accounts 'Atlas Shrugged: Part II' Kept from Mainstream Movie Critics, But Public Interest Remains High HOLLY NOTE: Stan and I saw this the day it opened. It was even better than Part 1. It's hard to remember an instance when a movie actually made me angry, but this one managed in spades. Without giving away the plot, gas prices hit $42/gallon, which forces most people to travel by train. An Executive Order, Directive 10-289 is issued, which freezes all pay, no company can hire or fire, and all patents, all intellectual property must be signed over to the government. Ditto for copyrights. Government tyranny skyrockets and it pressures businesses to implement its new "fair share" law". Sound familiar? There are many parallels we see playing out right before our eyes in America. You can read the particulars here. It would be astonishing to think that this novel was first publish in 1957, but considering Ayn Rand was Philip Rothschild's mistress, she certainly had an inside track to the New World Order's agenda. Go see this movie if want a glimpse of your possible future. WOW!… Ohio Coal Miners to Obama: Quit Lying About Us! Pants on Fire: Obama Scrambles for Cover as Benghazi Lie Explodes Social Justice is a Proven Failure... and So Is Obama Obama's Communist Party Endorsement Age of Obama: Post-Apocalyptic Shows Rule Television Western Defense Budget Cuts May Be Unstoppable EPA's Secret Document Something in the Air Shocking: 'You Should’ve Served US Better and Died!’ Debt Collector Berates Disabled Veteran Biden's Demeanor During Debate Called Disrespectful Devastating RNC Ad Captures Biden Laughing at the Issues Sparks Fly as Biden, Ryan Face Off in Feisty VP Debate Fact Check: Top 10 Worst Lies by Joe Biden in VP Debate Biden Loses It The Reality Principle: Obama and Biden Were Winning Until They Faced Actual Opponents Biden Makes Liars Out of Administration's Own State Department The Obamage Is Done Will the Election Results Cause Massive Riots to Erupt All Over America? The Big Bird Counterattack Romney Surge Rocks UK Betting Market When War Games Become War, Really Bill Maher: “We Need to Promote Death” John Moore Shares a Secret VP Debate Grows in Importance Media to Declare Biden the Debate Winner Quinnipiac/CBS News/NY Times Poll: Romney Edges Obama in Colo, Narrows Gap in Wisc NBC/WSJ/Marist Poll: Romney Gains in Key Swing States Obama Camp Helps You Vote Twice! Obama Fans: We'll Riot, Leave U.S. If Mitt Wins 'I Want to Shoot Romney in the Penis. Why Do We Let Him Talk?' DEYO COMMENTARY: Remember all the Hollywood luminaries Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, Barbra Streisand, Stephen Baldwin, Eddie Vedder, Robert Altman posturing and espousing to leave if Bush won? Yet instead of following through with empty threats they choose to suck up the rewards of living in the world's richest Nation. Gee, if only these weak Americans kept their word... GBR: Obama Lied to America 2012 Laundry List of Obama Lies Sen. Levin: It Was Obama Who Required NDAA Obama's Lucky Charms: A Hindu God in His Pocket, a Masonic Emblem, and a Ring That Says "There Is No God Except Allah" World's Richest Gets Richer Thanks to 'Obamaphones' Michelle Hints at Political Future Beyond Barack Government Dependency Will End in Chaos Elections Should Belong to the People US Security Chief in Libya: "State Department Told Us Don't Continue to Ask for Help" Larry the Flagman Will Americans Submit to TSA Cavity Searches? Legislators Slam Advertising Group for Advising Members to Avoid Do Not Track Tech More Proof Martial Law Is About to be Enacted Black Mob ‘Knockout Games’ Now Spreading Obama's Ring: 'There Is No God But Allah' Bombshell: Obama.com Owned by Bundler in Shanghai with Business Ties to Chinese Govt Foreign Funds: Obama Campaign Under Fire for Possible Overseas Donations The Obamas’ Wahhabist Fundraising Empire: Obama’s First Cousin Spills the Beans (on video) Cavuto: Big Bird Isn't the Problem Let This Be a Warning America: When the Riots Start, Government’s Response Will Be Brutal Supreme Court to Weigh In Again on Affirmative Action New O’Keefe Video: Obama Campaign Staffer Caught Helping Activist Vote Twice 'Sexiest Woman' Turns Ugly: Mila Kunis Slams Christians, Republicans The Communist Takeover of America - 45 Declared Goals New Zealander Trevor Loudon Explains Communist Infiltration in the US IMPORTANT HOLLY NOTE: Every American, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or party preference should watch this video. If non-Americans can see what's happening to our Country, why can't we? VOW Dying Woman Humiliated at Sea-Tac Airport by Security Search High Stakes Ryan-Biden Bout Could Seal Deal for Romney Gallup: Mitt's Debate Win The Biggest in History Pew Poll: Romney Up 4 Points for Biggest-Ever Lead Electoral College Model Predicts Romney Will Win Even Bigger Than Previously Thought in 2012 HOLLY NOTE: The university referenced in this article is Colorado State Univ, set in the notoriously liberal town of Boulder. If they could, they would lean left, but their predictive models have been 100% accurate for presidential election results since 1980 and show a staggering Romney win. The Mitt Romney You Don't Know Romney Surges Among Women Voters Post-Debate Romney's Presidential Foreign Policy Speech Full Debate: Bill O'Reilly vs. Jon Stewart full episode (this will get pulled down quickly, just like 2016 did) HOLLY NOTE: When a video is likely to be removed within a few hours generally due to copyright issues and for ones that you want to keep forever, look into a YouTube downloader. You can generally get this software for free. Some will be on trial basis only and then they expect you to buy them later. However, for vids that have fleeting availability, this is invaluable software. To find one that works for you, enter into your search engine "free YouTube downloader". Make sure you designate for Mac or Windows. Most are very simple to use. This lets you store on your computer a video for later viewing. Since we have numerous terrific Videos of the Day today, in addition to the Videos of the Week, we will leave Vids of the Day up thru Wed. But if you're smart, you'll install a YouTube downloader on your computer. Amid Foreign Contributions Scandal, Obama Campaign Claims It Tries to Stop Illegal Donations Barack Obama, The Misoverestimated President To: Americans Everywhere For America’s Survival An Open Letter to Secretary Napolitano High Times: 3 States to Vote on Recreational Pot Use DHS Embraces Small Spy Drones, Slated to Begin New Testing Program at Fort Sill, Okla. Kid Rock Talks Politics - "Sorry Obama Didn't Do a Better Job" The Buying of Obama’s America Obamanites in Panic: Romney Signs in VA Defaced, Stolen, Smeared with Feces Goldman Sachs Turns Back on Obama, and Supports Romney Collapse & Evolution VOW (starts 39:25 min.in) Sandusky Sentenced to 30 to 60 Years in Child Sex Abuses Obama's Executive Orders More and More Dispensing with Congress Report: Foreign Fundraising Scandal Rocks Obama Campaign Have Americans Finally Tired of the Obama Narrative? Gallup: 5-Point Romney Bounce Twitter Explodes After Black Actress Endorses Romney as the ‘Only Choice for Your Future’ Romney: 'Hope Is Not a Strategy' for America's Foreign Policy Obama Ramps Up Attacks on Character After Debate Multiple Twitter Users Threaten to Assassinate Mitt Romney: ‘Shoot Him Dead’ Letterman Suggests Romney Didn't Pay Taxes, Calls Him a 'Felon' Russia Capable of Neutralizing US Missile Defense Threat Spooks in the Machine Speak Up Private Guns Eyed Amid Military Suicides Police Warn Fans: 'Enter Detroit at Your Own Risk' Undeniable, American Civil War, It Is in the Cards FEMA Bill HR6566: Ordering National Preparation for Mass Death, Video Curtis Bowers, Writer, Producer, Director, Star of Doco "Agenda: Grinding America Down" VOW Columbus, Brave and Bright OPED Canada Highlights War of 1812, with US as Villain FEMA to Mobilize for “Mass Fatality Planning” Military Police Used for Crowd Control in South Carolina Don’t Be Fooled, That Debate Was a Big Deal Revolt of the Spooks On the Cannibals AARP to Obama: Keep Us Out of It Swing State Polls Are Rigged Obama's Mask Slips Time to Fight NRA Endorses Romney as ‘Only Hope’ for Firearms Freedom Officials Mull Seismic Tests Near Calif. Nuke Plant U.S. Deems Chinese Canadian Energy Purchase National Security Risk Time: Obama 'Got His Butt Kicked' CNN Poll: Romney's the Big Winner Romney Attacks Obama’s ‘Trickle Down Government’ in First Debate Politico: Romney Up 4 in 'Toss Up' States Left and Right Come Together to Slam Obama's Bomb of a Night (and Lehrer) Was This Obama's Jimmy Carter Moment? Princeton Economist: The Math Behind Romney's Tax Plan Adds Up Frank Luntz Focus Group: Reactions to the 1st Presidential Debate Not Just a Debate A Lie-Detector Test! Fact Check: Presidential Debate Missteps Hurt: Obama the Debater: Making Jimmy Carter Look Awesome Eric Bolling CLOBBERS Obama on His Stafford Act Demagoguery 5 Times Obama Smirked Consensus: It Ain't Over Debate Re-Energizes Campaign 2012 What Was the Dot on Romney’s Lapel Flag Pin? The Campaign Tells Us We Have Been Duped: The Story 13 Minute Video Every Voter Should Watch Police Lieutenant Who Decked Woman Will Be Fired Black America: What if Obama Were White? Larry Elder Spotlights Double Standard Among Supporters Despite Unemployment Stats Military Absentee Ballot Requests Plummet from 2008 Diaz: Democratic Marriage Destruction Opens Door to Polygamy Supremes Reject Appeal on Airport Scanners Drones in the USA - SkyNET ALERT! - Attack of the Robots U.S. Military May Consider You a Potential Terrorist If You Are Young, Use Social Media, or Question “Mainstream Ideologies” Senate Panel: DHS Fusion Centers Produce ‘Predominantly Useless Information’ and ‘a Bunch of Crap’ George Zimmerman Considers Lawsuit Against NBC for Editing Non-Emergency Call to Make It Appear He Is Racist The Speech on Race You Probably Haven't Heard: Obama Suggests Neglect of New Orleans Was Racial HOLLY COMMENT: Note the distinctive 'black dialect' compared to today's 'presidential speak'. This is from the man who promised to unite America. Video Surfaces of Obama in 2007 Suggesting Racism Slowed Aid to post-Katrina New Orleans, Pt 1, Pt 2 Allen West on Prez’s Controversial 2007 Speech: When Obama ‘Gets Off of His Teleprompter, You See a Different Type of President’ RNC: Obama Won't Debate the Issues Guide to the Obama Admin’s 5 Major Scandals for Mainstream Media Dummies Obama in 2006 on Raising the Debt Limit Quote of the Decade Biden: Middle Class Has Been 'Buried' Last 4 Years HOLLY NOTE: Hoof-in-mouth disease strikes VP again. Obama‘s ’Dreams from My Father’ Purged of All References to Communist Frank Marshall Davis China Firm Sues Obama Over Blocked US Wind Farm Deal CNN Story Shows Economists Favor Romney But Headline Stresses They Do So 'Reluctantly' US Diplomats in Libya Repeatedly Asked Obama Admin for Beefed-Up Security in Benghazi; It Was 'Denied' Republicans Rip WH for Putting Tax Dollars on Line Over Possible Defense Layoffs Lawmaker: 'Serious' Errors Made in Libya Response; Accuses Obama Officials of Seeing 'What They Wanted' 2016, Obama's America full length, watch before you vote Islam Rising: The Unraveling of Obama's Foreign Policy Why Americans Might Tolerate This Failed President Vegas Odds Maker Gives Reasons for Big Romney Win in November Video Shows Black Philly Cop Punch White Woman in the Face During Street Gathering Black Mob Hijacks Store: 'We Own This' Obama Administration Armed Jihadists to Overthrow Governments How Government Lies Become Truth American Crossroads: Operation Hot Mic A Dangerous New World of Drones Perot: Fiscal Nightmare Means USA Could Be Taken Over Chinese Hackers Break into WH Military Office Network in Charge of President’s Nuclear Football Big U.S. Fleet Nears Disputed Islands, But What For? Major Troop Movements in the US: Headed to DC? Follow the Thread Washington DC Destined by NWO to Go Up in Flames 50 C-135's Observed Over Nevada Chris Christie: ‘Stop Lying, Mr. President’ About Romney’s Economic Plan Chavez: "I'd Vote for Obama" HOLLY COMMENT: What does that tell you? Voting Rights Top Issue in Supreme's New Term Fallen Soldiers March Red Alert! Deployment, Preparing for War Now NDAA (starts 8:35 min. in) Prepare, People, Prepare Emotional Politics Preview of Univision’s “Bombshell” Report on Fast & Furious 4 Pat Caddell: Press Has Become 'Threat to Democracy' and 'Enemy of the American People' Clint Eastwood - It's 'Halftime in America' Thousands of Bombs Dumped in Gulf of Mexico Pose Huge Threat to Oil Rigs Mainstream Media Threatening Our Country's Future Issa, Turner Threaten Geithner with Subpoenas on Delphi Documents Romney to Meet with Israeli PM Netanyahu Today “Keep Obama In President, You Know! He Gave Us a Phone! Food Stamps, Social Security...” Reality Check: Actions Speak Louder Than Words with President Obama and the NDAA? Justice Dept's Warrantless Spying Increased 600% in Decade Leno Takes Some Surprising Shots at Obama Why You Shouldn't Vote for Obama Politicized, Militarized DHS Unveils New Panzer Division We the People HOLLY NOTE: Though we ran this in 2010 it's a good reminder. Kansas City Muslims Want Limits on Free Speech Dearborn Islamic Leaders to Rally for Speech Prohibition Agenda 21 Micro-Apartments Built Across America in the Name of Sustainability $100,000 Reward Offered for Waldo Canyon Firestarter NAACP Urges U.N. to Investigate U.S. for ‘Racially Discriminatory Election Laws’ Eye Candy on the View Am-dad at the UN America on the Rocks 30 Examples of Why America Is No Longer a Free Country States Make Fake IDs Quick and Easy Court Rules Motorists Can Be Detained for Paying by Cash at Toll Booths Paul Craig Roberts: America, The Next Banana Republic A Culture of Delusion 3-Star General: Muslim Brotherhood Has Infiltrated DoD Who Is White House Visitor Hisham Altalib? Do Americans Truly Understand 'Redistribution of Wealth'? Obama Versus Obama: Part II Obama: 'It Will Not Be Enough to Put More Guards in Front of an Embassy' Obama to UN: It's Not My Fault Why Obama Won't Meet With World Leaders This Week Obama, 'the Prophet of Islam,' and Slander Obama, Ahmadinejad Singing from Same Choir Book Madonna Calls Obama a 'Black Muslim,' Says She'll Strip Onstage If He Wins New Term Army Sprayed Radioactive Materials on Population in St. Louis John Moore on Firearms Expertise, Survival Tips And Censored News Stories Appeals Court Caves to TSA Over Nude Body Scanners Mr. Obama, Stop Praising Islam What Do You Expect When Socialists Serve in Congress? Plan B for Obama Redux Obama and FEMA Create Civilian Army Trained in Domestic Preparedness 'Unskewed' Polls Show Nearly 8-Point Romney Lead Obama 'Adviser Acknowledged Privately That in This Election Year, Campaigning Trumped Meetings with World Leaders' How Obama Has Damaged America Federal Cop: Do Not Go Anywhere Far from Home Between Now and Nov.. You Will Not Be Able to Get Back Home Spawn of Pigford Lives… Obama USDA Offers Women, Hispanic Farmers $1.3+ Billion in Redistribution Payouts Tony Blair: U.S. Should Stop Wanting Love The Fed’s US Land-Grab Hidden Within Purchase of Mortgage-Backed Securities Welcome to the Awareness Act Social Network NSA Whistleblower (starts 2:15 min. in) Alternatives to a Bugout Location What You Should Consider Tsunami High Risk Areas Involve 23 Nuclear Power Plants Preppers and the Transition Movement “The Map”, FEMA Camps And More: John Moore 'Fast and Furious' Whitewash by Justice Dep't Obama Lies Claiming Fast and Furious Started Under Bush UN Small Arms Treaty Passes While Media Sleeps All the World Wonders The Secret History of America The Greatest Conspiracy on Earth Bowing to the Mob So Much for Freedom of Speech Big Oil Funding U.S. Politics White House: Libya Was 'Terrorist Attack' HOLLY COMMENT: Stating the obvious is now 'news' DOJ-Funded Training Manual Lists Bumper Stickers as Terrorism WH Insider: "Barack Obama The Butcher of Benghazi" Polls: Obama Ahead in Colorado, Iowa and Wisconsin DEYOS COMMENT: Too many Coloradans sucking California weed and blinded by babble Hope in Colorado Obama Mutilates American Flag: It Oughta Be Illegal Obama Voters Explain Why They Changed Their Vote Pat Buchanan: ‘Barack Obama Is a Drug Dealer of Welfare’ Decentralize or Die! 21 Facts About America’s Decaying Infrastructure That Will Blow Your Mind Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant Shuts Down Unexpectedly Power Outage in Yukon Knocks Out Communication Systems Across Territory Obama, Messiah, King of the Lose 10-part Report Raises Questions About Narrative of Obama's Early Life Prostitution Scandal Report May Cite White House Staff Involvement The Last Failed State UN Promotes Another Gun-Grabbing Program UN Conquers Texas Big Sis: Obama Ready to Sign Surveillance Grid Executive Order EPA's 4-Gallon Minimum Mandate FEMA Corps Develops the Next Generation of Emergency Managers "Who's Going to Survive?": Prep to Survive for Beginners and Experts Alike Hollywood: The Lens of Lucifer Obama in 1998: "I Actually Believe In Redistribution" Romney Outlines $500 Billion in Annual Pay, Workforce, Program Cuts Black Panther Leader on Election Day: 'We Will Be There' Obama’s Communist Mentor Florida Professor Suspended for Making Students Sign ‘Vote for Obama’ Pledge What Obama Thinks of Americans Can the Election Be Rigged? WMD Expert Dr. Peter Vincent Pry on the EMP Threat Jesse Ventura on Iran and UN Gun Control Protester Dies After Inhaling Fumes from Burning American Flag Nasrallah Makes Rare Appearance at Rally Against anti-Islam Film Qaeda in North Africa Urges Killing More U.S. Envoys Child with ‘Beheading’ Sign at Sydney Protest: Search for Mom Is On Steve Emerson on Coren. Political Correctness Has Damaged All Aspects of Life Emails Show DoJ Working with Media Matters on Stories That Target Critics Smile, The Government Is Watching You 'Unfounded and Preposterous': Libyan Reports Shred WH Claim That Benghazi Attack Was Spontaneous, Unpredictable Libyan Intelligence Challenges Obama Account of Deadly Consulate Attack There Were No Demonstrations Outside Embassy; Strike Was Pre-Planned Mohamed Al Magarief: If You Take into Account thE Weapons Used, Like RPGs and Other Heavy Weapons, It Proves That It Was Preplanned. It's a Dirty Act of Revenge That Has Nothing to do with Religion.' Arab Media: US Ambassador was Sodomized by Muslim Mobs Before Being Murdered, Paraded in Streets Full Summary of Latest Anti-American Sentiment Tarpley: Middle East Riots a Provocation to Sink Obama Bachmann: Obama "Most Dangerous President" Ever on Foreign Policy Obama’s Lawyers Appeal Court Ordered Block Against NDAA Indefinite Detention Provision Obama Caught Lying Again: He Was Member of 'New Party,' Says Kurtz In Chicago, No Memory of Obama New Party Membership Investigation Finds Obama Financing Mosques Worldwide with U.S. Taxpayer Dollars Denial is Now National Suicide OPED A Failed Presidency of Global Proportions OPED Republican-backed Sequestration Bill Passes House, But Unlikely to Go Further WH Warns of Military 'Destruction' in $110 Billion Sequestration Cuts Allen West Gives Weekly GOP Address, Blasting Obama for Hollowing Out Our Military Obama v. Romney on Federal Pay, Size of Government and Management (click on Romney tab for his positions; Obama tab to view his) Oath Keeper Attempts to Wake Up Republican Sheep How to Avoid Getting Trapped in FEMA Camps Supervisors Finalize Jail Fee in Calif. County Colorado Town High School Seizes Rosary Beads From Student, Says They’re ‘Gang Symbol’ The End of the Line: Interview with G. Edward Griffin VOW Flood Threat to Nuclear Plants Covered Up by Regulators, NRC Whistleblower Attack Not Triggered by Film But to Avenge Killings of Senior al-Qa'ida Leaders Diplomatic, Western Posts Targeted Repeatedly In Benghazi in Run-up to Deadly Assault No Marines for Libyan Ambassador, Full Security Detail for Valerie Jarrett Vacation Protesters Set Fire to American School in Tunis, Reuters Reports US Braces for More Violence in Muslim World After Friday Prayers Marines on Ground in Yemen as Mobs Attack Embassies in Tunisia, Sudan Muslim Brotherhood Website Demands That West Criminalize ‘Assaults’ on Islam Report: US Govt Knew of Possible Attacks on Diplomatic Missions 9/11 Cairo. Muslim Leader Burns Bible, Threatens Christians Israeli Arab Official Warns of 'Armageddon' Police Step Up Security Amid Prophet Mohammad Riots Texas Campus Reopens After Evacuation Ezra on Days of Rage Romney Is Right: In Embassy Incidents, Obama's First Instinct Was to Sympathize with Attackers Misplaced Blame for the Embassy Attacks Obama Leadership Questioned in Aftermath of Consulate Strike Is Anybody Driving the Bus? More Sniper Ammunition Being Ordered by DHS. Who Are the Targets? Russian Spetnaz Brake Ranks with US Commanders, Set Up Encrypted Communications Directly with Russia and Ammo Worries U.S. Military Spending $20 Million for Firewood HHS Chief Broke Law Restricting Political Activity, Signed Ethics Pledge Rep. Walsh: Obama Should Follow Standard Procedure, Fire Sebelius for Violating Hatch Act Which Parts of the US Will Be Gone under Agenda 21 Obama-backing Group Fights for Felons’ Votes The World Obama Made Chicago Homosexual Community Shocked Obama Could Keep It Secret Claim: Obama Hid His Gay Life to Become President! Documented Report Bachmann Says FBI Agents Watched Over Her Shoulder Maryland Residents Are Sick of Being Spied on and Tearing Down Police Cameras Al Zawahri Personally Ordered Al Qaeda to Murder US Ambassador Stevens US Officials Investigate Whether Strikes in Libya and Egypt 'Coordinated,' Timed for 9/11 Anniversary Film Controversy: Innocence of Muslims: DEYOS' NOTE: We watched this film and yes, it's pretty obvious how it would anger Muslims. However, this is a single moment in time, a short film, soon to be lost in the myriad of other breaking news and other "outrages". The maker of this film, Sam Becile, is an Israeli-American. Likely this person is more than tired of his fellow countrymen (and women) referred to as dogs and apes in the Quran. Pretty incongruent since the Hebrews are God's chosen. Printed in millions, if not billions of Qurans and taught in Islamic schools throughout the world, this racial hate speak does NOT go away, not ever. Instead it is pounded into the hearts souls and minds Muslims worldwide. Their vitriol promulgates racial and religious intolerance much more than any 13-minute film ever could. These embassy attacks and Muslim uprisings likely have more to do with the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, which commenced on the exact day, than perceived slurs against Mohammed. The timing is too obvious. Muslim extremists are testing our defenses, our resolve and willingness to defend our position. Watch Obama let this slide too, and Americans will be left sucking a dry rag. He'll bow and scrape again and yes HE already apologized. (There is no link for this commentary.) Arabic Sources Reveal the Truth Regarding Attacks on U.S. Embassy in Egypt: One of Culprits to Visit U.S. on September 15th 2 U.S. Warships Headed to Libya After Deadly Consulate Attack After Attack, Obama Says Egypt Neither Friend Nor Foe HOLLY COMMENT: Diplomatic dope must be good to smoke unless you 'didn't inhale' like Bill Clinton From Libya: ‘Don’t Shoot Us! We Were Sent By Mursi’ Middle East a Tinderbox, American Leadership Absent Russia Deeply Worried... Protesters Angered By an anti-Islam Film Storm US Embassy in Yemen Egyptian Intelligence Warned of Embassy Attacks as Early as Sept 4 11 Years After 9/11, 2/3 of US Travel Warnings Relate to Muslim World Cheney: Cairo, Benghazi and Obama Foreign Policy Wall Street Insider: Sadly, Every Concern About This Man Calling Himself Obama Has Proven True Far Worse Is Yet to Come Obama's Second Term Transformation Plans Beck: Who Is The Real Barack Obama? Just 37% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction US Totalitarianism Loses Major Battle As Judge Permanently Blocks NDAA's Military Detention Provision Issa 'Cautiously Optimistic' About Fast and Furious Report US Police State? 4 Examples Prove It! Is ‘Revolt’ Our Only Option? U.S. Ambassador to Libya Murdered by Rioting Muslims Among 4 Americans to Die in Protests Over anti-Islam Film Russian Ships Displayed at DNC Tribute to Vets WH Scrambles to Contain Controversy Over Netanyahu Snub Brand-New Surge in Black-Mob Violence Apocalyptic TV: Art Imitating Life or Predictive Programming? IG Report: Top Justice, ATF Officials Ignored Public Safety in 'Furious' Ops WH Insider: Ohio Now Turning to Romney Polling Data 101 Obama Sold Vote Count to Company in Spain Linked to Soros Michael Savage: How Obama Fixed 2012 Election Constitutionalists Labeled as Terrorists for Speaking Out Against the Government Obama’s 9-11 Proclamation Does Not Mention God New York Post Ad Exposes Obama's 'Real Father' Israeli Science Website: Obama Birth Certificate Forged Assault on the Free Market Obama Campaign Declares, 'I'll Be Damned' Fiery Comment Comes Hot on Heels of DNC Booing 'God' A Shrink Asks: What's Wrong with Obama? Obama Widens Lead Over Romney Despite Jobs Data: Reuters/Ipsos Poll HOLLY COMMENT: Some things simply defy logic Love Him or Hate Him, You Don’t Know Him Due to Eligibility Concerns, Florida Judge Terry Lewis: Obama Is Not (Cannot be) the Nominee for the Democratic Party Gun Sales Surge: An Obama Bounce Pic of the Day: If You Weren’t the VP I’d Kick Your Ass HOLLY COMMENT: Take a look at the expressions on these 2 bikers' faces. Not exactly thrilled. 30 Signs That the US Is Being Turned into a Giant Prison Obama Supporter Interviews Herself Obama’s THREE Proud Words “Made in the USA“ The Conscience of a Voter OPED FBI Begins Installation of $1 Billion Face Recognition System Across America Russian and Chinese Soldiers Seen in Cheyenne, WY 9/11 Pseudo-Science: A US Foreign Policy Built on Fraud 10 Obstacles to Achieving Personal Independence James Rawles on Economy & Survivalism - VOW (starts 7:20 min. in, first 2 hours) Change You Can't Believe Woodward’s Devastating Account of Obama’s Failed Leadership 2012 Obama vs Romney: The Illusion of Choice We've Heard It All Before HOLLY NOTE: And you want 4 more years of this? Fact Check: First Lady's False Fairy Tale of Struggle Gallup Sued by DOJ after Unfavorable Obama Polls, Employment Numbers Eastwood Says His Convention Appearance Was 'Mission Accomplished' Colorado Public Television Presents 9/11: Explosive Evidence Experts Speak Out 1 Chart of the Day: Smith & Wesson Sales Who's Funding Purchase of the $35M Beachfront Hawaiian Estate for Barack and Michelle Obama to Move into January 2013? No, Really: Govt Warns of 'Zombie Apocalypse' HOLLY NOTE: Take this AP story to heart. When govt is finally compelled to warn the public, the situation is truly serious. You'll need more to prepare than just a clean pair of underpants as this article suggests. America’s Takeover of the UN A Godless Party Expels the Creator America's 10 Most Polluted States New Orleans Eyes More Levees After Passing Isaac's Test Convention Floor Erupts, Boo and Shout 'NO' When God, Jerusalem Restored to Platform HOLLY NOTE: It doesn't matter whether or not the Dems revamp their platform. This hasty retrace only came about after huge protest against them entirely removing God and Jerusalem from Convention-speak. Only the delusional could think God won't see through this quick backstep as anything other than an attempt to repair their God-forsaking actions. Convention Floor Chaos Savage: Dems Rejection of God 'the Turning Point' Axelrod, Jarret Throw Fellow Dems Under the Bus, Say It Was Their Fault Jerusalem, God Were Left Out Dem Buttons: Vote Black Decline and Fall: The Tragedy of Barack Obama Mother of Dem Convention Star Castro Called Alamo Defenders 'Drunks,' 'Crooks' Maxine Waters Confronted on 'Stimulus' Corruption Bill Clinton: A Good Lawyer Defending a Guilty Client' Fact Checking Bill Clinton’s Speech and Other Dems at Convention Remembering the Clinon-Attributed Murders Delusional Reality: Everything Peddled by Politicians, Media, Banks and TV Is Fiction Big Oil 1 - 0 Environment: Shell Granted Permit to Work off Alaskan Coast What Obama Won’t Say in Charlotte: War on Terror is Done 30,000 Dead North Carolinians Registered to Vote The Final Race, The Final Lap for Your Freedom Chuck Norris' Anti-Obama Video Warns of '1,000 Years of Darkness' Behold a Pale Horse VOW Why Blame Obama? President Announces Open Season on Combat Vet US Military Has ‘Taken Over’ a Small Colorado Border Town: What Are They Preparing For? HOLLY NOTE: Cokedale is only 10 minutes away from I-25 and 45 minutes away from Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, the southern arm of Ft. Carson. Pinon Canyon is the Army Base embroiled in controversy when it tried to take over even more land from farmers through eminent domain in 2007. They original chunk of land they wanted included most of southern Colorado, which would make it roughly 3 times larger than any other military base in the U.S about the size of Rhode Island. The military using the sleepy town of Cokedale as a staging area makes sense as it's n remote area of Colorado, close to a decent size water source and a hair's breath away from the Interstate. Mr. Scam Man 3 Obama Calls for Amendment Limiting Free-Speech Rights Obama Has Destroyed the Future of America in Order to Improve His Chances of Winning the Election Obama Movie, 2016, Killing It Despite Negative Press Romney to Voters: Move on from Obama Disappointment Media Calls Paul Ryan a Liar. Real Facts Say Otherwise… Eastwood Spars with Chair as Obama Stand-In, Calls Romney 'Stellar' Businessman Bullets, False Flags and Biological Warfare: What is the US Government Planning? Daniel Hannan Is Shocked We Are Discussing Social Issues with Our Debt Approaching $16 Trillion Texas Voter ID Rejected by Supreme Court New GOP Platform Condemns Fast & Furious, Blame Agent's Death on Operation Best Paul Ryan Quotable Quote from Wednesday UN Arms Treaty 1 Older Couple Shares How Mitt Romney Ministered to Their Dying 14 Year-Old Son 1 Ryan Takes Aim at Obama in RNC Speech, Vows GOP Won't 'Duck the Tough Issues' Rep. Ryan: Let's Do this. Let's Get This Done John Moore: No Election this Fall - Financial Collapse One of Most Dangerous Cities in US to Ditch Police Force US Forest Service Has an Immediate Need for Ammuntion Silence Is Not “Golden” When Defending Liberty Ann Romney Takes Center Stage in Tampa, Vows Husband Mitt 'Will Not Fail' Report: Actor Clint Eastwood Headed to Republican Convention in Tampa; Will He be Thursday’s “Mystery Speaker?” RNC Raises Dialogue with ‘Truth-Telling’ Message, No Personal Attacks on the President MSNBC Fears Romney Has White Appeal Love and Change in Tampa DNC Proceeds with 2-Hour Islamic ‘Jumah’ Prayers (and You Won‘t Believe Who’s Invited) Look Who's Behind 'Voter ID Is Racist' Campaign Former Marine Detained for ‘Ominous’ Facebook Posts Speaks Out for First Time: ‘It Made Me Scared for My Country’ Obama’s Sneaky, Deadly, Costly Car Tax Amassing Arms for Secret Forces to be Used Against American Citizens? I Heard It Through the Grapevine That the Government Was Violating Property Rights Fast and Furious: Prosecutions Coming? 1 Million Gallons of Raw Sewage from Mexico Closes San Diego Beaches Ron Paul Won Paul's Winning Stratagem 40 Items to Barter in a Post-Collapse World Remote Alaska to Stockpile Food, Just in Case Obama 'Causes More Misery Than Natural Disasters' Russian Expert Predicts Obama Will Declare Martial Law in America by End of 2012 Ann Romney: 'This Man Will Lift Up America!' How Ann Romney's Incredible Family Journey from a Welsh Coal Mine Could End in the White House DHS Source: “It’s Going Hot” The Fall of the United States of Babylon! Staged Crisis Leading to Suspended Elections Could Happen on Our Watch The Western Onslaught Against International Law The Speech Obama Failed to Deliver Mystery Surrounding 1.2 Billion Rounds of Ammo Solved Kuhner: Biden Dangerously Detached from Reality Obama Remembers Neil Armstrong with a Big Picture of… Himself Obama Declares War on Seniors, Steals Part of Their SS Check Free Speech Disappearing & Corporate Tyranny Rising Obama Wants to Jail You for Crimes You'll Commit in the Future 1 Megyn Kelly on Obama's America 2016 2 '2016: Obama's America' Earns $6.24M for Weekend, Number 6 on Political Documentaries Genre List Seniors Arm Selves in Record Numbers Despite Big Media’s Anti-Gun Hype Space Ship Earth: A Mass Extinction Level Event Weather Extremes Test Nation's Power Grid 7 Reasons to Consider Off-the-Grid Independent Living Obama, Holder Sledgehammer the First Amendment Lawmaker Questions Holder on Abusing FBI Travel Privileges Obama Makes Free Speech a Felony Not the Behavior of a Winning Campaign The Obama Syndicate: When Evil Rules the Land and its People Will the Romney Campaign Demand Release of the Obama-Khalidi Video? Obama Asks Eurozone to keep Greece in Until after Election Day Federal Auditor: 2,527 DHS Employees and Co-Conspirators Convicted of Crimes 545 vs. 300,000,000 People Charley Reese's Final Column in 2001 (and nothing's changed) Watchdog: ACORN Back with 174 Rebranded Affiliates Report: State Dept. Considers Eliminating US Nuclear ArsenalDetained Marine Veteran Now Released, Per Judge’s Order Obama Adds Military Heroes to 'Enemies List' Best Military Quote Psychiatry as Weapon to Silence Religious and Political Opposition The Little Known New Madrid Pipeline Bomb On Lance Armstrong Texas Judge Preparing for ‘Civil War’ If Obama Re-Elected Where's the Tough Love for Obama? U.S. Census Bureau Helped Racially Target Thousands of American Citizens for Camp Internments U.S. Marine Held in Mental Hospital Because of Facebook Posts Full Frontal Nudity on Prime-Time TV Up 6,300% Over Last Year, Study Radical Islam Joins the DNC 600 Rabbis Throw Their Support Behind Obama 'Forward.' The Perfect Campaign Slogan for Obama? Traffic Cams, Drones Were Just the Beginning... WH Insider Issues Warning False Flag Planned for GOP Convention? Are People Being Thrown in Psychiatric Wards for Their Political Views Survivalist Congressman Is Ready for Doomsday Top 10 Reasons Not to Re-elect Obama (part 2 of 3) Music Superstar: 'We've Got a Muslim President' WH Insider: Obama Preps Media for “Surprise” Presser Republicans Pull Plug on Missouri Sen. Candidate Akin After Disgusting Rape Remarks Maryland Train Derailment Leaves 2 Dead America's Large-Scale Disaster Readiness Has Slipped into Neutral House Guest 'Shot Ex-Girlfriend and Her Boyfriend Multiple Times, Sawed Off Their Limbs, Dumped Them in Canal' The Strange Case of Joe Biden HOLLY NOTE: Yes, let's make ourselves more vulnerable and an easier target. Newsweek Shocker: Hit the Road Barack Agencies Try to Damper Conspiracy Theories After They Put Out Orders for Thousands of Rounds of Deadly Bullets Who Does the Government Intend to Shoot? Archie Bunker Called It HOLLY COMMENT: Anyone old enough to remember this 70s top-rated, cutting edge comedy will appreciate Archie's 'viewpoints' come true tongue in check so don't send 'cards and letters'. It underscores that Obama is a little sketchy on America what kid doesn't know we have 50 states? Simply priceless. 3 Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Amerika’s Future is Death Another Icon Gone: Comedian Phyllis Diller Dies at 95 New Black Panther Audio: 'If They Are White, Kill ‘Em All' Is There Anyone Obama Won't Betray? Puttin Up the Flag 4 Poll: Voters Say They Are No Better Off Than in 2008 Police Allowed to Track Cell Phones in US Without Court Warrants Obama's Czars With Pictures Most Arrogant Man in the World 2 Flying Over America 4 Govt Awards Ammunition But Hides How Much It Spent and Quantity Requested Social Security Admin. Explains Plan to Buy 174,000 Hollow-Point Bullets A Warning from an Airman or Could This Be a Warning from God? (scroll down to the yellow rectangular sign) HOLLY NOTE: While this was posted with the BEST of intentions by the author, there was no source listed, so we proceed with caution. That said, some of these Executive Orders have been in place for 6 decades and subsequently grouped together in 1994 legally confiscating everything citizens have. Please see this page. Since then, other EOs have been signed that are even more onerous for self-sufficient Americans. This escalated with Bush 42, including the nullification of Posse Comitatus, then ramped up considerably by Obama. Do check these other mainstream articles regarding martial law and posse comitatus. These laws did not just crop up last month. Do NOT let these EOs deter your preps. As for food and water (etc.) storage, make your residence the main storage site for these items unless your bugout place is really close. If things go south without much notice, you may not have time to relocate even a short distance. If you have a bugout location far away, store part of your supplies there and the remainder of your cache, somewhere completely off-grid in case the bugout place ends up as a "no-go". Interesting Note: Saturday morning Stan and I headed to Colorado Springs. On I-25 between mile markers 128 and 122 6 miles of newly erected pole fencing with heavy-duty wire lined both sides of the freeway. If I-25 became log-jammed in an evacuation or disaster, how many people would have tough enough wire cutters in their vehicle as a matter of practice? Do you, right this very minute? Depending on the size of your vehicle, you may or may NOT get through this cut fence, as the poles are set fairly close. I can't tell you the weird feeling we got looking at this long barricade when wide open spaces are the order of the day in Colorado. It felt like we could be "funneled" somewhere with no options. SC Mission 2012 Starts Tomorrow: Disaster Exercise Masquerading as 'Free Healthcare Event' Virginia Vintners Taste the Police State Nearly 9,000 Marijuana Plants Seized in Pueblo County: One of Largest Busts in Colorado History Welcome to the Third World, Part 7: Bye Bye, Public Services Obama: I Don't Think Anyone Would Suggest I've Tried to Divide the Country Romney-Ryan Prepare Assault on Govt. Spending Dem. Co-chair on Paul Ryan: He Is Honest, Straightforward, Sincere, Sensible Christianity & Gun Owners in the Crosshairs: Chilling Tactic Exposed Dishonorable Disclosures must see 1 Virginia Business Owner Declines Request for Joe Biden to Stop in Store Because He Built His Business 3 'Preparing for Mass Civil War', Obama's Homeland Security Department Buys 1.2+ BILLION Rounds of Ammo Why the Gov't Purchase of Ammo Should Scare the Hell Out of You Obama Surreptitiously Implementing a Radical Plan to Destroy American Suburbs 5 U.S. Nuclear Reactors Shutdown in 3 Days 2 Chevron Refinery May Close for 6 Months Following Fire Sept. 11 Museum Says Steel Cross, 'Historical Object,' Should Stay Paul Ryan a Gift to Both Campaigns Before You 'Fall in Love' with Ryan Check His Voting Record This Congress Could Be Least Productive Since 1947 More Than 25% of Americans May Not Vote in Nov. High Explosives Awardee Announced to Firm of Former TSA Head Surviving an Active Shooter Event - English 1 American Gun Lovers Turn to Russian AK-47s Zombie Apocalypse Weapons VOW GOP Sues to Force Obama Compliance on Fast and Furious Who Built America? TSA: Carcinogenic Petting Zoo Scrubbed: Evidence Stanley Kurtz Was Right About Barack Obama's Plot to Destroy Suburbia Obama: 'A New America in Which Prosperity Is Shared' Obama in Iowa: Tell Paul Ryan to Do Something About the Drought Government = Fraud, Waste, Abuse, Corruption Prepping for Civil War: DHS Set to Purchase Up to Another 750 Million Rounds of Ammo Zombie Response Training in San Antonio Implications of Ryan Pick for Romney Campaign 3 Warm Seawater Forces Conn. Nuclear Plant Shutdown New "Red Dawn" Trailer Movie Coming Thanksgiving 2 Stratfor Emails Reveal Secret, Widespread Trapwire Surveillance System The Fracturing of America Prophetic? US Flag Falls During Serena Williams' Gold Medal Ceremony 2 The Civil War of 2016 U.S.: Military Officers Are Told to Plan to Fight Americans US Army Tactical Manuals Describe How to Control Domestic Insurrection NOAA Requests Ammunition for the Weather Service Game On: Ryan Pick Begins Debate for America Just Who Is Paul Ryan and What Does He Stand For? Spike Lee Admits 'Black Jesus' Obama Failed to Live Up to Hype Obama Signs Bill Exempting Presidential Appointees from Senate Confirmation Meet the Hopeless Drunk from a Nairobi Shanty Town Who Is the U.S. President's BROTHER America and Divine Intervention 53% in Colorado Oppose Tougher Gun Control Laws Pastor John Hagee on Obama The Most and Least Livable States in America Afghan Police Squad Invited US Special Forces Soldiers to Dinner and Killed Them Obama Considering Implementing Cyber-Security Measures Via Executive Action, Bypassing Congress Cops Strip Search Mom, “Forcibly” Pull Tampon Out of Her for Maybe Rolling Through Stop Sign Obama: Let's Repeat Auto Industry Success with Every Manufacturing Industry Obama’s College Classmate Speaks Out: The Scandal at Columbia That Ends the Obama Presidency 1 Buchanan: 'Obama Has Steadily Diminished Both Himself and the Office He Holds' Dreams from My Real Father: A Story of Reds and Deception (2012) must see Obama's Massive 2nd-Term Industry Takeover Plans Prepare for What Is Coming: “There is a Very Present Danger that is Facing Every American” Dr. Jerome Corsi: Evidence Obama Was Married to Pakistani Man Surveillance Cameras Turned Off During Sikh Temple Shooting Nuclear Waste Issues Freeze Permits for U.S. Power Plants U.S. Olympic Athlete, Mexican Flag? Harry Reid’s Sideshow College Grads Score Youtube Hit with 'Obama That I Used to Know' Parody How Much Will the Chevron Refinery Fire Affect Gasoline Prices? ..Federal Investigation Underway Obama’s College Classmate Speaks Out: The Scandal at Columbia That Ends the Obama Presidency The Importance of Having a Firearm / Firsthand Experience Illegal Aliens Can Vote, Military Can't? Obama Opposes Boy Scouts' Policy Banning Homosexuals US Govt Proposes Law Making It Illegal for Them to Kill You Govt Media Sugar Coats Recent High Explosive Solicitation, Then DHS Hides Request Drivers' Newest Nemesis -- Stop-Sign Cameras Puerto Rico, Drug Corridor to the Mainland U.S. Trashing Our World: More Laws Won’t Change Human Behavior Dick Morris: Obamacare Causes Doctor Shortage 3 The High Cost of Voter Fraud: Obamacare Obama WH Told GSA to 'Stand-Down' on Occupy Protesters DHS Orders Over a Half Ton of High Explosives Colo. Health Officials to Thief: Don’t Open That Box Response to Chevron Refinery Fire Under Criticism How the Oil Boom Is Changing North Dakota U.S. Army to be Used Against “Insurrectionist” Tea Party? Mandate by Congress Forces Post Office into Default Surrounded by Psychopaths, Sociopaths as We Approach the Edge of Societal Collapse Mind Control? Neighbors: Temple Shooter's Ex Wore 'Blank Stare' Cracking Wisconsin Gunman's Secret Racist Tattoo Code Court Gives Government Go-ahead for Warrantless Wiretaps Federal Court Upholds the Herding of Demonstrators into “Free Speech Zones” Massive SF Bay Refinery Fire Spews Health Hazards Liars, Damned Liars, and Harry Reid Vetting Conference Exposes More of Obama's Marxist Ties Coming to Terms with Attacks on Liberty and Democracy Globalists Gutting America Head for the New World Hills Homeland Security and Military Vehicles - Pictures Captured in Kentucky Hundreds of Tanks Moving Through Burbank, CA 1 SHADE the Motion Picture 'Official Trailer' 'White Supremacist' Behind 'Domestic Terrorism', Killing 6 at Sikh Temple Grab My Gun? Get a Grip! Cold Hard Facts on Gun Bans: “The Cost of Liberty Can Be Measured in the Loss of Life” Millionaire Buys Every Foreclosed Home in Michigan County for $4.8M Georgia Lumberyard Owner Hammers Obama on 'You Didn't Build That' WH Considers EO, Leaves Internet Takeover a Possibility If You See This Google Warning, Act Fast: Big Brother is Watching All Presidents Bar 1 Are Directly Descended from a Medieval English King How the Republican Party Stole the Nomination from Ron Paul Military Evacuating Coasts: Incoming Object Likely Cause HOLLY NOTE We like to vet everything posted, but we have not been able to verify this. 9 Steps to Take Now to Prepare for the Perfect Storm of Civil Unrest Jon Stewart: 'You, Harry Reid, Are Terrible' Obama Campaign Sues to Restrict Military Voting Vacant Detroit Becomes Dumping Ground for the Dead Wichita to Explore Options on Open-Carry Gun Law Vermont Man Uses Farm Tractor to Flatten 8 Cop Cars Thoughtcrime is Real WH Insider: “We Got One Last Chance Here to Make It Right” No Taxes on Olympic Medals, Outraged U.S. Lawmakers Demand U.S. Nuclear Bomb Facility Shut After Security Breach HOLLY NOTE: If an 82-year-old woman can get through the perimeter fences, how safe do you feel? Congress Wants to See Obama's "License to Kill" EMP Attack: '90% of Americans Would Be Dead' Feds Sue for Control of New Mexico Water Supply WH Analysts Feared Risks in Revamped Solyndra Loan 3 The FDA Is Spying on Its Own Scientists Homeland Security Issuing Its Own DMCA Takedowns on YouTube to Stifle Speech Gay 'Kiss-In' at Chick-fil-A Restaurants Today Bug Out Boot Camp Exposed! Obama's 2nd-term 'Marxist' Jobs Plan How Would You Destroy America? Govt. Silently Positions for Martial Law as Financial Collapse Arrives in America Thoughtcrime is Real The Most Important Press Conference Ever Held at Any Time in U.S. History: Part I Scary Gun Ruling May Become Model for Nation 5 ATF Officials Singled Out in Fast and Furious Probe DoJ Cries 'Distortions' Dick Morris: Though Stumping for Obama, "Clinton Is Going to Cast His Ballot for Mitt Romney" Does Barack Obama Expect the Upcoming Election to Spark Rampant Civil Unrest? DHS Prepares Faceoff with American Public 1 Obama, the First Communist President? The Pope Strikes a Blow for San Francisco Poll: 2/3 of Democrats Support Gay Marriage Scalia Opens Door for Gun-Control Legislation, Extends Slow Burning Debate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to Chris Wallace: Guns May Be Regulated 2 Cowardly Republicans: Impeach Obama Now Tom Tancredo Uses 'John Roberts Principle' to Argue for Immediate Action OPED Dick Morris: UN Shelves Gun Treaty...for Now 1 Keep the Pressure Up: Sign the Petition to Stop the US from Signing the Arms Trade Treaty! HOLLY COMMENT: Since as of July 27th, this has already been voted down, on the petition letter after where it reads: "July 27th in New York City" we added the phrase "and ALL such future legislation". Former Navy SEAL Brandon Webb: How to Survive a Shooting 3 Navy SEAL Lessons Learned from Aurora Colorado Surveillance & Harassment VOW 2 (skip to 42 minutes in) Brandon Darby: FBI Ignoring Sex Trafficking of Minors Wile E. Coyote Joins Obama Campaign Team DC Mayor calls Chick-fil-A 'Hate Chicken' The New Wealthy Homeowners in America ... Are Chinese CIA “Manages” Drug Trade, Mexican Official Says UN Fails to Reach Agreement on Treaty to Regulate Global Arms Trade, However... Gun Rights: Final Version of UN Small Arms Treaty Due Friday Bombshell: Leaked UN Treaty Does Ban Guns UN Gun Confiscation and the Robot Takeover! 1 D-Day for Gun Owners 2 Obama Calls for Measures Against Gun Violence WH Rules Out Any Gun-Control Efforts Soon Does Obama Think U.S. Soldiers Use AK-47s? Gun Control: Why the US Military Is Fighting with the NRA Thousands Sat in Their Cars for 7 Hours Tuesday as Police Played Blame Game HOLLY COMMENT: Imagine how much fun this area will be during an evacuation! Defense Official: America's Enemies Will Avoid the Battlefield and "Attack Us Here at Home" Fed. Protective Service Orders ~150 Sets of Riot Gear to be Delivered in 15 Days Emanuel's 'Chicago Values' Includes Supporting Gay-Hating, Jew-Hating Louis Farrakhan Boston Mayor to Chick-Fil-A President" 'I Urge You to Back Out of Your Plans to Locate In Boston' Several folks have sent this in again and just to clear the air Sex with Animals Still Not OK in U.S. Military Man Pleads Guilty in Chicago to Trying to Export Missile Parts to Iran 5 Guys Take Same Photo for 30 Years Mayor Bloomberg Says Cops Should Strike Across the Country to Put Pressure on Congress to Crack Down on Guns Concealed Weapons Save Lives Obama Talks of Limiting Gun Use After Massacre As UN Treaty Takes Shape, Raising Alarm Among Gun Rights Advocates Media Underplays Successful Defensive Gun Use Common Defense: In Crisis, America Buys Guns, Hurray! Congress Warned That al-Qaida in Iraq Is Coming to America Tragic Dramatics and the Obama Presidency Aurora Theater Shooter Sent Notebook to CU Shrink Before Massacre US Government Ran Chemical Experiments on Military Veterans Under Operations MKUltra, Bluebird and Artichoke Anaheim, Calif. Braces for More Unrest After Police Shootings Remarkable Photos Capture Life in Besieged Washington During Civil War Windows Smashed, Fires Reported as Anaheim Police Shootings Protest Turns Violent Another Gas Station Accused of Discrimination Against Military Members 1 Call for Planned Parenthood Probe Trailer Exposing Obama's 2nd-term Blueprint 2 Obama Keeps on Conning America Were the Batman Murders a Covert Op? Mind Control: Colorado Shooter Was 1 of 6 Students With Grant for ‘Elite’ Neuroscience Program Mass Murder a Modern Curse? Hardly. Gun Control and the Murder Rate From Arab Spring to the Coming Nuclear Winter Colorado Gun Sales Jump 41% Since Tragedy Texoma (N. Texas-SE. Okla.) Sees "Massive Spike" in Gun Sales Up After Colorado Shootings Gun Sales Up 15% in Las Vegas Ohio Guns Sales Increase 26% in 2012 Rise in Missouri Gun Sales, Colorado Shooting Part of Motivation Calls for Gun Control Stir Little Support Gun Sales Increase as World Leaders Negotiate Strict Gun Laws 3 Shooting Prompts Call to Curb Online Ammo Sales HOLLY COMMENT: In case you missed it yesterday, buried in this article about the newly formed Marine Corp. battalions of law enforcement, they WILL be deployed on U.S. soil to stop civil unrest. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which officially ended during the Bush administration in 2005, is now moving full-force forward. Sanitizing Obama's Radical Past 3 Arrested in U.S. 'Dark Knight' Movie Incidents Richard Rothschild Battles Local Agenda 21 55% of Americans Believe That the Government Will Take Care of Them If When Disaster Strikes Colo. Shooting Prompts Call for Stricter Gun Laws UN Arms Treaty Aims at Terror, But Puts Second Amendment in Crosshairs Aurora's Strict Gun Laws Didn't Prevent Shooting, But If One Law-Abiding Person in the Theater Had Been Carrying One... "Locked & Loaded" - Vietnam Vet Calls for More Guns Marine Corps Creates Law Enforcement Battalions Cops Say Attack Planned for Months Shooting Was 'Calculated and Deliberate,' Source Says Gun Jammed Gunman Used Same Drugs That Killed Batman Star Heath Ledger Stories of Victims Killed Emerge Remembering the Victims with a Vow: 'I Refuse to Say His Name' 12 Crosses Built as Tribute to Those Killed in Aurora Theater Shooting Trip Wire in Apartment 'Meant to Kill' All Explosives Removed The Curse of Batman: How the Film Is Plagued by Tragedy Taking the Cyberattack Threat Seriously Obama Pens Cybersecurity Op-Ed, Scares Americans Everywhere NCAA Slaps Penn State Football with $60M fIne, 4-Year Postseason Ban, Must Vacate All Wins from 1998-2011 in Wake of Child Sex Scandal Drones to Fire Lasers Over US 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Government America's Future: No Longer Worth Celebrating Troops March in San Diego Gay Parade - in Uniform Preppers Are Going to Die 2 Mass Murder: 12 Killed, 50 Wounded at Aurora, Colo. Movie Theater Witnesses to 'Batman' Massacre Describe Terrifying Scene CNN's Piers Morgan Exploits 'Dark Knight' Massacre to Push Gun Control HOLLY COMMENT: Right after the tragic 1996 massacre in Port Arthur, Tasmania, within 6 months Australia seized the opportunity to institute gun confiscation. People then were pliable and frightened thinking the removal of guns would make them safer. It has only made them less so. If someone has an agenda to hurt, they will find another way to accomplish it. Already gun control in America is being quietly implemented through a UN Treaty and in times of natural disasters as seen during Hurricane Katrina. These precedents condition people to quietly hand over firearms. Watch for this agenda to ramp up significantly. It's just like after 911 when people were terrified of a repeated terrorism. Now look at our freedoms what's left of them. All it takes to transform our lives is one tragic mind-conditioning act. When freedom is surrendered to more government control, it never returns. Rush Limbaugh's Right: The Dark Knight Rises Is a Pro-Obama Plot Congress Hears Warnings About Drones in US Skies Why Are So Many Bad Things Happening to America? Gun Confiscation Training Troops Ordered to Kill All Americans Who Do Not Turn in Guns States’ Pressure Shifted TransCanada Stance on Pipeline Extension Former Worker of Bohemian Grove Speaks Out About the Club Sex Scandal Casts Pall Over Lackland AFB Watergate, Nixon, & the Mafia 1 (starts 40 min. in) The Business That Government Built Dunmire: Sequestration Set to Damage Defense As No Enemy Could Arpaio: Obama Birth Record 'Definitely Fraudulent' Leaked! Obama's Devastating 2nd-term Plans Top 10 Things Obama Has Not Released Sununu: Obama Should 'Learn to Be an American' Senator Implicates Top FDA Office in Agency Spying Program The Disclose Act (S. 3369): Destroying our First Amendment Congressional Approval Rating Falls Again Cover-Up! Contracting System Sanitized of Kenya Documents Now 'Indisputable Proof' of Obama Forgery The Folly of Obama's Politics Nobody Else Made It Happen, Mr. President Obama Preparing for Citizen Uprising? Warning Sounded Over WH Power Grab Daily Presidential Tracking Poll: Romney 47%, Obama 44% Bill Whittle DESTROYS Any Notion of Reelecting Obama with Rehash of His Greatest ‘Successes 3 66% Believe U.S. Has Too Much Government Power, Too Little Freedom UN Gun Grab Follows State Department Plan Signs of Things to Come War Veterans Told to Remove U.S. Flags 2 Troops Ordered to Kill All Americans Who Don't Turn in Guns 1 12 Hellhole Examples of What the Rest of America Will Look Like Soon Where Will We Be in 2016 Dinesh D'Souza at CPAC 2012 4 Emergency Alert! UN Set to Ban Civilian Gun Ownership Clinton Set to Sign U.N. Treaty to Disarm America, Advance Global Government Hillary's End Run on Gun Control! Dick Morris TV Senate Scheduled to Vote Today on anti-Free Speech Bill Hurricane Katrina Door to Door Firearms Confiscation: "You Never Expect to Do This in Your Own Country" 2 Obama Won't Apologize for Attacks Obama May Cancel 2012 Elections! Dr. Jerome Corsi Pt 1, Pt 2 1 Dead Dogs for Obama Obama to Business Owners: "You Didn't Build That" O’s Scary ‘Story’ Emergency Alert! UN Set to Ban Civilian Gun Ownership VOW 1 Sticker Shock! Air Force Tests Biofuel at $59/Gallon Leaked Docs Reveal 'Off the Charts' Damage at US Nuke Plant Oversight Board Questions Nation's Premiere Nuke Lab on Radiation Risk DHS Praise Lord Obama and Pass the Ammo Today's Kids Inherit World Reverting to Barbarism Top 10 Items for New Preppers VOW 2 America's Coming Civil War -- Makers vs. Takers OPED 1 Morgan Freeman on Obama OPED 2 DHS Emergency Power Extended, Including Control of Private Telecom Systems Romney Aide: Obama Hits ‘New Low’ With Felony Smear Campaign Homeland Security Seeking Assault and Sniper Rifles Leftist Radio Host Mike Malloy 'Calls Satan' to Learn How Breitbart Is Doing in Hell Gun Sales Skyrocket as D-Day for Gun Control Looms Gun Making: An American Cottage Industry Treaty Overboard: Just Three More ‘No’ Vows Needed to Block Law of the Sea Report: US Lost Billions to 'Fraud, Waste and Abuse' in Iraq Home Owner Visionary 2 Lawmakers Opening Intel Leak Probe? Obama Downplays Security Threat from Chavez Judge Andrew Napolitano: We Are at a Turning Point OPED 1 Update on UN Arms Trade Treaty 5 Words for the UN: From My Cold Dead Hands Biden Plays the Race Card in Vegas Chicago Police Sergeant: "Tribal Warfare" on the Streets Photos of FEMA Camps, Regions, and Warnings Man Swallows 62 Condoms of Cocaine US Soldier Denied Service at Muslim Owned Gas Station 2 Gas Station Owner Apologizes... Pentagon Takes Over Civilian Duties and Sprays Mosquitos in Florida How to Deal With a Government Checkpoint HBO's NEWSROOM Opening Scene "Why America's Not the Greatest Country" (language warning) 1 Is President Obama Intentionally 'Destroying' America? More Charges in Murder Tied to 'Fast and Furious' From Arab Spring to American Summer: The Politics of Power Outages Obama Now Controls All Communications Via Executive Order 1 Barack Obama's Falsified Social Security Number Curl: Who’s Bailing on Obama? Just About Everybody Obama Loses Ground to Romney in Key Measures of Poll 'After 9/11 NSA Had Secret Deal with White House' 2 Colo. Satanist Wants Theft of 'Vote for Satan' Sign Declared a Hate Crime Hill Poll: Majority Believe Obama Has Changed Country for Worse President Uses 'I' and 'Me' 117 Times in 1 Speech New E.O. -- Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions ...Challenges First Amendment Russian Nuclear-Capable Bombers Intercepted Near West Coast in 2nd U.S. Air Defense Zone Intrusion in 2 Weeks Tom Tancredo: John Roberts' Move to the Dark Side California High-Speed Rail Gets Green Light Everybody Must Get Droned Colorado Will Furnish Christmas Tree for U.S. Capitol This Year Iron Curtain Encircles Latin America; USA Next Barney Frank First Sitting Congressman to Enter Same-Sex Marriage David E. Martin Reveals 12 People Bought Obama's Presidency Trump: Obama Will Start Iran War to Win Election Erkes and Schiller: Obama’s Bait and Switch Frustrated Montana Woman Tells It Like It Is Most Americans Feel Utter Despair About the Dysfunctionality of Our Current President Obama’s Constitutional Crisis Passengers Could Be Asked to Give Drink Samples to TSA NRA Chief on Stopping the UN Arms Trade Treaty Backed by President Obama 2 Johnny Cash "Less" Sings the Obama Blues 6 Nugent: Turncoat Roberts Chief Justice’s Surprise Ruling Means Limited Government Is Dead Brad Pitt's Mother Pens Anti-Obama Letter to Local Newspaper Is US Government Reading Email Without a Warrant? It Doesn't Want to Talk About It Fast and Furious: 'Storm Just Starting to Brew' Does the Law of Unintended Consequences Rule the Land? When Brain-Dead Politically Correct Liberal Communists Rule America… Oh Wait, They Already Do Congressman: American Schools Should Be Modeled After Madrassas, ‘Where the Foundation Is the Koran’ 3 The Communists Killed Kennedy SCOTUS and the Collapse of States' Sovereignty Obama Told to Back Off U.N. Gun Treaty Lawmakers Back Bill For ‘Made in the USA’ Flags Only GOP Congress Breaks ‘Pledge to America’ My 3 Daddies: California Eyes Multiple Parenting Law Twitter Ordered to Hand Over Occupy Protester's Tweets President Reagan's Address to the Nation on Independence Day - July 4, 1986 4 (good reminder of when the President worked to unite our country) Can Americans Escape the Deception? Ever Wonder Why We Even Bothered? Honoring the USA on Independence Day Alt-Market Celebrates Independence Day Gov. Jindal: We Need to End Obama's 'Culture of Dependence' Vets to Work ... On Canada's Pipeline Oil-Drilling Trade-Offs: Keystone for Alaska Phony Badges Flooding into Chicago Area 1 3 Former NSA Employees Expose ‘Mass Illegal Surveillance’ in Court Complete Disaster Non-Preparedness: DC Grocery Stores Out of Food, Gas Unavailable, Grid-Down as Summer Heat Rages 6 Ways to Prepare for Going Off-Grid Krauthammer: Why John Roberts Ruled the Way He Did Only 43% Now Believe America Is Last Best Hope of Mankind Grant Approved to Equip Fire Marshals with Bulletproof Vests Trans-Atlantic Doomed to Extinction VOW What to Expect When You’re Expecting... A Collapse! House Finds Holder in Contempt Over 'Fast and Furious' Investigation The Biggest Scandal in U.S. History Was Obama Involved in 'Fast & Furious'? Monckton Tells Lords: Obama Presidency at Risk More Severe Than Fall of Watergate Colorado's 'Epic Firestorm' Reveals Danger of Air Force Cuts Panetta Pleads for Missile Defence Dollars The FBI’s Secret Surveillance Letters to Tech Companies Obama Unmasked Over Time by “Gaffes” Rove: Obama's Strategies Are 'Just Pathetic' NSA Won't Disclose How Many Americans are Being Spied on Sheriff Arpaio Obama's Records Are Missing + Mike Zullo, Jerome Corsi 2 Whatever Happened to the Keystone XL Pipeline? 60% Favor Building Pipeline A Political Glossary What Should You Take If Evacuated 1 Obama Booed During Own Fundraiser: ‘I Understand, My Mistake’ (Updated with White House Spin) 3 In a First, Pentagon Celebrates Gay Pride Oreo Cookies Go Gay on Facebook Issa Challenges Obama Executive Privilege Claim HOLLY NOTE: His position of (fill in the blank) must really take its toll. Look how gray he's gone in 3-1/2 years. Is Prepping Worth it? What if Nothing Happens? Is it all a Waste? All Eyes on Supremes as Health Care, Immigration Rulings Loom Guess Which Restaurant Defends Right to Bear Arms! “Don’t Be Alarmed”: Army Trains MPs to Drive Tanks on U.S. Streets The Other Eric Holder Scandal Phoenix Boy, 14, Shoots Armed Intruder While Watching 3 Younger Siblings New Yorkers Stunned as Plane Flies Swastika Banner Over NYC’s Beaches US Govt. Gives Classified Tesla Tech to UN for Sustainable Development Scheme The Swiss Army Survival Tampon House Could Send Holder to Jail Without Approval of Senate or U.S. Attorney ‘They’re Lying and They‘re Hiding it’: Parents of Slain Border Agent Brian Terry Speak Out in Rare TV Interview Parents of Murdered Border Agent: White House Is 'Hiding Something' Obama’s Claim of Executive Privilege: It’s Frivolous Terry Family Speaks Out in Rare Interview 2 Dems Avoid, Republicans Slam Pelosi Theory on Holder Contempt Push NYT: Jay Carney Made an ‘Angry Phone Call’ to Fox Exec. Following Anti-Obama Video Editorial: End the Secrets on Fast and Furious OP ED 2 "Hope and Change"...Still? Looking Back at 4 Years of "Change" 1 The Scam Wall Street Learned from the Mafia Anonymous Attacking Creators of Indefinite Detention Bill Massive Nuclear Explosions and Coverup in Indiana and Michigan HOLLY NOTE: You may want to plow through the first 5 1/2 minutes with the volume off to avoid the rap "music and get to the heart of this important video. 1 How About an American DREAM Act? OP ED 1 Gay Activists Visiting White House Take Photos of Themselves Flipping Off Reagan Portrait Will Toledo, Ohio Be the First Major American City to Be Owned by China? Shocking Obama Words: Bombshell Anti-White Audio Uncovered! 3 Obama’s Nixonian Contempt for Transparency Obama's First Assertion of Executive Privilege: Ill-Timed and Ill-Considered Pelosi Calls for Super Committee Transparency flashback Jack Cafferty Destroys Obama and Pelosi on Transparency HOLLY NOTE: Consider how much less transparency there is now. Another broken promise... Ron Paul’s Task: Build Up the Remnant Top American Brands That Will Disappear in 2013 Agenda 21: How Will It Affect You? 1 5 Types of Looters You Must Prepare For Brace for the Apocalypse! Surviving the Worst in an Inland Lifeboat House Panel Debates Contempt Vote as Obama Exerts Executive Privilege Obama Exerts Executive Privilege in Showdown Over 'Fast & Furious' Docs Obama 2007: Bush WH Trying to “Hide Behind” Executive Privilege, They Need to “Come Clean” flashback 1 AG Eric Holder’s Lletter to Obama Asking to Assert “Executive Privilege” Secret Service Agents Partied Like Rock Stars on Obamas' Vineyard Vacation 38 Falsehoods Found in Obama Autobiography Federal Judge Strikes Down Part of Chicago's Gun Law News Broken: US Journos Barred for Doing Job 2 More Taxpayer Millions for Van Jones and His Nest of Vipers No Charge for Texas Dad Who Killed 5-year-old Daughter's Rapist The Economic Abuse of Veterans in America Hellish JetBlue Flight Turns into Vomitorium All Over America Gov't. Control Freaks Force Preppers Back onto the Grid Thousands of Military Drones to be Deployed Over CONUS Talk of Drones Patrolling U.S. Skies Spawns Anxiety Coburn: Obama Is Not Doing Fine Obama's Latest Excuse Against Probing Eligibility Was Obama’s Socialist Party Racialist? Miller: Gun Ownership Up, Crime Down Sen. Marco Rubio: Obama Using E.O. to “Deliberately Divide Americans” and Circumvent Congress Shotover Jet HOLLY NOTE: A girlfriend sent in this video and there's only 2 things to say: wear a crash helmet and take an "Obama" before doing this ride. All Over America Government Control Freaks Are Forcing Preppers Back on to the Grid NSA Refuses to Admit to Spying on Americans The Grey" - Luciferian Movie Not About Masculinity Bedford County Dead Dog Receives Voter Registration Forms WWII War Hero Has Land and Home Stolen Obama Plays 100th Round of Golf as President President Obama: The Biggest Gov't. Spender in World History Holder's Just-Us Department under Fire 'Fast and Furious' Whistleblower Says He's 'Disappointed' One Year Later One Year Later, 'Fast and Furious' ATF Whistleblower Speaks 3 O Invents Own Legend Obama’s Policy Strategy: Ignore Laws More Gov't. Offices Move to Denver? Colorado Likely on Short List of Candidates for Patent Office Conservative Bloggers on High Alert After 'SWAT-ing' Attacks Facing Contempt Charges, Will Holder’s Politicking Finally End? Rubio: Dems 'Pit Americans Against Each Other' to Win Elections Corruptocrat Eric Holder's GOP Enablers They Must Go Thank You Barack Obama… As Promised, Canada Is Building Pipeline to Sell Gas to China This New Drone Will Radically Enhance Navy Surveillance Capabilities Pentagon Report Lists 110 Potential Drone Bases in the U.S. Aerial Mapping Raises Serious Privacy Concerns Massive Nuclear Secret Uncovered In Austin, Texas Secret Service Buys 26 Devices to Identify, Collect Wireless Communication Data Chuck Baldwin Warns Ron Paul Swing States This Year It’s Almost Time for Panic: 5 Disasters That Can Push Humanity Off the Cliff The 3 Stages of Crisis Looking Through the Other Side of Disaster Chinese Plot to Strip Americans of Firearms Police: Taser Used On Nude 80-Year-Old Woman Attempting Hit Officers With Cane Obama Plans Attack on First Amendment if Re-elected Shocker: AFL-CIO Shifts Resources Away from Obama, Dems Holder Faces Corruption Scandal, Too Rubio: Florida Illegal Voter Purge Not Targeting Hispanics Krauthammer Slams Obama on Economic Claims 3 Panicked Democrats Tell Obama: Your Economic Message is Failing U.S. Rebellion Ignited Against U.N. Globalization Cal Thomas Column: Just Who Are Calling 'Extreme'? Squealing Versus Killing Dennis Prager Q & A. at Denver Univ 4 Why You Absolutely Must Have Food Supplies, Hard Assets, and Reserve Cash Romney Is Right About the Importance of Being Able to Fire People Chuck Roast Grassley Wants 'Somebody's Scalp' Over Fast and Furious Grassley to Holder: "Cough Up the Docs" No Silver Lining for Obama in Slew of Recent Polls: A Comprehensive Disaster Dems Fret about Obama's Prospects Oh, Joy (Biach) Behar: 'I'd Like to See [Romney's] House Burn' Gingrich Annihilates Sharpton in Epic Food Stamp Battle Labor Unions Are Not Dead. They Are Reloading. Firearm-Friendly Towns in Idaho Lure Gun Makers GM Is Becoming China Motors 1 Unhinged: 'Crappy Sex Lives’ of ‘The Right’: Netroots Panelist Claims ‘Twisted’ Conservatives Have ‘Forced, Coerced, Nasty‘ Sex with ’Children & Animals’ ‘When Does it Move Beyond Self-Defense?’: Civil Rights Leader Questions Texas Dad's Killing of Daughter’s Molester 'You've Violated the Public Trust' Cornyn Tells Holder to Resign, Blasts Him Over Fast and Furious AG Eric Holder: Everyone Knows ‘In-Person Voting Fraud Is Uncommon’ 4 Judging the Damage from Obama's Leaks Navy Drone Crashes Off Maryland; No Injuries Poll: Obama Rapidly Losing Support Among Black Voters Law of the Sea Treaty vs. the Free Economy The 911 Call and 80+ Members of Congress Growing Independence from Both Parties US: Russia Sending Attack Helos to Syria Indiana First State to Allow Citizens to Shoot Law Enforcement Officers Issa Panel Sets Holder Contempt Vote King: Leaks Lead to White House Gallup Poll: Jewish Support for Obama Plummets to 10% N.Y. Dems Poised to Nominate Former Black Panther, Anti-Israel Radical for Congress Reward for Obama: 10 Camels! Somali Islamists Respond to US Bounty Non-Citizens, Convicted Felons Could Swing the Election for Obama Major Attack on US Naval Forces in the Straits of Hormus Hormuz Attack Story Updated Principal Bars Kids from 'God Bless the USA' Song at Graduation Cities Crack Down on Homeless: Compassion Fatigue? California: Blackouts Possible this Summer, Nuclear Plant Offline Fukushima Forum: Arnie Gundersen Compares U.S. and Japanese Nuclear Reactors 5-Year-Old Sings 'God Bless the USA' 3 Lawmakers Vow Crackdown on Leaks NDAA Unconstitutional: Federal Judge Bans Obama from Indefinitely Detaining Americans Obama Caught Lying Again: He Was Member of 'New Party,' Says Kurtz Axelrod Plays Dumb on Obama and Socialist 'New Party' Holder: Email with Words 'Fast & Furious' Not Referencing Fast & Furious Lawmakers Express Concerns with Holder Leadership Following Testimony Issa to AG Holder: Who Is Responsible for Operation Fast & Furious? 1 Capitol Hill GOP Lawmakers Ask Holder to Probe Harassment of Conservative Bloggers Bill Clinton: 'I'm Very Sorry' for Bush Tax Cuts Comments 3 The Eye-Popping Wisconsin Story You Didn’t Read The Awakening of the Average American Suicides Among U.S. Troops Averaging 1 a Day in 2012 Colorado Man Ticketed Rushing Pregnant Wife to Hospital 20 Minutes Before Birth Bank Runs, Food Shortages, Riots, Looting, Blood in the Streets. And That's Just Greece: 10 Things to Prepare for NOW A Primer on Shotguns Paracord: The Most Versatile Item in Your Bug-Out Bag Nuclear Cover-Up: Explosions, Military Helicopters Filmed Near Blacked Out Radiation Zone Engineers at Davis-Besse Nuclear Reactor Near Toledo Found a Pinhole Coolant Feds Arrest 190 Alleged Child Predators in Massive Undercover Operation Ted Turner Calls for Depopulating Two Thirds of the World Luke Rudkowski Reports Ted Turner: World Needs a 'Voluntary' One-Child Policy for the Next Hundred Years Meet John Brennan, Obama's Assassination Czar Wisconsin's Walker Survives Recall by Wide Margin Walker Victory Big Warning for Obama in Key Swing State Recall Victory's 4 Lessons 5 Reasons Why Labor Has Already Lost the Recall 10 Signs That America's Highways Are Being Transformed into a High Tech Prison Secure Communities Launched in D.C. on June 5, as City Leaders Object U.S. Military Is Operating Drones Domestically, Sharing Data with Law Enforcement Obama's Latest Drone Target: Who is Abu Yahya al-Libi? Colorado Police Halt 19 Cars, Handcuff Everyone to Find 1 Bank Robber The Government’s 'Boots on the Ground' When It Hits the Fan May Be Your Neighbors Today, The Anniversary of D-Day- America’s Greatest Generation- Desecrated by All of Us 11 Famed US Sites Named to Annual 'Most Endangered Places' List More Than 1.5 Million Texas Voters Could Have Registration Suspended Wisconsin Recall Election Monitored for Discrimination; Contests in California and New Mexico Is Fast & Furious Investigation Fizzling? 2 Marine: Obama Claimed He Was Born in Mombasa, Kenya 1 CBO Finds Obama Stimulus May Have Cost as Much as $4.1 Million Per Job Another Obama Record!… US Treasuries Lower Than Any Time During Great Depression Man Beaten for Removing Democrat Lawnsigns from His Yard Cops Gun Down Man for Legally Carrying Firearm Civil Rights Advocates Trying to 'Shoot Down' Drones Spy Drone Nearly Brought Down a Plane in Colorado U.S. Missiles Infected with Chinese Fakes '84,000 Suspect Electronic Parts Installed Zimmerman Turns Himself In Bilderberg 2012: Protesters Hail Their Hero, Alex Jones Does Obama Have a Winning Wildcard? Law Enforcement Officials Refuse to Identify Who Installed 'Mystery' Cameras on Utility Poles Throughout NY County The List: A to Z Survival for the Abysmal Times Ahead Craig Hulet on Surveillance State Is Here (first hour only of Brain Wars, starts 5:40 in) Cop: 'First Amendment Rights Can Be Terminated' 1 Feds Order Florida to Stop Purging Ineligible Voters from Rolls Obama Nobel Prize Winner Turned Hit Man-in-Chief? 2 Bilderberg 2012: Official List of Participants Professor’s Appalling Rant to Students: Cops Are ‘Piggish,‘ Conservatives Are ’Schmucks,‘ America is ’Perverse Place,‘ Need to Revisit ’Useful’ Marxist Concepts Just Making It Official: Rockefellers and Rothschilds Unite WH Insider: Obama in Serious Trouble And That Makes Him Very Dangerous Obama "Then and Now" Does He Live Up to 'Hope & Change'? 2 Obama Drug Use Choom Gang, Roof Hits and Total Absorption Muslim Brotherhood Infiltrates U.S. Public Schools? Response of Man Told He Couldn't Fly the American Flag in His Yard Bill Outlawing Abortion for Sex Selection to Be Voted on Today WH Says Obama 'Misspoke' After Poles Demand Apology Over ‘Polish Death Camp’ Remark Illinois Rep. Loses It Over Taxpayers Paying Teachers' Pensions 1 Miller: SWAT Rampage Destroys Iraq Vet's Home Over Guns Eric Holder, ACLU Lawyers, IRS Admin. to Advise 100s of Black Pastors on What to Say During 2012 Election WH Defends Terror 'Kill List' Birth Certificate Whac-a-Mole Thousand$ Raised to Help Jailed Honor Student Media and Activists Calling for Peaceful Resistance at Bilderberg 2012 Obama Awards Medal of Freedom to Avowed Socialist Earthquake Could Trigger San Onofre Shutdown EPA Celebrates the ‘Crushing’ of 1M Working Refrigerators War Drums: We're Ready to Stop Iran The Distinctive Trait of America Arabic Mandated in New York Public Schools is a Step Toward the Islamization of America And Exactly What Is Your Job About, Mr. President? It's None of Government's Business! Government to Fork: The Obama Garden American Holocaust and the Coming New World Order Foreign Agents Creep into U.S. & Canada Under Integration Scheme Drones Shot Down Over Texas New Mexico Named 'Riskiest State' in the US See Where Your State Ranks Amarillo by Morning (Smith and Wesson on My Mind) After Armageddon - A Look at a Post SHTF Situation VOW How Can Anyone Be a Birther? 100,000 Texas Students to Be Tracked Via Chips in IDs Meet Soros-Funded Domestic Terrorist Brett Kimberlin Whose ‘Job’ Is Terrorizing Bloggers into Silence Obama EPA Officials Visit Man at Home for Inquisitive Email Nuclear Sub Damaged by Fire Might Have to be Scraped Priest Removed from Ministry Due to Sex Abuse Allegations Now Works Security at Philadelphia Int'l. Airport Liberals Blame Obama’s Primary Humiliation on “Race” Law of Sea Treaty Faces Rough Water The Law of the Sea Treaty Will Sink America's Economy Why Are FDA Agents Armed? 1 Attorney Association Bans Biblical Marriage Conference Nuclear Sub Burns at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard: Cause of Fire Under Investigation Update on NDAA and Drones Flying Over the US 45 Signs That China Is Colonizing America related Photo of the Day Iran Navy Saves US Freighter from Pirates: Report Joseph Farah Lauds Lou Dobbs for Broaching 'Kenya-Born' Revelation Margaret Thatcher Adviser Talks Obama Eligibility Jack Abramoff Spotlights Obama's Brazen Violation of His Own Lobbyist Rules Crossroads GPS: "Basketball" 4 Nuclear Accidents Likely 'Every 10 to 20 Years' Obama Admin. Giving Away 7 Strategic Islands to Russia Just Lovely: Look Who U.S. Is Helping Now Planet Infowars: Rallying Point for the Resistance! Bain Backfire: Obama Camp in 'Full Damage Control Mode' Obama and Congress in Violation of Oaths of Office Levin: Obama's College Transcripts More 'Secret' Than Details of Bin Laden Raid Sheriff Joe Sends Detectives to Honolulu Obama is the Big Lie 5 Grave National Security Threats That U.S. Must Address Strategically Agenda 21 Conspiracy Theory or Threat Obama's Giveaway: Oil-Rich Islands to Russia Obamahontas: POTUS Claimed Cherokee Ancestry, Too Internment and Resettlement Operations: Field Manual 3-39.40, Feb 2010 HOLLY NOTE: Everyone should download and read this A Victory for All of Us New Bill Would Make It Legal to Target Propaganda, "Psychological Operations" Directly at U.S. Citizens The Top 50 Excuses for Not Prepping The Prepper Movement: Why Are Millions of Preppers Preparing Feverishly for the End of the World As We Know It? The Whole World Is Watching: NATO & The Chicago Summit Senate Dems Back Increase in Air Travel Fee to Close TSA Funding Shortfall 47 Treated After Chemical Explosion in Georgia Town NATO Summit: Loud Cheers as Those Arrested, Detained Released from Police Facility US-Pakistan Rift Complicates NATO Summit in Chicago Leadership Window Dressing at G8 and NATO Summits Sunday's NATO Protests: Sights and Sounds 2 City of Chicago Website Hacked, Back Online NATO Summit Protest Gallery USA's Creaking Infrastructure Holds Back Economy A Racial Revolution? N.C. Teacher Tells Student He Could Be Arrested for Talking Badly About Obama It’s a Crying Shame American Crossroads: Operation Hot Mic 5 Shocker! Obama Was Still 'Kenyan-born' in 2007 Obama’s Father Exposed as anti-White Terrorist by British, U.S. Intel Defense Contractors Eye Cuts to Jobs, Plants 30,000 - 100,000 Russian Troops Scheduled Within Next 7 Months - May 2, 2012 1 HOLLY NOTE: Not saying this isn't happening but the original figures were for 22 troops which bloomed to 30, then morphed to 100,000 and now it's 200,000 troops. This may be correct or it could be Internet rumor run amuck. We simply don't know. We are only 30 minutes from Ft. Carson and local papers have all reported Russian troops cross-training, but they are all sticking to the initial 22 head count. With that in mind, remember that prophetic info has been collected for years about a coming Russian/China invasion after our country has been severely weakened. This we believe prophetically correct so the aforementioned is not a crazy scenario. Trayvon Martin Documents Released Witness Told Cops: Trayvon Straddling and Punching 'MMA Style' Protest Erupts after All-white Jury Acquits ex-Houston Cop Over Teen's Beating GSA Caught in Another Spending Spree Congress Holds Hearing on Corruption, Abuse within TSA 2 Newark Airport Security Deficiencies Known by Obama, Congress? The Vetting - Exclusive - Obama's Literary Agent in 1991 Booklet: 'Born in Kenya and Raised in Indonesia and Hawaii' Part of NDAA Military Detention Law Blocked by New York Judge Arizona Official to Hawaii: Show Birth Verification Rush: Obama Planning Late-year Surprise? Judge Napolitano : First American to Shoot Down a Drone Will Be an American Hero 1 Dem Senators Want 30% Tax on Anyone Who Renounces US Citizenship Who Is Buying American Firearms Companies? Why? Regular Patrol Cops to Get “Ballistic Shields” in Florida Obama Administration Shrugs Off Contempt Threat Against Holder James Dobson Says the Family 'Will Cease to Exist' If 'Gay' Matrimony Prevails Bilderberg Technocrats Hacking U.S. Elections Election 2012 Prediction: Bilderberg Gets In Two Representatives Looking to Neuter the NDAA Half of Americans Support Homosexual ‘Marriage’ Congressman Darrell Issa: Second Amendment Hero Whistleblower Reacts to New Nexico Prison Rape Allegations Report: Nearly 10% of Inmates Suffer Sexual Abuse 5 Reasons America Is in Decline US Veterans to Return War Medals in Protest Obama Most Morally Bankrupt Imposter President in US History Influential Panel Calls for Steep Reduction of US Nuclear Weapons Credit Card Fraud Prevention Advice Census: Minorities Now Majority of U.S. Births It Can Happen Here Former Counterterror Chief: CIA Weakened Under Obama, Leaks Very Damaging Obama Steps Up Gay Marriage Fight Calls for Repeal of DoMA Colorado Civil Unions Bill Killed Before Reaching House Floor Gay Rights in the US, State by State Michael Savage: How Obama Fixed 2012 Election 1 New Obama Book Shocker: Kennedys and Obamas at War Caroline Considers Obama a ‘Liar’ The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House Top 9 Reasons Congress Is Broken Holder Could Be Prosecuted if He Stonewalls Gun Probe Any Further Global-warming Policies and the Threat to U.S. Commies Storm Obama Headquarters Praised Radical Group Founder as 'Great Reformer' Fuzzy Math on Energy White House Lied, Jobs Died Rainbow Circus, Global Economic Collapse and Thermonuclear War A Censored Race War? Foreign Wars Could Send Hoards of Third Worlders to our Shores in Coming Decades So You Want to Own a Gun (Part Three) 700 National Guard Homeland Response Force Troops Set to Train in New York 'First Gay President': Newsweek Marks Obama's Landmark Announcement with Controversial Cover 1st Gay President Cashes In 1 Economic Meltdowns, Global Warming, Guantanamo: How the World Is Disappointed in Obama's Performance and Broken Promises Feds' Intrusions into U.S. Farms and Families How Horrific Will It Be for the Non-Prepper? Terry Anderson, Black L.A. Talk Radio Host Listed Things Sen. Obama Said That Aren't Exactly Correct The Obama Golf Counter General Motors Is Becoming China Motors 3 Around World, Obama's Presidency a Disappointment NATO Protesters Gearing Up Geraldo Rivera Calls TSA Screening 'Manual Rape' $100 Million NATO Invasion of Chicago Coming Soon DHS Whistleblower: Obama to Commit ‘Reichstag’ Event to Enact Martial Law Kansas Lawmakers Pass Anti-Islamic Law Measure Facebook Co-Founder Renounces US Citizenship Obama Tied to Bill Ayers' Radical Leftist Organization from Age 11 Obama Selling Gay “Party Pack” Rev. Franklin Graham: Obama Has ‘Shaken His Fist at’ God 'I Am Not Going to Surrender My Office to the Federal Government,' Sheriff Arpaio Sheriff Joe Demands Obama Draft Registration Dems Revive Bill to Strip Sheriffs of Power MAP-21 Bill Could Revoke Passports and Force Motor Vehicles to be Equipped with ‘Event Data Recorder’ Society's Double Standard on Depravity Issa to Holder: ‘Fast and Furious Will Be Your Legacy’ Darrell Issa: Eric Holder Like ‘Waiting for Godot’ Obama’s Sordid High School Past: Drug Use, Black Nationalism Sorry, Joe, Most of Iran’s Nuclear Progress Has Come under Obama Surprise! Gay President Supports Gay Marriage America - Systemic Collapse (Pt 1) 2 Woman Accused of Cutting Baby from Womb in Kennewick Wants New Trial U.S. Military Conducts ‘Realistic Urban Training’ Exercise in Miami Military Training in the Middle of Miami Jolts Residents Out of Bed Chinese Group Plans to Construct a 200 Acre “China City” in Michigan Chinese Takeover of America Begins... Federal Reserve Clears Communist China for First 'Takover' of US Bank! Military Job Video... Internment Specialist Concentration Camp Guards in USA Russian Soldiers to Train at Fort Carson Raytheon Declares US Missile Interceptor Test 'a Success' Military Training in the Middle of Miami Jolts Residents Out of Bed House: No Gay Marriage on Bases Romney Reaffirms Support for Traditional Marriage Catholic Schools Could Be Breaking Law Over Gay Marriage, Warns Minister Gay Marriage is Obama’s Poison Pill Obama's Plan to Destroy the Republic Rick Wiles Interviews Doug Hagmann Regarding the Coming Civil War in America Al Sharpton: GOP Has Declared 'War on Black People' Time to 'Fire Back' 2 How the Oil Industry Deceived the US with Promise of Energy Independence Army Admits Re-Education Camp Manual “Not Intended For Public Release” Uncle Sam the Snooper American Freedoms Being Replaced with Illusion of Security Hurt: Obama’s Real ‘War’ Is Against the Elderly Obama Wants Power, Not Jobs Obama’s Same-Sex Evolution Takes Wide Stance on Homosexual ‘Marriage’ North Carolina Bans Gay Marriage Civil Unions, Too Killed in Colorado: Civil Unions Bill GOP Pushes East Coast Missile Defense Site Over 1,300 Tubes Damaged at Calif. Nuclear Plant Snapping Up, Locking Down the Land 'Green' Lawsuits Costing Taxpayers Millions Strange Anomalies in the Famous Situation Room Photo The Chicago Way: Justice for Sale at Holder's DOJ Issa to Holder: You Can Still Avoid Contempt If You Give Up Fast and Furious Documents Is Obama Negotiating Treaty That Would Essentially Ban All "Buy American" Laws? Obama: “2012 Is Make or Break for American Marxism” Obama Admin. Security Official: We Don't Need to Subpoena Reporters Anymore Because We Already Know Who They're Talking To Romney Silent as Supporter Insists Obama Be Tried for ‘Treason’ Obama's Secret Gun Control Plan! Dick Morris TV: Lunch Alert 2 Now a Witness to Breitbart's Death Vanishes The Planned Re-Election of Obama, Revolutionary Style Private Investigator Doug Hagmann Interview on TruNews AOW America Catering to Mexicans for Votes in Presidential Race U.S. Internment Camp: Prison for a New American Century Is Fast and Furious the Next Watergate? Ark. Congressman Wants to Disconnect $1 Billion Free Cell Phone Program Tracking Cellphones Compromises 4th Amendment Joe Biden on Gay Marriage Then and Now VP Biden on Same-Sex Marriage 3 Muslim Brotherhood Invades Tampa to Re-elect President Obama! 2 Special Warning: DHS Knows an Economic Collapse Is Coming and That People Are Not Prepared Leaked U.S. Army Document Outlines Plan for Re-Education Camps in America “We are Preparing for Massive Civil War,” Says DHS Informant Obama's Ex-Girlfriend: What Her Diaries Reveal Secret Files Missing at National Archives Due to "Chronic Disregard” Dictator Obama Issues New Threat to Supreme Court over ObamaCare Wave of Black Mobs Brutalizing Whites Since Trayvon Martin Slaying Obama Signs E.O. Declaring International Law for the UN Obama’s Midnight Madness: Prez Campaigns at Expense of Nation, National Security Issa Makes Case for Contempt Order Against Holder, Says 'Furious' Response 'Cannot Stand' “If I Wanted America to Fail” 1 Big Brother is Bipartisan, Good to Know Neo-Nazi Among 5 Killed in Arizona Home Shooting Facebook Users Heap Baggage on Spirit Airlines After Dying Vet Refused Refund Custody Battle Pits U.S. Mother Against Palestinian Father Who Moved His Kids to Gaza Seattle Mayor Issues Emergency Order After May Day Mayhem Shoot-to-Kill Order Enforced in No-Fly Zone During NATO Perverting Charity: One of America’s Largest Foundations Sets Aside Giving to Pour Millions into Liberal Political Causes Colorado Couple Downsizes to 127-square-foot Home 2 New Obama Slogan Has Long Ties to Marxism, Socialism Obama Has Yet to Understand That the Next President Will Be Cleaning Up His Messes SEALs: Obama Taking Credit for bin Laden ‘Cheap Shot’ Mark Levin Interviews Ex-CIA Chief Jose Rodriguez Who Says Pelosi Lied About Waterboarding Miller: Obama's Blame Game Gaffney: Wanted: A Competent Commander-in-Chief A Cynical Process: Labor Unions Have a Lot in Common with the UN U.S. Troops In Neighborhood Streets Fully Armed US Attorney General Eric Holder's Ballot to Vote Offered to Total Stranger 3 Top ICE Official Pleads Guilty in $500,000 Scam Human Colony Collapse Disorder: The Top 10 Countdown to Our Own Extinction Global Risk Consultant: World Is Changing But ‘Absolutely Foolish’ to Bet Against the US Polling Shows that Gun Love Is on the Rise Top EPA Official Armendariz Resigns Over 'Crucify' Comment Cyber Intelligence & Internet Spying: House Passes Draconian Internet Spying Bill Why You Should Be Afraid of CISPA ‘If You Don’t Have Any Guns, You Can Ask Eric Holder to Get Some For You’: Jimmy Kimmel’s Full Routine Authorities Refuse to Disclose Details of Chicago Evacuation Plan Virginia Lawmakers Agree to Reject NDAA 'Your' Car Won't Be After 2015 LAPD: Breitbart's Coroner May Have Died from Arsenic Poisoning 4 'Civilization Jihad' and Obama's Connections Republicans Prepare Contempt Citation Against Eric Holder Over Fast and Furious Report: Russian Troops to ‘Seize’ CIA Facility in Elaborate War Game... on U.S. Soil Russian Troops to Target Terrorists in America as Part of Drill Milwaukee Red Cross Told to Prep for Chicago Evac During NATO Summit Local NATO Hosts Red-Faced Over ‘Red Zone’ Militarization Plan Want to Know Just How Close the Muslim Brotherhood Is to the Obama Admin? 1 Michelle's Spanish Vacation Cost Taxpayers $500,000 Poll: Feds' Favorability Drops to 15-year Low Karl Rove’s Electoral Map: If Election Were Held Today, Obama Would Win The Romney Opportunity "More Than Any President, This Incumbent Is Willing to Say Things That Aren't in the Area Code of the Truth" Krauthammer: Biden Holds 'American Record for Wrong on Most Issues in Foreign Affairs Ever' Clinton Admin: US Secret Agents, WH Staff in Moscow Club Known for Sex, Drugs, Cop Raids - Report Labor Dept. Withdraws Farm Child Labor Rule Politics Stands in Way of Nuclear Plant's Future Americans Are Not Stupid - With Subtitles 5 Judge Wants Definition of 'Natural Born Citizen' Draft House Measure Demands Nuke Capability in New Bomber from Get-Go Jim Inhofe Rips EPA’s ‘Crucify Them’ Approach Report: Secret Service Involved in Second Prostitution Scandal Stealing Our Elections Obama Racialism, Fired Up in Jacksonville Obama Admin. Let Grenades Walk in Fast and Furious, Documents Show High-ranking DoJ Official to Resign Amid Fast and Furious, Virgin Islands Bribery Scandals TSA Screeners Allegedly Let Drug-Filled Luggage Through LAX for Cash Dad: TSA Got Aggressive With 7-Year-Old with Cerebral Palsy Dershowitz: Prosecutor in Trayvon Martin Case Overreached with Murder Charge Teen Charged with Hate Crime, Says He Was Mad About Trayvon Martin Contract Battle Sets Up Possible ‘Occupy’ Shutdown Attempt on Golden Gate Romney Promises 'Better America' after 5-State Primary Sweep Puts Pressure on Gingrich In the Social Media World, Rubio Would Be Romney's Veep Choice H. L. Mencken Says Obama Is Not the Problem IRS May Have Authority to Remove Your Right to Have a Firearm Secret Service Scandal Focus Now on Capitol Hill Pentagon Confirms Plan to Create New Spy Agency 3 More Agents Ousted in Secret Service Scandal, 2 Others Cleared Senior U.S. General Orders Top-to-Bottom Review of Military’s Islam Training No Charges Over 'Reverse Trayvon Martin' Shooting in Phoenix Area Bank of America's War on the Second Amendment Federal Communications Commission Is More Secretive Than the CIA Obama’s Enemies List 10 "Cannots" for Society! Justice Sotomayor: Tax Evasion, Perjury - What Did Obama Know & When? Agenda 21: The End of Western Civilization North Dakota Votes to Secede from Union Arizona: Countdown to the Showdown on S.B. 1070 Scandals, Scandals Everywhere! Homes Abandoned Amid Riot Warnings in Chicago House GOP Rejects Vote on Obama State Department Set to Cede Oil-Rich Alaska Islands to Russia Another Fraud Charge on Convicted Felon George Soros: Flying the Coop on His Fraud Company and a $39.4 Million Judgment Against It! Black Mob Beats White Man to Near Death When Is Race Important in Violent Deaths? Georgia Granny Thwarts 2 Would-Be Robbers in Shootout 10 Important Issues Only Ron Paul is Addressing New York Store Dedicated to 100% Domestic Merchandise 2012 GPA Redistribution Petition & Video Contest - Carthage College 1 Obama Increasingly Seeking Ways to Act Without Congress Lindsey Williams on Jeff Rense Spills the Beans Slaves or Not: the American Police State TSA Installs Undercover Agents on Texas Busses Domestic Drone Authorizations Iran Building Copy of Captured US Drone 18 Venn Diagrams Showing How Corrupted American ‘Democracy’ Really Is What Most Gun Nuts Get Wrong New Agency Office of Financial Research Stirs Orwellian Fears GOP Senators Accuse Obama of Lying About Scarcity of Oil Supply after USGS showed US May Have More Than 20% of World's Untapped Supply, Not 2% Another “False Flag” Operation Pending EU gives US Go Ahead for ‘Big Brother’ Snooping Surveillance Net: “Beyond Anything That Has Ever Existed Previously” Possible New Evidence Shows George Zimmerman's Bloodied Head Congress Is About to Pass Bill That Restricts Traveling, Driving and International Banking Ted Nugent Meets Secret Service: Was He Singled Out? Mass-Casualty Earthquake Drill Held in Ogden Social Security Administration Letting Tax Dollars Go Up in Smoke Pentagon Chief: 'We're Within an Inch of War Almost Every Day’ Does President Obama Take Too Many Vacations? 1 3 Out at Secret Service in Colombia Prostitution Scandal as Congressman Warns 'It's Not Over' No Joy in Democratville Regarding the Election Mark Levin: Obama Is an Imperial President Stop the Liberal Presses: NYT/CBS Poll Finds Trouble for Obama TransCanada Submits New Keystone XL Pipeline Plan Lindsey Williams on Alex Jones VOW 2 The Eligibility Issue Still Matters to Americans Obama: "We've Begun to See What Change Looks Like" (and it's ugly) Illinois City Official Accused of Stealing $30M from Taxpayers Governments Cash in on Carbon Taxes Red Alert: Draconian CISPA Bill Picking Up Sponsors Ahead of Vote Next Week Here's What You Need to Know About the Gov’t Possibly Mandating Vehicle ‘Black Boxes’ Legendary Dick Clark, 82, Dead of Massive Heart Attack Senate Dems Refuse to Produce a Budget for 3rd Year in a Row Blackhawks Circle Low Through Chicago Skies as Secret Service Releases Security Details 1 Shredding the Constitution All Aboard the Auschwitz Express: “People Don’t Want to Believe It” Appeals Court Upholds Arizona's Voter ID Requirement House Bill Limits Federal Restrictions on Hunting 10 Disgusting Examples of School Children Being Arrested, Handcuffed and Brutalized by Police 800+ Major Corporations and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Support Internet Freedom-Crushing CISPA Secret Service Looking into Ted Nugent Violent Anti-Obama Message Keystone XL Likely Dead Fukushima Daiichi and US Domestic Nuclear Crisis Record Number 1,800 Americans Renounce Citizenship Over Taxes The Babylonian Captivity of Washington: Israel Can Start a War and the US Can Do Nothing to Stop It Security Clearances Yanked for 11 Agents Accused in Prostitution Scandal GSA Exec Pleads Fifth on Capitol Hill Outrageous Spending 1 Join Demand to Investigate Mich. DNR Director Rodney Stokes Over Forced Shooting of Baby Piglets in Cold Blood Here's the E.O. re: Yesterday's New Item.: Supporting Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources Senate GOP Blocks Buffett Rule Bill Obama in Colombia: ‘Part of My Job Is to Scout Out Where I May Want to Bring Michelle Back Later for Vacation’ Little-Known DOJ Cell Watches Trayvon Martin Protests Helter Skelter Manufactured Crisis=Manufactured Race Wars The Real Obama: His Inner Circle 2 Poll: Pelosi Still the Least-Liked Member of Congress Obama's Bodyguards Sent Back to US after Prostitution Scandal Scandal Overshadows Obama Colombia Trip Obama: I'll Be Angry If Secret Service Prostitution Allegations Are True Issa on Scandal: Not the First Time Romney Warns NRA: Obama Coming for Guns Not-So-Smooth Operator: Obama Increasingly Comes Across as Devious and Dishonest Power Grab for Natural Gas New Executive Order Why America Is Devolving Towards Absolute Government Control - With America Headed Towards Socialism, Most Care Not Enough to Resist Ex-Reporter Sues After Alleged Police Brutality Deleted Off Camera The Nuclear Assassination of America Exposed Farrakhan Threatens: People Will Kill Their Leaders in a Few Days Former Hitler Youth Whistleblower Warns of America's Nazi Future 1 Big Sis Needs More Ammunition This Time for Training Obama Hammered for 'Jetting Around,' Taking Vacations While Americans Suffer Outmaneuvering Netanyahu - Obama's Iran Strategy Obama Abuses Words as Clinton Abused Women Something Wicked This Way Comes America and Titanic: a Shared Destiny? Obama Supporter, Rosen, Ignites Mommy Wars with Romney Rosen Didn't Misspeak; She Spoke Deliberately, with Passion Gambling on Security: Is America Safe Enough to Afford a Downsized Military? Napolitano Perjures Herself to Congress in Fast & Furious Testimony Twice as Many Unmarried Couples Having Babies City Council Awakens to Evil and Defeats It Cable Glitch Causes Porn to Air on Colorado Springs Channel Instead of Good Morning America US Military Stocking Up on Massive Amount of Anti-Radiation Pills Prepping for Nuke Fallout US Military Stocking Up on Massive Amount of Anti-Radiation Pills Prepping for Nuke Fallout Congress Flooded with Calls to Probe Obama Obama: Who's Your Daddy? 3 State Seizes Property Under ‘Green’ Zoning Laws, Terrorizes Man to Death Agenda 21's Eco-Fascism Bares Its Teeth Zimmerman to Face 2nd-degree Murder Charge 'Thank You, Lord,' Says Martin's Mother Tyson on Zimmerman: 'It's a Disgrace He Hasn't Been Shot Yet' Race War! Democrat La Raza (meaning The Race) President: Blacks, Hispanics Should Team Up ‘To Attack Common Enemies’ 1 Stealing the 2012 Election Planned!... A SPANISH Company NOT the American People Will 'Count' Votes in November! Allen West: I ‘Believe’ About 80 House Dems Are Communists, and Obama is ‘Too Scared’ to Debate Me Andrew Napolitano: What If the Gov't Rejects the Constitution? Map of the Dead Zombie Survival How Are Those Supreme Court Attacks Working Out for You? Obama as Farce Cities A Prepper’s Nightmare & Solutions Treasury to Cut Costs by Remaking Coins, Replacing Paper Nazi Engineers, Secret U.S. Military Bases, and Elevators to the Subterranean and Submarine Depths (Pt 1) DoD to Further Militarize U.S. Law Enforcement with Hundreds of Military Robots CISPA = SOPA 2.0? 1 US Military Sets Goal to Cut Power Grid Dependence Could Require $20B in Private Financing Gary North: Forget Moving Overseas American Universities Infected by Foreign Spies Detected by FBI Gas Prices Grow More Under Obama than Carter Study Claims ObamaCare Would Explode US Deficit Obama Receives Brazil's Ex-Terrorist President Oblivious to the Obvious Obama's Re-Election: A Stake in the Heart of the American Spirit This Is How Media 'Fact Checks' Obama? There's Truth, Then There's "Obama Truth" See Obama Double Speak Wall Street Insider: My God... My God... What Has Become of America? How NBC Editors Made the Zimmerman 911 Call Sound Racist Luxury Doomsday Prepper Shelters Being Built Into an Abandoned KS Missile Silo MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd Wants to Resurrect SOPA, Confirms Secret Negotiations WH Diverted $500M to IRS to Implement Healthcare Law Senate Budget Leader Predicts Budget Stalemate Through 2012 Campaign WH Ignores Congress, Sends All $1.5 Billion in Aid to Egypt O'Keefe's Latest: Voter Fraud Investigation Lands on Eric Holder's Doorstep 1 13 Ways Government Tracks Us What If Earth Day Explodes 4/22/2012. USA Is Not a Government! 3 Ted Nugent: Thank Obama for Record Gun Sales Globalist Plan to Disarm America New Black Panthers: Race War for Trayvon April 9th 'Day of Action' 2 (language warning) The Left’s Frontal Assault on the Supreme Court Kuhner: Obama v. Supreme Court President Would Weaken the Pillars of Our Republic to Get His Way Obama’s Bullying of Court Shameful Holder Says Court Power to Review Laws 'Beyond Dispute' Savage New Territory: Trickle Down Tyranny US Gov't. Orders 750+ Million Rounds of Hollow Point Ammo in 3 Years Leader of ‘DARPA for Spies’ Steps Down Obama's Budget: 'Interest Payments Will Exceed Defense Budget' in 2019 Man, 78, Beaten by Teens: 'This Is for Trayvon' Asked Why Gas Prices Are Going Up, Biden Gives 11 Minute Answer on Iran, Bombing Oil Fields 1 California's Nuclear Power Woes Obama Misquotes Bible on Wealth Redistribution They Party ... On Your Tax Dollars: Video Shows Feds Joking About Cost of Lavish Conference Arlen Specter: a Sty in the Public Eye US Plans to Deploy Combat Ships to Singapore: Panetta Islamic Indoctrination in Textbooks Obama Engaged in "Unhinged Attack," Hensarling Says Exposing the Obama-Soetoro Deception Former Obama Student: Obama's Ignorance of Constitution Embarrassing Judge Napolitano: I Think the President Is Dangerously Close to Totalitarianism 1 Hope for the Dead Andrew Napolitano Links Freedom from Government Control to Jesus' Resurrection Obama Is Making the Case for His Own Impeachment Arpaio: If DOJ Wants to take me to Court, Fine, I’ll Meet Them in Court Secrets of Prometheus Film Leaked 2 Gun Shops: Obama Re-election, Doomsday “Preppers” Still Driving Rocketing Sales USDA Orders 326,000 Rounds of Ammo as Homeland Security Stays Quiet Over 450 Million Round Order Police Officers Sentenced Over Katrina Killings Canadian PM Blasts Obama on Keystone: The U.S. Is an Unreliable Energy Partner School Changes Lyrics from 'God Bless the USA' to 'We Love the USA' 'It's On, Cuz We Don't Have to Worry About Re-election' Could the Pelican Brief Become Reality by the Assassination of Supreme Court Justices to Save Obamacare? WH Not Considering Slashing Deployed Arsenal to 300 Nukes: Expert Why the US Cannot Extract Most of its Oil Reserves Iran Says if Attacked by Washington "No Place in America Will Be Safe from Our Attacks" Iran Will Retaliate If Attacked, But How? No Limitations on U.S. Missile Defense: Envoy Russia to Consider Sanctions Against U.S. Romney Sweeps 3 Primary Contests, Eyes General Election Battle NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake Prevails in Unprecedented Obama Admin. Crackdown 3 Former WH Speechwriter Suggests Military Coup Could Oust Obama Full Text of Newsmax Column Suggesting Coup A Nation Arms Itself for What? Lawmaker Wants Hearing Over $820G Vegas Bash Oscar-Winning Producer Presents '2016': Investigative Obama Documentary World Trade Center Nears Landmark Height, Reaches 100 Floors President Obama Warns 'Unelected' Supreme Court Against Striking Down Health Care Law The Real Obama: Betraying Israel 1 Obama Imposes Martial Law Who Shrank Our President? Just 6% Rate Congress’ Job Performance as Good or Excellent US Draws Up Plans for Nuclear Drones Pentagon Activates Missile Defenses for NKorean Launch Affirmative Action Ban Upheld in California The Census' Broken Privacy Promise American Crime: Black on Black; Black on White Top Obama Campaign Donor Accused of Fraud Arpaio Takes Obama’s ‘Forgery’ to Public: "Biggest Constitutional Crisis Since Watergate" Occidental College Transcripts Reveals Obama Claimed Foreign Citizenship to Get Scholarship With GPS Data Out, Feds Eye Warrantless Cell Phone Surveillance Obama: Government 'Made This Country Great' (and we always thought it was the people!) Swing States Poll: A Shift by Women Puts Obama in Lead Homeland Security Targets Anti-Abortion Activists as Domestic Terrorists DHS Isn’t the Only Ammo Hog in the U.S. Civil War Has Begun: America Is Fatally Deceived Melissa Woodward: A Sex Slave's Story America is Freemasonry's "New Atlantis" UN Decides When We Go to War, Without Congressional Approval VOW 1 The Voter ID Battle Feds to Announce Distribution of $500M from Google The Trayvon Timeline: How Local Crime Story Became National Racial Outrage ABC News Doctors Zimmerman Video to Peddle False Story in Trayvon Martin Case Parents of Murdered British Students Criticize Obama Hurt: Brutal Week for Obama, the Worst of His Presidency Behind-the-Scenes Attempt to Kill Arizona’s Obama Eligibility Bill Hero U.S. Soldier Gives Life to Save Afghan Girl Lawmakers Press Obama to Help Avoid Defense Cuts Air Force Announces It's Upgrading the One Plane It Needs to Bomb Iran FBI Memo: Agents Can “Bend or Suspend the Law and Impinge Upon the Freedoms of Others” DHS Buying 450 Million New Bullets Fear Grows in Calif. Cities Near San Onofre Nuclear Plant EPA Climate Proposal Could Limit Coal's Future, at Least in U.S. 5 Arrested, Accused of Forcing High School Girls to be Prostitutes Obama Budget Defeated 414-0 Feds Refuse to Release Obama Draft Docs to Sheriff Joe Plans for a New Pipeline to Rival Keystone XL Lawyer: Zimmerman Police Video the 'Smoking Gun' Man Arrested at Philly Airport Over Alleged Bomb Family Demands to Know If Weapons Used to Kill ICE Agent Could Have Been Seized Before They Crossed into Mexico Jack Van Impe: Obama Has Been Chosen to Lead New World Order 2 CNN Poll: Obama Leads GOP Candidates Not Being Gay is Now a Crime Man Destroys Neighbor's House With Bobcat After Accusing Them of Selling Drugs 1Al-Qaida Warns Muslims: Time to Get Out of U.S. Al-Qaida Nukes Already in U.S. 7 Cities Targeted Why Obama's Open Mic Slip Could Seriously Hurt His Reelection Hopes The Terrible Truth Told by Obama's Open Mic Slip Issa Says Obama’s ‘Going to Sell Out Our National Defense After the Election’ Russian Media Expose Obama's Birth 'Forgery' Eligibility Invades U.S. Town-Hall Meetings Troubled U.S. Nuclear Plant to Stay Shut Down A Nuclear Blast of Any Size Would End D.C. as We Know It Freight Train Carrying HAZMAT Derails, Catches Fire in NE Indiana JetBlue Pilot Subdued After Total Meltdown on Flight Boston Loses Landmark Case Against Man Who Recorded Police Brutality The Audacity of Obama’s Intentions Revealed Obama’s Hot Mike Disaster U.S. Military Being Replaced With Obama's Own National Security Force?... Obama Youth Gestapo? 7 Rules of Bureaucracy "Guns" I Think You Should Read This Was Trayvon Martin a Drug Dealer? Women Don't Need Men Green Climate Fund Wants Immunity from Any Kind of Prosecution Obama: 'After My Election I'll Have More Flexibility' Insider Warned Us Obama’s Racial Division Plan Now Underway... Santorum to NYT Reporter: "Quit Distorting Our Words, It's Bulls---" 2 President Obama’s Hall of Blame Obama Replacing U.S. Military With His Own National Security Force? Dick Morris: Obama Has Assumed Dictatorial Powers The Presidents Book of Secrets VOW 2 U.S. Military Purging 'Birthers'? Thousands to Facebook Marine: We've Got Your Back National League of Cities Efforts to Ban Guns in America Through Your Local Government Group Teaching Homeless How to Invade Apartments 9/11/01: Failures of US Secret Service on Morning of 9/11: Call for Transparency "After America, There is No Place to Go" Trayvon Shooter 'Couldn't Stop Crying' After Shooting\ Witness Counters Trayvon Media Narrative Says 17-Year-Old Was Beating Zimmerman Before Shooting Gingrich Says President’s Remarks About Trayvon Shooting ‘Disgraceful’ Black Panthers Offer Bounty for Capture of George Zimmerman ...Calls for Lynching Leveraging Racism for Chaos Gateway to Communism Spike Lee Retweets Zimmerman’s Home Address Teacher Fired After Not Noticing 3rd Graders Having Oral Sex Under Desk Alex Jones Breaks Down the Martial Law System with George Noory 1 Martial Law Executive Order: History Should Cause Concern, Not Comfort US Intelligence to Keep Tabs on Americans With No Ties to Terror Kuhner: Obama’s Power Grab Screw Democracy! Obama Administration Will Give Muslim Brotherhood $1.5 Billion in US Aid Federal Judge Okays Flag Desecration Supreme Court Ruling: Victory for Property Owners, Defeat for EPA Gun Sales Explode as Election Looms Sturm, Ruger Can’T Keep Up With Demand, Suspends Sales Obama Administration's Plan to Cut Back Pilot Firearm Training Raises Security Concerns 'This Is Such a Crock': Limbaugh Calls Out President for 'Approving' the Keystone Deal Limbaugh on Obama's Keystone Pipeline Half Approval 2 Team Obama Selling Vulgar T-Shirts Prisoner Exodus in California Continues, Sparking Safety Concerns Human Fetuses Found in Luggage at Miami Airport Marine Faces Discharge for Being Openly Critical of President Obama 8th Graders Forced to Gather Opposition Research on GOP Candidates Sheriff Joe Wants Obama's Original Draft Card Asks Feds: What Steps Will Be Taken to Investigate Possible Forgery? The Selling of the Presidency, 2012 Joseph Farah Tries to Keep Straight Face Watching Propaganda Film Obama Caught Fibbing at Oil Field 1 Obama Tries to Spread Blame on Solyndra, Keystone The Militarization of America Super Rich Republican Donor Calls Obama ‘The Most Dangerous American Alive’ Ken Blackwell: Holder's ‘War’ on Voter IDs Decried as Obama Re-election Tool More Senators Express Disappointment in Holder’s Job Performance If I Were the Devil: Paul Harvey (Warning for a Nation) 2 OWS Protesters Dumping Fecal Matter, Urine Around NYC 4 Gaffe-a-Minute Biden Jokes Inappropriately About the Irish: 'Lubricating Has a Different Meaning!' MUSHROOM ALERT! Legislature to Vote on Dozens of Imaginary Budget Bills Today! Obama Doubles Down on Solar Energy Efforts Energy Industry Accuses Obama of Rigging Oil Numbers of Untapped Resources Feeding the Homeless Banned in Major Cities All Over America Obama Wants to Track You Why is Obama Lying About US Oil Reserves? 5 Dirty Secrets Obama Doesn’t Want You to Learn before the Election Huckabee: Does Voter ID Battle Make Sense? 3 Obama Executive Order: Takeover of Municipalities Drowning in Debt! Obama Bypasses Fossil Fuels to Burn Green Dollars The Obama Admin.: All Your Privacy and All Your Stuff Belong to Us The Real Obama: Absolute Power 1 Did the Obama Admin Give MSNBC Sensitive National Security Info on Movement of Nuclear Materials? US War Game Simulates Aftermath of Israeli Strike on Iran Gov't. Buying All 5.56 Military Surplus Ammo & Telling Ammo Dealers to Stop Selling to Vendors & Civilians Obama's Legalization of Slavery and Systematic Population Reduction A Video That Is Beyond Disgusting What the Mailman Knows about Ayers and Obama Obama Blamed Troubles on Fox News, Book Begich-Manchin Has One Purpose: To Keep the Senate Gavel in Harry Reid's Hands Tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve The Decline of American Power Continues 3 Grading the Nation: How Accountable Is Your State? 8 Get an 'F' on Corruption Rotten Deal? Despite Tim Tebow's Heroics, Broncos Bring in Manning Obama Executive Order: Peacetime Martial Law! New Obama Executive Order Seizes U.S. Infrastructure and Citizens for Military Preparedness Read Obama's Latest E.O.: National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order: Power Grab or Mere Update? Gov’t Study Asks: What Happens if Someone Nukes D.C.? Document: "National Capital Region: Key Response Planning Factors for the Aftermath of Nuclear Terrorism" Proposed UN Environmental Constitution for World Would Establish an Incredibly Repressive Global Governance The Chief Executive Has Just Declared: Congress Is Irrelevant “We Are This Far from a Turnkey Totalitarian State" - Big Brother Goes Live September 2013 The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) Tennessee Lawmakers and UN Agenda 21 Navy Expected to Recommend a Force of About 300 Ships Holder in 1995: We Must 'Brainwash' People on Guns Just 41% Say America’s Best Days in Future The Obama Flag, Who Decided It Would Be OK? A Black Man, The Progressive’s Perfect Trojan Horse Gunboats, Super-Torpedoes, Sea-Bots: U.S. Navy Launches Huge Iran Surge Castro Knew JFK wAs About to be Killed, Claims Retired CIA Intelligence Chief 2012 or Never Kuhner: Oust Obama President’s Globalist Doctrine Undermines American Sovereignty Activist: Voter ID Laws Aren't Discriminatory Ayers: 'Revolution' Needed to Stop 'White Supremacy' 4 78% of Voters: Don't Send US Troops to Syria He Thinks You’re Stupid… Obama Repeats Myth About US Oil Reserves ATK to Supply 450 Million Rounds of .40 Caliber Ammo to DHS Napolitano: Can the Secret Service Tell You to Shut Up? Road Open After HAZMAT Situation at Los Alamos Labs Announcing the Creation of FEMA Corps U.S., Britain to Agree to Release Emergency Oil Reserves FBI Warns of Homegrown Violence After Afghan Massacre U.S. Troops Numb... Blago Heads to Colorado to Serve 14-Year Sentence Courts or Polls May Be Next Stop in Pa. Voter ID Law Fight Texas Takes Aim at Blocked Voter ID Law UN Human Rights Council Will Investigate US Voter ID Laws Obama’s Words Disguise His Israel Foreign Policy Actions AFL-CIO Plans Door-to-Door Politicking for Obama and Other Dems Obama's Fix for Gas Prices: "Set Up Task Force to Look into Speculation" 30 Years Later, Same Vital Questions 2 Only 20% Say They Are Better Off Now Than 4 Years Ago Marines Forced to Disarm Before Panetta Speech in Afghanistan It's Not About ’Stuff‘ It’s About a ‘Mindset’: Beck and Panel Discuss Emergency Preparedness American Flag (Made in China) with Obama's Image Sparks Outrage at Florida Dems Regulation Nation: New Study Finds Obama’s Regs Cost $46 Billion a Year Poll: Government Officers Impeding Reporter Access to Info, Interviews Key Witness in Obama Passport Fraud Case Murdered in Front of Church The War Is Over, the War Is Lost, Bring Them Home Major US Airport to Evict TSA Screeners TSA Wasteland in Graphic Display Which Is Better - A Society with Loose Sexuality or a Society with Strict Rules for Sexuality? Residents Fleeing Puerto Rico More Natives Live in U.S. Than on the Island Why Are Millions of Americans Preparing for Doomsday? My Doomsday Tab: $130K on Bunkers, Guns and More Media Works Hard to Protect Obama on Gas Prices Media Cover-up of Obama Impeachment Exposed 1 Poll: 88% of Americans Vote YES to an Obama Impeachment Dead People and Clones Voting in Vermont Taliban Threatens to Behead US Soldiers Over Changing Our Country Into Several Countries Obama's Secret Plan to Soar Gas Prices Chuck Norris Exposes Strategy to Sabotage Americans at the Pump Obama Signs Anti-Protest Trespass Bill Obama Admin. to Congress: You’re Irrelevant Why Is Obama Administration Not Interested in Defense of the U.S.? Obama Is Killing America Mary Matalin Smacks Down Spitzer: We're Not Better off Than 4 Years Ago, "If Carter Was Malaise, This Is Despair" 3 Will a Sitting President Finally Be Held Accountable for High Crimes and Misdemeanors? Our Choice: Impeachment or Dictatorship Tom Tancredo Urges House to Begin Proceedings Against Obama ASAP Gun Sales Up 24%, Some See Link to Obama Re-Election Fears Gun Nation: Inside America's Gun-Carry Culture CAIR Hails 'Sharia' Victory in Florida, Presses Broader Agenda in Congress Obama Apologizes for Afghan Slayings, Still Ignores Mexican ‘Fast and Furious’ Murders US Military Turns Up the Heat on Rioting Mobs Planned Parenthood Accused of $6M Fraud Obama Quietly Prepares for Fall as Republicans Fight Gallup: Half of All Americans Call Obama Presidency 'Failure' Lou Dobbs: Report Details 21 Legal Violations By Obama Admin. 1 What Happened to “We the People”? Soros and Big Dem Donors Set to Clean Up from NAT Gas Act Keystone XL Pipeline Denied Lifeline Thrown by Republicans 'Sandhogs' Dig Massive Tunnels Under NYC 4 Why Putin Is Driving Washington Nuts Coup D’etat: Pentagon & Obama Declare Congress Ceremonial Texas Children Found Living in School Bus, While Parents Imprisoned for Embezzlement Exclusive: Unedited Obama Race Video Unveiled 1 High School Students‘ ’USA! USA!’ Victory Chant Deemed Racial Insult Free Speech in US, but Only in Designated Zones? Panetta: US Weighs Iran Strike Plans Reluctant U.S. Prepares Military Options for Syria New U.S. Air Force Energy Strategy Call for Nuclear Reactors in Space Arsenal of Weapons, Explosives Found at NY Home 12 States on Path to Guns With No Permits Panel Recommends US Customize Nuclear Power Plant Emergency Plans No Food Stamps for $1 Million Lotto Winner How to Beat a TSA Body Scanner and Flush a Billion Dollars Down the Toilet John Bolton Responds to Obama's Tuesday News Conference Calling It a 'Conscious Falsehood' 2 Confirmed: Obama's Birth Certificate Not Authentic 2012 1 Michelle Obama Attends $100,000 Per Couple Fundraiser Congress 'Criminalizing' First Amendment 'No Longer Need to be Conspiracy Theorist' to Worry About Police State The Era of the Creepy-State is Here Obama’s Missile Defense Madness The Scorched-Earth Politics of America's 4 Fundamentalisms How Much Does Obama's Campaign Know About You? Supreme Court Ginsburg Likes Use of Foreign Law Attorney General Holder Says Murder Is Legal Obama Second Term Odds Spurs Rash of Gun Buying Majority in 3 Key States Doubt Obama Eligibility Obama's Remaking of America Report: Wikileaks Emails from Stratfor Allege Osama Might Not Have Been Buried at Sea Holder Promises to Kill Citizens with Care Why Are We Still in Afghanistan? 'Make My Day' for Businesses Bill Fails in Colo. Senate Minorities Now the Majority in 106 US Cities The NDAA: A Clear and Present Danger to American Liberty Obama Sets NDAA Detention Guidelines Hawaii Official Now Swears No Obama Birth Certificate Is Obama Targeting Key Patriots on Enemies List? Malice in Wonderland as Barack’s Presidency Finally Runs Out of Gas Daylight: The Story of Obama and Israel VOW 1 Terrorist Lawyer Gets Big Justice Post Marines 'Starting to Look Ridiculous' Making Military Families Pay Barrasso: Strategic Petroleum Reserve Is for Emergencies - Not Political Disasters Senator: Obama's Acting Like U.S. Is USSR Obama Likens Himself to Mandela, Gandhi "Go to Hell Barack" Ad Greets Commuters at Washington DC Metro Station AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio Releases Results of Obama Birth Certificate Probe: ‘Forgery’ After $400M Fed Loan, 3rd Obama-Financed Solar Company in Trouble Breitbart's Last Investigation? Obama Michael Savage Raises the Question: Was Breitbart Assassinated? Alan Dershowitz: Media Matters Hurts Obama Media Matters to Dershowitz: 'Go to Hell' ‘Anti-Jewish Extremism’: Group Takes Out Full-Page NY Times Ad Blasting Media Matters & CAP The TSA Is Coming to a Highway Near You Must-Watch Video: Unsafe American Nuclear Plants Pt 1, Pt 2 2 Egyptian-Held Americans Freed after $300K-Each Payment Made Clinton: Build Keystone Pipeline on Alternative Route Springsteen's 'Wrecking Ball' Slams into Dire Times Publisher and Author Andrew Breitbart Dead Conservative Commentator Andrew Breitbart Dead at 43 3 In Memoriam: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012) Goodbye, First Amendment: ‘Trespass Bill’ Will Make Protest Illegal Obama Issues Another Unconstitutional Edict Arizona Sheriff Probes Obama's Birth Certificate The Autoworkers Obama Left Behind Holder Loses Cool During House Hearing When Asked About Fast and Furious ...Could Be Jailed for Ongoing Cover-up Occupy, Nation of Islam Hold Joint Rally Shooting a RINO The Coming Biological Warfare Attack in America FEMA Preparing “National Responder Support Camps” Eerily Similar to KBR’s “National Quick Response Team” Gallup Poll: 72% of Americans Call Individual Mandate ‘Unconstitutional’ George Soros Tells Progressive Donors Obama Might Not Be the Best Investment Obama Energy Chief Bombshell Admission ... Detention-prevention Bill Hangs in Balance Obama to Cut Healthcare for Troops It's Coming: Union, Leftist Leaders Announce '99% Spring?'... and Training in 'Places of Worship' Swing States Poll: Health Care Law Hurts Obama in 2012 11 Reasons to Get Your Kids Out of Government Schools Denver Anarchists ‘Urine Bomb’ Police 1 Silencing the Critics The Battle for the Soul of America TransCanada to Proceed with U.S. Southern Leg of Keystone Pipeline Global Warming Causes Amnesia How to Destroy America: A Speech by Governor Lamm 13-Man SWAT Team Raids Medical Marijuana Patients' Home KKK: Membership 'Booming' in Colorado Kirk Cameron's 'Monumental' Film Looks to Rediscover America's 'National Treasure' Great News: ObamaCare High-Risk Pools Cost Double Their Original Projections The Con Artist: We Can’t Afford a Sequel 3 Here Comes Obama's 3 AM Phone Call Wyoming Lawmaker Introduces Doomsday Bill to Prepare for Collapse of Federal Government Can Obama's Detention Plans Be Stopped? Is America a Police State Yet? It's Time D.C. Understood: 'This Is Our America' Obama Plays Race Card, Calls on Churches to Support Campaign Farrakhan Warns Race Hate Could Lead Obama Assassination Attempts 33 Ways to Encourage Atlas to Shrug 9/11 Foreknowledge Caught on Computers That Measure Global Mind Wikileaks Pairs with Anonymous to Publish Intelligence Firm’s Dirty Laundry Clinton to Muslims: Pay No Attention to GOP Campaign Talk Mark Levin Slams First Lady for Class Warfare Marxist Bullcrap! 3 Signs You're Living in Georgia States Sue to Block Obama Contraception Mandate Obama Brag: "I've Got Another Five Years Coming Up" 'Stupid' and Oil Prices US Preparing for Military Intervention in Syria? Obama Leading America to War Another Obama Lefty Confirmed to the Bench Little Background on Jesse Furman What Ron Paul’s Detractors Reveal Sen. Pat Roberts' Office Is Latest to Get Powder-Filled Letter Maryland Poised to Legalize Gay Marriage Homosexual Manifesto Threatens America 3 The Big Creep GOP Field Clashes in Heated Debate AP Fact Check: GOP Candidates Make Debate Claims on Bailouts, Budgets & Taxes Politics Obama Brags About Bypassing Congress - Again: ‘Joe and I We’re Going to Act’ Poll: USA More Hopeful on Economy, Not Politics Son of Marx Midair Helicopter Crash Kills 7 Marines This Forgotten Oil State Could Out-Produce Alaska and California Soon Grandfather Arrested for Holding Burglar at Gunpoint While Waiting for Police to Arrive Iran Missiles Could Hit US in 2-3 Years McCain to Introduce Cybersecurity Legislation Giving Even More Domestic Control to NSA, Military Virginia Votes to Refuse NDAA Free Speech for Conservatives The Basic Reason for America’s Constitutional Crisis New Government Initiative Would Circumvent 2nd Amendment By Targeting Ammunition Not Guns Americans' Satisfaction Almost as Low as It Was Under Carter Reigniting the Tea Party Movement 3 She Animal - The New Female Sexual Predator Obama State Department Set to Cede Oil-Rich Alaska Islands to Russia Top 10 Reasons to Elect Anybody But Obama Newt: 'You Can't Put a Gun Rack in a Volt' 1 Special Ops Forces Killed in Air Crash in Horn of Africa Infographic on the Greatest Gun Salesman in America: President Obama Attractive Females Targeted by TSA Agents for Multiple Naked Body Scans Illegitimacy Becoming the Norm Tween Dating on the Rise Ron Paul: U.S. ‘Slipping into a Fascist System’ Reversing Obama’s ‘Soft Despotism’ Gradually, Then Suddenly Santorum: 'I Wasn’t Suggesting the President's Not a Christian' Buchanan Liberated from MSNBC Constraints Just Weeks after 17-Day Hawaii Vacation, Michelle Hits Slopes with Daughters in Aspen U.S. Nuclear Plants Spark Concerns Behind 9/11: Hr 1, Hr 2, Hr 3, Hr 4 VOW Top Secret America, Pt 1: A Hidden World, Growing Beyond Control Top Secret America, Pt 2: National Security Inc. Top Secret America, Pt 3: The Secrets Next Door Top Secret America, Pt 4: Monitoring America American Politics in One Easy Lesson Maine GOP Recounting Caucus Votes (see yesterday's video) Overreach: Obamacare vs. the Constitution FEMA Solicits Firms to Monitor Media Coverage of Their Activities New Jersey Passes Gay Marriage Bill, Christie Expected to Veto 5 Reasons to Oppose Gay Marriage Bathing, Sex Habits Fair Game for Census? 2nd NC Mother Says Daughter’s School Lunch Replaced for Not Being Healthy Enough Miller: Obama’s Fast and Furious Spin Who Are Police Dash Cams Really Protecting? President Obama’s Plan to Kill Armed Pilot Program Obama's Nurse Ratched The Rising Fever of Despotism Obama's Catholic Church Gambit: Lessons from American Communists Boxer: Insurance Rights Trumps Religious Rights Maxine Waters Calls Republican Leaders 'Demons' Maine Prevents Ron Paul Victory Because of "Snow"!! Rampant Voter Fraud in Maine 2 Santorum Paid Double Romney's Tax Rate in 2010 FCC Cracking Down on Dinner-Interrupting Marketing Robocalls Americans Are NOT Stupid (Just Ignorant?) 4 It's Five Minutes 'Til Twelve - Pt 2 Investment Firm Fires WND Reporter for Exposing Scandal Ted Nugent (a bit extreme) on the 2nd Amendment 3 Insanity! Is Barack Obama Going to Unilaterally Slash Size of U.S. Nuclear Arsenal by Another 80%? HOLLY NOTE: First Panetta drastically cuts the military budget, then to meet these budget demands, the Pentagon may oust troops. Our Navy is smaller than it has ever been since 1917, the Air Force is smaller and older since its founding and now Obama wants to eliminate 80% of our best deterrent weapons. "Strength through deterrence" is on the chopping block. We are being neutered, made exposed and vulnerable. This not only puts our own country at risk, but all those who America protects. Obama's living up to his promise to "profoundly change America". Now we pay the price. Obama HAS GOT TO GO! Obama Provides a Hint of How He'd Fight Future Wars Is Obama Using the IRS to Silence Opposition Voices? Something Fishy? Deflated Valentine Balloon Downs Power to 15,099; No Explanation for 2nd Outage Affecting Another 21,000 When the Grid Goes Down, You Better Be Ready! What If the Lights Go Out? Panetta to Defend Cuts to Military in Budget Plan Pentagon May Oust Troops Involuntarily to Meet Reductions in Budget Plan Study: 1 in 8 US Voter Registrations Have Major Errors Chris Christie on Israel - and What It Means to Be a Leader NJ State Senate Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill Chris Christie Vows to Veto It Whitney Houston Lost Most of $100M Fortune After Years of Drug Abuse, High Living Media Matters' War Against Fox Judge Napolitano: WhatIif Democracy Is Bunk? 1 ObamaGenius: ‘Since My Chevy Volt Won’t Sell, I’ll Penalize Americans $2,500 More Per Vehicle Sold’ Whitney Died of Prescription Drug, Alcohol Combo, TMZ Reports NRA: Obama Will 'Erase' 2nd Amendment Next Term Former DEA Chief: 3 Other Agencies Knew About 'Fast and Furious' Ted Nugent Speaks Out Against Obama and Gun Control 3 Obama "Accommodation" to Religious Groups Changes Nothing: New Policy Simply Moves Contraceptives to List of Basic Services Beauty and the Beast...the Beast State is Turning on the Church Samuel L. Jackson: 'I Voted for Obama Because He's Black' HOLLY NOTE: This is as mindless as women who voted for Bill Clinton because he had great hair. America’s Monarchy, Are They Forcing New Revolution? 2 Fox Business News Axes Freedom Watch It's Five Minutes 'Til Twelve Obama Hands Over Sovereignty to UN! Dick Morris TV 1 Chuck Woolery on Democracy 4 Obama to Cave on Birth Control Rule, But How Much? Santorum: Obama Leading Christians to the ‘Guillotine’ LAPD Pioneers High-Tech Crime-Fighting ‘War Room’ The Corruption of America Appeals Court Rules Against California's Voter-Approved Ban on Same-Sex Marriage Washington Lawmakers Pass Gay-Marriage Bill 2 Judges Against 7 Million Voters Birth Control Fight Threatens Democrats Most D.C. Workers Won't Be Prosecuted in Fraud Case Justice Ginsburg Should Resign 1st Nuclear Reactors Approved for Georgia Since 1978 White 'Cobwebs' Found in Nuclear Waste Pool A Nuclear Threat to Our Health The Great Shakeout: Earthquakes Affect Reactors, Too World's Last WWI Vet, Florence Green, Dies at 110 Two Parties = Zero Difference. The Horrors of Big Government. 1 F.E.M.A. The Secret Government as Described on X-Files 3 Chuck Woolery on the Zombie Apocalypse 2 Santorum Finally Gets His Moment South Carolina Sues Justice Department Over Voter-ID Law Block Drones Over U.S. Get OK by Congress How Hypocritical Is Barack Obama? Why 21 Democratic Senators and 1 Sitting President Must Be Defeated NY Times Publishes Hit Piece Against US Constitution as FBI Demonizes Americans as Possible Terrorists FBI Says Paying Cash for Your Morning Coffee a Potential Terrorist Activity, Urges Coffee Shop Owners to Report Cash-Paying Customers Air Marshals Gone Wild! Tales of Sexism, Suicide and Bigotry 'Doomsday Preppers' Highlights Extreme Survival Techniques HOLLY NOTE: Stan and I watched the first two episodes. As expected, NatGeo made preppers look ridiculous and extreme. States to Feds: Take This Law and Shove It Clint Eastwood: 'I am Certainly Not Affiliated with Mr. Obama' Obama Reverses Stance, Previously Described Super PACs as "Threat to Our Democracy", Now Urging Unlimited Donations Obama: I'm Getting 'Better as Time Goes On' Candidates: Obama Violating Freedom of Conscience Obama Admin. Faces Backlash Over Rule Ordering Birth Control Coverage Army Told Chaplains Not to Read Catholic Letter Fast and Furious: Josephine Terry to Holder, ‘What a Joke You Are’ ACORN Is Up to Its Old Tricks Sheriff Joe sets D-Day on Obama's Eligibility Problems at California’s San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant Could Have Lead to Meltdown Are There Holes in Pipeline Transparency? "Bold Alligator 2012" Drills 20,000 Troops on US East Coast for Persian Gulf Action Wake Up, America 4 Mo. Teen Describes Killing as Amazing, Enjoyable President Obama: 'I Deserve a Second Term' Americans Are Better Than Who Obama Thinks We Are America after Obama Blockbuster Revelation! - Mini Documentary - Illegal Obama "Propped Up" by Congress! 2 Romney's Nevada Win Leaves Rivals Few Options Gingrich’s Deep Ties to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Senate to Vote on Bill That Could Kick TSA Out of Airports Tennessee Begins Push Back Against NDAA Tyranny Egypt to Try 19 Americans in Case Straining Ties Most Expensive Red-light Cameras Bring in Calif. Millions Is a Fukushima-level Event Inside the U.S. a Foregone Conclusion? Controversial Artist Depicts Obama Trampling the Constitution The Forgotten Man - Jon McNaughton 2 Watch This Year's Super Bowl Ads - and Read Expert Reviews Exclusive: Israel Warns US Jews: Iran Could Strike Here Santorum Warns of Doomsday Under Obama Doug Vogt’s Mega Neutron Bomb on Obama’s Eligibility 1 How’s That Hopey-Changey Stuff Workin’ Out for Ya? Number of U.S. Expatriates Continues to Soar. Holding Holder's Feet to 'Fast and Furious' Fire 3 Criminal Rot Spreads Through Justice Department Colorado's "Make My Day" Law Advances for Businesses Mitt Romney and Poor Americans 2 TSA Trains Super Bowl Hot Dog Sellers to Spot Terrorists San Onofre Nuclear Plant Radiation Leak, Worn Tubes Raise Concerns Egyptian Kidnappers Reportedly Free 2 American Tourists Roseanne Barr Seeks Green Party Presidential Nod Rosanne Singing National Anthem 4 Q: Did DOJ Know About 'Furious'? A: Memo Says Yes, a 'Terrific Idea' Panetta: U.S., NATO to End Afghan Combat Mission Next Year Obama's NDAA Makes it Harder to Fight Terrorism Cite Obama with Contempt, Lawyers Urge Sen. Lee: Obama's Consumer Bureau Set Up in Manner ‘Reserved for Despots’ Outrage Intensifies Over Labor Dept. Proposal to Ban Children from Doing Some Chores on Farms Police State USA War Through Weakness? 2 Texas Missionaries Murdered in North Mexico It's Baaack! The Plan to Kill Talk Radio San Onofre Nuclear Plant Closed After Radiation Leak NRC Concerned About Seismic Activity Around Nuclear Reactors Trump to Endorse Romney, Sources Darrell Issa Threatens Eric Holder with Contempt Over 'Fast and Furious' Are Big Media Covering Up Fast and Furious? New Risks for Nuclear Plants: Reactors in Central, Eastern U.S. Face Greater Earthquake Threat, Study F-35 Story Shows Why It's So Hard to Cut a Federal Program Bungling TSA Agents Find 2 Pipe Bombs at Airport… Wait 6 Hours Before Calling Cops Dems: Arizona Officials to Blame for 'Fast and Furious' Scandal Obama Eligibility Challenges Spread to 6 States Media Blackout in Obama Georgia Ballot Eligibility Case Obama Eligibility Court Case…Blow by Blow Obama: The Most Polarizing President. Ever. No More Leading from Behind for America ON FIRE: Paul Ryan Completely Dismantles Obama 1 President Obama's Civilian Soldiers Obama Sandbags the Archbishop GBTV: Predictions Come True Part 2 3 Nuclear Plant Vents Radioactive Steam onto Downtown Chicago 2 Illinois Nuclear Reactor Shutdown Probed NRC Wants U.S. Nuclear Operators to Adopt New Seismic Model Leaky Nuclear Plants vs. Renewable Pipe Dreams 300 Arrested in Occupy Oakland Protests; Police Say Some Broke into City Hall Tea Party Fight Coming 1 Police Usage of Armored Surveillance Vehicles Becoming More Widespread Presidential Commission: Directed Energy Weapons Used on American Citizens in Tests New Jersey Assembly Committee to Consider Ammo Ban & More GMO Food and Unconstitutional Legislation Hr 1, Hr 2, Hr 3, Hr 4 HOLLY NOTE: During the 2nd hour, audio experiences periodic drop outs, but is clear after that. Be patient, this is a "must hear" interview. VOW Pentagon Looking at Bigger Bomb, Navy SEALs Mothership for Persian Gulf Military Conducts Dramatic Helicopter Maneuvers Over Downtown L.A., Learning How to Operate in Urban Areas Egypt Preventing US Citizens from Leaving U.S. Prepares for Unmanned Warfare Peak Oil Crisis Being Compounded by Refinery Closures U.S. to Lose Out Yet Again on Developing Cuba's Offshore Oil? Despite Current Oil & Gas Boom, Obama Admin. Deserves No Credit Obama Accused of Disrespecting Court, State, Americans Obama Birther Court Hearing in Georgia 1 Buy Buy American Pie 4 The Vote Pump: Obama Will Have $1B to Spend on Re-election 2 Georgia Warns Obama of 'Peril' of Ignoring Eligibility Hearing Hearing to be Broadcast Live This Is the One Obama SOTU Clip That Has Beck So Upset Familiar Rhetoric, Failed Record 1 Obama Calls on Energy Companies to Disclose the Ingredients of Fracking Fluid New Pentagon Plan Focuses on Drones, Special Ops, Cuts Traditional Forces MII PIC Obama Pushes for New Taxes, More Spending in State of the Union FACT CHECK: Obama's 2012 State of the Union 'No Spin' State of the Union 1 Minuteman PAC Warns of Imperial Presidency Picket: Obama Ignores Call from Americans to Build Keystone Pipeline Harper Builds Oil Link With China After Obama Keystone ‘Slap’ Drawing a Pipeline in the Sand: GOP Determined to Make Obama Pay for Nixing Keystone Obama’s America: A Tired Old Mare Elites Pushing Class Warfare is Just Another False Paradigm A State of Class Warfare If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA Charlotte City Council OKs Expanding Police Power During DNC The Right to Bear Arms: Over 10,800,000 Guns Sold in the USA in 2011 Battle Los Angeles: Joint Military Training Exercises in L.A. Seek to Prepare Soldiers for Urban Warfare Same SEALs Who Killed bin Laden Rescue US and Dane Hostages Held in Somalia SOPA and PIPA Fully Alive And a New Bill Joins Them Obama Not Scheduled to Appear in GA “Birther” Hearing Despite “Order” More Obama Constitution-shredding Another Obama State of the Union: Let Us Count the Lies Romney Tax Return: $21M Income, $3M Charity, $3M Taxes Why Do Soldiers Overwhelmingly Support Ron Paul? More on Ron Raul TSA’s Endorsement of Rand Paul for President in 2016 Police Preparing for Riots / Martial Law / Economic Collapse Third World America: Bodies Driven to a Pauper's Burial in a U-Haul Multiple Nukes Going Off in U.S. Cities The Disarmament of America, Part 2 UN Small Arms (Gun Confiscation) Treaty to be Ratified by the US Senate in 2012 1 ‘Occupiers’ Throw Bibles, Allegedly Urinate on Cross Police State USA and the NDAA: Creating American Terrorists 1.4 MILLION Gang Members and More Pour into the U.S. Every Single Day Iranian News Sources Claim Obama Recognizes Iran's Nuclear Rights U.S. Bridges, Roads Being Built by Chinese Firms 1 Newt Gingrich Denies Bohemian Grove Existence: Some People Have "Fantasy Lives" 2 Witnesses Document Potential Vote Fraud in S.C. Primaries First Phase: US Deploys 12,000 Troops in Libya The Next SOPA Obama’s 32 Month Report Card Georgia Judge Orders Obama to Appear in Court Atlanta Paper Sorry for 'Kill Obama' Article ‘God’-awful OWS Mob Steals Sacred Item from Church The Pig in the XL Pipeline Americans Preparing for Civilization's Collapse Safe Firearm Storage at Home CONUS: Woodland Military Equipment Movements Ramp-Up as Investigation Continues US to Keep Just 11 Aircraft Carriers to Show Sea Power White Middle-Schooler Beaten Unconscious by Group of Black Students Carney Dodges Question About Obama's College Transcripts: "I Would Refer You to the Campaign" Federal Official in Arizona to Plead the 5th and Not Answer Questions on Fast and Furious Nugent: Fast and Furious Stinks Creeping Authoritarianism on Capitol Hill SOPA and PIPA Part of Effort to Domesticate Politically Incorrect Internet Vote on PIPA Internet Censorship Bill Postponed Miller: Simple Entitlement Reform Worries Over "Occupy Super Bowl" Former Sen. Chris Dodd Calls Largest Internet Protest in History a "Gimmick" Obama Names Turkey's Erdogan Among Top 5 International Friends More Harmful Foot-Dragging from Washington Obama Argues Against Appearing at Eligibility Hearing Debate Audience Protests CNN Attempts to Exclude Ron Paul A GOP Candidate's Bitter Ex-Wife Receives More Coverage Than Video of Obama Dining with Terrorist-Supporters Obama's Impressive List of Accomplishments Kuhner: Opposing Obama Is Not Racist NDAA THE Single Most Dangerous Legislation Ever Passed Hr 1, Hr 2, Hr 3 - must hear Why the NDAA is Unconstitutional Ron Paul Introduces Legislation to Strike NDAA’s Unconstitutional Section 1021 Ron Paul Introduces Repeal of Indefinite Detention in NDAA The Emperor Barack Obama Is, in Fact, the Food Stamp President Iowa Caucuses a 'Split Decision' InsiderAdvantage Poll: Gingrich Now Leads Romney in S. Carolina ...Will That End Tonight When Ex Airs Dirty Laundry? Perry Dropping Out May Endorse Gingrich Indiana Unveils First License Plate for Gay Youths Obama to Reject Keystone Pipeline There Goes Tens of Thousands of Jobs Feds to Start Their Internet Grab Wikipedia, Other Websites Go Dark in Anti-Piracy Bill Protest Why Wikipedia Went Down at Midnight 2 Glitch? Here's How to Beat Wikipedia’s Blackout SOPA Explained: What It Is and Why It Matters The Secret Behind SOPA Recipe for Vote Fraud: Global Internet Voting Firm Buys U.S. Election Results Reporting Firm NYPD, Feds Testing Gun-Scanning Tech, But Civil Liberties Groups Up in Arms TSA Apologizes to Elderly Women for Strip Search at Kennedy Airport 100 American Contractors Have Been Detained by Iraq in 2012 State Department: U.S. Not ‘Overly Concerned’ About Iraq Detentions Problems Plague Cleanup at Hanford Nuclear Waste Site How to Divert the Unprepared from Your Preps 'Constitutional Crisis' from Recess Appointments? Mark Levin: ‘We Now Live in a Post-Constitutional Country’ Are You Ready for the Coming One World Government? US Prepares for War Against China (see Video of the Week) Life in Orwellian Times The Enemy Expatriation Act, No Different Than the Nazi Nuremberg Laws (H.R. 3166; S. 1698) Big Government to End Internet Freedom NDAA and Patriot Act are Unconstitutional, Therefore Void & Powerless SOPA Headed for Major Makeover in Face of WH, Internet Opposition Wikipedia to Shut For 24 Hours to Stop Anti-Piracy Act WH Letter Defends E-Parasite, Anti-Internet Bills A Power Play in Congress and How to Stop It CNN Poll: Congressional Approval Hits All-Time Low Congress Logs Most Futile Legislative Year on Record Guns, Gold, and Spirit of Jefferson Rise Again Single State Defies Obama Detention Plan New Space-Arms Control Initiative Draws Concern New Navy Budgets May Sink Plans for Aircraft Carriers Harry Reid's Magic Glasses 3 Obama Reorganization Bid Faces Challenges on Capitol Hill Another One Down, Huntsman to Drop Out, Back Romney NDAA: Death to Due Process Dead On Arrival: SOPA Shelved Indefinitely, Obama Succumbs to Pressure, Issues Official Veto Threat On SOPA, Obama Walks Thin Line As Keystone Pipeline Decision Looms, WH Suggests Deadline Is Too Soon As Obama Dithers… Canadian PM Harper to Travel to China to Sell Oil Eric Holder, Voter ID, and the Chicago Way The Left's War on Voter Fraud Reform How Progressive Race-Baiters Destroyed Civil Rights Progress in America Top 10 Obama Revelations The Abolition of Gender How to Prepare for the Difficult Years Ahead New Bill Would Allow U.S. Government to Revoke Citizenship Without Conviction Another Tyrannical Success for Lieberman: Enemy Expatriation Act Now Law Under NDAA Judge Napolitano - What If It's About Them 1 States Still ‘Gun’ for Unsuspecting Firearm Owners History Repeats Itself with the NDAA; Pentagon Furious Obama Czar Proposed Government ‘Infiltrate’ Social Network Sites Panderer-in-Chief: Why Obama's National Security Record Is Weak and Dangerous Obama’s Race Pandering The Obama-Brotherhood Love Affair Heats Up How's That Government Meddling Workin' Out for Ya'? The Disarmament of America Presidential Candidate Gun Record Guide Court Sets Back Oklahoma's Proposed Ban on Islamic Law Cop Killing in Arizona Connected to Fast and Furious? 11 Shocking Home Invasion Horror Stories That Are Almost Too Creepy to Believe Miss. Judge Blocks Release of 21 Inmates Given Pardons by Gov. Obama Targets Facebook, Twitter, Drudge Rights? In the New America You Don’t Get Any Rights! Nationwide Poll: Ron Paul Surges into Second Rush: Romney Admits He’s Just Like Obama 2012 Candidates on the Issues: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Barack Obama What If Elections Don’t Matter? The Real 99% 1 Veterans Court Under Way in Calif County Sarah Palin Rips Michelle Obama: ‘Are We Just a Bunch of Numbskulls?’ Michael Savage: Look Out, She's Going to Vote! New Jersey Will Pay You $1000 To Destroy The 2nd Amendment Turn in Your Neighbor for Owning a Gun....get $1000 Reward in Newark, NJ 1 Supremes: EPA Actions ‘Outrageous’ California Educators Normalizing Deviancy? Mississippi Gov. Pardons 210, Including Murderers, Rapists President Obama vs. Republican Candidates Write-In Campaign for Clinton Underway in New Hampshire 2 Michelle Obama: Tired of 'Angry Black Woman' Stereotype Issue Snapshots: Positions of the Republican Presidential Candidates, at a Glance Enviromentalism Path to Global Dictatorship TSA Annual Report Proves It's Useless Navy Readies for Chinese Power Grab on Shipping Vet Illnesses & PTSD Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3 must hear Fidel Castro on Obama: A Robot Would Be Better As George Soros Planned Final Implementation of Obama Dictatorship in Progress on All Levels Complacent Conservatism Is Allowing America to Slide into the Abyss Environmentalism Path to Global Dictatorship Ron Paul and Israel CBS Poll: 58% of Republicans Dissatisfied with GOP Field Obama's Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps Non-citizen Voting in Connecticut The Top 5 Reasons Obama Must Be Removed as Commander-in-Chief (HOLLY NOTE: This is a mere scrape at the long list) US Schools with Their Own Police Iran Sentences American to Death in Spy Case The Answer is NOT "Anybody But Obama" ** 1 Ron Paul Likens Obama to “Dictator” Over ‘Recess Appointments’ Feds Find Failures in Cook Co. Homeland Security Project How Homeland Security Monitors Its US Journalists New Clancy 'Rainbow 6' Vid Game Labels OWS Protesters as New Domestic Terror Threat 500,000 Military Layoffs Planned as Obama Argues for Federal Pay Hikes and Need for $103K/year "Invitations Coordinators" Obamas Held Secret Alice in Wonderland Halloween Party at WH in Depths of 2009 Recession California Jails Release 57 Inmates Early Oil Storm VOW Obama to Gut Military Takes Flak on Defense Downsizing Why Are More Women Buying Guns? GA Judge Denies Obama Motion to Dismiss Complaint That Would Keep Him Off the Ballot McCain: 'This President Leads from Behind' Training Excercise Startles Locals Agenda 21 Strikes Back Stacy Lynne Arrested Son Taken Obama and Dictatorship Obama Lies 4 Times in 1 Commercial Court: Obama Must be ‘Constitutionally’ Eligible Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death: 2012 NDAA Ron Paul in His Own Words on Drugs and Prostitution 2 Planned Parenthood Kills 329,445 Babies in 1 Year Using $487.4 Million in Taxpayer Funds Will Generation 'Gimme' Work for the American Dream? Eye-opening Insight into America's Youth Warning to America: ‘We Are at Crossroads’ Gun Makers Baffled by ATF Criteria Nugent: Pay Lawmakers What They’re Worth: 10 Bucks America’s Meddling Abroad: Pat Buchanan rips 'Neocons and Democratists' U.S. Funds to Disrupt Elections Eyes Turn to Virginia as State Weighs Voter ID Law Knight: Voter ID terrifies Democrats America is an Insecure Empire with Catherine Austin Fitts ACLU Leader on Signed NDAA: "Obama's Action Today Is a Blight on His Legacy" Obama's Signing Statement on NDAA: I Have the Power to Detain Americans... But I Won't Obama's Golfing Ruins Christmas for Marines and their Families Ron Paul’s Soros Defense Plan Game Over: Tyranny Revealed 40,000 New Laws Go into Effect Witch Hunt in the Heartland New Nationwide FEMA Camps Should Raise Eyebrows No Rest for Conservative America, the ‘Sleeping Giant’, in 2012 10 Things to Do to Survive 2012 Andrea Mitchell: Iowa Is "Too White, Too Evangelical, Too Rural" 'Occupier' Stabs Cop on New Year's Eve in Zuccotti Park 68 Occupiers Arrested in NYC on New Year's White House Mulling Policy Shift Toward Taliban? L.A. Arson Wave Grows to About 40 Fires; Most Since 1992 Riots Purposeful Dumbing Down?: High School Diploma Requirement Might Violate Americans with Disabilities Act

Secretary of State John Kerry, fresh off his confirmation, spoke with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Also over the weekend, two top State Department officials dealing with Iran’s nuclear threat said they would be stopping in Israel during overseas visits, and IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, was visiting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey in Washington. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told Reuters that Kerry “underscored his personal commitment and that of President Obama to support Israel’s security and to pursue a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.” Kerry, who plans to visit the region next month, also spoke to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The State Department in a statement laid out the agenda for the two State Department officials – Rose Gottemoeller, the acting undersecretary for arms control, and Thomas Countryman, the assistant secretary for nonproliferation. Countryman will “meet with Israeli counterparts to discuss nonproliferation and international security issues of mutual concern,” and Gottemoeller will “consult with senior civilian and military officials on pressing regional security issues and expanding our enduring strategic partnership” and deliver remarks at a conference on nuclear nonproliferation, the statement said. The Obama administration has indicated that it is seeking to engage with Iran in direct talks aimed at ending Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program. Iran says its nuclear activity is strictly peaceful. The IDF said generals Gantz and Dempsey will “discuss current security challenges, the regional security status in the Middle East and military cooperation.”JTA About the Author: If you don't see your comment after publishing it, refresh the page. Our comments section is intended for meaningful responses and debates in a civilized manner. We ask that you respect the fact that we are a religious Jewish website and avoid inappropriate language at all cost. If you promote any foreign religions, gods or messiahs, lies about Israel, anti-Semitism, or advocate violence (except against terrorists), your permission to comment may be revoked.

Innovation for energy transition: time and money |septembre 21, 2013||Posté par Pierre Papon sous Brèves|| The French government deciding recently the revival of an industrial policy has labeled thirty-four industrial projects among which six at least have an energy dimension (such as a car 2 litres/100km, batteries with long autonomy, charging stations for battery, biofuels, smart grids , etc.) . . This approach is undoubtedly positive even if it differs from that of yesterday “Colbertism” which, in post-war France, has initiated major technological programs (“Grands programmes “ according to the French terminology) which had led to the emergence of the nuclear and aerospace industries (but lead to the failure of the Plan Calcul for computers). The new projects will indeed be driven by companies. Most of the energy systems of the future, particularly in the field of renewable energy, will use much more than in the past, a great variety of techniques and therefore the most diverse scientific skills (physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, etc.), so that major technological programs à la française are probably no more suited to energy technologies development (although the question problem remains for nuclear energy). The success of the new French industrial plan relies on the ability to develop innovations that are not yet mature (this is probably the case for all storage devices for electricity, batteries in particular), and thus a significant long term R & D effort, which requires investment, is necessary but the government plan does not breathe any word about it. The emergence of these innovations will take time, time being a fundamental factor that is rarely taken into account in France and may be elsewhere in the debate on energy transition. This picture of one of the ancestors of the agriculture motorized tractors (Conservatoire des Arts Métiers Paris, dating from the 1850s, equipped here with a steam engine) illustrates the fact that improvement of technical systems through various innovations might take decades. Some scientific publications in recent months that have not found an echo in the press illustrate this finding. Materials are a central issue for all energy systems, as we have emphasized repeatedly ( it is the same in many areas ) This a fact which has been recognized in particular in the United States, where a new program was launched in 2013 : the » United-States Materials Genome Initiative » (see Nature Materials, “Fuelling discovery by sharing « ). Vol. 12, March 2013, p. 173, www.nature.com/naturematerials ). This program does not aim at translating the techniques of genetics to materials but more systematically at imagining the right combinations of structures (nano or not) and of stoichiometric compositions that will provide interesting properties to materials (for example, the electrical conductivity of the electrodes or electrolyte in a battery), in the same manner that by the genome sequencing one is able to identify properties of genes and of their combinations thereof opening the possibility to modify their properties. This kind of work requires the collaboration of researchers with complementary skills, furthermore modeling materials would allow testing of new structures. One must also remark that if the first lithium-ion batteries that are beginning to be used in automobiles have been developed at the laboratory bench in the late 1980s, they still need many various improvements, including for their electrodes. In a recent publication two German laboratories (in the same issue of Nature Materials , P. Hartmann and al. » A rechearchable room temperature sodium superoxide ( NaO2 ) battery” , Vol. 12 , March 2013 , p. 228, www.nature.com/naturematerials ) have reported the development of a new metal-air battery using sodium (instead of lithium) with high energetic intensity and operating at room temperature ( it uses an electrode with air trapped in graphite ). It is too early to know whether this device is a breakthrough that opens a new path, but this paper illustrate the fact that the options for batteries remain wide open. We will give a third example in a totally different and very old one of the ammonia synthesis field. As we know this synthesis is performed for a century (first industrialization in 1913) by the Haber- Bosch process with a catalyst (an iron compound ) at high temperature ( 350-550 ° C) and high pressure ( 150-350 atmospheres), it allows to break the bonds of nitrogen molecule and its reaction with hydrogen (produced with natural gas today) which is very much energy intensive . It is vital for the production of fertilizers for agriculture (at present a production 140 million tons of ammonia per year around) but it consumes a lot of energy: today between 1% and 2% of world energy. Let recall for History that the German scientist who invented the process early last century, F. Haber (Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918), is sometimes regarded as a benefactor of mankind for this discovery, but it also has also developed during the war of 1914 the first chemical weapons (at that time the « famous » ypertite or mustard gas and phosgene) which are in the news today … which did not stop the Nazis dismissing Haber of his institute twenty years later because he was Jewish ….. But in a recent publication two Japanese teams and a Chinese team ( T.Shima et al , » Dinitrogen cleavage and hydrogenation by a trinuclear titanium polyhydrid complex » Science, Vol. 34, p.1549 , June 28 , 2013, www.sciencemag.org ) showed that the reaction of ammonia synthesis might be possible at room temperature and normal pressure with a catalyst which is composed of three atoms of titanium (a trihydride). The researchers did not synthesize ammonia but they broke bonds between nitrogen atoms in the nitrogen molecule and built bonds between them and one hydrogen atom which are the most energy consuming steps of the process. If this process was implemented on an industrial scale with a good yield it would allow the world to achieve significant energy savings. Future development will show whether this is a real breakthrough whose industrial impact may be significant. Again we see that the « traditional » techniques can be revolutionized by more science. Launching an industrial strategy for energy in France is a measure of common sense (it would still have to be articulated with the 71 innovation clusters, the so called “pôles de compétitivité” which have been created five years ago), but if we wish to prepare for the future it is not enough to proclaim the mobilization for innovation, we have to invest in research (money) and allow time to time (time). This means that we must develop a strategy that allows you to take scientific and technical bets. The Ministry of Research and Higher Education asked the “Ancre” (National Alliance for the Coordination of Research for Energy which coordinates public energy R&D in France www.allianceenergie.fr ) the task of preparing this strategy. This is the subject of an interesting paper that was released in July (a contribution to the national debate on energy transition in France, the final synthesis, we must regret, gives a little help hat in R & D). In addition to a review of the major research topics, the “Alliance” emphasizes the need to focus on long term research as it is shown by the recent work we have mentioned. We will come back later to those issues but let us ascertain that for the time being the future is still wide open

The elegant cases of the William Hutchinson Cowles Rare Books Library and the 10,500 square-foot vault of Special Collections house over 16,000 books. Over three thousand volumes constitute the The Gonzaga Collection, focused on theology, philosophy, and the classics, in works mainly from the 16th-18th centuries. Some are quite rare, such as the 1484 Roman Missal, with only one other copy known outside the Vatican. Indeed, the only known copy of some volumes is at Gonzaga University. "Treasures from the Vault," an exhibition of books from The Gonzaga Collection, was displayed the Cowles Rare Books Library February 4-June 6, 2008, and remains online. The new exhibition, "The Gospels in Nez Perce: The Evangelizing Work of Fr. Joseph Cataldo, S.J.," puts this translation work in the context of Jewish and Christian biblical translation, shown in part through facsimile editions of ancient biblical manuscripts, editions which are part of The Gonzaga Collection. Gonzaga University has additional rare books at the Chastek Law Library and the Jundt Art Museum. Also, the Jesuit Oregon Province Archives has 2,250 titles in Books and Periodicals, including the Lewis and Clark Journals and the Woodstock Letters (1872-1969). The Hopkins Collection includes books on the Victorian era, especially poetry, English Jesuits, and Hopkins' circle. Some books are in the vault not because of intrinsic rareness, but because they belong to a specific special collection. For instance, the Jay Fox Papers and the Crosby Collection contain numerous volumes pertaining to regional labor history and to entertainment, respectively. The history of the book can be studied through the rare books at Gonzaga. Moreover, fine printing is well represented. For instance, the vault holds nearly 500 volumes from Ye Galleon Press of Fairfield, Washington, and numerous works produced by the Benedictine nuns at Stanbrook Abbey. An exhibition of works from Stanbrook Abbey is currently on display in the rare books reading room (through August 31, 2007). First editions in theology, philosophy, and literature begin with the original edition of the Douai Rheims Bible (the New Testament in 1582, the Old in 1609) and include works by Charles Dickens, Edmond Husserl, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Evelyn Waugh. (For more information, click on "First Editions" in the Introduction to the Mount St. Michael's Rare Book Collection.) Reference works are located in the Reading Room of the Cowles Rare Books Library. The circular bookcase that encloses the hub of that room was designed to house the complete National Union Catalog (NUC), both the pre-1956 set in 754 volumes and all supplemental series (through 1978). Valuable to researchers, the NUC contains bibliographic records on many titles held in U.S. institutions but not yet entered into WorldCat. Other resources include the original Catholic Encyclopedia and the five-volume Finding Aid to the Mount St. Michael's Rare Book Collection. Volumes concerning the history of the book and of printing include Printers' and Publishers Devices 1485-1640 and Early English Printed Books. Records for over 14,000 of these volumes are in the online catalog. At present the volumes of The Gonzaga Collection are being added to that catalog. Of that collection, 75%of the titles are on the online catalog as of June 1, 2009. For the Dr. Robert L. Bruna collection of art volumes from Stanbrook Abbey and for all other questions, please contact Stephanie Edwards Plowman, the Special Collections Librarian. Her email is email@example.com and her telephone is (509) 313-3847. The mailing address is: Foley Center Library Spokane, WA 99258

MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran. The plans, under discussion for months, gained new urgency after President Obama’s announcement this month that the last American soldiers would be brought home from Iraq by the end of December. Ending the eight-year war was a central pledge of his presidential campaign, but American military officers and diplomats, as well as officials of several countries in the region, worry that the withdrawal could leave instability or worse in its wake. After unsuccessfully pressing both the Obama administration and the Iraqi government to permit as many as 20,000 American troops to remain in Iraq beyond 2011, the Pentagon is now drawing up an alternative. In addition to negotiations over maintaining a ground combat presence in Kuwait, the United States is considering sending more naval warships through international waters in the region. With an eye on the threat of a belligerent Iran, the administration is also seeking to expand military ties with the six nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. While the United States has close bilateral military relationships with each, the administration and the military are trying to foster a new “security architecture” for the Persian Gulf that would integrate air and naval patrols and missile defense. The size of the standby American combat force to be based in Kuwait remains the subject of negotiations, with an answer expected in coming days. Officers at the Central Command headquarters here declined to discuss specifics of the proposals, but it was clear that successful deployment plans from past decades could be incorporated into plans for a post-Iraq footprint in the region. In short, this will keep the Saudis happy and Iran at bay. Which will keep gas prices down and oil flowing out of that region. Obama might be a green energy guy and all, but he is no fool. He knows how far off all that technology is, so he’s covering his bases here. Some on the right might rattle their chains about this one; I will not. I know what he is doing here, and it’s a very smart move. I commend him for it. Once again, I feel the need to point out that members of the Tea Party never did anything like this. Occupy Madison has temporarily been denied an extension in their protesting permit because members of the movement violated “public health and safety conditions.” The group also did not properly fill out the form. City officials cited several specific reasons for their decision. The most notable was repeated complains from a nearby hotel, which stated that protesters were “publicly masturbating” in full view of passersby. The city also cited health violations because the group had “no restrooms,” implying that the protesters may have been defecating in public as well. Turns out he’s quite the leftist and Military hater: Scott Olsen is the Marine Corps veteran critically injured at Occupy Oakland Tuesday night, during a confrontation between the protesters and the police. The latest news is good: his condition has been upgraded from critical to fair and he is apparently conscious and able to respond to doctors and family members. I sincerely wish him a full recovery, and I also hope that a proper investigation is conducted to determine whether police misconduct is responsible for his injuries. But I ran across something this evening that may add a new dimension to this story. It has been widely reported that Olsen is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. But apparently his opposition to the U.S. military and the Marine Corps in which he served runs a little deeper. The site is no longer live, but Olsen was the founder of IHateTheMarineCorps.com, a private user forum apparently dedicated to bashing the Marine Corps. For those of you who do not like the idea of posting what Pamela has to say; I have two things to say —- first, as Herman Cain would say, “I does not care.” Also, I would say to those who would have a problem with me posting this video, I would politely ask you to go see Helen Waite and ask for directions. Just a little taste of what you are going to read: An opening statement is not evidence, merely a preview of the case the prosecution will mount in coming weeks based on testimony, forensics, wiretaps, documents and a plethora of photos. The crux of it: That parents and 18-year-old brother planned and executed the murders from outrage over the intolerable, the defiance of daughters and the alliance with them of a woman treated for years as a burden and a slave. A disgrace and shame to their family, though, for behaviour unbecoming to Afghan [Muslim] females — the boyfriends and the disobedience, the brazen disrespect for traditions and refusal to wear the hijab — violations of decorum so grievous that they needed to be killed, eliminated, to purify family honour, their “treachery’’ insupportable. Mass murder committed, a court heard Thursday, by the mother and father and brother of the sisters, homicides staged to look like an accident during a family vacation, with Zainab at the wheel, on one of her furtive joyrides. Mohammad Shafia, Tooba Mohammad Yahya and their son Hamed Mohammed Shafia have all pleaded not guilty to four counts each of first-degree murder. Their jury trial began here Thursday with a 90-minute opening statement from Crown Attorney Laurie Lacelle that left observers in the courtroom stunned over details finally revealed and allegations of a diabolical plot that defy imagination. From a wiretapped conversation Shafia had with Tooba and Hamed, 20 days after the bodies were discovered, Shafia in a fury recalling the revealing cellphone pictures of Zainab and Shahar: “Curse God on both of them. Is that what a daughter should be? Would a daughter be such a whore? May the devil s–t on their graves.” And later, not long before the trio was arrested in Montreal, Shafia tells Hamed, as Lacelle quoted from another wiretap transcript: “Even if they hoist me up on to the gallows, nothing is more dear to me than my honour.” To his wife, Shafia allegedly assured that the right actions had been taken: “I say to myself, you did well. Were they to come back to life, I would do it again. No Tooba, they messed up. There was no other way. They were treacherous. They betrayed us immensely. There can be no betrayal worse than this. They committed treason on themselves. They betrayed humankind. They betrayed Islam. They betrayed our religion. They betrayed everything.” From the sisters, there appears no words were left behind. But Rona wrote in her diary, the Crown told the jury, what she was thinking, fearing, in the weeks, even years, before her death, anxieties she also shared with siblings overseas when she was able to get out of the house and make phone calls. This was the murder weapon: This was the family: These are the people who did it: All in the name of Islam. Now you tell me that Islam is a Religion of peace? I call you a liar. I will say one thing about the writer I just linked to; he is a liberal Democrat, I will say that, but he is a very consistent, Spencer Ackerman went after Bush and his handling of Iraq during the Bush era and now he is doing it with the Obama Administration. For this, he does get some credit, although, I doubt he would want to hear it from my quarters. I give him props, at least he is a bit more brave than the MSM. This ought to be a lesson to every last Democrat who voted for Obama and Biden. With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work. Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department’s $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland. “There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle,” the car company’s founder and namesake told ABC News. “They don’t exist here.” Henrik Fisker said the U.S. money so far has been spent on engineering and design work that stayed in the U.S., not on the 500 manufacturing jobs that went to a rural Finnish firm, Valmet Automotive. “We’re not in the business of failing; we’re in the business of winning. So we make the right decision for the business,” Fisker said. “That’s why we went to Finland.” Here is the real-world translation to that last line in that story; we did not want to have to deal with the labor unions in this United States, so we moved our manufacturing overseas. Take note my Democratic Party friends who happen to read this blog, all two of you. This is what happens to the Democrats and their union counterparts, when they elect internationalist Democrats, who really do not give a care about what happens to American workers. Internationalist Democrats and their Republican counterparts, the globalists — like Richard Nixon, who do not care about American workers, they are corporatists, who support crony capitalism. This right here is a perfect example of why the relations between the Democratic Party and the labor unions are frosty at best. That is because the Democratic Party for the last few instances that they have won elections, have been putting internationalist Democrats into the White House. This type of a Democrat talks a nice game, and puts out platitudes to the American autoworkers and their representatives in the unions; but when the “Rubber hits the road” so to speak, things change. They begin showing their true colors and start doing things to kick dirt in the face of the American worker. I do not write this as a Conservative mocking the left, goodness no. I write this as someone who has a father, who is a retired General Motors worker, who is a member of the UAW. If anyone would know how the Democratic Party has treated the American autoworker in the last 30 years, it would be me. There was a time in this Country, when the Democratic Party used to respect the American autoworker and would literally step in front a train to defend them. Sadly, that time has passed, as the unions have lost their influence amongst the Democratic Party. The loss of that influence in the Democratic Party is partially due to the actions of the internationalist Democrats, like Bill Clinton, who signed into law NAFTA and TAFTA. Some of that loss of influence is also due to the declining membership roles within the UAW and other said unions. Either way, it is sad transition in America, when our politicians in Washington D.C. put interests abroad before interests here at home. Some of my readers, all three of you, might be shocked to see that I do not take a more mocking tone on stories like this and here is why I do not; Pat Buchanan said it best once, on one issue that I actually agree with him on — the American worker. Pat once said, “As goes Detroit, goes the Nation,” and you know what? Pat Buchanan is right about that, the United States of America used to be a manufacturing marvel. We produced everything ourselves, and other Countries used to come here to see how we did it all. Sadly, those times have come and gone, due to many reasons, a list of which is longer than the length of this blog entry will permit. What is solution you ask, I know what it is; but most of the people who will come here to read, will not agree with it. However, I will give the solution. Firstly, the solution is NOT to bust up the unions, as they have as much right to proper representation, as the company owners have a right to make a profit. The solution to the problem is to get rid of these idiotic so-called “Free Trade” agreements. Secondly, the solution is to impose strict tariffs on EVERYTHING and I do mean everything that is manufactured overseas and imported into our Country. These actions would do a couple of things; firstly it would protect the American workers from the globalists who want to undercut the American worker to make a quick dollar on the backs of cheap sweatshop labor in foreign countries like China. Secondly, it would solve our Nation’s revenue problem by creating a reliable source of income; one of which we did have in this Country for a very long time, before the globalists ripped it out, in favor of trade agreements. Further, the solution is in whom we elect; Republicans and Democrats alike need to elect those who put America’s interests first, and not the interests who those abroad. To be fair, Republicans have done this too in this past and we as Americans need to watch what these new crop of Republicans really represent; do they represent the interests of the crony capitalists or do they have the American people’s interests in mind? Supposedly, the Tea Party movement brought some of this “America First” type of populism to the Conservative movement, but as of late, it seems that the Tea Party was nothing more than a passing fad. I just hope the people, who went to these protests, use the principles that were promoted at the Tea Party rallies, at the ballot box come November 2012. The death of a terrorist-supporting tyrant cannot be bad news, if indeed Qaddafi’s death is confirmed. If he has died in a military action, it might have been the best end for which either side could hope. Qaddafi will end up being remembered by his small cadre of supporters not as a Saddam Hussein, diminished in captivity and finally humiliated on the gallows by the people he oppressed, but as someone who at least fought to the end. The new government doesn’t have to worry about holding Qaddafi and putting him on trial with the world watching, with the risk of him becoming a symbol of opposition that undermines their attempts to unite the country. But unite the country into what, exactly? It still remains to see whether Libya has indeed been “liberated” and will now pursue the path of a liberal, pluralistic democracy — or whether the Libyans will follow the path of Egypt and a military/Islamist regime. At least the Libyans have an opportunity to make that choice for themselves now that the tyrant has been defeated and removed from the equation. Which has been the concern of the right, with this whole thing in Libya and this whole Arab spring concept in the first place; it is not that we on the right dislike freedom, it is the fact that some of us are worried that the United States might actually be funding and supporting an Israeli nightmare. Besides all that, the best we will get out of this, is an plutocratic Government with another front man. The idea that we will have a Republican or even a free democracy in Libya is a pipe dream. The very idea that Libya will ever be a free country, with a religion, such as Islam, is a myth. You must be kidding me! This is either a huge idiot or his blinded by his liberal guilt. Occupy Wall Street Is Not Anti-Semitic By Jeffrey Goldberg I’ve been sent the link to this video, put out by the Emergency Committee for Israel, several times, and finally opened it this morning. It contains a handful of examples of anti-Semitic rhetoric expressed at unknown points, and at unknown places, in the Occupy Wall Street protests. The rhetoric is quite obviously anti-Semitic, but I was left thinking that if this was all the anti-Semitism the Emergency Committee could find, then they’re going to have look harder before making definitive judgments. Sure, there is going to be hostile anti-Jewish feeling expressed at the margins of any populist movement, but a) it appears as if the people expressing these thoughts in the video are real outliers; b) it’s obvious to me that most people who attend these rallies are angry about corporate greed and excessive CEO compensation (among other financial concerns) and not about Israel or perfidious Jews; and c) this movement has (like most political movements, actually) disproportionate Jewish representation. To say that there are occasional outbursts of anti-Semitism at Occupy Wall Street is not to say that Occupy Wall Street itself is antisemitic. The University of Chicago has an anti-Semitic professor on the faculty, but does this make the university itself anti-Semitic? Now either Goldberg either does not know about this or, what is the more likely explanation is, he is covering for them. He tries to mount the “Well, we cannot call them all antisemitic” petard. Which is a nice diversion, but it is, as always, wrong. So, to me, because he is a Jew and refuses to acknowledge this; a self hating Jew. HENRICO, VA (WWBT) – NBC12 has uncovered one of those stories that makes you think: “How in the world does that happen?!” A truck filled with President Obama’s podiums and audio equipment was stolen in Henrico just days before his visit to Chesterfield. We confirmed an investigation with the U.S. Defense Department. There are still a lot of questions. The biggest one being did the thieves intentionally target the President’s truck or did they take advantage of a crime of opportunity and give a big “uh-oh” when they saw what was inside. When you see President Obama speak, there is a pretty typical setup including the presidential seal on a podium, the see-thru Teleprompter and a portable sound system. Thieves saw the truck carrying that equipment and couldn’t resist the target. We’re told the truck was parked at the Virginia Center Commons Courtyard Marriott in advance on Wednesday’s presidential visit to Chesterfield. Sources said inside that vehicle was about $200,000 worth of sound equipment, several podiums and presidential seals, behind which only the President himself can stand. They told NBC12 around 12:30 Monday afternoon that truck was recovered in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express near the airport and hotel staff confirm police activity. One guest we spoke with said he saw various law enforcement agencies examining a white box truck parked there. According to him, the entire back parking lot was blocked off as Henrico Police along with “lots of guys in suits” investigated. He said the truck had no markings and no indication anything special was inside. That leads to another big question of whether or not any of that was actually stolen. Late Monday evening we found a truck with US government tags still parked in the Marriott’s lot. We are waiting to find out if that is the original truck returned to the staff or a second vehicle. If I were the Defense Department or the Secret Service, I would be watching E-Bay. Although, I highly doubt they took anything. Most likely, these thieves stole the truck, and got it somewhere, busted the lock and opened the back; and most likely when they saw what was in it —- in unison, screamed “OH CRAP!” and quickly brought the truck back! Update: On a more serious note, commenter NeoKong points out just how bad this security breach could have been: The story is funny and everything until you realize what a breach of security this really was. Once somebody gained unsupervised access to that bus and it’s contents they could have done anything they want. What if somebody planted a device or some sort of miniaturized explosive….? What if somebody planted electronic tracking devices or audio or video devices….? They would know where the POTUS would be going days in advance. Can anyone imagine the sort of conversations they could listen in on if somebody planted as bug or the details of security they could see if there was surveillance equipment…? This is a BFD. Getting to that podium is almost as good as getting up close to the POTUS. As for the explosive: Must….resist….saying….what…I’m….thinking….I….serve…the…Lord. But seriously, Ed’s commenter makes a good point; sounds like someone didn’t think things through much at all. Doug Powers, who is Michelle Malkin’s new flunky, writes a very funny piece on this story. A trial is set to begin Monday for a Montgomery County teacher, accused of punching and choking several of her first grade students. Susan Burke, 36, was arrested in February, after nine of her first grade students at Greencastle Elementary School claimed they were abused. According to investigators, Burke allegedly choked, kicked, punched and scratched children in her class. Montgomery County police learned of one incident on Jan. 7, when a Greencastle Elementary School student complained of being physically assaulted on several occasions. Police interviewed all of the students in Burke’s class, and their investigation revealed eight more victims, all ages 6 or 7, police said. In addition to being choked, some students also reported being kicked, punched, scratched or squeezed on the arms, police said. Additional students reported witnessing the attacks, police said. Burke was also charged in an alleged March 2010 assault of a student as a result of this investigation, police said. The incidents allegedly took place on school property and during school hours. I hate to be the one to do this; but something about this story smells fishy. For one, nowhere in that report does it say that any of the children came home with bruises or anything of the sort on them. For all we know, these black kids decided that they did not like their teacher and decided to tell their parents that the teacher was hurting them. Believe me when I tell you; I know kids can be, and it is a common thing nowadays, for students to level false accusations against a teacher, if they do not like them. In fact, locally here, in one of the public schools in one of the cites around here — a teacher, who had been with the school system for over 30 years, was accused of rape. The student was a Latino girl, who did not like the fact that she was getting too much homework from this teacher. So, she devised a plan. She was a minority, she was a girl and she was going do this teacher in. She accused him of rape. Well, he was suspended and there was an investigation, that lasted for over 2 years. Finally, the teacher was cleared of the charges and the girl put on trial for making such a big false accusation like that. During the trial, when asked about why she would do such a thing, her reply was, “Revenge.” She went on to say that because she was a Latino and a female, she figured they would just convict him and remove him from the school. I am quite happy to report that the man accused, ended up not only suing the school; but also the girl’s family, the school district, and also La Raza, who was providing the attorney pro-Bono and boasted to the media that they would “bring down this oppressive white man.” The defendants tried to get the man to settle for a very small amount and basically, he laughed in their faces and rejected the settlement; he went on to win the case for millions. He promptly sold his house and left the State. He now lives very well, I am told. The point I am making is this; why are these school officials just believing what these silly kids are saying? Why? Because they are black and she is white? I also got a kick out of how the woman was made out to be the evil oppressive white woman, who was picking on those poor little innocent black children! (yes, that is sarcasm…) If the truth be known in this case; these kids were most likely a bunch of spoiled brats and most likely made this woman’s life a living hell and they most likely deserved the little smacks that they got from this woman. But, because we live in society that treats white on black “Crime” differently than actual black on white crime. This woman will most likely lose her career; because a group of minority students decided that they did not like Mrs. “Whitey Teacher” no more and with the help of Mommy and Daddy, figured out a way to get rid of her, for good. In the early morning hours, on the eve of a banquet designed to expose the homosexual activist agenda, security cameras on the campus of the Christian Liberty Academy, a school run by the Church of Christian Liberty in Arlington Heights, Ill., captured what may be a prominent example of an anti-Christian “hate crime.” An unknown vandal or vandals threw chunks of concrete bricks through the school’s entryway with a message protesting the banquet, which was planned by Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, or AFTAH, to honor pro-family activist and author of “The Pink Swastika,” Dr. Scott Lively. Upon the concrete bricks were written the words “Shut down Lively,” and the vandals included a note theatening more violence if the church and school didn’t stop hosting such “homophobic” guests. “This is just a sample of what we will do if you don’t shut down Scott Lively and AFTAH,” the note reads. “F— Scott Lively. Quit the homophobic s—!” The radical ‘gay’ movement is not amused by ‘The Pink Swastika’. Thoroughly researched exposé reveals the role of sadistic homosexuals in Naziism Hours later, a “press release” was sent by email to AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera, Church of Christian Liberty Pastor Calvin Lindstrom and the Chicago Independent Media Center claiming responsibility for the attack. “In the early morning hours of October 15th, we put two chunks of concrete through the glass windows and doors of the Christian Liberty Academy,” claims the author of the release, identifying himself only by a vulgar nickname. “We did this because at 6 p.m. today they will be hosting an event organized by the homophobic hate group Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, that [sic] will be presenting an award to Scott Lively.” The statement continues, “These chunks of concrete were thrown through these windows and doors for two reasons: to show that there is a consequence for hatred and homophobia in our community and to directly cause this event to be shut down. If this event is not shut down, and the homophobic day trainings do not end, the Christian Liberty Academy will continue to be under constant attack.” Despite what Rush Limbaugh and what Max Fisher over at the Atlantic might be saying; the President is right to be sending troops in this region. I will explain what I mean. The Lord’s Resistance Army is not a group of Christian missionaries or anything of that sort; it is a group of terrorists, who maim and kill — all the while hiding behind some sort of perverted pseudo-Christian doctrine. I realize that the Conservative Blogosphere’s goal is to discredit this President and everything that he does. However, in this case, the President, in fact, is taking the correct steps in stopping this crazed group of thugs from hurting any more people than they already have. It was the right thing to do and we as Conservatives, who believe that no one should have to suffer at the hands of crazed tyrants, should be supporting the President’s action in this case. I also understand that this group has been fighting against Muslims in the area, while I do not agree with the tenants of the Muslim faith. I do not believe that the methods being used by the group are legal, sane, or even moral. Furthermore, I believe the slaughter of innocent people, including the elderly is very an immoral act to commit. I also realize that there are some, who are Conservative, might feel that the President is engaging in too many conflicts. Let me say this, this is not an engagement for the protection of empire; this is an engagement for the cause of morality. For many years, the United States of America has been the beacon of Democracy and for Christian morality throughout the entire World. What this group is doing to the people of that region is vile and immoral; in the case, I believe it is the United States of America’s responsibility to the insure that innocent people are no harmed any longer. In closing: While this blog and its owner might disagree with the President’s domestic policy, I do wholeheartedly agree with the President’s decision to put a stop to the treachery that is taking place in this Country and to its people. I commend the President for stepping up to the plate and insuring the protection of the citizens of Uganda. It is my fervent hope and prayer, that the Lord’s Resistance Army is stopped from inflecting any more violence on innocent people. The daughter of a Mormon bishop who has abandoned her family’s faith claims in a new book the election of Mitt Romney to the presidency would put the U.S. in danger due to what she calls the Republican’s “outrageous,” “horrific” and “mind-controlling” beliefs. “While he attempts to portray Mormonism as just another Christian religion, Mitt Romney counts on his skills to shift our attention away from what he truly believes,” says Tricia Erickson, author of “Can Mitt Romney Serve Two Masters? The Mormon Church Versus the Office of the Presidency of the United States of America.” “If the American people knew what he truly believed, they would surely not place him in the highest office in the land.” Yet others, such as professor Richard Bushman, a Mormon and previous missionary himself who has taught at Harvard, Columbia and Brown Universities, are defending the faith. He calls Erickson “disillusioned” and someone who “instead of walking away felt an obligation to discredit [her] former faith.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the official name for Mormonism, has rocketed into the national consciousness this month since Rev. Robert Jeffress, a Rick Perry supporter who pastors the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, said Romney was “not a Christian” and that Mormonism is a “cult.” “Part of a pastor’s job is to warn his people and others about false religions,” Jeffress said Sunday, standing by his controversial remarks. “Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Mormonism are all false religions.” In her book, Erickson paints an unflattering picture of the Mormon faith, which counts not only the former Massachusetts governor as a member, but also fellow GOP presidential contender Jon Huntsman, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., radio talk-show host Glenn Beck, singer Gladys Knight, actresses Amy Adams and Katherine Heigl, “Napoleon Dynamite” actor Jon Heder, entertainers Donny and Marie Osmond, and sports stars including the NFL’s Steve Young, Danny White and Merlin Olsen. Erickson goes on to expose the insane beliefs of the Mormons and tell about her horrifying experience in that cult: Erickson says Romney believes: He will become a “god” in the afterlife and be given his own planet Satan is Jesus’ literal brother Jesus was not born of a virgin birth He will be given his own afterlife kingdom where he will have sexual relations with his wife, Ann, to populate his kingdom with spirit children as God the Father Himself has a wife on His own planet. “Mormonism teaches we pre-existed on God the Father’s planet as spirit children before we were planted in our mother’s wombs,” Erickson told WND. “And the reason why we’re here according to Mormonism, is so that we can work out our own progression to godhood and our own planets themselves.” The author, who herself was married in a Mormon temple at age 19 but now considers herself a non-denominational Christian, says there’s a secret agenda Mormon officials don’t like to talk about publicly. “A complete takeover of the government,” she said. “They have more people in the CIA, the FBI. They have an employment office for Mormons in D.C. to be able to infiltrate them into the government.” “They’ve been trying since the beginning to get someone in the presidency, because they believe they have to establish their authority so when Jesus comes to Earth, the Mormon Church will take control of the government and the Mormons will be the government of God on Earth,” she continued. Erickson says her main concern is that the leader of the free world have the ability to discern fact from fiction. “It may be crucial to our survival,” she said. “If his beliefs are distorted, which they unequivocally are, why would it not be be critical to our existence to protect our country from being placed in the hands of such a person?” When asked for specific rituals she considers bizarre, Erickson claims Romney and other Mormons take part in clandestine marriage ceremonies involving “outrageous” customs. Explaining her own Mormon wedding, she says she was forced to completely disrobe against her will. “It was horrific,” she told WND. “There I was standing naked. They brought this bowl of water, and started washing my body down and whispering prayers over my body. They stopped over the right and left breast, the navel and knees and prayed specific prayers.” To help ensure the general public did not learn details of the rituals, she says believers took a symbolic knife to feign their own murder if members spilled the beans of what really goes on behind closed doors. “They actually had us slashing our guts open and our guts falling to the ground if we told people of the secret dogma of the ceremonies,” Erickson said. “Mitt is not a casual Mormon,” she told online interviewer Thom Hartmann, noting Romney has reached the upper echelons of the faith. “There is no way that he will be able to not listen to the [Mormon] prophet. His eternal salvation depends on it. He has to put the church first over country.” Here is a video that also shows what Mormon’s truly believe: As much as I would like to say that this is the first time that I have heard this; it is not, this young lady is not the only person to have told stories like this about the Mormon Cult. Another well-known author, speaker and former Mormon, Ed Decker has exposed the Mormon cult for what it truly is. Here is Ed Decker’s testimony of how he came out of the Mormon Cult: Here is another very, very, interesting radio program with Ed Decker. It is about the Free Masons and the founding of America. The Free Masons and the Mormon Church are joined at the hip. Please listen to this, you will find it very interesting. The show is from the early 1990′s, I believe anyhow. The show and the ministry which Ed appeared on went bankrupt in the 1990′s and went off the air. Ironically, the host’s wife died of cancer; she was diagnosed, not long after this show was broadcast. The next book that I very highly recommend, is actually a comic book. It is a part of the “Crusader’s” series of Comic by a man, who I have much respect for; his name is Jack Chick: You are a #OccupyWallStreet protester and you are a confirmed leftist — all down with Mao and all that. Is this who you want being your spokesman? The Occupy Wall Street movement is getting sympathy from an unlikely person: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). The 2008 GOP presidential nominee said he understands the growing protest movement’s concerns over Washington bailouts of major financial institutions. “Down in Arizona today, Maricopa County has the highest number of homes underwater of any place in this country,” he told reporters Wednesday. “And it’s disgraceful that we took care of the financial institutions, and we did nothing about the housing crisis. So I understand their frustration.” He later quipped that he may be the “only” Republican does. No John, we should have not taken care of either. We should have let the banks fail, that were failing and we should have not messed with the housing market either; as both would have corrected themselves. This proves that which I and many others like me have believed for years, that John McCain is nothing more than a two-bit big government conservative or as we call them, Republican in Name Only or RINO. FBI and DEA agents have disrupted a plot to commit a “significant terrorist act in the United States” tied to Iran, federal officials told ABC News today. The officials said the plot included the assassination of the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir, with a bomb and subsequent bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C. Bombings of the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were also discussed, according to the U.S. officials. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in an announcement today that the plan was “conceived, sponsored and was directed from Iran” by a faction of the government and called it a “flagrant” violation of U.S. and international law. “The U.S. is committed to holding Iran accountable for its actions,” Holder said. He said the White House will be meeting with federal agencies before announcing “further action” in regards to Iran. FBI Director Robert Mueller said the arrest of a suspect in the plot shows the U.S. will “bring the full weight of [the] law to bear on those responsible” and that “any attempts on American soil will not be tolerated.” The stunning allegations come against a backdrop of longstanding tensions between Iran and the United States and Saudi Arabia. In the last year, Saudi Arabia has attempted to build an anti-Iran alliance to push back against perceived aggression by Iran in the region. This basically proves my point; that Bush did not do enough after 9/11. If Bush had acted like a real President and not like a wet rag after 9/11, we would not have this sort of troubles. Although, I will admit; I have sneaky feeling that this might spark some sort of Military action. Although, I do not believe it will be of the scale and scope of the War in Iraq. If true, would that not be an act of war? We’re presently using drones in Pakistan and Yemen against al-Qaeda terrorist networks for plotting similar attacks, thanks to the AUMF from October 2001, even though we’re nominally allied with both nations. If the government of Iran plotted attacks on American targets, that should require a response from the US, should it not — or do we send a signal that even attacks from actual nation-states fall under the rubric of law enforcement? If we’re charging an official of the Iranian government with complicity or worse in this plot, then it ceases to be a law enforcement issue and becomes a military and political issue instead. This isn’t a case of espionage but of sabotage or worse, which would be an act of war by anyone’s definition. If we’re not willing to respond in kind, we then send a signal to hostile nation-states around the world that attacks on the US are low-risk, high-reward affairs — and we’d better get ready for an avalanche of them. There are some who would say, “Oh, he is just being a Neoconservative!” That might be so, but he is being a Neoconservative, who happens to be right. Ron Paul and ilk are just dead wrong. when it comes to Iran, Islam and the war on terror. They might have a point on Nation Building; but on this sort of thing, Ron Paul and his mindless followers are simply wrong. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, just one week after definitively announcing he will not run for president in the 2012 race, plans to endorse Mitt Romney for the job Tuesday afternoon, Fox News has learned. The event is set to take place in Hanover, N.H., just hours before the Republican candidates gather for a debate nearby at Dartmouth College. In securing the support of Christie, Romney will have at his side a tough-talking governor who during his two years in office has built a reputation as a fiscal hawk not shy about taking on the public employee unions. The former Massachusetts governor is enlisting Christie at a time when his front-runner status is once again being challenged. Romney saw his lead slip after Texas Gov. Rick Perry jumped into the race in August. Perry has since fallen back in the polls, but businessman Herman Cain broke through to within a few points of Romney in several recent national polls. Barack Obama may have 15 months left in his first term, but his supporters in Congress are already preparing for the day he’ll be an ex-president by introducing legislation that will allow him to keep his personal and presidential documents secret. According to Judicial Watch, the Washington-based government corruption fighting organization, the proposal by Rep. Edolphus Towns of New York’s 10th District is “an obvious effort to protect President Barack Obama.” “Ironically, Obama revoked a similar George W. Bush order in one of his first official acts as president. In 2001, Bush penned an executive order severely limiting public access to his presidential records. Shortly after swearing in, Obama killed it as part of his much-ballyhooed commitment to government transparency. At the time, the new president claimed that he was giving the American people greater access to ‘historic documents,’” Judicial Watch said. “If the Democrats’ proposed measure (Presidential Records Act Amendments) becomes law, former presidents will be allowed to assert a new ‘constitutionally based privilege’ against disclosing records of their liking. Here is how it would work; the archivist of the United States would be required to notify the former president, as well as the incumbent, of intentions to make records public. Anything that either the former or current president claims should be kept private won’t be released,” the organization explained. How ironic; the very President, who threw President Bush privacy under the bus, is now trying to protect his own skin; and with all of the scandal that is slowing trickling out of the White House, I do not think anyone should be shocked over this at all.

Subscribe To our E-Newsletter Every Spring, the Somber Recollection of Life and Death How do you teach your children that the world is not black and white? How do you teach your children that a split-second decision can change your life forever? How do you teach your children to appreciate the gray zone -- the area that cannot be defined, the area that is, well, unknowable? Frankly, I just don't know, and I'm afraid that I will never be able to know the answers, especially after listening to the radio in Israel during the days of remembrance: Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Yom Hazikaron, when we memorialize those who have fallen in defense of Israel. Living here, one feels the heaviness of these days descend upon the country as radio and television waves fill with stories, memories and description of acts, both righteous and less so. Restaurants, theaters, malls and stores shut down. Flags, stickers of local flowers and brightly colored ribbons pop out. People seem to move more slowly, lost in their selves, thinking about what it means to be here. For many, the radio is often thought of as something to have playing in the background as we work, drive, play or party. But in Israel, the radio is an instrument of obsession. We listen every hour to the news headlines, live reports and speeches and, of course, to our favorite music. However, on memorial days -- both for the Shoah and for those who have served the State of Israel and Jewish people -- the radio is transformed into a content provider. It urges, almost forces, us to cease and desist all other activities, to listen, understand and feel the pathos. Special music is played, special programs are broadcast, and words from various survivor organizations or fallen soldiers groups are spoken slowly and sonorously so that we understand and remember. Life, they seem to say, hinges upon sacrifice. We should not take this lightly. The radio during these days thus becomes the conscience of the country -- the thought-provoker, rather than the reporter. It forces us to come to grips with who we are, where we live and to whom we are connected. For an American oleh, it brings me closer to my countrywomen and men, and connects me to their experiences, however much they vary from those of mine and my family. During Yom Hashoah this year, I listened to the radio while vainly attempting to concentrate on work. Forget it. My conscience would not let me focus, as I was absorbed into survivors' stories. For almost five hours, no commercials were played, and news on the hour was read in a muted tone. On Galei Tzahal (Army Radio), there was no reporting, no talk shows, no interviews and no scoops, just mournful, melancholy music for the soul and stories of those who survived. For Yom Hazikaron, it is much of the same as we hear narratives of soldiers, diplomats and victims of terror attacks who were killed not only during Israel's 62 years, but also during the period before the state. We learn how families, wives, children, mothers and girlfriends deal with their grief. We hear of battles, decisions made and actions executed. Then, after we have once again been integrated into the citizenry of Israel, we turn our thoughts to the streets and parks to celebrate our independence. Yet even so, I will still pass very quietly by the door of my downstairs' neighbors, whose son was killed by a roadside bomb during the second intifada. His life, I'm reminded, has not been taken for naught. Joshua I. Shuman has family connections in Elkins Park. He made aliyah in 1989 and lives in Jerusalem.

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Sunday, 11 November 2012 Ukraine's Ultranationalists Show Surprising Strength At Polls KIEV, Ukraine -- The last time Oleg Tyagnibok was a member of Ukraine's Parliament, his colleagues kicked him out over a fiery speech in which he described how Ukrainians, during World War II, bravely fought Muscovites, Germans, Jews "and other scum," and then used slurs to refer to the "Jewish-Russian mafia, which rules in Ukraine." Eight years later, Mr. Tyagnibok is preparing to return to Parliament, not as a lone member of a broader coalition, as he was when he was ejected, but as the leader of Svoboda, the ultranationalist, right-wing party that will control 38 of 450 seats, or about 8.5 percent of the national legislature. Svoboda's surprising show of strength in the Oct. 29 election -- polls had predicted that the party would fail to meet the 5 percent threshold to enter Parliament -- has stirred alarm, including warnings from Israel about the rise of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic and a place with a firsthand knowledge of ethnic violence and genocide. But in an interview in the downtown office building that Svoboda shares with an insurance company and a dental clinic named Smile, Mr. Tyagnibok said that fear of his party was misplaced and the accusations of racism and extremism unfounded. "Svoboda is not an anti-Semitic party," he said, seated behind a desk, a sport jacket stretched by his barrel-sized chest, his huge hands folded in front of him, speaking slowly and firmly in Ukrainian. "Svoboda is not a xenophobic party. Svoboda is not an anti-Russian party. Svoboda is not an anti-European party. Svoboda is simply and only a pro-Ukrainian party. And that's it." Of course, that was not it. Mr. Tyagnibok was just beginning to demonstrate the smooth charm that has helped Svoboda, which means "Freedom," build support beyond its traditional stronghold in the Ukrainian-speaking west. Tall, with beefy good looks, Mr. Tyagnibok, 44, who is a urological surgeon by training, has used his party's pro-Ukrainian message to tap into frustration over the country's stalled economy and growing disillusionment with the government of President Viktor F. Yanukovich. From Mr. Tyagnibok's frequent appearances on television talk shows, emphasizing national sovereignty and warning of encroachment by neighboring Russia, most viewers might never discern that some of his party's members are unabashed neo-Nazis, while others shun the label but nonetheless espouse virulent hatred of Jews, gays and especially Russians. Researchers who specialize in extremism say it is a talent shared by other leaders of far-right parties and has helped bring them into the mainstream in many European countries, including Hungary, Poland and Romania. "This is a common phenomenon within these parties, that they have a front-stage image and a backstage agenda," said Andreas Umland, an expert at the National University in Kiev. "The internal discourse, from what we can only suspect, is much more radical and xenophobic than what we see." He added, "This is all much more radical." In the interview at his office, Mr. Tyagnibok said Svoboda's message was only positive. "We do call ourselves nationalists," he said. "Our view is love. Love of our land. Love of the people who live on this land. This is love to your wife and your home and your family. So, it's love to your mother. Can this feeling be bad?" "Our nationalism does not imply hatred to anybody," he continued. "We formed a political party to protect the rights of Ukrainians, but not to the detriment of representatives of other nation." He added, "So, if you ask about philosophy to be explained in two words: We are not against anyone. We are for ourselves." For a long time, they were for themselves and mostly by themselves. In the previous parliamentary election, in 2007, Svoboda received less than three-quarters of 1 percent of the vote, and that was an improvement. Until 2004, Svoboda was called the Social-Nationalist Party, which critics said was just a word flip of its true ambitions. Born in Lviv, sometimes called the capital of the western, Europe-oriented Ukraine, Mr. Tyagnibok said he was raised to hate Communists, in part because his paternal grandfather was a victim of oppression under Stalin. He got his start in politics as a student organizer in the late 1980s, attended medical school and has been a member of the nationalist party from its inception in the early 1990s. He served six years in Parliament, from 1998 until he was ejected in 2004. In 2001, with Ukrainian voters growing increasingly frustrated with the status quo, Svoboda made major gains in local and regional elections. Some voters who supported Svodboda said they believed that the party could present the strongest challenge to President Yanukovich. Many said they did not view the party as extreme. "Those people who supported Svoboda in these elections, they don't support racism, anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism," said Vyacheslav Likhachev, who monitors extremism for the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. "They support Svoboda because every vote for Svoboda was a vote against the ruling government." Still, Mr. Likhachev said, Svoboda's rise was not a positive development for Ukraine. "It is bad for society," he said. In the days before the vote, Mr. Tyagnibok signed an agreement to work with other opposition parties, including the Fatherland party of the jailed former prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko. Ms. Tymoshenko, who was barred from the ballot this year, recently began a hunger strike to protest what she said was fraud in the elections. Mr. Tyagnibok's ties to Ms. Tymoshenko and former President Viktor Yushchenko date to before Ukraine's Orange Revolution in 2004, which Mr. gnibok and other nationalists supported. Critics of the alliance say that it will give Svoboda more power than it would have on its own, and grant it further legitimacy as a mainstream faction. Although his occasional use of ethnic and religious epithets is well documented -- there was the 2004 speech to supporters, and in 2005, his public signing of an open letter to President Yushchenko and others demanding an end to "criminal activities of organized Jewry in Ukraine" -- Mr. Tyagnibok called the allegations of hate speech "a fantasy and a serious exaggeration." The general prosecutor charged him with inciting ethnic hatred, but the case was dropped after the Orange Revolution. "In 2004, I was accused of anti-Semitism, but I won in all the court cases," Mr. Tyagnibok said. Mr. Tyagnibok said nationalist parties were enjoying a renaissance in Europe because of the Continent's financial problems, as well as conflicts with Muslim immigrants in countries like Italy, France and Spain. "Europe is change," he said. "Economic failures make people look for reasons." But he said it was all for the best. "In our view the ideal is to see Europe as one big flower bed full of different flowers, with Ukraine as one of the most beautiful flowers in it," Mr. Tyagnibok said. "It has its own scent, its own beauty. It is different from other flowers, but it is in the same flower bed." He waved away any thought of nationalist strife. "Just imagine one nationalist talking to another nationalist," he said. "There should be no problems between them. Everybody respects their interests, and everybody understands we live in one big world."

by David Phelps “Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” – Mother Teresa It’s time for my fifteenth annual column about the balloons that decorate the interior of our church on Easter Sunday morning. This year after church, as I watched the balloons flying away into the clear blue sky, I noticed that they were “traveling” in bunches or clumps. Many—but not all—were separate but a good many more were in pairs or larger groupings. To be fair, they were mostly held together by bits of tape that had been used to attach them temporarily to pews and other items of furniture but they were still attached to one another. Watching the balloons, I thought of the pairings as “couples” and the larger groupings as “families.” Somehow, it seemed,the balloons had formed families. The concept of family is a vital part of the human experience. Most of us have a family of some kind, even if we don’t necessarily like them. Moses told the people, “‘Do not deprive foreigners and orphans of their rights; and do not take a widow’s garment as security for a loan.’” (Deut. 24:17 Good News Translation). In other words, “don’t mistreat people who don’t have families to take care of them.” Many years later, the prophet Jeremiah would echo these words as a challenge against Zedekiah, the king of Judah (Jer. 22:3b). Even later, the apostle James wrote, “What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.” (Jas. 1:27 GNT). Moses reminded the Israelites that they were once the “foreigners,” “orphans,” and “widows” during their time of slavery in Egypt. In some ways, we were in a similar position. Peter told his readers, “At one time you were not God’s people, but now you are his people; at one time you did not know God’s mercy, but now you have received his mercy.” (1 Pet. 2:9-10 GNT). Some translations, such as the original American Standard Version and the World English Bible, render the first part of verse 10 as “who in time past were no people”. We were nobody but God made us somebody. Jesus told his followers, “The King will reply, ‘I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these followers of mine, you did it for me!’” (Matt. 25:40 GNT). We were once “the least important” but God made us God’s own. Paul told the Galatians, “He came as the son of a human mother and lived under the Jewish Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might become God’s children.” (Gal. 4:4b-5 GNT). Some versions render verse 5 as “to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (RSV). We were orphans but God adopted us into a family. When we receive Christ, we become children of God. John’s gospel says, “Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God’s children.” (John 1:12 GNT). We belong to God’s family and we are God’s children, not by any merit of our own but through Christ’s sacrifice. Paul encouraged the Philippians to “. . . beinnocent and pure as God’s perfect children, who live in a world of corrupt and sinful people. You must shine among them like stars lighting up the sky, as you offer them the message of life.” (Phil. 2:15b-16a GNT). We also “live in a world of corrupt and sinful people,” spiritual widows, orphans, and aliens, who are not connected to the family of God. We carry a “message of life,” a message of belonging, acceptance and adoption. We must welcome these potential brothers and sisters into the family of believers, the family we share. “‘Do not deprive foreigners and orphans of their rights; and do not take a widow’s garment as security for a loan. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God set you free; that is why I have given you this command. When you gather your crops and fail to bring in some of the grain that you have cut, do not go back for it; it is to be left for the foreigners, orphans, and widows, so that the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. When you have picked your olives once, do not go back and get those that are left; they are for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. When you have gathered your grapes once, do not go back over the vines a second time; the grapes that are left are for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Never forget that you were slaves in Egypt; that is why I have given you this command.’” (Deut. 24:17-22 GNT). Copyright © 2009 by David Phelps

(Something I've been working on all night at the expense of packing for my trip to Northern Wisconsin tomorrow. I may or may not send this to every music and Middle East pundit in Britain after I get to the hotel.) Dear Music and/or Middle East commentator, I am writing to tell you that I am uncertain about God. And I do not believe in the Torah. But I believe in the Proms. And I write to you today about how distressed I was at the reception of the Israel Philharmonic at the Proms concerts in Royal Albert Hall. In July 2004, I was a music composition student from an American university little known for its music program; abroad in London for the summer on a work-internship. I was perpetually broke in the world’s high culture capital and I didn’t even have the money to get pissed with other American students. Then the Proms concerts started, and for the first time in a year, I remembered why I wanted to be a musician. The Proms is the greatest assemblage of musical performances of any genre, any era or any place. Has there ever been another example in human history of a music festival which lasts two months of every year? With over six thousand people able to attend any concert? With standing room in the front and seating in the back? With front row seats for as little as four quid? With the concerts preserved online a week afterward in perfect sound for people to listen from any part of the world? Whether classical or pop, the Proms concerts are the de-facto standard for how all concerts should be produced. Whatever qualms music lovers have about The Proms, they are a monument to civilization without precedent. No other musical genre ever produced anything remotely like it. And this monument has now lasted for 116 seasons. Regardless of genre or type, it is not just the world’s greatest classical music festival -- would that rock, or jazz, or folk, or rap had anything remotely like the Proms. It’s the world’s greatest music festival. Period. In June 2006, I was a recently graduated music student living with my uncle and his family in Tel Aviv. A year before, I booked a return flight to America on June 30th 2006. The morning I left, we learned that Israel launched a second military front in their attempt to rescue captured Israeli soldiers. Regardless of the wisdom behind the Israeli government’s actions, Israelis yet again had no idea if they faced a small conflict or one that might turn into another war for survival. My uncle, his family and millions of others -- both Jew and Muslim -- could yet again be a Qossam rocket or mortar shell away from the same tragedy that befell thousands upon thousands, Israelis and Palestinians alike. With a bit less fervor than I believe in the Proms, I believe in Israel. For 2000 years, the world did everything within its power to prove that Jews are still less safe when they cannot govern themselves. Israel was founded to be a haven for Jews whom even the greatest civilizations refused to protect. Its reward for doing that which no other nation would is to become a Jew among nations -- held to a standard of moral accountability to which no other nation in the history of the world has ever been held, let alone a nation in Israel’s circumstances. By no means do I believe everything which Israel does to be morally justifiable -- but it is worth remembering that Israel is a country full of human beings who bleed, laugh and avenge like any other. The only difference between Israel and any other country in duress is in how many billions of people wish for its existence to cease. All too few people venture opinions about the prospects for democide in Sudan, Ethiopia, Chad, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Uzbekistan, Kenya, Burundi... Yet the world’s interest in the Israeli government’s moral failures is unending, and at times borders on pornographic. Israel’s actions have ranged from wise to horrible, as have its leaders. But what has Israel done to merit such greater sanction than governments who’ve murdered so many millions more? If Israel ceases to exist, the world will cry all the same tears which they once cried after my father lost his older sister, his grandmother, two aunts and their families in The Holocaust. But no lake of tears can revive yet another six million Jews from their graves. Israelis and Jews alike are as human as any other people and deserve the same respect. So it was with a particular level of heartbreak that I heard the disruption by political protesters of the Israel Philharmonic’s concert on a live Proms relay -- a disruption repeated so frequently that the worldwide broadcast had to cease. I've listened to roughly 90% of every Proms broadcast since the 2005 season. But this was the first time in my experience that a Proms broadcast was ever disrupted mid-concert. I later read that Israel Philharmonic’s concert was disrupted six times. Even if Israel’s conduct were as heinous as these protesters allege: then why are Israeli musicians not deserving of all the same respect which listeners accorded to musicians from countries with the very worst governments of the 20th century? Why did no one in England disrupt the performances of musicians hailing from Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany in the very same Royal Albert Hall? I treasure the Proms as I do very few things in my life. But how can I continue to treasure a concert series that cannot make the homeland of my family feel welcome? Whether one agrees or disagrees with the policies of the Israeli government, something must be done to say that we cannot live in another era that allows Jewish musicians to live in fear of thugs. One day, broadcasts of these disrupted concerts may be released to a world without Israel, and they will be remembered with all the chilling foresight of Carl Schuricht’s live 1939 recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra -- during which a woman arose at the end of the last movement’s plaintive oboe solo to declare “Deutschland über alles, Herr Schuricht.” If you disagree with the importance of preventing similar outbursts in our concert halls, I would merely ask why. But if you don’t, then I would ask that you issue an immediate and public denunciation of this action. You don’t have to like Israel, you don’t even have to like classical music. But I plead, I implore you to take a stand against this practice. Europe does not need yet another period in which Jewish musicians are prevented from playing in concert halls. Today, they came for the Israel Philharmonic. Tomorrow, for whom shall they come? 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Robert Wolfe, a Harvard-trained historian, is no mere nominal Zionist but a fully engaged one: an independent scholar, he’s been living in Netanya since 2001. During this past decade Wolfe has turned out a series of finely argued historical essays that explore facets of Jewish history that he argues have been treated skimpily or tendentiously by mainstream biblical scholars. “From Habiru to Hebrews,” the opening selection, is pivotal to the author’s larger argument. Wolfe is unapologetically secular. His point of departure about the origins of the Jewish people subverts the traditional biblical narratives dealing with a primal Creator’s relationship to a tribe of patriarchs and matriarchs; instead, it is about the Habiru, a societal underclass who appear on hundreds of cuneiform inscriptions starting the 2nd millennium BCE. Wolfe’s thesis is that these Habiru were composed of “scattered bands of runaway slaves and other fugitives who maintained themselves on the outskirts of settled areas of the regionÖIt was theyÖwho were the founders of the ancient Jewish nation.” Perhaps equally noteworthy is Wolfe’s discussion of King David, the very model of a Jewish leader, who not only had humble beginnings but himself was an outcast and fugitive, at times even a traitor to his own people. Wolfe would have that groups of Habiru fled from Egypt, coalescing over time into a “warrior elite” that infiltrated into Canaan where they overthrew the existing social order of inhabitants from whom they differed little or not at all ethnically but in higher significant ways ethically. One of the strengths of his version of Jewish origins not as pastoral Bedouin in the mold of biblical patriarchs but as runaway fugitives from Egypt is that it satisfactorily elucidates why Jewish law, at variance with that other nations of the period, considered slavery as an utterly repugnant condition and why Jews are famously exhorted never to forget their origins as slaves. Extending this theme, it also suggestively clarifies why, relative to other ethnicities, so many contemporary Jews (particularly in the Diaspora) seem hard-wired to empathize with society’s underdogs. In “Jewish Influence,” a subsequent essay, Wolfe exploits to startling effect standard Jewish demographic studies in the Roman period. Historians estimate that the world’s Jewish population at the start of the first century CE was roughly 8 million. As a result of sequential Roman wars against the Jews (66 CE to 136 CE), not alone was conversion to Judaism made a capital offense, not only did the nation of Judah effectively cease to exist, but the Roman onslaught assumed a genocidal character: around 2 million Jews were killed (including virtually the entire “Jewish Christian” community of Jerusalem, thus sealing the development of Christianity in an anti-Semitic directions). This Roman policy of mass murder, Wolfe notes acerbically, is rarely if ever spelled out by historians of antiquity who typically characterize Romans “as ‘tolerant’ in matters of religions but stirred to action by the ‘stubbornness’ of the Jews.” Wolfe argues that over and above congenital Jewish abhorrence of idol worship, it was this ingrained Jewish repugnance to slavery that rendered them indigestible to the Roman social order which was, after all, fundamentally dependent upon a slave economy. Among other notable essays in this collection is one that painstakingly details the ramifications of the imposition of the Justinian/Gregorian “civil calendar” upon the greater part of the world, one that meanders through over the shifting nexus between Knights Templar, Freemasons, Deists and Jews, and–the final entry–an articulate apologia: “Why I Am A Zionist.” Although traditionally-oriented readers will take exception to many of Wolfe’s assumptions, his clearheaded exposition, if not always convincing, adds to our store of knowledge and is at no point implausible. All in all, the appearance of FROM HABIRU TO HEBREWS seems to me to argue strongly for the utility and worth of the recent surge in indie publishing. Haim Chertok, Author of Israel Bound and Rebound This review appears in the December 2012 issue of Hadassah Magazine.

April 27, 2015 Our nineteen fifty something station-wagon was loaded with mom, dad, big fat Aunt Nee (300lbs ), myself and four younger siblings. Aunt Nee raised my dad; his surrogate mom. Our family was excited about spending a hot summer day at Carr's Beach, Maryland. I had no idea at that time that it was the only Maryland beach open to blacks. Before hitting the road to the beach, the ritual included riding from our black suburban community into Baltimore city to pick up Aunt Nee and stopping down “Jew Town” to purchase corned-beef and a bread that the adults loved. I did not get a sense that my parents calling it Jew Town was meant in a derogatory way. It was simply an area of Baltimore filled with Jewish businesses that sold great food. As a matter of fact, most of the corner stores in black neighborhoods were owned by Jews. Blacks purchased items without cash, put on their account. Store owners would log items in their book; no bulletproof wall and turn-style between the Jewish store owners and their black customers. We always had a wonderful time at the beach and rode home exhausted. Dad's car was not air conditioned. Looking back, I wonder how on earth did we endure; three adults, five kids, food and beach supplies stuffed in a hot station-wagon. And yet, all my memories of family days at the beach bring a warm smile to my face. Mom was a great cook. Two of mom's weekday dinner menus stick out as favorites. One was mom's hot homemade biscuits with butter and King Syrup. The other was collard greens with cornbread dumplings. We kids were clueless about the economic component surrounding these meals. We simply enjoyed them, never feeling deprived. Wednesday nights were prayer service at the storefront church in Baltimore city where dad was assistant pastor. On the way home, there was a corner bakery right before we crossed over the Hanover Street bridge. Whenever dad unexpectedly pulled over to purchase a dozen donuts, it was an exciting family treat. As the eldest, I remember my parent's lean years more than my siblings. One Christmas, I was extremely excited receiving a secondhand bicycle. Years later, Santa delivered new bikes for my younger brothers and sister. Dad was among Baltimore City's first black firefighters and mom worked part-time as a custodian at a high school and a domestic for white folks. My point is we did not have what kids have today. And yet, we enjoyed the little things. We did not feel deprived. Mom and dad always found a way to get us whatever we needed. I remember wearing my new suit for 6th grade graduation looking at my friend Martin wearing a suit a few sizes too small. My three brothers, sister and I were happy. The Bible says “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). While my siblings and I had our individual periods of rebellion, like the prodigal son, we defaulted back to our home training; our parent's principles and values. Today, the Left is aggressively usurping authority over your kids, ripping parenting out of your hands. Decades of allowing liberal indoctrination to go unchallenged has produced a generation of youths who believe in the name of “fairness” that no one should have more than anyone else (income inequality). Needs and desires are now declared to be rights (government entitlements). In our quest to prove our tolerance as conservatives, we allowed the Left to steal our kid's minds. Youths are idealistic. Once liberalized guilt-ridden youths are led down the road of trying to make life fair, the consequences are far reaching. For example: Pressure from students is forcing colleges to make all campus restrooms “all gender.” An Oregon High School created gender-neutral restrooms for transgender students. In case you have not noticed, the Left has zero tolerance for anyone daring to disagree with their far left radical liberal agenda. They punish and even seek to criminalize opposing points of view. How long will it be before our kids are reporting their parents to authorities after overhearing them express an opinion out-of-step with that of the Left, government and the mainstream media? Folks, it is time that we take back our kids from Leftist's indoctrination. Though “Bring Back Our Girls” won rave reviews from liberals, sadly, it did nothing to free the 200 girls kidnapped and made sex slaves by Islamic extremists. A year later, the girls have not been returned. I wish to implement, Take Back Our Kids. I am calling all parents to closely monitor their local school administrators and school boards, confronting them when necessary. Home schooling is a great option. We can no longer sit back and passively allow the Left to totally control the thinking and beliefs of our kids. We must Take Back Our Kids. Marcus, Proud Unhyphenated American Chairman – CampaignToDefeatObama.com � 2014 Lloyd Marcus - All Rights Reserved Self proclaimed Black Unhyphenated American, Lloyd Marcus is a featured columnist on American Thinker, Renew America, Canadian Free Press and numerous other Internet websites. A speaker, activist, singer/songwriter, recording artist and entertainer, Marcus was a featured act on the historical 2009 Tea Party Expressed Tour. The finale event was the Sept. 12th Taxpayers March and Rally in Washington DC where Marcus performed for a million people. His appearances include FoxNews, CNN, PJTV and numerous TV and radio programs. He emcees and performs his patriotic original songs at rallies and special events across America. He was the featured entertainment at the 2009 Free Republic National Convention. Marcus' mission is to use his God given gifts to spread the "truth" that Conservatism is best for all Americans. He resides in Central Florida. An elected official, Marcus is Chairman for Precinct 424, Volusia County Florida. He is also Creative Director for the Republican Executive Committee of Volusia County. Lloyd Marcus, Singer/Songwriter of the national "American Tea Party Anthem." President, NAACPC (National Association for the Advancement of Conservative People of Color)

In memory of Werner Buchholz Poughkeepsie - On Thursday July 11, 2019, Werner Buchholz, a computer science pioneer, passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 96. Werner was born on October 24, 1922, in Detmold, Germany. The son of a Jewish leather merchant, Werner just after turning 16 was sent by his parents to the safety of England before the onset of World War II. Like with Japanese Americans, England rounded up these Jewish teenagers and put them in detention camps. His parents, Julius and Elsa, were killed in concentration camps. Werner was transferred to another detention camp in Canada where, after some time, members of the Toronto Jewish community sponsored him to attend the University of Toronto. After receiving his bachelor's and master's degrees there, he earned his PhD in electrical engineering at Caltech. IBM hired him in 1949 to work in Poughkeepsie, NY, at the very beginning of their commercial computer development. There they replaced punched card electronic computing with the much faster magnetic tape process for storing large files. Werner participated in a new government project for the Korean War that led to the IBM 701 and 702 computers. They next developed the "supercomputer" called Stretch, taking advantage of the change from vacuum tubes to transistor technology. This is when these computer designers began being known as system architects. In 1956, Werner coined the term "byte" to denote a small group of bits, but he never thought this much of an accomplishment. He continued to work at IBM until retiring in 1990. Werner married Anna Frances Odor, a Kentucky-born, Methodist-turned-Quaker, professor of German at Vassar College, in 1952. With Werner's highly-engaged support, Ann Buchholz went on to become a local community leader, one of the first Democratic women elected to high office in this relatively conservative area of New York. They had two sons together, John who died in a car crash in 1975, and Sham Rang Singh Khalsa who is an emergency physician in Massachusetts. Werner was preceded in death by Ann in 2007. He is also survived by two grandchildren, Gurushabd Khalsa and Sarang Khalsa, who reside in the Seattle area. Werner asked that there be no funeral services. He asked that, instead of flowers, for those who wish to honor him in death, that gifts can be sent to Poughkeepsie Monthly Meeting of Friends, 249 Hooker Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY, 12603. View Full Obituary ›

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT PRAYER OF THE DAY: Stir up our hearts, Lord God, to prepare the way of your only Son. By his coming give to all the people of the world knowledge of your salvation; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. This Sunday’s lessons promise justice. The prophet Malachi assures Israel that the Lord will appear as a refiner’s fire purifying the earth for a new age. Zechariah sings of the day when God will deliver Israel from her enemies that she might “serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness…” Paul expresses his confidence that God, who began a good work in us, “will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” John the Baptist proclaims the leveling of mountains and the exaltation of valleys at the advance of the One who is to come. That’s all good news-until you start thinking about it. Malachi sounds this sobering cautionary note: “but who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?” If the reign of God were to come tomorrow, I am not at all convinced that I would be prepared to meet it. The problem with heaven is that it will be hell for those of us who are not ready to live there. How many of us really want a creation in which all things are reconciled in Christ Jesus? All is a big word. I have no desire to be reconciled with Keith, the kid who bullied me to the point where I hated getting up in the morning and did not feel safe even in my own back yard. Not that I wish him any harm. I’m over that. In fact, I was glad to learn that Keith now has a flourishing dental practice in my home town. I think it’s great that he ended up in a profession where he can both satisfy his sadistic impulses and benefit society. Would that all the world’s sociopaths were so well integrated. I hope he lives long and prospers, but I don’t particularly want to see him again. Then, of course, there are the notorious evildoers: Hitler, Stalin, Osama Bin Landin, Bull Connor and others in the scoundrel’s hall of fame. Heaven would hardly be heaven if these folks were parading about in the presence of their victims. I cannot imagine or accept their reconciliation. Clearly, they must be burned away in the refining process. Justice requires no less-or at least that is so for justice as I understand it. The trouble is, I don’t understand it. My perception of justice is too self-centered and myopic. I cannot see what is truly just from God’s perspective. For that reason, we all need to be careful about demanding justice. Sometimes you get what you ask for and it is not what you expect. The line between good and evil does not run neatly between righteous and unrighteous people, good nations and evil nations. That line runs through the middle of every human heart. The evil we hate and deplore in others is often a reflection of what lies in the depths of our own hearts. The cleansing fire of God’s justice comes not merely to eliminate people I don’t like. It comes to deal with the grudges I can’t let go of; resentment of enemies I can’t find it in my heart to forgive; my lust for recognition that never seems to be satisfied; and the lies I tell myself about myself in order for me to live with myself. Justice has a lot of refining to do with my own soul before I can live justly under God’s reign. I am beginning to understand the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory. Though it has little or no support in the scriptures, it makes good sense. Clearly, it will take more than a life time to purge my soul and make me capable of sharing in the love of the Father for the Son and for the rest of creation. But whether I must undergo thousands of years of purging or whether I am changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” it amounts to the same thing, namely, change. After undergoing such a radical transformation, after being refined in the fierce fire of God’s judgment, after being cleansed of the pride, resentment, anxiety and envy that have shaped so much of my life, will there by anything left of me? Is there enough of the mind of Christ in me to constitute a new person? Saint Paul gives me some comfort here with his assurance that God, who began a good work in me at baptism, will bring that good work to completion in the Day of Jesus Christ. God will see to it that God’s eternal destiny for me (not necessarily my own hopes for eternity) will be fulfilled. The man I might become after passing through the refining fire of God’s judgment may not be recognizable to me. But he will recognize the Lord who has been present to him throughout his lifetime. And that, Saint John tells us, is the stuff of eternal life. Perhaps that is why Jesus told us in last week’s gospel not to fear the dissolution of creation and to raise our heads in hope even as the signs of our own destruction are all around. However fearful the judgment might be, it is a cleansing judgment, a refining fire, a wound designed to heal. It is the storm that necessarily precedes the calm. Here’s a poem by Leonora Speyer. The squall sweeps gray-winged across the obliterated hills, And the startled lake seems to run before it; From the wood comes a clamor of leaves, Tugging at the twigs, Pouring from the branches, And suddenly the birds are still. Thunder crumples the sky, Lightning tears at it. And now the rain! The wind, reveling in the confusion of great pines! And a silver sifting of light, A sense of summer anger passing, Of summer gentleness creeping nearer— Penitent, tearful, Forgiven! Nothing is known about the prophet Malachi, whose name in Hebrew means, “My messenger.” The prophet probably lived between 500 and 450 B.C.E. after the Jewish exiles from Babylon had returned and rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. For more information about the prophetic book bearing his name, I refer you to the Summary Article by Michael Rogness, Professor of Preaching and Professor Emeritus of Homiletic at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, M.N. Malachi was fiercely dedicated to the reconstructed temple and highly critical of the priesthood he accused of corrupting its worship. Malachi also criticizes the people of Israel for their failure to support the temple, for offering sick and blemished animals for sacrifice and for a general lack of faithfulness to Israel’s covenant with her God. In the concluding chapter Malachi answers his critics who claim that God has abandoned Israel. God is sending “my messenger” before him who will “suddenly come to his temple.” Vs. 1. The question is not whether God will come, but whether Israel will be able to stand in God’s presence. Vs. 2. “For [God] is like a refining fire,” a “purifier of silver.” This God will “purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they present right offerings to the Lord.” Vss. 2-3. The news is good in the sense that the ultimate result will be that “Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former times.” Vs. 4. Yet the purification process promises to be painful. The refining fire will consume all the dross and impurities from Israel. There will be a terrible cost for this purification. So also John is sent to “preach a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin.” The intent is to save Israel, but salvation cannot come without a painful transformation. That continues to be the case. To be baptized into Jesus Christ is to be baptized into Christ’s death. We are called daily to die to sin and rise up again to a new life of faith in Jesus. In the refining fire of the church, a community dedicated to following Jesus, we learn the hard lessons of forgiveness, compassion, faithfulness and hospitality. In other words, we are sanctified and made holy. It is a slow process, a painful process, a process that will not be finished this side of the resurrection and not by us. See Comments on Philippians 1:3-11 below. Yet it is a joyful process in which we discover just how wonderful it is to be a creature reflecting the glory of his or her Creator. You need to know the story behind this song before you can understand it. These are the words of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. He was a priest of the temple in Jerusalem in the time just prior to Jesus’ birth. When his division was on duty, he was selected to enter into the temple and burn incense before the holy of holies. While he was performing this duty, an angel appeared to him and told him that his wife, Elizabeth, would bear a son and instructed him to name the child John. Understandably, Zechariah was incredulous. He was an old man and his wife was also long past child bearing years. They had never been able to have children before. So Zechariah asked the angel, “How shall I know this?” The angel identified himself as Gabriel, “who stand in the presence of God.” Gabriel told Zechariah that he would be unable to speak until the birth of the child because he doubted this good news. So it was that Zechariah emerged from the temple speechless. Luke 1:5-20. Elizabeth conceived and bore a son. Her relatives and neighbors began calling the infant “Zechariah” after his father, but Elizabeth corrected them: “Not so,” says Elizabeth. “His name is John.” Everyone protests that no one in her family has ever borne that name. Then they turn to Zechariah who would have had the final say in this matter. Much to their surprise, Zechariah asks for a writing tablet and inscribes on it these words for all to see: “His name is John.” At that instant, Zechariah’s tongue is set free and he breaks forth in the song that is our psalm for the day. Luke 1:57-66. Though the birth of John is the occasion for this joyous song, the song’s focus is on the mighty works and promises of God. The promises made to Abraham and to David are evoked by Zechariah’s words. The “horn of salvation” (Vs. 69) is a symbol of might. See Deuteronomy 33:17. The covenantal language throughout the song unites the promises made to Abraham with those sworn to David. Vss. 70-73. The “horn of salvation” raised up within the house of David will make the Abrahamic promises of blessing to all peoples a reality. This “horn of salvation” is Jesus. John’s identity and role is spelled out in this hymn only in relation to Jesus before whom John will go as a prophet of the Most High. John will prepare the way by giving people “knowledge of salvation in the forgiveness of their sins.” Vs. 77. A couple of things are worth noting here. First, there is an interesting interplay between Zachariah’s inability to speak and Elizabeth’s speech concerning the naming of her son. Elizabeth’s naming of John is totally ignored by her relatives and neighbors who turn to Zechariah-who has no ability to speak! It is as though poor Elizabeth has no voice. But when the speechless man gives his full support to the voiceless woman, this beautiful song of liberation bursts forth, promising an end to oppression and violence, the dawn of a new day and a path that leads to peace. This is not the first time Luke’s gospel gives a prominent voice to women. We will see throughout the readings we encounter this year a deep concern for women and an intentional effort to give them a voice in the gospel narrative. Second, it is important to note the wealth of imagery in this song taken from the Hebrew Scriptures. I cannot emphasize enough how critical it is to read the New Testament in light of those Hebrew Scriptures. Unless you fully appreciate the wealth of promises, the richness of hope and the textured narrative embedded in the Hebrew Scriptures, your view of the New Testament will necessarily be truncated and distorted. I am convinced that the most heretical book ever published is the New Testament printed apart from the Hebrew Scriptures. A word or two about Paul’s letter to the Philippians is warranted since we will be hearing lessons from that book this week and next. The first thing to note is that the letter to the Philippians is not one, but actually three different letters sent by Paul to the church at Philippi at different times. These letters were collected together and over time became integrated as a single document. The three letters in their likely chronological order are as follows: Phil A = Phil 4:10-20 (a short “Note of Thanksgiving” for monetary gifts Paul received from the Philippians) Phil B = Phil 1:1 – 3:1; 4:4-7; (a “Letter of Friendship” written from prison, probably in Ephesus) Phil C = Phil 3:2 – 4:3; 4:8-9; 4:21-23 (a stern warning against the rival missionaries who require the circumcision of Gentiles) It is impossible to determine the timing of the first letter other than to say that it was between the start of Paul’s missionary activity beginning around 45 A.D. and his arrest in Jerusalem around 60 A.D. There is no mention of Paul’s imprisonment in this letter. It appears that the Philippian congregation sent a gift of money in support of Paul’s mission work in Ephesus by the hand of one of its members, Epaphroditus. This evidently was not the first time the congregation had sent support to Paul and he is overwhelmed by this church’s generosity. Though Paul does not depend on material support from his congregations, knowing that God will supply his needs, he nevertheless rejoices in such support as it benefits his mission as well as the spiritual wellbeing of the supporting congregation. After delivering the Philippian church’s gift to Paul, Epaphroditus stayed with him to help in his mission to Ephesus. As a result of civil unrest generated by Paul’s preaching, Paul is arrested and imprisoned. (Acts 19:23-20:1; I Corinthians 15:32; II Corinthians 1:8-11). To make matters worse, Epaphroditus becomes gravely ill. The Philippians are greatly distressed by both of these developments. Upon Epaphroditus’ recovery, Paul sends him back to the Philippians with the second letter assuring them that, in spite of the circumstances, he is well and that his imprisonment is furthering the cause of the gospel. The final letter appears to be a fragment from a larger letter, the remainder of which has been lost. Paul is writing to warn the Philippians of some rival missionaries who are teaching the Gentile converts that they must be circumcised in order to join the church. This issue is treated further in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Our reading for this Sunday comes from the second letter, Phil B. Though there is some dispute among scholars over where Paul was imprisoned when he wrote this letter, it is clear that Paul was imprisoned at the time for activities related to his preaching. I find most persuasive the conclusion that Paul was in Ephesus at this time. It is noteworthy that Paul begins his letter not with a description of his own dire circumstances as a prisoner, but with a word of thanksgiving for the support and partnership he has received from the church at Philippi. If you read further on in this first chapter of Philippians, it becomes clear that Paul’s position is precarious. The proceedings against him could possibly lead to a death sentence. Though Paul would prefer release from prison and further fruitful ministry, he is prepared to die for his witness to Jesus. He is confident that his little church in Philippi is safe in the arms of Jesus and that God “who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Vs. 6. I think this is about the most comforting word in the Bible. After all, life is full of loose ends. There are things I wish I had said to Mom and Dad when they were still alive. There are activities I wish I had done with my children, places I wish I could have taken them, time lost that I know I should have spent with them. Although I would like to believe I have grown in wisdom and understanding, I know that I suffer from the same insecurity, fear and anger I have known all my life. There are days when I ask myself, “Peter, are you ever going to grow up?” Now, well into the top third of my statistically determined life span, it is clear to me that I have not the time, energy or wisdom to tie up all the loose ends in my life. So it is good to know that, where I can make only a very poor beginning, Jesus promises completion. I can die before the work is finished knowing that Jesus will heal what is wounded, reconcile what is estranged and restore what has been lost. In this season of Advent our focus is on what Paul calls “the day of Jesus Christ.” Vs. 6. I think that Paul’s word here must be set against warning of Malachi. Yes, the prophet Malachi is correct. God’s messenger comes as a refining fire to burn away all the chaff. That will not be pleasant. But as unpleasant as the refining process is, the objective is to heal, purify and perfect. Burning away the impurities is simply part and parcel of bringing to completion the good work begun at our baptism into Jesus Christ. Malachi poses the question: “Who can endure the day of [God’s] coming and who can stand when he appears?” The answer, according to Paul, is everyone who clings in faith to Jesus’ promise to use that fiery day to complete in us what he began. Luke’s introduction of John the Baptist begins with a roll call of all the movers and shakers in the ancient Mediterranean world. Tiberius, emperor of Rome, was the successor to Augustus Caesar, the man credited with imposing the “peace of Rome” over the world (or a good portion of it anyway). Tiberius was a great general responsible for expanding the imperial borders. As an emperor, he was much less effective. He was known to be moody, timid and disinterested in affairs of state. In many respects he was an inept leader riding the coattails of his illustrious predecessor. Pontius Pilate, who we will meet later on, became prefect of Judaea in 26 A.D. According to the Jewish historian, Josephus, he was ordered back to Rome after harshly suppressing a Samaritan uprising in about 37 A.D. Herod the “tetrarch” (meaning ruler of the fourth), was a son of the infamous Herod the Great, known in Matthew’s gospel for the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem. Also known as Herod Antipas, he was responsible for the imprisonment and execution of John the Baptist. Unlike his father who ruled all of Judea, Herod Antipas ruled only the region of Galilee. Philip the Tetrarch was also a son of Herod the Great and a half-brother of Herod Antipas. Philip inherited the northeast part of his father’s kingdom, Judah. Little is known about Lysanias other than that he was probably another regional ruler appointed by Rome as were Herod and Philip. His territory was to the north of Judah. For a thorough discussion of the political movers and shakers of this era, see Marshall, Howard I., Commentary on Luke, New International Greek Testament Commentary (c. 1978 by Paternoster Press, Ltd.) pp. 132-134. High priests were selected and appointed by the Roman authorities, often with little input from the Jewish people. This practice did much to discredit the priesthood in the eyes of the Jewish people as a whole. So also did the onerous taxes collected for the support of the temple and the commercial activity in the temple courts-much of the proceeds of which went directly to the coffers of Rome. Thus, Jesus’ act of cleansing the temple not only offended Jerusalem’s religious elite. It was also a shot across the bow of Rome. Annas was high priest until 14 A.D. when he was deposed by the Roman authorities and replaced with his own son in law, Caiaphas. Schweizer, Eduard, The Good News According to Luke, (c. 1984 by John Knox Press) p. 69. It seems clear from the passion accounts in the gospels, however, that Annas continued to exercise a significant degree of authority behind the scenes. Indeed, Luke goes so far as to name both men as high priests, though technically there could only have been one. Ibid. 70. “The word of the Lord came to John the son of Zachariah in the wilderness…” This is a common formula used throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. See, e.g., Jeremiah 1:1-3; Ezekiel 1:1-3; Micah 1:1-2. Because word and action are largely the same when it comes to God’s speech, it might be better to translate the phrase: “The word of God happened to John.” Ibid p. 70. The word of the Lord comes to a prophet, but never in a vacuum. The word comes in specific times, in certain places and during the reigns of particular kings. These contextual settings are important because ours is a God that takes history seriously. The word of God is always addressed to a specific audience in a specific circumstance. To put it differently, God is one who gets involved with the messy details of our lives. So much so that the Gospel of John can say that God’s Word ultimately becomes flesh and blood, entering into the messy business of birth, childhood, adolescence, suffering and death. The world into which this Incarnate Word comes is a violent, corrupt and dangerous place. This is not a fairytale we are about to hear. Yet because this is our world, a world filled with destructive evils we have made for ourselves and because we cannot seem to escape the consequences of what our hands have made, the news of Christ’s coming into the midst of our self-made mess with the healing touch of God is incredibly good. John the Baptist is introduced with a passage from the first chapter of Isaiah. These words were addressed to the exiled Jews living in Babylon in the 6th Century B.C.E. The prophet sees in the immanent fall of Babylon to Persia a God given opportunity for his people to return home to Palestine. The “highway” through the desert refers to the way God is making from Babylon to Jerusalem for the exiles’ return. The people in Jesus’ time were exiles in their own land. They were governed by rulers appointed from Rome and the produce of their nation was being extracted by Roman taxation. Roman troops, ever present throughout Judea and Galilee, did not hesitate to crucify anyone who dared challenge Rome’s authority. Into this violent and conflicted land the word of the Lord came to John. What then will this word be? What powerful forces will it set in motion? What news will break forth from the mouth of this prophet? We will find out about that next week! It is also worth noting that, after Luke goes to great lengths filling us in on the identity of various powers that be governing the empire from Rome to Galilee, he turns our focus abruptly away from all these “movers and shakers” to the wilderness. It is here that God speaks. It is here where the news is being made. The events that are about to shake the universe to its core are not being debated in the Roman Senate or decreed in the Temple of Jerusalem. They are being announced by a strange preacher in the heart of the wilderness where nothing newsworthy happens-or so we have been led to believe. Luke would have us know that the real news isn’t what gets printed in the papers. It is happening in the last places you would expect: in the wilderness; in a drafty old barn; on a rocky hill outside Jerusalem where miscreants are put to death; in the darkness of a tomb.

Yeah, maybe Sandy Koufax didn’t pitch on Yom Kippur, but everyone works holidays now. Why shouldn’t the NBA? This past Sunday, Bruce Jenkins, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote about his disdain for David Stern’s scheduling of multiple NBA games on Christmas Day. In his column he said that Stern “who celebrates Hanukkah, has no real feel for Christmas in the first place.” (Editors note: we would link to the column directly, but it has since been taken down. Here is Deadspin’s take on it.) Jenkins followed this not-so-veiled anti-semitic remark (for which he has since apologized) with a quote from former Lakers coach Phil Jackson: “Your little kids are putting batteries in their new toys, all kinds of family stuff going on, and now you’re supposed to get focused on a game in the middle of the afternoon?” There are many flaws in Mr. Jenkins’ and Jackson’s statements, least of which is the fact that the NBA has been playing games on Christmas since 1947, when the New York Knicks beat the Providence Steamrollers. It’s safe to assume that Mr. Stern’s Jewish-ness had no role in that game unless he borrowed Dr. Brown’s DeLorean and went back in time. Secondly, I’m sorry, Mr. Jackson, but I find it hard to believe that professional athletes who play in front of thousands of people every night, and millions more on TV, get so discombobulated by hanging with their kids for a few hours that they can’t focus on their jobs. Jenkins’ ill-conceived commentary does, however, highlight a relevant question. Should professional sports be played on religious and other national holidays, and has the recent trend of playing more and more games on holidays gone too far? And what if an athlete chooses not to play a game scheduled on a religious holiday? Let’s take that DeLorean back to October 6, 1965, Game 1 of the World Series. The Los Angeles Dodgers are facing the Minnesota Twins and Sandy Koufax, cominoff what would be another Cy Young award winning season, is expected to pitch. Only it’s Yom Kippur, the holiest of days for Jewish people, a day that Koufax never works. Game 1 would be no different—Koufax didn’t pitch. (Just imagine Justin Verlander refusing to pitch Game 1 of the World Series this year, although, come to think of it, maybe he should have.) Koufax wasn’t the first (Hank Greenberg) or the last (Shawn Green), but if you’re Jewish like me, you learned about Sandy Koufax’s decision before you knew how to walk. You were reminded every Yom Kippur about his sacrifice when you whined that you wanted to go out and play ball with the other kids. And the story certainly wasn’t hurt by the fact that Koufax, despite not pitching the first game, went on to be the Series MVP, pitching Game 2 and throwing complete game shutouts in both Game 5 and 7, the last on TWO days’ rest. Koufax—and athletes like him—should be commended for doing what he believed was important to his faith. That’s a lesson we can all embrace and teach our children. I’d like to believe that Koufax would make the same decision today, although given the salaries involved now and the beating he would take on Twitter, it would be a much different and more difficult scenario. Either way, for Koufax and any other athlete, it’s their choice. I must admit, however, that I don’t really understand the rationale for not holding sporting events on holidays, including Christmas. First, above all, professional sports is big business, and it’s clear based on TV ratings and game attendance that there’s money to be made for any league scheduling games on holidays. As fans, we enable these games because we consume them like Cookie Monster in a bakery. If this weren’t the case, there wouldn’t be any games—case closed. Let’s also recognize that times have changed since 1965 and holidays now are mostly commercial opportunities for large corporations. Big box retailers now open on Thanksgiving night (with minor protest), fewer and fewer stores seem to close on holidays, even Christmas, and new “holidays” pop up every year – witness the acceptance of Black Friday, CyberMonday and Superbowl Sunday. Even something as devastating as breast cancer has been completely commercialized when, during the month of October, the world, including football players’ cleats, armbands and any other convenient uniform accessory, turns pink. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, the commercialization of our holidays is here to stay, that is as long as we continue to consume what’s being offered. Whether it’s football now three days a week, five NBA games on Christmas, baseball throughout the Hot Stove winter, two-days of televised coverage of the NFL draft, or watching 12-year old boys play baseball, we’ve demonstrated that, collectively, we crave to be entertained 24/7. We’re not just watching either—we’re playing fantasy, tweeting, and launching witty status updates. Our “always-on” society demands that people work on holidays to keep the machine running smoothly. If fire fighters, police, doctors, nurses, baristas etc. all work on holidays, it’s only fair that our favorite NBA players should have to do their jobs as well—and for a lot more money. At the end of the day, sports are one of the ways many families bond. At some point during every holiday, we’ve stuffed our faces, we’re tired of Uncle Tony’s war stories, mom’s already nagged us to no end that we don’t come home enough, and sports offers us the perfect way to escape for a few hours and hear our father go on and on about how the games used to be played. That, my friends, is what holidays are all about. Flashback to Christmas Day 1985. A 13-year old boy sits with his father and older brother in the last row of Madison Square Garden and watches an epic double-overtime win. His favorite team, the New York Knicks, defeat the soon-to-be world champion Boston Celtics. Led by rookie Patrick Ewing, the Knicks overcome a 25-point deficit. The night before, Celtic Kevin McHale defies league orders and refuses to travel with the team to New York, choosing to spend Christmas Eve and morning with his family to open presents. He takes a 9am shuttle to New York and arrives in plenty of time to score 29 points and grab 14 rebounds. McHale’s potential game-winning shot, however, is blocked at the buzzer by Ernie Grunfeld to seal the Knicks’ victory. (Grunfeld is Jewish, of course.) Thank you David Stern. Photo: Mark J. Terrill/AP

Ronan Tynan, the famed Irish tenor, has apologized for anti-Semitic remarks he admits having made which has cost him his regular Yankees 7th inning stretch appearance to sing "God Bless America" and may damage his career. "It was stupid of me to be so callous, and I would never want to hurt anybody's feelings," Tynan told NBC News in New York after the story surfaced. According to NBC, the incident happened when the 49-year-old Tynan met a real estate agent who was showing an apartment on his floor to a potential buyer, a Jewish pediatrician from NYU Medical Center. To which Tynan replied, "I don't care about that, as long as they are not Jewish," Gabrielle Gold-von Simson told NBC New York. "Why is that?" asked a flabbergasted Gold-von Simson of the singer. Tynan replied that Jewish ladies had been looking at the apartment before and they were "scary," according to Gold-von Simson. The singer now says the remarks were made in jest. The doctor said not. "I didn't know him at all so how could I take it as a joke," said Gold-von Simson. Tynan, for his part, claims was just a "big misunderstanding." "I'm not anti-Semitic and I have never been in my life," Tynan told NBC New York. "There are three members of my band that are Jewish. And I love them like brothers. I call them my brothers from another mother." Despite the apology, the damage may be already done as the Yankees canceled his scheduled Friday night appearance during the 7th-inning stretch of Game 1 of the League Championship Series. The Yankees talked to Tynan and Gold-von Simson to confirm the story and immediately canceled Tynan's appearance. The real estate broker Richard Rosenthal did not want to comment for this article, but Halstead Properties issued a statement. "We are shocked that this happened to our agent and their customer," said Robyn Kammerer, Halstead's vice president of communications. "It was truly an appalling statement and it saddens us that this type of behavior still occurs in today's society." Tynan admitted to making the comment but said it was all in jest, Howard Rubenstein, the Yankees publicist told NBC New York. Tynan called Gold-von Simson immediately to apologize and said he has agreed to make a donation to the NYU pediatric center where she works, Rubenstein said. "A lot of my friends are Jewish," said Tynan. "It's something misfortunate, I was too stupid with my mouth." Gold-von Simson said she accepted the Irishman's mea culpa. "Absolutely," she said. "It was a sincere apology." It was an ugly incident for the celebrated Irish tenor and may well affect his career. His legs were amputated in his 20s due to a childhood disability. He went on to become a medical doctor, international recording star and motivational speaker. Tynan became famous in New York after 9/11 when he was an ever present at the funerals for fallen members of the NYPD and FDNY. His performance singing "God Bless America" at the Yankee games in those dark times helped create his celebrity.

Fifty-seven Jewish tombs in the southwest of Hungary were desecrated over the weekend, the MTI Hungarian news agency reported on Monday. The tombs contained remains of some 250 people buried in the Jewish cemetery of Kaposvar, according to sources quoted in the Turkish daily Hurriyet. Jewish community leader Laszlo Rona told MTI the incident was “clearly motivated by racism.” Damage to the cemetery and graves was estimated at $15,000, with headstones dating back to the 19th century knocked over and damaged. There were two people involved in the vandalism, the Hurriyet reported, a conclusion based on footprints left in the muddy ground.

Charles Blow recently claimed in the New York Times: “America has the highest gun homicide rate, the highest number of guns per capita . . . .” On Sunday, the New York Times quotes researcher David Hemenway as claiming: “Generally, if you live in a civilized society, more guns mean more death.” CNN’s Piers Morgan believes: “America has the worst incidents of gun murders of any of what they call the civilized world.” If you look at just the countries used in the Small Arms Survey, you get this. Note that it is somewhat misleading to speak of a US homicide rate as 3 percent of the counties in the US account for over 70 percent of the murders (they have about 23 percent of the population). Much is made of comparing some rather arbitrarily defined "civilized" nations, but what can Americans learn from these nations? If the non-US developed nations show anything, even with the extremely questionable data that Charles Blow at the New York Times apparently trusts regarding gun ownership rates, it shows that higher gun ownership means lower homicide or no change in gun homicide rates. He just hadn’t even bothered to graph out the numbers. There is a real problem in using cross-sectional data. Below is part of a long discussion in The Bias Against Guns , Chp. 5 (More Guns, Less Crime also has a long discussion in Chp. 2). Take a simple example. Suppose for the sake of argument that high-crime countries are the ones that most frequently adopt the most stringent gun control laws. What if gun control actually lowered crime, but not by enough to reduce rates to the same low levels prevailing in the majority of countries that did not adopt the laws. Looking across countries, it would then falsely appear that stricter gun control resulted in higher crime. Economists refer to this as an “endogeniety” problem. The adoption of the policy is a reaction to other events (that is, “endogenous”), in this case crime. To resolve this, one must examine how the high-crime areas that chose to adopt the controls changed over time —not only relative to their own past levels but also relative to areas that did not institute such controls. Of course, I have other problems with the New York Times discussion. For example, the rates of gun ownership for Switzerland and Israel are ridiculously low. This survey excludes all the military weapons kept in Swiss homes in 2007 because they were Unfortunately, many contemporary discussions rely on misinterpretations of cross-sectional data. The New York Times recently conducted a cross-sectional study of murder rates in states with and without the death penalty, and found that “Indeed, 10 of the 12 states without capital punishment have homicide rates below the national average, Federal Bureau of Investigation data shows, while half the states with the death penalty have homicide rates above the national average” (Raymond Bonner and Ford Fessenden, “States With No Death Penalty Share Lower Homicide Rates,” New York Times, September 22, 2000, p. A1.). However, they erroneously concluded that the death penalty did not deter murder. The problem is that the states without the death penalty (Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Vermont) have long enjoyed relatively low murder rates, something that might well have more to do with other factors than the death penalty. Instead one must compare, over time, how murder rates change in the two groups – those adopting the death penalty and those that did not. technically owned by the government. Israeli guns are also excluded for the same reason. But if people have possession of guns in their homes for decades, the issue should be that public possession, not who technically owned the guns. My point above was that even if those numbers are taken as given, you still find the opposite relationship from what the New York Times was claiming. Of course, if you fix them, you will get a negative relationship across all developed countries even with the US observation included. The reason that the Small Arms Survey messes up those two entries is that Israel and Switzerland are very low murder rate countries and giving them their true values would pull down the regression line a lot. Putting the US all by itself out there at 88 firearms per 100 people drives the supposed positive relationship claimed for developed countries (see below). The graph showing all non-US countries is shown here. So what if we asked a different question? Including the US in the data shows the absurdity of the Small Arms Survey measure of gun ownership in 2007. They define it in such a way to exclude the military weapons in Swiss homes and to exclude most Israeli guns because the government technically owns them. The Small Arms Survey claims that there are only 7 guns per 100 people in Israel, when up to 15 percent of the adult Jewish Israeli population has been able to openly carry handguns. Virtually all guns in Israel are technically owned by the government, but Israelis may have possession of a gun for decades. It seems that possession of the gun and not technical ownership is what is the real question here. Switching either or both of these countries so that they had a higher gun ownership rate than the US would offset their bias for the US rate. In any case, despite my objections to both cross-sectional data and the obviously bogus Small Arms Survey measure of gun ownership, here are the results with the US included. Doing this leaves the result for the world essentially unchanged and makes the relationship for OECD countries equal zero. Labels: Crime, GunControl, Hemenway, mediabias, NYTimes

JERUSALEM (Dec. 22) Communal life continues in Palestine despite existing war conditions. Following are some new notes on life in the Holy Land: The Jewish Agency’s labor department has been negotiating with the various labor organizations regarding extension of the existing labor exchange and distribution of work on the basis of a personal register of workers, rather than by party affiliation. A reader of Davar, labor daily, has contributed L3 for a prize for a new Hebrew marching song, in view of the fact that the Jewish soldiers and supernumerary policemen have no suitable tune to sing while on march. Official figrues of persons employed by the Palestine Government give their number as 13,717, of whom 5,663 are on the permanent staff. Unknown persons recently entered the offices of the Agudath Israel Workers’ Organization in Jerusalem and removed all the documents found there. A meeting of Jewish teachers of Arabic from 52 kvutzoth (colonies) was recently held in Haifa to discuss methods of teaching the language to adults. The Arab daily Falastin reports that the American Jewish colony Raanana sent gifts to the Arab village Azzoun when the Arabs of the latter celebrated the Moslem feast of Id el Fitr. A call to revive the old custom of “heralds” announcing the arrival of “Queen Saturday” was voiced by the Central Committee of the Agudath Israel, stating that since it is no longer possible to continue the blowing of the horn (shofar) as sign of lighting candles, the old custom of heralds should be revived to announce the time candle-lighting.

Museum Month: Half-Off Admission February 1 – 28 Location: Multiple Locations Arts, entertainment and culture collide for Macy’s Museum Month in San Diego. This February the San Diego Museum Council and Macy’s have teamed up again for Museum Month, giving patrons a chance to discover what’s new at more than 40 area museums with savings only seen once a year. Participants can pick up a Museum Month Pass at any area Macy’s store to enjoy half-off admission to all of the participating museums through the entire month of February. Passes will be available beginning February 1 at all San Diego, Temecula and Imperial Valley Macy’s 2017 Juried Biennial Art Exhibition February 1 – March 5 Location: Carlsbad, 1775 Dove Ln, Cannon Art Gallery Come see 44 works by 35 San Diego County artists in the 2017 Juried Biennial exhibit through March 5, 2017 at William D. Cannon Art Gallery. This is one of San Diego County’s most significant showcases for emerging and mid-career artists. This year’s jurors are Yevgeniya Mikhailik, Curator of the Irvine Fine Arts Center, and Ginger Shulick Porcella, Executive Director of the San Diego Art Institute. Valentine’s Week Sunset Whale Watching Cruises February 2 – 13 4:00 – 6:00 PM Location: Oceanside, 315 Harbor Dr S Sail with Oceanside Adventures aboard our 50 foot, beautifully equipped, one level, fast catamaran. This catamaran is perfect for optimal viewing, with both covered and open areas as well as seating throughout. February 2 – 13, except Saturdays. Discount prices online: $29 adult, $19 child 3 – 12, 2 and under $10. 4:00 – 7:30 PM Location: Oceanside, 1 Barnard Dr, CONCERT HALL OC2406 MiraCosta College is kicking off Black History Month activities with the fourth annual Umoja Program fundraising concert. Performing artists will include Umoja student and award-winning singer Jazmine Rogers and gospel group Eddie Baltrip and Fulfillment. Special guest artist and Season 7 finalist on the nationally syndicated show The Voice, Damien Lawson, will also be performing. Professor Anthony Blacksher, a.k.a. Ant Black, will serve as master of ceremonies and perform Spoken Word poetry. This event is for all ages so please join us and make it a family affair! VIP Reception: 4-4:50 p.m.; Concert: 5-7:30 p.m. General Admission: $10; VIP $20. Tickets can be purchased online. Proceeds will benefit the MiraCosta College Umoja Program scholarship fund. This fund is designed to increase the educational outcomes of African-American and other students. 21st Annual Lake Poway Youth Fishing Derby 6:00 AM – 12:00 PM Location: Poway, 14644 Lake Poway Rd Fishing, prizes, entertainment, games, casting contest, a free barbecue lunch and more! Join the City of Poway and Captain Ron Baker of www.takekidsfishing.net on Saturday, February 4, for an exciting day of fun and prizes at the FREE 22nd Annual Youth Fishing Derby! Freshly stocked with 3,000 pounds of rainbow trout, the lake will be open only to youth ages 15 and younger from 6:00 AM-12:00 PM. Winners must be present to claim prizes at the awards ceremony, which is scheduled to begin at 1:00 PM. No registration required. Information: (858) 668-4772. Cardiff Kook Run Location: Encinitas, Under “Encinitas” sign on Coast Hwy The Cardiff Kook Run 5K, 10K and Costume Contest is a celebration of the greatest community in the most amazing town on the map. Remember, it’s on Super Bowl Sunday! The course starts under the world famous “Encinitas” sign on historic HWY 101 in beautiful Encinitas, California. This scenic loop passes by the famous “Cardiff Kook” statue (The Magic Carpet Ride), rises above some of the most popular surf breaks in the world and heads down to Cardiff State Beach. San Diego Jewish Film Festival February 8 – 19 Location: Multiple Locations The 27th Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival will showcase 37 feature length films from around the world. Each film is carefully curated into this year’s collection due to outstanding qualifies that we feel represent the best of contemporary Jewish film. There are 19 documentaries and 18 narratives in addition to our shorts program and a host of amazing speakers. Some of our films will offer insight into Jewish values and identity as well as those of other cultures. Some films will entertain you – and each one has the potential to generate thought-provoking discussion. Family Fun Tour 11:00 AM & 2:00 PM Location: Carlsbad, Museum of Making Music, 5790 Armada Dr Families are invited to an interactive, kid-friendly guided tour through the Museum galleries. Led by trained museum education specialists, this tour is designed for children ages 6 and up accompanied by a parent or grandparent. Guests will take a musical exploration of the people, historical events and innovations that influenced music making and musical instruments. Through this creative thinking adventure, children experience the instruments on display, sound and video clips, and interactive activities. The tour concludes with a giant drum circle where everyone becomes a musician! Cost is $7 for students and seniors, $10 for adults. Oceanside Valentine Bike Ride Location: Oceanside, Oceanside City Hall, 300 N Coast Hwy The Oceanside Valentine Bike rides on February 11, 2017 are two fun and beautiful courses that tour the beachfront, the Oceanside Pier, Mission San Luis Rey and the Prince of Peace Abbey. Riders finish with chocolate and bubbly (if you’re over 21) at the finish line. All ages are welcome for Valentine-themed fun including fun costume prize categories. It’s sure to be a great time for everyone followed by prizes, food, refreshments, beer/wine garden, music and fun at City Hall. In addition, it’s the location of America’s Biggest Heart, a 25′ high inflatable balloon for more fun and photos! The five-mile ride is a cruise along the beach, under the Pier and back to the finish at the beautiful, Greek-inspired Oceanside City Hall. The 25-mile route takes place on the vehicle-free San Luis Rey bike trail to the historic Old Mission San Luis Rey. Here riders will be blessed by the Mission’s friars, offered a snack and a photo op and return to City Hall. Near the end of the 25-mile course is a unique optional challenge. The 25-mile riders will have the option of climbing straight up the three switchbacks to the Prince of Peace Abbey. Once there, they will receive a unique memento of the climb before they descend. The hill is short, but steep and only those who can climb hills, or are willing to walk their bike, should try it. All finishers receive special gifts – a Valentine’s friendship bracelet, a Valentine’s Week lapel pin and all riders receive a logoed cap. In addition, they will enjoy post-ride complimentary snacks of chocolate and sparkling wine (for those 21 and older). Cookies, candy, music, food and a wine/beer expo round out the finish. A celebrity judges’ panel will award prizes for best individual costumes, best group costumes and best couple costumes, all with a Valentine’s Day theme. Proceeds from the Oceanside Valentine’s Ride benefit the Oceanside Parks Foundation, a 501(c)3 charity. Bring your Valentine, create a team of friends, family and co-workers or bring yourself and enjoy the incredible views and the celebration afterwards. Tidepooling Adventure with Birch Aquarium February 11 & 26 Location: La Jolla Visit a local tide pool to learn how these amazing habitats and their inhabitants truly survive between a rock and a hard place. The optimal season for tidepooling is November – March when minus tides reveal wider beaches and tide pools teeming with life. During those months, you can sign up for a Tidepooling Adventure where our trained naturalists will show you how to tread lightly during your visit and help you discover the wonderful world of tide pools. Ages 2+. Under 15 must be accompanied by a paid adult. Pre-purchase is required. Birch Aquarium Members: $13, Public: $16. Tidepooling Adventures do not meet at Birch Aquarium. Encinitas Music By The Sea Concert Series Location: Encinitas Library, 540 Cornish Dr Under the artistic direction of Laura Schmieder, talented local and international artists are selected at the Beverly Hills National Auditions and presented monthly in concert in three cities: Encinitas, Torrance and Beverly Hills. There are nine concerts from September 2016 through June 2017. February 17 will feature the Sunset Club Trio. The three highly-gifted musicians met while studying music at USC. They founded the trio to create a fresh approach to traditional repertoire by introducing guitar into works originally written for violin and piano. Their sensitive and subtle sonorities create exciting sound textures in Classical masterpieces. Along with newly commissioned works, the trio brings a whole new perspective and energy to the concert stage. Étienne, Ines and Michael are all previous winners of the Beverly Hills National Auditions. 5K Paw Walk in the Garden 2017 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM Location: Encinitas, San Diego Botanic Garden, 230 Quail Gardens Dr The San Diego Botanic Garden is teaming up with the Rancho Coastal Humane Society for our fifth annual “5K Paw Walk in the Garden.” Both organizations will be benefiting from this event. Participants will follow a 5K walk through the 37-acre garden with their dog(s) in tow. The route winds through our spectacular garden areas including California Native Plants, Australia, the Canary Islands, Hawaii, bamboo, tropical fruit, and palm canyon. Due to the construction at the Hamilton Children’s Garden, we will be starting this event at the San Dieguito Heritage Museum. This is across Ecke Ranch Road from Hamilton Children’s Garden. There will be pet products, food (for people), treats (for dogs), lots of great information for dog lovers, and (of course) dogs and puppies! Cost: $14 – $32. San Diego Fix-It Clinic 12:00 – 2:00 PM Location: San Diego, Second Chance Brewery, 15378 Avenue of Science #222 Bring your broken, non-functioning items. This can be electronics, applicances, computers, toys, bicycles, clothes, etc. We’ll help you assess, disassemble and possibly repair. We’ll provide work space, specialty tools, and guidance to help you disassemble and troubleshoot what’s broken. Best yet, it’s all free! To register, please to go to sdfixitclinic.eventbrite.com. International Guitar Night Location: Escondido, California Center for the Arts, 340 N Escondido Blvd Master performers Lulo Reinhardt, Germany’s Gypsy Jazz master, returns to the Center for another critically-acclaimed performance celebrating the world’s finest guitarists! This brilliant acoustic extravaganza features Reinhardt along with a new cast of celebrated guitar luminaries including Luca Stricagnoli, Chrystian Dozza, and Debashish Bhattacharya. Formed in 1995 as a forum for the world’s finest guitarists, IGN has garnered critical acclaim since its inception. The San Francisco Chronicle described IGN as a “marvelous mix of virtuosos who astound.” Cost: $30 – $40. All About Worms – Vermi-Composting Workshop 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM Location: Fallbrook, Myrtle Creek Botanical Gardens & Nursery, 2940 Reche Rd In this 2-hour presentation you will learn the basics of backyard vermi-composting (composting with worms). Using trial-tested advice and interactive demonstrations, our expert educators will teach you all you need to know to get started with a bin that fits your needs and lifestyle. We’ll demonstrate how to build and maintain bins. And attendees will have the opportunity to harvest castings should they chose to participate. We invite you to join us to learn more about composting and how it can benefit your garden, home, and community. 2016 Mardi Gras in the Gaslamp February 25 & 28 Location: San Diego, Gaslamp Quarter, 614 5th Ave Bigger. Better. Bead-er? It’s true! In 2017 we are pulling out all the stops to make the world famous Gaslamp Quarter Mardi Gras even bigger and better than our past 23 years combined! The Big Easy Booze & Bites Tour Saturday, February 25th, 2017, 1pm – 5pm Don’t want to wait until Fat Tuesday to get your Mardi Gras festivities started? We have you covered! This tasting event with a NOLA is set to take you on a tantelizing tour of delicious Mardi Gras inspired bites and sinful sips throughout Downtown San Diego. Indulge the offerings from 20 hotspots all while collecting BEADS, BEADS, and more BEADS just in time to deck yourself out for Fat Tuesday. Tickets for this delicious self guided stroll start at just $25! Masquerade Fat Tuesday Parade Tuesday, February 28th, 2017, 5pm – Midnight Celebrate with over 20,000 revelers at one of the biggest parade festivals West of New Orleans! Experience for yourself why we have been voted one of the top 10 Mardi Gras events to attend in the WORLD!

Honoree Recognized for Leadership in Corporate Citizenship and Environmental Stewardship [Pasadena, CA – October 16, 2012] Asset Network for Education Worldwide, Inc. (ANEW) is proud to recognize Ron Burkhardt, a leader in corporate real estate for NGKF, Los Angeles, as the recipient of this year’s Social Sustainability® Champion Award. Burkhardt is the first corporate real estate director to receive this award, issued to those passionate about bettering the workplace and who lead with a social conscience. Individuals selected advocate a call to action in their fields of expertise regarding the importance of serving non-profit organizations locally and nationally, and as stewards of the environment through efforts that mitigate climate change. This award recognizes exemplary leaders in the fields of corporate industry, corporate real estate, building, A&D, manufacturing, social service and education. The award was announced during CoreNet’s Global Summit, which took place October 7-9 in Orlando, Florida. CoreNet is the world’s leading professional association for corporate real estate and workplace executives. ANEW Founder Rose Tourje was invited by the organization to present to over 1,500 top decision makers in attendance. Twice each year, ANEW and InstallNET participate with a booth on the expo floor at the Summits. Tourje chose this venue to visit the NGKF booth and recognize one of CoreNet’s own, NGKF’s Ron Burkhardt, with the ANEW Social Sustainability® Champion award. “It is our privilege each year to seek and select a handful of individuals and their companies or organizations who lead with the 4 tenets of social sustainability by aligning wellness, community, commerce and environment within daily work/life practice. Ron is a passionate professional, one who goes beyond the call to help both corporate and non-profit clients reach their goals. He is an example of leadership at its highest,” says Tourje. CoreNet’s Global Summit provided attendees with a number of thought provoking sessions on the changing nature of business and work, one of which was given by ANEW founder, Rose Tourje. Tourje introduced ANEW’s award-winning documentary film “ANEW, doing what’s right with what’s left®” and led a presentation highlighting the many environmental and social benefits achieved when liquidating corporate surplus through ANEW. On Ron’s behalf his colleague Serge Vishmid, SVP, NGKF graciously accepted the award and co-presented with Rose to audience members. “I believe that it is our mission in the commercial real estate world to make sure that we are all asking the right questions and significantly reducing what would normally end up in landfills. Everyone benefits!” says Burkhardt. Burkhardt is the managing director at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank and a valuable resource to his corporate and non-profit clients alike. For his corporate clients, he introduces ANEW as a viable alternative to traditional surplus liquidation. Burkhardt also connects his non-profit sector clients with the ANEW team who works to enhance their workplaces with repurposed, surplus furniture and architectural materials. In doing so, non-profits such as Jewish World Watch and Autism Speaks are able to allocate more funds to fulfilling their missions. Engage with @ANEWFound on Twitter and Facebook to join the Social Sustainability movement and please also take a moment to learn more about Burkhardt and ANEW in the award-winning short documentary “ANEW, doing what’s right with what’s left.” Visit www.anewfound.org for more information on educational and sponsorship opportunities. ANEW (Asset Network for Education Worldwide, Inc.) is a public, non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, organizing and repurposing surplus furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) for donation to the underserved. For more information, visit www.anewfound.org # # #

“The rules are the rules,” I’ve often heard it said. “No exceptions.” That seems to be the absolute statement that our world lives by. Whether in the church, seminary and Bible college, home, or job, we’re all about the rules. We make rules that we feel everyone should follow. It’s part of what we think it means to be fair. Whenever someone attempts to make themselves an exception, we immediately go out of our way to show them that they will be treated no better than anyone else. We think that “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” and we rise to the occasion to defend the rules when someone attempts to skirt them. At school, for example, the teacher will count a student late and tardy – even if that student is late to school because of factors beyond his or her control (traffic, car trouble, early morning sickness, and so on). Unfortunately, though, we seek to defend the rules because we realize that the world, in practice, does not live by absolutes only. As I was told growing up, life in this world isn’t always black and white; there are some shades of gray. There are some questions on which we have to take the middle ground, moral issues even, upon which we can’t give a definitive answer and feel good about it. What does a child do if he or she has come to the knowledge of Christ while in college but lives with parents who are unbelievers? Does the child honor his or her parents who are unbelievers? If he or she is to honor their parents, what does that look like in practice? Should the child honor his or her parents by selling drugs on their behalf if they’re running a drug business? Buy the parent alcoholic beverages for a Friday night party? Give their parents the keys to the car when they know the parent(s) is drunk and could kill the child and friends on the vehicle all at the same time? The TV show “Law and Order: SVU” showed a family that continued to grow because of a daughter whose body was being used to reproduce. The girl’s father was setting her up to have sex with men while he watched, and he continued to indoctrinate her by telling her that what she was doing was “best for the family.” What should a girl in that situation do? What about a doctor who has a young man in his office that he recognizes from TV? The young man is a notorious killer who has bodies on his record. He’s never had one body tied to his hands, though he’s been known to hire hitmen to do away with those that pose problems to him. And yet, this doctor knows that when he stitches up the young man’s gun wound and releases him from the hospital in a few days, this young man will return to the streets…and it won’t be long before another person will mysteriously turn up dead and be tied to this same individual. Does he heal the young man, knowing that he is going to go back to the streets and plot more murders? The doctor is torn between his profession (which says that he is to heal everyone and discriminate against no one; even criminals deserve a chance at life, even if all they get is life in prison without the possibility of parole) and his guilt that he feels is there because, should he help the individual, he’ll be, in a way, “aiding and abetting” the murders of more individuals. The choice may seem easy for us, and we may know what to do, but we’re not him; we don’t have to make the same decision. It’s a theoretical mental practice for us, but real life for him. These are pretty tragic situations for many of us, but less tragic situations that we see around us every day deserve just as much investigation. What about a music minister who’s been faithful to her church for 11 or 12 years but has spent the last 7 years working every Sunday due to her mother’s death and is unable to continue her church ministry duties? Does she choose to work and make a living because she’s on her own and has no one to aid her financially, or does she devote her time to church responsibilities and become a financial liability for the church because she decides to ask the church to pay her bills instead of working so that she can take care of her own responsibilities? What would you do in her situation? Again, you can say what you would do, but she doesn’t have time to say because the bills keep coming in her name. She has to keep the bills paid to maintain her place in society, so that, when she preaches to others that “the Lord provides,” she can bless them – and without working and keeping food in her mouth, she can’t be a living testimony of God’s goodness and grace to others. Here’s yet another example to make us ponder life in this world. What about the political figure who’s a practicing Christian, believing in his heart that Scripture dictates God’s lifestyle commands but yet, has a constituency that elected him that doesn’t care for God or the Bible and just wants to be free to live their lives? Should the political figure pass laws to discriminate against a certain subset of the population because his religious beliefs dictate that he condemn certain lifestyles, or does he pass laws to protect this discriminated class because of his political commitment to 1) those who voted for him, 2) his political party, and 3) the political principle of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (all found in the country’s Declaration of Independence)? Should he discriminate against this subset in order to appease his religious constituents, or pass laws protecting this subset and giving them liberty while upsetting his fellow religious constituents? If the political figure passes laws to protect the discriminated class, his religious constituents will want to roast him. If he passes laws that discriminate against this class, though, he will face trouble personally and politically: not only could his life be at risk and he lose the love and respect of the country, but he could ruin any future successes for his political party. Some people in this political situation would say, “a great leader acts by his own convictions,” but he’s in a political position that impacts not just himself and his family but also his political party and the country as a whole. If he agrees to discriminate against this subset of people, who’s to say the country won’t face further discriminations down the line because other political candidates “act on their own convictions”? There are some of us who’d say, “I know what I’d do if I were in these situations,” but we say this because many of us can’t fathom being in a situation that poses a moral dilemma. We grow up in school with rules, and we still have that “school” approach to the world: “The world has rules, and we have to follow those rules. No exceptions.” For many of us, this is how we cope with life: we never see a situation in life that has exceptions – except situations where someone is trying to take advantage or exploit someone to his or her advantage (and in these cases, we use these specifics to argue that exceptions are a bad thing). For some individuals in life, there’s no such thing as “valid exceptions.” There are only rules, or so we believe; to us, there are no exceptions. And yet, there are some of us who read these situations and think, “Man, I can’t fathom being in these predicaments, where I’d have to make a bad choice, either way.” If you’re one of these individuals, congratulations; you’re identifying with those who have tougher choices to make on a daily basis than you, whose lives are not as neatly arranged as yours, and who can’t make clean choices because their lives are not quite so “clean” as yours. In other words, you understand that life, not just in legal matters but in all others, consists of moral dilemmas and decisions in which someone will win and someone will lose – that you won’t make decisions in which “everyone wins” all the time. You understand that there are exceptions to the rules and that the exceptions are there to highlight the rules (thus, upholding them in the process, rather than eradicating them). Life is not perfect, and, in a perfect world, there’d be no need for exceptions. If we all agree that we live in an imperfect world, then we all live in a world where the “rules” aren’t as rigid as we make them out to be and that there are valid exceptions. And if there are legitimate exceptions or valid exceptions, then we have to learn how to live with those exceptions and be more understanding of others, rather than condemn those who have valid situations that qualify for the label (“exception”). Today’s text is all about rules and exceptions. It involves Jesus, our Lord and Savior, who is walking through the corn fields with his 12 disciples (whom He chose) on the Sabbath, what would have been Saturday for the Jews (Sabbath would have started for the Jews on Friday evening at sundown and remained through Saturday morning). Remember Moses’ words in Genesis that “the evening and the morning was the first day,” when describing the days of creation (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31)? “Evening and morning” tells us that the evening, what we view as the end of the day, started a new day for the Jews, and that the “morning” constituted the end of that day. When Jesus was crucified on that Friday afternoon, His body was taken down before Friday at sundown because that started Sabbath Saturday for the Jews (John 19:31). With the Sabbath having come upon the Jews, you’d think that everyone was aware of the rules. Of course, Jesus, being the Lord, and stating that He came to earth not to do away with the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17) would clearly know the Law of Moses and follow it perfectly, right? Well, Jesus’ disciples, being good Jews, would’ve been all too familiar with the law as well, but their actions are somewhat jarring to the religious elite (Pharisees) of their day. Let’s jump into the plot. Note: All Scripture quoted here will come from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) unless otherwise stated. Religious Rules Meet An Exception (Matthew 12:1-8) Jesus and His disciples go through the grain, and pluck and eat corn (Matthew 12:1), which was not uncommon in their day. This practice has Its roots in the Old Testament, where the Jews were told to do this to be a good neighbor. Apart from that, the disciples were hungry, for no one eats for the sake of eating; hunger pains move all of us to find food for ourselves, whether we cook it or grab a snack. The disciples were not condemned for eating, since everyone ate on the Sabbath (as well as every other day in the week), and they weren’t even to be condemned for picking heads of grain in corn fields that didn’t belong to them for Deuteronomy 23:25 says, “When you enter into your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain.” The disciples could eat from the corn fields because of the law of neighborly love that mandated the Jews open up their corn fields to their neighbor in order that they “love their neighbor as themselves.” If you get hungry, then you can imagine that your neighbor would be hungry and would need something like the heads of corn to eat (hence the reason why the Jews were to allow passers-by to eat from their corn fields). The problem for the Pharisees was that the disciples “pick the heads of grain,” a practice that was frowned upon on the Sabbath as it constituted “labor” in the Pharisaical tradition. It was the equivalent to them of doing labor on the Sabbath (see Exodus 16). In Exodus 16, the Lord told the Jews that they would receive manna from heaven, and that they would have six days to go out and gather it, receiving more on the sixth day than they’d received all week to make room for eating on the Sabbath (they would be able to eat without having to work the seventh day, though). So, in the context of Exodus 16, to work on the Sabbath day would involve going out and gathering manna; in the context of Matthew 12, the disciples were gathering grain by plucking the heads of corn. In the Pharisees’ minds, they were laboring, working, violating the Sabbath, which is what they tell Jesus: “But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, ‘Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath'” (Matthew 12:2). The Sabbath Lawmaker and Sabbath Breakers At this point, Jesus has to respond to the Pharisees claim because they’ve now accused the disciples of doing what is “unlawful,” a label that reflects the wrong nature of their actions. And respond Jesus does: He gives them 1) an example from Scripture that matches the disciples’ current condition and 2) an example from the Temple that matches statements from the Torah, which even the Pharisees could’ve acknowledged as true – both in the written word and in established tradition. In other words, Jesus’s response comes to the Pharisees from the very Law of Moses they believed they knew better than anyone – but Jesus’ reason for using these examples from the Torah was to show the Pharisees that, whatever they knew about the Law, they didn’t know the Law of Moses as well as they thought they knew it. So, Jesus responds with the first example in the Law, that of David and his companions from 1 Samuel 21:1-6. The context of that passage is that David, on an errand for the king, comes to visit Ahimelech the priest, and he and his men are hungry. David asks the priest for “five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found” (1 Samuel 21:3), and Ahimelech responds that there is no bread available for the ordinary people; there’s only consecrated bread which, according to the law, was available for only the priests; no one was to partake of the consecrated bread but priests only: “6 So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence which was removed from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away” (1 Sam. 21:6). Even the Old Testament has to explain away the fact that David gets consecrated bread because the priest giving David the consecrated bread “violated the Law” against it, according to the Law of Moses: “Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. 6 You shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. 7 You shall put pure frankincense on each row that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to the Lord. 8 Every sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually; it is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel. 9 It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the Lord’s offerings by fire, his portion forever” (Leviticus 24:5-9). In other words, the Law that mandated it only for the priest had an exception clause in that David was hungry. David’s hunger was a condition that mandated him eating the consecrated bread despite the fact that it was “unlawful” for him to eat it. In other words, the necessity of feeding his hungry stomach took precedence or priority over the Law on the books, which would have starved David and his men if the priest had refused them bread. Jesus says as much in Mark’s account of this same event: “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?” (Mark 2:25-26) Mark’s account shows not only that David and his men ate the consecrated bread, but that they did so because, as Mark recounts Jesus, “he [David] was in need and he and his companions became hungry.” There was a physical necessity that mandated the “unlawful” act of eating the consecrated bread that was reserved for the priests. David and his men should have eaten ordinary bread, but there was none available. It wasn’t a choice made in a pool of options, but a necessary choice because no other options existed: either feed David and his men or let them go hungry. So, despite not being sinless here, David and his men were guiltless, blameless, as was Ahimelech the priest who fed them (because he gave the consecrated bread to help those who were hungry; in this case, David and his men). The priest did not deviate from the Law with an evil purpose; no, he made an exception to the rule because of the need to feed mankind. In other words, the Lord has designed the Law to help mankind, not to hurt him, and any interpretation to that end that does not see to the love, respect, and care of mankind is one that should be revised or trashed altogether. Here, there was a need to “love one’s neighbor as oneself” that overrode the interpretation in the Law that said, “under no exceptions can an ordinary person eat the consecrated bread.” Jesus seems to have done the same thing in another situation, particularly when the masses came from far and wide to hear Him preach. The disciples wanted Jesus to send them home to get their own food, but the Lord decided to feed them at the location. We can only presume that the disciples weren’t necessarily wrong for their view, but they were thinking along the lines of practicality instead of loving their neighbor (such as the masses who had traveled from all over). It just doesn’t seem to be the right thing to do to send them back home when they could eat on the spot and Jesus and the disciples could show them some hospitality. The David example was intended to prove that the Law did contain exceptions, but perhaps Jesus used it to portray another pertinent point: since He and the disciples were “on mission for God,” hence, their King, they were like David and his men: traveling all day on a long journey and needed some food. This was the closest thing to a food source that they had available. If the Lord allowed passers-by to glean the heads of grain as an act of neighborly love from the growers, then why wouldn’t the Lord and the Law respect one who had to pluck the heads of corn in order to enjoy the corn? Does it make sense for the Law to require owners to leave their corn fields for gleaning but then declare it unlawful for the recipients to glean the same corn that was left for them? The example with David and his men and the consecrated bread is excellent enough, but Jesus has another example to prove his point in verse 5: this example concerns the priests in the temple on the Sabbath. The next rule with exception: Sabbath priestly ministry in the Temple Jesus has already dispensed with the idea that gathering or plucking grain is “unlawful on the Sabbath,” with the Lord showing through the example of David that those who stand in need are guiltless. Next, Jesus provides the following example: “Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?” (Matthew 12:5, NASB) The priests “break the Sabbath” and “are innocent,” Jesus says, but this should prompt us to ask, “how do they break the Sabbath?” What passage, chapters, or book is Jesus referring to here to make his case? Though we don’t have an official chapter and verse we can go to, we have a plethora of chapters in the book of Leviticus, for example, that pertain to the priestly work on the Sabbath. For example, in Leviticus 24, the priests are commanded to bake the bread for the consecrated bread that is reserved for the priests. The consecrated bread served as a means by which the priestly line, the “sons of Aaron,” would be nourished and fed. And, guess what? The Levites had to bake their own bread for temple worship! Was not the very idea of cooking “labor on the Sabbath,” particularly since the Law forbid anyone to cook on that day (Exodus 20:8-11). In other words, the Pharisees were taking “thou shalt not do any work” so strictly that to them it even involved not cooking food (despite the fact that the priests had to bake their food in order to eat it and be well, not sick). Jesus says that even the priests “break the Sabbath” or profane the Sabbath and are innocent. In other words, the Law doesn’t condemn these individuals. So, if the Law doesn’t condemn them, then it means that the Sabbath rule can be broken and does have exceptions, valid exceptions. With verse 6, Jesus says, “6 But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here” (Matthew 12:6), referring to the Pharisees’ desire to uphold the Laws regarding the temple. Notice that Jesus uses the example of the priest who gave David and his men the consecrated bread (which was, in the Law, a violation of the sanctuary bread), and He now turns to the priests who “break the Sabbath” by way of baking the consecrated bread and offering sacrifices in the Temple on the Sabbath. While the Pharisees respect the Temple and the temple laws, they failed to respect Christ, so He responded by mentioning their goal to preserve and observe the temple laws “but something greater than the temple is here.” Jesus was referring to Himself, He being the only one greater than the temple. What did Jesus mean by the statement that He is greater than the temple? Well, the temple was the place where sacrifices were made to God by the priests, the place where it was said that God dwells. The temple housed the ark of God, “where God was,” says 1 Samuel 3:3. The temple was the place where God dwelled, where people went to encounter the presence of God. And yet, Jesus didn’t need to go to the temple to encounter God because He is God! He is the very presence of God Himself, embodied in tangible form. As John’s Gospel says, “in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (John 1). Whereas the temple contained the Holy of Holies, where only the high priest could approach once a year, we no longer need a mercy seat because we can go to God and obtain mercy and grace to help in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16). The temple was built for God (1 Chronicles 29:1). In other words, the Pharisees chose to honor a temple that was an inanimate object, but did not recognize, respect, and honor the Lord, who was greater than the temple, instead accusing Jesus’ disciples (and thus, the Lord) of profaning the Sabbath. As usual, their backward logic was noticeable. “7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.” Jesus tells the Pharisees here that they don’t understand what He requires, what God requires of them. They’re consumed with offering sacrifices and won’t dare condemn the priests of “profaning the Sabbath,” but they’d condemn the disciples because they had a need to stop their hunger. They would condemn the Lord because His disciples were trying to preserve their lives when they wouldn’t say a word against the temple or anything going on in it. They approved of buying and selling in the temple and seemed to have no problem with that – even though the Lord never approved of His house being one of retail and merchandise sales (Matthew 21:12-13). What does it mean that the Lord requires “compassion and not a sacrifice”? This is a reference to Matthew 9:13, where, in an earlier passage, the Lord told the Pharisees to learn what that same statement meant when they mocked him for eating and drinking with sinners and tax collectors (Matt. 9:10-13). Even here, 3 chapters later, the Pharisees still didn’t understand what it means to have compassion on the less fortunate and more dependent. Jesus’ mission was all about bringing sinners to repentance, healing those who had sin-sick souls, not coming for people who already believed they were perfect by trying to keep the Law (such as the Pharisees) themselves and didn’t see any need for salvation or spiritual rescue. What Jesus meant by the statement “I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice” can be tricky or difficult for some to understand. Someone would say, “doesn’t this contradict the Lord’s words in Scripture about the importance of sacrifices?” After all, the Lord does mandate offering sacrifices to Him on the altar in the temple by the priest. Here are some examples of verses that affirm the Jews were to give sacrifices to the Lord: The forefathers offered sacrifices (Genesis 31:54); Israel offered sacrifices, so much so that this was Moses’s plea to Pharaoh when he told him that the Lord wanted the Egyptians to free His people, the Jews (Genesis 46:1; Exodus 3:18; 5:3; 8:8, 25, 27; 10:25; 12:27, among others that are listed below). Genesis 46:1 — “So Israel set out with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.” Exodus 3:18 — “They will pay heed to what you say; and you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt and you will say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please, let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’” Exodus 5:3 — “Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, otherwise He will fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” Exodus 8:8 — “Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, “Entreat the Lord that He remove the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the Lord.” Exodus 8:25 — “Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.” Exodus 8:27 — We must go a three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as He commands us.” Exodus 8:28 — Pharaoh said, “I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Make supplication for me.” Exodus 10:25 — But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice them to the Lord our God. Exodus 18:12 — Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law before God. Exodus 20:24 — You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. Exodus 22:20 — “He who sacrifices to any god, other than to the Lord alone, shall be utterly destroyed. Exodus 23:18 — “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor is the fat of My feast to remain overnight until morning. Exodus 24:5 — He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord. Exodus 30:20 — when they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, so that they will not die; or when they approach the altar to minister, by offering up in smoke a fire sacrifice to the Lord. Exodus 34:25 — “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover to be left over until morning. Leviticus 3:1 — [ The Law of Peace Offerings ] ‘Now if his offering is a sacrifice of peace offerings, if he is going to offer out of the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without defect before the Lord. Leviticus 3:3 — From the sacrifice of the peace offerings he shall present an offering by fire to the Lord, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, Leviticus 7:11 — ‘Now this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which shall be presented to the Lord. Leviticus 7:29 — “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘He who offers the sacrifice of his peace offerings to the Lord shall bring his offering to the Lord from the sacrifice of his peace offerings. Leviticus 7:37 — This is the law of the burnt offering, the grain offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering and the ordination offering and the sacrifice of peace offerings, Leviticus 9:4 — and an ox and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the Lord, and a grain offering mixed with oil; for today the Lord will appear to you.’” Leviticus 17:5 — The reason is so that the sons of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they were sacrificing in the open field, that they may bring them in to the Lord, at the doorway of the tent of meeting to the priest, and sacrifice them as sacrifices of peace offerings to the Lord. Leviticus 19:5 — ‘Now when you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. Leviticus 22:21 — When a man offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord to fulfill a special vow or for a freewill offering, of the herd or of the flock, it must be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it. Leviticus 22:27 — “When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be accepted as a sacrifice of an offering by fire to the Lord. Leviticus 22:29 — When you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. Leviticus 23:19 — You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. Leviticus 23:37 — ‘These are the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire to the Lord—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each day’s matter on its own day— Numbers 6:17 — He shall also offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, together with the basket of unleavened cakes; the priest shall likewise offer its grain offering and its drink offering. (others include 7:17, 23, 29, 35, 41, 47, 53, 59, 65, 71, 77, 83, 88). Numbers 10:10 — Also in the day of your gladness and in your appointed feasts, and on the first days of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be as a reminder of you before your God. I am the Lord your God.” Numbers 15:3 — then make an offering by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering or a sacrifice to fulfill a special vow, or as a freewill offering or in your appointed times, to make a soothing aroma to the Lord, from the herd or from the flock. Numbers 15:5 — and you shall prepare wine for the drink offering, one-fourth of a hin, with the burnt offering or for the sacrifice, for each lamb. Numbers 15:8 — When you prepare a bull as a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a special vow, or for peace offerings to the Lord, Deuteronomy 12:6 — There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. Deut. 12:11 — then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to the Lord. Deut. 12:27 — And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the flesh. Deut. 16:6 — but at the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name, you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the time that you came out of Egypt. Deut. 17:1 — “You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any defect, for that is a detestable thing to the Lord your God. All these verses from the first five books of the Bible, what the Jews called the Torah, indicate that the Lord God explicitly told the Jews to offer sacrifices. So, if they were to sacrifice, what was Jesus hinting at here? What did He mean that “I desire compassion and not a sacrifice”? First, let’s understand something. “Sacrifice” can be seen as both a noun (the object, say, an animal, or money as in today’s time) and a verb (to offer or to give something). Compassion, on the other hand, isn’t a verb; it’s an internal quality, a decision of the heart, a way to describe someone’s character. When someone says, “Joe has compassion,” for example, he or she is referring to Joe’s character, Joe’s personality, Joe’s attitude toward others. This is what Jesus was saying to the Pharisees: “I want you to have a heart of love, a heart that reaches out to help your fellow man instead of a cold, stony heart that only cares about killing and burning a dead animal on an altar.” It’s interesting to think that the Pharisees placed animal sacrifices before making human sacrifices (such as showing love to their fellow human beings). Earlier in Matthew 12, we discussed how “neighborly” the Lord commanded the Jews to be, so neighborly that they allowed strangers and random passers-by to glean the corn (not take a sickle to it but to pluck corn and eat it, as Deuteronomy 23:25 says). Well, in the same vein, Jesus also addressed a Jewish lawyer about loving his neighbor. The “neighbor” was a man who “fell among thieves and was left for dead,” according to the text. He had been robbed and nearly killed, and he was laying on the side of the road. The priest and Levite came by, saw the man injured and without proper care, and simply went on their merry way to the synagogue, not even stopping to wait on him or wait and see if someone would come and take him to an inn to receive the proper medical care he needed (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus asked the lawyer which of the individuals involved (priest, Levite, or unknown kind man) was the one who was right with God. The answer? “The one who showed mercy toward him” (the injured man, Luke 10:37a). Jesus said the lawyer answered correctly. The Good Samaritan has been viewed throughout church history as “good” because he cared for the helpless man, but that’s only part of the story; you see, that was part of the Law of Ritual: help those in need. In fact, the Law said as much. Where the Good Samaritan is called “good” can be found in the fact that he was moved with compassion regarding this man he didn’t know who had been robbed and beaten by thieves. He helped the man, true, but he did so because he put himself in this man’s position and said, “If I were in this man’s shoes, I’d want someone to come along and help me. Since he’s in this unfortunate position, I’m going to help him.” His identification with the plight of this helpless man is what makes him a “good” Samaritan. He did good when it was in his power to do so, even when he knew nothing about the man except that he was a fellow human being, and Scripture tells us to do the same. Solomon’s words in Proverbs are all about loving our neighbor: “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man” (Proverbs 3:1-4). “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, ‘Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it,’ when you have it with you. Do not devise harm against your neighbor, while he lives securely beside you. Do not contend with a man without cause, if he has done you no harm” (Proverbs 3:27-30). The Good Samaritan met the need right away, immediately. He didn’t ride off, then turn around and come back, or just keep on his way. No, he helped the man because he was given a moment in time to do so. The Lord is good because he exercises compassion and is moved with compassion for the helpless plight of others: “30 And two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” 31 The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” 32 And Jesus stopped and called them, and said,“What do you want Me to do for you?” 33 They *said to Him, “Lord, we want our eyes to be opened.” 34 Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.” (Matt. 20:30-34) “And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.” (Mark 1:40-42) The lawyer didn’t get everything right (he didn’t know that his “neighbor” consisted of Samaritans, those the Jews viewed as racial half-breeds in Jesus’ day); and yet, he did understand that the Law and the Prophet hang on just two commandments: “And he [lawyer] answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). In that regard, we can take away from this that the Law of Love supercedes the Law of Ritual and that, if we put the Law of Ritual as our top priority but have not love and compassion, then our ritualistic practices are nothing but a mere waste of time, just letting the clock tick. The same case can be seen with the rich young ruler in Matthew 19 who wanted to be saved. Jesus told him to obey the commandments, then lists them: “You shall not commit murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 19:18-19). Loving your neighbor as yourself involved all the above commandments Jesus listed (to not murder, to not violate the marriage vow with your spouse or cause another brother or sister to violate their marriage vow to your neighbor, to not bear false witness “against your neighbor,” to honor your father and mother, who are also your neighbor), but the rich young ruler believed he’d done all these things. He believed that he had shown love to his neighbor and that the extent of the love he’d shown was good enough. But then, Jesus decides to command something of him that he was simply unwilling to do. The Lord told him to sell his goods to feed the poor, come follow Jesus, and he’d have treasure in heaven. Apparently, that was too much to ask of him (Matthew 19:22). Why? Because he was willing to love his neighbor if it didn’t involve sacrificing his riches. He, like the Pharisees condemning the disciples for plucking grain in Matthew 12, was more concerned about the law of ritual (“all these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?” He asked the Lord, v. 20) than he was the Law of Love. Giving up his money, his true Lord (not Jesus, unfortunately), was a trade that was too much for him. Had he understood that the Law of Love (loving the Lord God with everything) moves you to obey the Law of Ritual (sacrificing time, money, and self), the rich young ruler would’ve gained more than he’d owned in the world to come (Matthew 19:29). Because the rich young ruler loved his riches, he didn’t love his neighbor (the poor) and, as a direct result, he didn’t love God. The apostle John was right on the money when he said: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10). For those who need to know what John is saying, here it is: love is from God, so the Law of Love is the Law of God. Ritual is included in the Law of God (love), because to love God is reflected in doing things for Him. To love Him involves loving our neighbor, so “the one who does not love his brother” (1 Jn. 3:10) is not of God, doesn’t love God, and doesn’t know God. So, one can perform the Law of Ritual (included in the Law of God/Love) and still not love God because they hate or don’t care for their neighbor. In a statement, they don’t “love their neighbor as they love themselves.” Mercy is essential to living with exceptions The Lord told the Pharisees that He desires mercy and not a sacrifice, but we’ve just started getting at the heart of what this means. There’s much in the Old Testament to commend Jesus’s statement here. In Hosea 6:6, the Lord says, “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Compared to sacrifices and burnt offerings, the Lord desires that His people 1) remain loyal to Him and 2) know Him, have right knowledge of Him, so they can walk right before Him. This is what Jesus meant by desiring compassion and mercy and not sacrifice: He desired that the Pharisees know the truth of His Word and love their neighbor, rather than offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Again, the knowledge of God mandates the Law of Love (“for love is of God,” John says in 1 John 3), and those who don’t love their neighbor can’t love God: “If someone says ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also” (1 Jn. 4:20-21). Looking back at Matthew 12, Jesus’ words to the Pharisees about compassion and not sacrifice were designed to get them to understand what they were missing in their judgment of the disciples: they were putting the Law of Ritual (to not pluck grain on the Sabbath) above the Law of Love. If the disciples needed to eat (which all men do), and the only food they had available was in the cornfields, then what else could they do but pluck it to have sustenance for their bodies? Had the Pharisees put themselves in the disciples’ shoes and identified with a basic human need, they wouldn’t have made the analysis they did. The worst part of all of this is that the Pharisees condemned the disciples without offering to give them some of their own food! If these religious leaders felt so strongly about not breaking the Sabbath, but wanted to help their neighbor, then they could’ve said “you shouldn’t pluck grain, but come over to us; we’ve got food for you.” Then, they could’ve helped the disciples avoid an unlawful practice while still feeding them and Jesus. If the Pharisees understood who God was, the Law of Love, and how ritual should reflect love and “not live by ritual alone,” then they would not have condemned the innocent. By this declaration in Matthew 12:7, Jesus is referring to the disciples, as he did David and his companions, and the priests in the temple, as innocent. In other words, these individuals are not guilty despite the fact that they broke the Sabbath. Why not? Because they had legitimate, God-approved reasons to break the Sabbath: in short, they had valid exceptions to break the rules. Why can the Sabbath Law be broken? Because the Lord is sovereign The Lord says in Matthew 12:8 that “8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” This verse says, in effect, that the Son of Man, identified as Jesus Christ in Scripture, is Lord over not only mankind but also the Sabbath day. Jesus refers to Himself as Son of Man: 27 Then Peter said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?” 28 And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:27-28) 5 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’? 6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He *said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.” 7 And he got up and went home. 8 But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men. (Matthew 9:5-6) 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:26) 28 So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. (John 8:28) The Son of Man, Jesus’ reference to Himself, is “Lord of the Sabbath,” a reference to the Sabbath that only He, God, could use. Jesus has already told the Pharisees that He was “greater than the temple,” the same temple that they’ve made holy and elevated above everything else (including loving their neighbor). Now, He says that He is Lord of the Sabbath, meaning that He is greater than the Sabbath day, too. Again, the Pharisees have elevated sacrifices and the temple, and, in the situation of Matthew 12, have elevated the Sabbath day to be above the Lord Himself (which is ludicrous). With this declaration, though, Jesus is saying that He is ultimately sovereign over the Sabbath. He can make exceptions on the Sabbath rule because He is the “origin” of the Sabbath and the Sabbath day has its roots in Him: 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:11) Since the day belongs to Him, and He established the day, He alone can decide whether or not the rule has exceptions. In the case of hungry men plucking grain on the Sabbath, He has decided that His hungry disciples who pluck grain, priests who minister in the temple and offer sacrifices and bake consecrated bread, and David and his men, who ate the consecrated bread that it was unlawful to eat, are all innocent because the Sabbath rule has exceptions when man’s physical and spiritual needs are at stake. Mankind, as is his Lord, is above the Sabbath day Mark has similar wording in his account of this event in Mark 2 to Matthew, but he adds one statement that Matthew didn’t add: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” This deserves an entire section to address, but it sums up every statement I’ve made thus far. The Lord is “L” Lord over the Sabbath, but the Lord is not the only one above the Sabbath: man is, too. The Lord made mankind in His image after His likeness, and, since man’s Creator is greater than the temple and the Sabbath day, so is mankind, human beings. Mankind is “son of man,” lowercase “s” and “m,” and thus is “l” lord over the Sabbath. As is the Lord, so is His people. This statement is not necessarily meant to tell us that we should make the Sabbath whatever we want it to be, but it goes to show that, contrary to the Pharisaical mindset, humans are not subservient to a day; we don’t just exist to honor one day of the week, then no more. The Sabbath day as we know it is not a day where humans cut off living just to honor a set day — even if it means they starve or go without proper rest, nourishment, or work to keep their roof over their head and maintain their financial security. The Sabbath day was intended to help man rest, recover, recoup, and get some refreshment from the usual hustle and bustle of the week: “13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.” (Deuteronomy 5:13-14) The Lord intended the Sabbath day to be a day of rest for not only mankind but also the animal kingdom (“your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle” is prohibited from working as well). What we read here is that the day was to be a day of rest, a day of refreshment. In the Old Testament, the Jews were to “remain in their place” on the Sabbath; they couldn’t even leave the house! The Lord wants us to rest and be refreshed, but one who is hungry (as were the disciples) can’t be refreshed because he or she is hungry. Refreshment comes when a hungry individual receives food (in my church, we call after-service food “refreshments,” and the place where the food is served “the refreshment hall”). Refreshment comes when that individual can rest comfortably in their own home; how can an individual be refreshed in his or her home if he or she is worried about whether or not their home will even remain tomorrow? We will tackle these examples and others in the next section, but Jesus’ statement about being Lord of the Sabbath means that He knows best how to interpret the Sabbath rule, and if He decides to declare those who labor “innocent,” then how could the Pharisees disagree with Him? We’ve studied much about Matthew 12:1-8, but we’ve not tackled in any strong detail how to apply what we’ve learned here to everyday life. That’s why this turn in the discussion is reserved for the next section. II Matthew 12:1-8 and Modern-Day Application After all that has been said about Jesus, the disciples, the Pharisees, and Jesus’ response to them, the question that lies before us is the following: what are we to do with this passage? How do we take the Pharisees’ incorrect thinking, and Jesus’ teaching, and implement the Lord’s words and actions in our current, modern-day context? It’s important to think about this because how we answer questions like these will dictate how we live with others in the world, the church, the job, and with the Lord. So, it behooves us to think long and hard about what Matthew 12:1-8 means and what the Lord is trying to tell us. From what I’ve said here, there are a few principles running through it that will prove to be of great benefit to us: - Eating is a human necessity, and humans must work to live and survive. — As Christians, we are to “bear one another’s burdens,” and this involves understanding that every believer’s life isn’t as comfortable or as idealistic as ours may be. We can’t assume that our fellow believers have had as much godly influence in their lives as we have, seeing that, as in the Bible days, there are a number of individuals raised without any godly influence. Paul never assumed anything, but always reminded the early churches that, no matter their past, in the present, the Lord had saved them and called them with a holy calling. If we can’t assume the same godly influence and that every believer went to Sunday School and church service growing up, then we can’t assume that every believer has the same life circumstances that we do. A good case in point with this concerns the fact that when Jesus called the disciples, he called them from various walks of life; Matthew was a tax collector (Matthew 10:3), while many others were fishermen (like Peter, Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee; see Matthew 4:18-21). Jesus delights in calling us from all walks of life to show us that He has come for all, for every person, for the whole world (John 3:16). In our time and day, now, we find that believers come from all sorts of professions, backgrounds, and life circumstances. There are those in your own church that seem to “have it made” with their jobs, while others either have 1) part-time work, 2) no work, or 3) some work that just barely pays the bills. Others are established in their careers and have sufficient financial means, while others are so wealthy that they have no financial troubles. With that said, though, some are able to work but have to work long hours — which makes their participation in church less than ideal. For example, they can’t make “Sabbath” services at church due to long work hours. The person could be a doctor or nurse, or practitioner of some kind; a counselor, who has souls to see after and help heal; a pharmacist, who needs to keep his place open in order to minister to patients who are sick and need medication. You might know a church member or two that has to work as a secretary in a doctor’s office on the Sabbath in order to help the doctor tend to his patients in a more efficient manner. Medical professions have always been seen as an exception that we’re all too happy to allow, along with law enforcement positions such as police, judge, lawyer, etc. The problem comes in, however, when we consider the plight of fellow believers who don’t have a medical profession or law enforcement profession, believers who work in ordinary fields that mandate Sunday as a day of work. There are those in the IT field who work 7 days a week; what about these individuals? Are they sinning against the Lord because they can’t make Sunday worship? What about the believer who has been saved at a recent service but is a bartender who’s famous alcoholic, cocktail drinks keep his rent paid and keep him out of the local homeless shelter and off the streets? When he gets saved, or has a real transformational encounter with Christ, what is he to do about his job? He’s serving alcoholic beverages, he’s met Christ who he feels doesn’t want him serving them to his fellow man but doesn’t have any job prospects right now. What does he do? Does he ditch his job (which keeps him employed and mandates Sundays) or continue to work on Sundays while he looks for another job? This is a moral dilemma for most believers, but it’s real life for the person who’s living it. It’s another example of a real life situation where there’s not an unambiguous right or wrong answer. The disciples were hungry, and the cornfields were all the food they had, so they had to pluck grain to get them. The same goes for those who have jobs that mandate Sunday work: those jobs are the lifeline that keeps the lights on, the water running, the heat and air on, their physical and financial security intact. Without their jobs, they cannot eat, for Paul says that if someone isn’t willing to work, he shouldn’t be allowed to eat: “For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10) Working, then, is essential to eating, and, as work (plucking grain) was mandatory for the disciples to eat, it is mandatory for some of Christ’s disciples or followers in this current day to work so that they too, can eat. Paul encouraged the churches to work for their bread and chided or chastised those who chose to be lazy and slothful instead of working: 6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; 9 not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example.10 For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. 11 For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. (2 Thessalonians 3:6-12) Notice in the above verses from 2 Thessalonians 3 that Paul chides those who lead an “undisciplined life,” after which he proceeds to say that he and his companion “did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it.” Some in the congregation at Thessalonika are “doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies,” in everyone else’s business but doing nothing productive. Paul admonishes these slothful persons to “work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread,” meaning that they should learn how to tend to their own business and work so that they can eat. Being nosy and in everyone’s affairs is bad in and of itself, but even worse than this is the fact that these individuals spent all their time nosying around instead of working and putting their energies to any earthly profit or gain. There’s nothing to be gained by being a busybody, and everything to gain by working and sustaining your life so that you can be a blessing to anyone you meet (after all, any man in need is your neighbor, as Jesus demonstrated with the Good Samaritan). So with that said, some individuals are disciplined but have a job that mandates all 7 days of their time. It’s not the most ideal situation, since Scripture tells believers to assemble together (we’ll get to that later), but, like those who must pluck grain on the prescribed day of rest, these individuals must work so that they can maintain their lives. “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” Jesus says according to Mark’s Gospel – indicating that man has to live everyday, not just one specific day of the week (Sunday, or Sabbath). The individuals in question who must work are thinking about their survival for the whole week; they can’t be blindsided by one day at the end of the week, to such an extent that they lose the profit that could come the entire next week. Now, here’s where some individuals would say that those who have to work should give up their livelihoods for the Lord. “The twelve disciples gave up their jobs for Jesus, so why don’t these individuals just look for a job that doesn’t mandate Sunday labor?” Well, again, the answer is complicated, and there’s no set rule regarding what these individuals should do. Some may be in a position to do that, but not all. For some, they’re in jobs they’ve had for 25 years. Where else will they go, if they leave their job? In their older years, who will hire them? What are their chances of securing a new career when it’s time for them to “retire”? Age is often used against applicants when it comes to job hires, so those individuals may put themselves out of work permanently should they leave their jobs. In that position, then, what would an individual in their 40s or 50s do? There is no clear-cut answer. Alongside of working to eat, Scripture also tells us to honor and obey our “masters”: 13 Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest Is a faithful messenger to those who send him, For he refreshes the soul of his masters. (Proverbs 25:13) Notice here in Proverbs 25:13 that he refreshes “the soul of his masters,” referring to multiple employers and not just one. In other words, some “messengers” or workers have multiple jobs. Those who work as freelancers are in this situation: they have multiple jobs, as many as 5 or 6 in some cases. I once had 7 jobs that all ran throughout the week, most of them being part-time jobs that only mandate 2 or 3 days at a time. And some individuals in the body of Christ have the same job setup currently: they have multiple “masters” or employers. And yet, even in the midst of those multiple masters, the worker who is faithful, committed to his job, and does it well “refreshes the soul of his masters,” is a great comfort and joy to his or her employer. Work, then, becomes a way in which we “serve others,” a form of ministry, a form of service…and when we do it unto Christ, as we’ll see in these next few verses, and do it with joy, then we can be convinced in our own hearts and minds that we’re doing the right thing and that our employer(s) and the Lord are pleased – even if everyone at the church has a problem with our Sunday labor. When we approach work in this vein, then, work and church don’t seem so opposed to one another, do they? If work is a form of ministry, and it really is for those who work as nurses, caretakers, and medical personnel, then are we not glorifying the Lord Jesus by working to sustain not only ourselves, but other human life as well? Proverbs 13:17 is written in the same spirit: A wicked messenger falls into adversity, But a faithful envoy brings healing. The evil messenger or ruthless messenger falls into trouble, only reaps trouble, but the faithful worker brings healing. Again, the idea is one of refreshment, one that is able to help heal wounds of all kinds and be a joy for his or her employer. The wicked messenger, the one who doesn’t perform his job faithfully and does his own thing, is the one who experiences adversity, hardship, struggle, and trouble. The faithful messenger brings healing to his sender; the committed and dedicated employee can also bring healing to his or her employer(s). 5 Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; 6 not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. 7 With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. 9 And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him. Ephesians 6:5-8 describes family relationships, but it’s interesting that Paul says that the Lord will repay everyone for what they do, “whether slave or free.” Of course, it’s likely the case that Paul had in mind that the people were slaves and the masters were free, but in our day and time, slavery has been abolished; there are no longer slaves as there were in the days prior to the Emancipation Proclamation and Abraham Lincoln’s declaration that the Union, the North, had freed the slaves. Now, we are servants with masters, employers who have hired us to do a job for them, by which we are able to feed ourselves, our families, and those we meet who, like the man fallen among thieves, aren’t related or associated with us and need our help. Slaves should obey their masters “with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as unto Christ,” Paul says. The phrase “fear and trembling” is the same one used in reference to “work out your soul salvation” in Philippians 2:12. “Fear and trembling” is a phrase used to describe those who were afraid or had seen the Lord or an angel, for example. This phrase tells us that we should work for our employers as though the Lord is appearing to us, as though by refusing to work for them, the divine could appear and punish us. By working for them, we work as though the Lord Himself is directly in front of us at the job, there with us from the moment we walk into work until the moment we clock out of work. We should work unto the Lord as if, should He decide to descend and visit our workplace (even working from home), that He would find us faithful. One should work with reverence for the Lord, which is why it also says “sincerity of your heart, as unto Christ.” In other words, work for your employer(s) and work for them to the best of your ability, giving your all to the work because you reverence the Lord. You shouldn’t work for your bosses just to do “eyeservice,” just because you have to, but because, by working on the Sabbath, you are working unto the Lord who will repay you for what you’ve done. You are a “slave of Christ,” and you are “doing the will of God” with joy. Interesting, isn’t it, that “the will of God” involves submitting to your employer(s), who may demand that you work on the Sabbath day? When we consider that the Lord demands we work with joy for our bosses, no matter the circumstance, we can see that even working or laboring on the Sabbath can be glorifying and pleasing to the Lord. In other words, contrary to what the Pharisees believed, work was not contrary to the Sabbath Law but in line with it. The Lord will repay us for what we do, whether we’re an employer or an employee, whether bond or free, so our actions will either bless us or curse us in the end. Not only are workers to remember that, but employers and “masters” as well. Because of that, masters shouldn’t threaten their employees to force them to work: “And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him” (Ephesians 6:9). This verse seems to imply that masters are saved, but we live in a world where not every boss or employer is a believer. Colossians 3:22-25 also speaks to slaves on how to treat their masters: 22 Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. 25 For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality. Colossians 3:22 matches what Paul also wrote in Ephesians 6:5-6, with his admonition that slaves should serve their masters “with sincerity of heart,” and “fear of the Lord” is represented by “fear and trembling” in Ephesians 6:5-6. Paul tells them to do their work as unto the Lord and do it with joy (“heartily”), or, as he’s said before, “sincerity of heart.” They are not to be men-pleasers and do it just to please men, but they’re to also remember that by so doing, the Lord is pleased. Their work, then, is not just secular labor to make a living: it’s also a ministry, a task that, by doing, works the will of God in the process. Work has a secular component, but also a spiritual one, for the Lord ordained that man should work and that, by so doing, he’d have dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26-30). For those who do wrong, laborers and workers who don’t do their job or trouble their masters, they’ll stand before God and be forced to suffer the consequences for wrongdoing. 1 Timothy 6:1-2 continue what we’ve studied here about masters and slaves, but this passage goes further: Paul exhorts Timothy to teach submission to masters so that the doctrine of the Christian faith wouldn’t be opposed, to give Christianity a good name in the world: 6 All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against. 2 Those who have believers as their masters must not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but must serve them all the more, because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles. (1 Timothy 6:1-2) Slaves are to treat their masters with the utmost respect and give them as much honor as they can “so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against.” Paul was concerned that the Christian faith spread and grow and reach far and wide, and Christians insulting their masters and frustrating their plans would serve to halt the spread of the faith rather than encourage it. There were some in the congregation at Ephesus that had Christian masters, and Paul told Timothy to teach and preach that these masters were to be obeyed and honored “all the more” than secular masters because of the faith (the fact that the master and the worker were both saved and in the family of God meant that slaves were to honor them beyond the slave-master relationship). While they were slave and master, in the kingdom of God, they were “brothers” in the faith and children of God – which is an even better relationship than the social slave-master one. Timothy was to teach and preach this. Why? Because it is right. It shows us that loving the Lord our God involves working to have discipline (discipline is a godly thing), and when we have discipline and work and honor and respect our masters, we’re not only serving our neighbor (by honoring our masters and other patients or people we meet), we’re also honoring and serving the Lord. We’re serving “unto Christ,” or “as unto the Lord,” not unto men. There’s a higher, spiritual purpose to work, one that transcends far above working to look good in the eyes of our neighbors, family, and friends. We’re not just working hard and honoring our bosses to look like a community icon or an upright example to follow. We’re working hard because working with masters over us is “the will of God,” as Paul has said. Working to fulfill the will of God means that, when we 1) don’t work and serve as a busybody or 2) fight against our masters (bosses), we’re fighting against the will of God. As children of God, we’re to stay in the will of God and “understand what the will of the Lord is” as Paul says in Romans 12. In additional evidence, here are the words of Titus 2:9-10: “9 Urge bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. The word for “masters” here is the Greek word “despotes,” meaning “despots” or “rulers.” The word could also mean “lord,” with the word for “bondslaves” here, doulos, also refers to servants or bondservants. As for “well-pleasing,” this means that servants should do whatever they can to make their bosses or masters happy. Remember what I said earlier in Proverbs about the faithful messenger and how he is like cold snow – refreshing to the one who sends him? Additionally, servants are not to dispute or argue against their masters (the word “pilfering” refers to this). You are not to go to work and dispute your boss everyday just because he or she has demanded you work Sundays and you don’t want to work because of your church commitments. If your boss mandates Sunday work, then you should work it – even if it means sacrificing your place in the church choir or in children’s church, even if you can’t do women’s ministry, men’s ministry, or travel with your Pastor to hear him or her preach. Yes, being active in church is never a bad thing, but to disagree with your work schedule and to continue to badger your master (boss or employer) because he or she mandates Sunday labor is to fight against the will of God — and no believer should fight the will of God because the Lord orders the steps of the righteous (Psalms 23:8;). Only an unrighteous heathen would oppose the steps of the Lord. A righteous believer who’s adhering to the Word of the Lord should respond with surrender to God’s Word and do what He commands. Last but not least, the Lord tells us to honor and obey our Masters, even if the master is ungodly and hard to work for: 18 Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. 19 For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. (1 Peter 2:18-20) Here in 1 Peter 2:18-20, Peter uses wording that sounds familiar from Paul: he says that servants are to submit to their masters, “also to those who are unreasonable.” Notice that the word “unreasonable” is placed in opposition to “good and gentle,” meaning that these masters are mean and cruel, and yet, Peter says to submit to them. The word for “unreasonable” in the Greek is skoliois, which means anything from “crooked,” “unscrupulous,” “perverse,” to “wicked” and “unfair.” So, submission to masters isn’t just for “the Christian bosses,” as we say; it’s also for the ungodly and heathen bosses, the ones that make you work the third Sunday in a row while your fellow coworker is experiencing his or her third Sunday off work. Even in such an atmosphere where you’re made to come in to work and labor beyond normal hours, you’re to do it because the work is your Christian ministry, being done to not only make a living but to please the Lord and accept His will. Why should you honor a dishonorable Master or boss? You should honor him or her because to do so shows the Lord that you are suffering unjustly. The Lord approves of those who are suffering for His name’s sake, rather than suffering for their own wrong. When you work as a child of God and are persecuted because your wicked boss knows that you are a Christian and intends to make life hard for you, you’re suffering for the name of Christ and the Lord is pleased and will bless you. You’ll find favor with God because you’re suffering for the wrong inflicted on you by your evil boss – not because you’ve been disagreeable with him, or fighting against your mandated Sunday work schedule because you believe you should be sitting in church service on the Sabbath. The Scriptures are clear about the importance of man working so that he can eat; that working shows discipline and that the undisciplined life consists of one who spends his or her time in everyone else’s business rather than see after his or her own affairs; and that, to have a successful work life, one must submit to his or her bosses – even the ungodly, unChristian, and irreligious. Submission to your boss is not optional, it’s mandatory. God has prescribed that you submit to your boss, and there are few exceptions to this rule (but if your life is in danger, then you should seek the help of law enforcement and family and friends who can help protect you). Leaders in the church, in particular, are expected to have excellent work relationships with their coworkers and employers because these relationships will determine whether or not they are qualified to serve in the church: 4 He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity 5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), 6 and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. 7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:4-7) - The Sabbath Law is a biblical rule, and, as with every rule, there are violations The Sabbath is a special day that the Lord told His people to observe; those who rebel and dishonor the day were stoned or put to death in the Old Testament. Take Leviticus 26:2, for example: You shall keep My sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the Lord. The Lord says here, in no uncertain terms, that the Jews were to “Keep My Sabbaths,” letting them know that the Sabbath day was from Him and that they were to honor it and the sanctuary on those observance days. Let’s look at another. ‘Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. (Deuteronomy 5:12) Simply put, the Jews were to honor the Sabbath because “the Lord…commanded you.” The Lord commanded it, and the Jews, His people, were to follow it. “So You made known to them Your holy sabbath, And laid down for them commandments, statutes and law, Through Your servant Moses.” (Nehemiah 9:14) The Sabbath day was a Law given to the people “through Your servant Moses.” Moses, then, was a servant of God who gave God’s law to the people. There is no shortage of Sabbath references in Exodus because it is in Exodus that the Lord, having rescued His people from 430 years of Egyptian bondage, gave His Law to Moses (this includes what we call The Ten Commandments, Exodus 20) on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:18-22). 31 As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or a holy day; and we will forego the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt. (Nehemiah 10:31) Nehemiah 10:31 is part of the covenant oath that Nehemiah and the people made to honor the Law of God. In it, they discussed living in the land with other people from other nations and they agreed to remain dedicated to God’s law, even if others weren’t dedicated. The Law forbid the Jews to buy and sell on the Sabbath, and Nehemiah and the people commit to that here. Their commitment to it shows just how sacred it was before God. This example comes from Nehemiah as well and pertains to Jewish interaction with the Gentiles who were buying and selling on the Sabbath day, a sacred day in which the Jews were to neither buy nor sell: 15 In those days I saw in Judah some who were treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sacks of grain and loading them on donkeys, as well as wine, grapes, figs and all kinds of loads, and they brought them into Jerusalem on the sabbath day. So I admonished them on the day they sold food. 16 Also men of Tyre were living there who imported fish and all kinds of merchandise, and sold them to the sons of Judah on the sabbath, even in Jerusalem. 17 Then I reprimanded the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing you are doing, by profaning the sabbath day? 18 Did not your fathers do the same, so that our God brought on us and on this city all this trouble? Yet you are adding to the wrath on Israel by profaning the sabbath.” 19 It came about that just as it grew dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and that they should not open them until after the sabbath. Then I stationed some of my servants at the gates so that no load would enter on the sabbath day. 20 Once or twice the traders and merchants of every kind of merchandise spent the night outside Jerusalem. 21 Then I warned them and said to them, “Why do you spend the night in front of the wall? If you do so again, I will use force against you.” From that time on they did not come on the sabbath. 22 And I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come as gatekeepers to sanctify the sabbath day. For this also remember me, O my God, and have compassion on me according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness. (Nehemiah 3:15-22) Nehemiah saw the Gentiles selling food on the Sabbath, as well as importing it for sale, and he admonished not the Gentiles but the Jews buying the food. He uses the phrase “profaning the sabbath” (Nehemiah 13:17-18) to refer to their violation of the Law of God concerning the day of rest. Another sabbath was soon to arrive and Nehemiah decided to take some preemptive initiative by preventing buyers from even entering Jerusalem’s gates in order to tempt the Jews into violating the Sabbath law. Things got so bad that he had to threaten to use force against the sellers, but his plan worked: they stopped gathering outside the gate and eventually left the Jews alone. Nehemiah’s actions show that the Sabbath was a law to be followed, that the Jews were charged to observe it. Of course, nothing happened to the Jews here; they weren’t stoned to death, or struck to death, or “cut off” from God’s people. We don’t get anything here except an admonition from Nehemiah. Of course, the people promised not to buy and sell in the contract they agreed to in Nehemiah 10, so Nehemiah was providing the accountability they needed to fulfill their vow. Thus says the Lord, “Preserve justice and do righteousness, For My salvation is about to come And My righteousness to be revealed. 2 “How blessed is the man who does this, And the son of man who takes hold of it; Who keeps from profaning the sabbath, And keeps his hand from doing any evil.” (Isaiah 56:1-2) The Lord says here that the one who will be saved is the one who “keeps from profaning the sabbath.” The word “profaning” here is “bebelow,” meaning “to desecrate, profane, or defile ritually.” The Lord says here that the man who is blessed is one who does not defile the sabbath. Jeremiah 17:19-27 points to blessings and curses for those who either keep the Sabbath day or profane it: 19 Thus the Lord said to me, “Go and stand in the public gate, through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, as well as in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 and say to them, ‘Listen to the word of the Lord, kings of Judah, and all Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who come in through these gates: 21 Thus says the Lord, “Take heed for yourselves, and do not carry any load on the sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem. 22 You shall not bring a load out of your houses on the sabbath day nor do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers. 23 Yet they did not listen or incline their ears, but stiffened their necks in order not to listen or take correction. 24 “But it will come about, if you listen attentively to Me,” declares the Lord, “to bring no load in through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but to keep the sabbath day holy by doing no work on it, 25 then there will come in through the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever. 26 They will come in from the cities of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord. 27 But if you do not listen to Me to keep the sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and not be quenched.”’” (Jeremiah 17:19-27) The Lord says here that Israel will always have Jerusalem as its inhabited place and that kings will reign upon the throne of Israel as long as they obey His word and honor the Sabbath; if they fail to do so, the Lord will devour them. 12 Also I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. 13 But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes and they rejected My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; and My sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath on them in the wilderness, to annihilate them. 14 But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, before whose sight I had brought them out. 15 Also I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands,16 because they rejected My ordinances, and as for My statutes, they did not walk in them; they even profaned My sabbaths, for their heart continually went after their idols. 17 Yet My eye spared them rather than destroying them, and I did not cause their annihilation in the wilderness. 18 “I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers or keep their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols. 19 I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and observe them. 20 Sanctify My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.’ 21 But the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes, nor were they careful to observe My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; they profaned My sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath on them, to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness. 22 But I withdrew My hand and acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. 23 Also I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them among the lands, 24 because they had not observed My ordinances, but had rejected My statutes and had profaned My sabbaths, and their eyes were on the idols of their fathers. 25 I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live; 26 and I pronounced them unclean because of their gifts, in that they caused all their firstborn to pass through the fire so that I might make them desolate, in order that they might know that I am the Lord.”’ (Ezekiel 20:12-26) The Lord spared the Jews, even though He accuses them here of profaning His sabbaths, or violating His Sabbath Law He made with them. They deserted His Sabbaths because “their eyes were on the idols of their fathers” (Ezek. 20:24), meaning that they didn’t observe the special days that were not only the seventh day of the week but even for the first days of feasts (see for example) because they had fallen prey to the gods of the nations around them. 16 “All the people of the land shall give to this offering for the prince in Israel.17 It shall be the prince’s part to provide the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the drink offerings, at the feasts, on the new moons and on the sabbaths, at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel; he shall provide the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering and the peace offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel.” (Ezekiel 45:16-17) The prince’s offering demanded the contribution of everyone in Israel, and the prince was to provide all the offerings required (with the contribution of the nation), even “on the sabbaths.” As can be seen from these verses, the Sabbath day was to be observed; it was a rule that was meant to be followed. The Lord gave strict words to those who didn’t, and His servants like Nehemiah strictly admonished those who decided to buy on the Sabbath anyway (buying and selling were forbidden on the Sabbath). The Pharisees were not wrong to know the Law and point out violations (plucking the corn was a violation), but they were wrong to condemn the disciples for something that was a human necessity. They needed to eat, and they weren’t plucking corn for the sake of doing it. They were plucking corn to fill their stomachs with food, and they were told to pluck with the hand rather than gather with the sickle because a handful was all they needed to survive for the meal. In modern life, it’s a good thing to know and honor the rules; there’s nothing wrong with rules, but there’s something wrong or sinful within us when we can’t accept exceptions and love individuals who qualify on the basis of valid exceptions. In other words, do not place ritual above righteousness. When an individual needs to eat to live (or work so that he can eat and live), and cannot afford to go to church service on Sunday, we should show love to such an individual by calling and praying for him or her — not by railing on them because they were unable to attend. We’ll get into more on acts of love below. - The Sabbath Law has exceptions, and Jesus approves of them Jesus responds to the Pharisee Sabbath violation claim with two examples to show that the Sabbath Law leaves room for exceptions: (1) David and his men who, while on a mission for the king, stop by the temple and eat the consecrated bread to feed their stomachs (they were “in need,” as Jesus says in Mark) and (2) the priests in the temple who work every Sabbath. The example of David is taken from 1 Samuel 21:1-6, while the second example is taken from Exodus, Leviticus, and other OT books. In today’s world, there are individuals who, like David and his men, must eat and violate laws to do so. David and his men had a need to eat, regardless of what the law said explicitly about the consecrated bread being priest-exclusive. Today, regardless of the Sabbath Law and what it says about observing the Sabbath, some are unable to observe it strictly because of necessity reasons such as the need to work or the need to rest, among others. Like the priest Ahimelech in 1 Samuel, we need to be understanding of the human need and value human need above any given day. Observing the day is worthless if it infringes upon human need or harms human life. The same can be said for the priests in the temple. They minister so that the people of God can fulfill their vow to assemble together on the Sabbath, and pastors, preachers, teachers, and choir singers do this today. These individuals are “profaning” or “breaking the Sabbath” so that the people of God are ministered to and grow in their faith to the Lord. These individuals, though technically and strictly, are violating the Sabbath, are meeting human need above the Law and are right with the Lord. Now, most have never thought about the fact that preachers, pastors, teachers, and choir singers today in the church are violating the Sabbath Law along with the priests as it was written in the OT, but they are. Jesus doesn’t use the example of the priests in the temple because the Pharisees were condemning them for the temple work, but because they put so much praise and commendation on the temple work – despite the fact that it was violating the letter of the law regarding Sabbath observance. When the Pharisees realized that even the temple workers whose work they prized in the temple were violating the Sabbath Law, then they’d realize that, in some sense, we’re all guilty of violating the Sabbath Law if the letter of the law is observed. Since the Pharisees would not condemn the temple and its workers such as the priests, then they should not have condemned the Lord and His disciples because Jesus is greater than the temple. In other words, by using two examples of exceptions to law violations within the law, Jesus Himself shows that there is at least one exception to the Sabbath rule: if the Sabbath rule clashes with human life, then preserving human life is to be the top priority above whether or not one keeps the Sabbath law or not. In real life cases, this refers to someone who is a medical professional who must go into work or visit a patient instead of going to church on Sunday. For someone else, it may mean checking in on their relative and staying at home while the rest of the family goes to church. It may even involve staying home to go over and fix your neighbor’s roof instead of going to church, or finding their lost animal, or putting out a forest fire for your neighbors some 30 miles away. The Sabbath may be a day of physical rest for some people who cannot make it to church due to long work hours and the need to rest before returning to work on Monday. After all, the Lord made it a day of rest, so why not rest on that day? For the Pastor who’s worked double shifts back to back and hasn’t had a moment’s rest, why should he be forced to forgo even more rest and put himself in danger – when he could stay home and recover from an exhausting week so that he can return to full form in his ministerial work next week? The day was made so that the pastor could rest. If he needs physical sleep with his sleep undisturbed, then is it not necessary for his recovery and physical health? We’re only at our best when we have food, drink, and rest. In the absence of those things, whatever the reason, we are unable to carry on without them. We are not immortal, you know. Yes, there are exceptions to the Sabbath Law, and there are valid exceptions. Christians who are unable to attend church due to exigent circumstances are those who, under normal circumstances, would attend church. If these individuals love the Lord, and have shown their desire to attend church but are unable to for some indefinite period of time, then it’s far more likely these individuals have legitimate reasons behind why they’re unable to, reasons that not even the Lord would hold against them. The disciples had to pluck grain to eat, and these individuals have to work to earn their bread. The Lord approves of the exceptions he quotes here in Matthew 12, and, if the Lord Jesus approves of Sabbath exceptions, then so should we. - The Lord desires mercy and compassion over ritualistic sacrifices I’ve said it in this study time and time again that the Lord desires that we love our neighbor rather than concern ourselves with following the Law strictly. In the case of the disciples plucking grain, the Pharisees refused to put the love of their fellow man and a human need to eat above their value of the Law. If the Law said that plucking grain was forbidden on the Sabbath, despite the human need for food, the disciples should starve themselves (according to the Pharisees). This is the kind of thinking that places the Law above love of neighbor, and it characterized the Pharisees’ behavior in nearly everything. The Lord stressed the importance of loving one’s neighbor and doing good above offering ritualistic sacrifices. Here are a few passages to that end: 10 Hear the word of the Lord, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the instruction of our God, You people of Gomorrah. 11 “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” Says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. 12 “When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? 13 “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. 14 “I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. 16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:10-17) Here in Isaiah chapter 1, the Lord says that He is fed up with the Israelites’ offering because their deeds are evil (“remove the evil of your deeds from My sight”). They won’t be clean until they “learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow,” the Lord says. In other words, until they learn how to love their neighbor (the orphan and widow) and remove the evil (“reprove the ruthless”), their sacrifices won’t do them any good. The Lord also calls their offerings “worthless,” says “bring them to me no longer,” the incense is “an abomination to Me,” and “I hate your new moon festivals and feasts,” says the Lord – an indication that their offerings, once acceptable, have become unacceptable because of the condition of the nation’s hearts toward God. Even if your offering is a sweet-smelling savor on its own, without the sacrificial heart to go with it, the Lord won’t accept it. It’s hard to think that the Lord wouldn’t accept an offering, but He won’t accept these because the condition of the heart is what He wants first above all else. 3 ‘Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’ Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, And drive hard all your workers. 4 “Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high. 5 “Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord? 6 “Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke? 7 “Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh? 8 “Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 9 “Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, 10 And if you give yourself to the hungry And satisfy the desire of the afflicted, Then your light will rise in darkness And your gloom will become like midday. (Isaiah 58:3-10) In Isaiah 58:3, the Lord quotes the Jews, who are asking why they fast and humble but yet, the Lord doesn’t notice or see it? The Lord then asks them about their understanding of a fast: He mentions “bowing one’s head like a reed” and “spreading sackcloth and ashes as a bed,” references to the external signs of fasting. And yet, the Lord says that to Him, true fasting is to 1) give bread to the hungry, 2) give the homeless shelter, and 3) cover the naked (Isa. 58:7). To the Lord, the type of fasting He wants is to see them love their neighbor and show that love in tangible deeds, not to see them put on sackcloth and ashes and bow one’s head as though they’re performing nothing more than an outside display of what is lacking within. Jesus taught the same thing to the masses about the Pharisees: 23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:23-28) When it comes to the Pharisees, Jesus says that they tithe always but “neglect the weightier provisions of the law,” which He says concerns justice, mercy, and faithfulness, “without neglecting the others.” In other words, tithing is not bad, but tithing without the heart and without pursuit of righteousness is nothing more than pure ritual. Ritual above righteousness was “the Pharisaic Way,” but Jesus wanted righteousness above ritual. They had it all wrong! They gave tithes, but had no mercy. They gave tithes, but had no justice, no sense of right or wrong. The Lord refers to them in Matthew 23:27 as “whitewashed tombs” that look clean on the outside but “are full of dead men’s bones” on the inside. In other words, they are righteous only in appearance. In the starting verses of Matthew 23, Jesus says that the masses are to do what the Pharisees say, but to not follow their example: they “do not what they say,” an indication that they “talk the talk” but fail to “walk the walk.” Prior to Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees, the Lord had already said other things about the Pharisees that show just how much priority they placed in external ritual instead of internal righteousness: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. 5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-6) 16 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face 18 so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:16-18) Jesus refers to the Pharisees as “hypocrites” in Matthew 23:23, so we know who He’s talking about here though he doesn’t say “Pharisees.” What He says is that they “neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting.” They have to appear as though they’re fasting with a long drawn face and terrible appearance so that everyone can see the look on their face of someone so “devoted to ritual and so fervent in faith” that they become impressed with Pharisaical fasting. And yet Jesus says that this isn’t what God’s children should do, because it’s about the internal nature of the heart, not the external nature of the person. Luke 18:9-14 is probably one of the most known passages on the Pharisees. It’s the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (tax collector), one in which the Pharisee does what Pharisees do: he puffs himself up and exalts himself above the “sinful” tax collector, presuming himself to be spiritually superior to the then-IRS worker: 9 And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14) The Pharisee’s prayer in Luke 18 starts out so holy and righteous and humble, does it not? “God, I thank You…” He did good in these first four words, but everything went downhill after that. He pointed out other people in his prayer that he believed were worse than him (swindlers, adulterers, unjust persons), and then singled out the tax collector. Then, he boasted of the so-called righteous deeds of his: “I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all I get.” Fasting and tithing, to the Pharisee, was what it took to be righteous in God’s eyes — and he had that, in his mind. The problem with his assessment is that he focused so much on his external rituals that he put them above internal righteousness. The tax collector, with nothing to brag of, begged the Lord to have mercy on him. He didn’t have anything to brag about, but that was the point of the story: humanity has nothing of itself to brag about. All of our good, all of our external rituals that we use to demonstrate piety to God are nothing if our hearts aren’t right with the Lord. The Pharisees were willing to put ritualistic observance of the Sabbath above the disciples’ biological need to eat, simply to observe the day for outward appearance. Again, they just didn’t understand that serving the Lord involves loving the Lord your God “with all your heart,” in addition to the external ritual. - The Lord doesn’t condemn the innocent; neither should we The Lord has told the Pharisees to discover what it meant that He desired mercy and not sacrifice. Here, they miss the boat once again, putting ritual above righteousness and love of their neighbor’s welfare (in this case, the disciples and their opportunity to be fed). What’s indicting in Matthew 12 is that the fields left for the disciples to pluck grain in were done so because the owner(s) had love for his neighbor, leaving the fields for them to eat from even if he didn’t know their names, backgrounds, or anything about them. How sad is it that the Pharisees, who supposedly knew the Law inside and out, weren’t able to translate that knowledge into love for their neighbor! The Lord declares David and his companions who ate the priestly bread, the priests who work in the temple on the Sabbath, and His disciples innocent, and He told the Pharisees that, if they knew what His word truly meant, if they knew the Scriptures as well as they believed they did, then they wouldn’t have “condemned the innocent.” The Lord declares the disciples and the biblical persons mentioned in the examples He cites in Matthew 12 as “innocent.” Jesus uses this word twice, once in verse 5 of the passage, the other here in Matthew 12:7. With this emphasis, it appears as though Jesus was making a point about these supposed “lawbreakers,” that they are innocent while the violation-judging Pharisees are guilty. The word “innocent” in the Greek is anaitios, meaning “blameless” or “guiltless.” A similar word is used in Matthew 27:24 when Pilate says that he is “innocent” of Christ’s blood and imminent crucifixion. In other words, he is blameless and is not responsible. The individuals released by Jesus from any blame for their breaking the Sabbath are blameless and cannot have their Sabbath violation held against them. The Law, while being seen by the Pharisees as promoting ritual, shows that even ritual should work to love your neighbor, not harm him or her. The Lord is saying that the individuals who’ve had to violate the Sabbath Law for human need are blameless, that the supposed “sin” of commission regarding the Sabbath is not laid to their charge. In other words, when human need clashes with the ritual laws, human need takes precedence over it. Jesus is declaring here that, under some circumstances, there are valid exceptions that don’t bring the consequences of Law violations. In the case of the Sabbath, there are some individuals who must work and can do so with confidence that the Lord doesn’t hold it against them. And, if the Lord doesn’t hold these exceptions against individuals, then we shouldn’t condemn them, either. When we condemn people in these situations, we are being Pharisaical, putting the day above human life. Jesus also says that “the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” giving the hint that even the Sabbath day is subordinate to man, that man’s needs trump observing one day for the sake of honoring that day. Yes, the Sabbath is to be a day unto the Lord, but a person who spends the day getting rest or helping someone has also done Christian ministry and has worked that day unto the Lord as well. - Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and, in His sovereignty, has made exceptions for its observance Jesus has made a declaration, contra Pharisaical judgment, that the ones the Pharisees condemned He declared innocent. Now, Jesus tells why He has declared them innocent: because He is Lord of the Sabbath. During the entire discussion, the Lord never told the Pharisees that they were wrong about the Sabbath rule, that it didn’t exist, or that they were interpreting it wrong. No, the Sabbath Law exists, as we’ve covered in quite a few verses on the subject. Yet and still, we find that the Lord still declares these persons innocent, even in the midst of a Sabbath violation (including the disciples who plucked grain on the Sabbath) due to the human necessity that mandated breaking the law. What this goes to show us is that the law and human needs don’t always work well together. Take the example of marriage and divorce: while both are considered to be polar opposites, Jesus does allow divorce under certain circumstances such as adultery (Matthew 5:32; Matthew 19:9). While divorce is forbidden by the Lord in most cases, there are some where it is allowed. These cases are called exceptions, and no man is above the Lord to the point where he can decide the Lord’s exceptions are wrong. “For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath,” Jesus says, reminding the Pharisees that, no matter the Law, none of the Law could be placed above Christ. In fact, Paul goes so far as to say that Christ and life in Christ Jesus is better than the Law and its consequences: 19 Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. 20 Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one. 21 Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. 22 But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:23-26) The Law serves a purpose, to show us our sin and our inability to abide by it, but the Law was meant to lead us to Christ. It was our tutor, until the True Teacher, Christ, came on the scene. Now that Jesus Christ is here, Paul says, we no longer need a tutor (the Law) anymore. Now, what I think Christians must do is step back and understand the importance of the Law. It isn’t a mistake, it isn’t a “plan” that didn’t work. It was a tutor, meant to teach us what holiness is. Christ is holiness embodied, and when He came to earth, He did His share of teaching in parables about the kingdom of heaven and what it is like, why we shouldn’t worry about our needs, how to pray (The Lord’s Prayer), and so on. Jesus was the Master Teacher who showed us the principle behind the Law that we read in the Old Testament. The Pharisees are an example of those who, though having studied the Law, were still blind as to the heart of the Law itself (which emphasized love of neighbor and love of God from the heart as opposed to ritual), demonstrating the need for the Divine Teacher to come and make things plain. The Pharisees believed that loving the Lord God involved following the Law, but the problem they had is that they couldn’t understand that loving their neighbor was the second of 2 commands that the Lord said summed up the Law and the Prophets: 34 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. 35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40) The whole of the Law, then, could be summed up with these two commandments: 1) to love the Lord with all your being and 2) to love your neighbor as yourself. The Pharisees believed that ritual and Law were the way to love the Lord, but they had no love for their neighbor. They believed that by keeping the ritual, they were showing their love for God – but it was nothing more than show. Externally, they looked devout and pious but internally, they were corrupt and wicked. They didn’t love the Lord because they couldn’t show love to their fellow man. That’s what they didn’t understand: the Law did not leave room for the Pharisees to love the Lord while failing to love their neighbor as themselves (“if you’ve done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me” Jesus says in Matthew 25:34-40). If they loved their neighbor, the Lord would’ve been pleased with them because the rituals, done from a heart of love for neighbor, will please God. They didn’t love their neighbor, so any external rituals were nothing more than play-acting. Anyone can play-act: that doesn’t make someone saved because they’re good at playing a role and acting on stage. Someone can say they’re in love, but just because they hold hands with someone and kiss them throughout the day doesn’t mean they love them. They could be seducing that person to drain them dry and leave them destroyed – but some people get consumed by appearances and naively presume that, if something looks legitimate or genuine, then it must be (but that’s not always true). The Pharisees didn’t love their neighbor, and thus, everything they did against their neighbor they did against Jesus Christ (see Matthew 25:41-46). The Lord is above the Sabbath; He set the Sabbath rule (Exodus 20:8-11), and He is sovereign and can establish exceptions if He pleases. He has been pleased to establish exceptions, and quotes exceptions from the OT to show us that even the Law itself wasn’t as strict as the Pharisees were making it out to be. If these exceptions exist in the Old Testament and in the Law, then the Pharisees were wrong to take such a strict view in regards to the disciples who were simply plucking enough grain to eat and have some form of human refreshment to live. Since He is sovereign, He has granted exceptions to the rule, whether we like it or not. Our understanding of the rules of Scripture is as follows: if the rules have exceptions, then the rules are undermined and the rules are no longer rules. And yet, this type of naïve understanding forgets that exceptions can only be established in the presence of rules. Without rules, there can be no exceptions. And there are no exceptions in the absence of rules. Rules acknowledge that the Lord has set demands for His children, but exceptions to the rules demonstrate God’s love in that certain life circumstances deny believers the ability to do certain things (and that believers in those situations need mercy). The problem with the Church as a whole is that we’ve come to have the same thinking as the Pharisees: if there are exceptions, then there are no rules. We want to have rules without exceptions because we believe that the rules treat everyone equally. The problem with this, though, is that not everyone’s life circumstances are the same, so how then, can every single person be treated the same in everything? The Lord’s sovereignty is seen in not only the rules, but in grace. He gives grace, but He does not give grace equally to all (as can be seen in the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-15, 16-30): 14 “For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. 16 Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. 17 In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. 18 But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 “Now after a long time the master of those slaves *came and *settled accounts with them. 20 The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 “Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 “And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’ 26 “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. 27 Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. 28 Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ 29 “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. 30 Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:14-30) The Lord didn’t give an equal number of talents to all His servants: He gave one 5, another 2, and the third servant 1. Notice that “5,” “2,” and “1” aren’t the same number, showing that the Lord gave unequal amounts of talent. And yet, the Lord’s justice mandated that each servant use the talents he was given. The wicked and lazy servant wasn’t punished because he didn’t have 5 talents or didn’t make 2 talents; he was punished because he didn’t use the 1 talent he had been given. Those who are unable to attend church like others shouldn’t be responsible for doing that which they cannot do; instead, they should be treated based on their exceptional circumstances. If they can only come 2 Sundays a month, then they should be given the benefit of the doubt with regard to the other 2 Sundays. Someone who can make all 4 or 5 Sundays a month should attend service, but, then and again, the church should have love toward all – even if they can only make 1 Sunday at most. Again, loving our neighbor comes with understanding that there are some individuals who are exceptions to the rules. If our rules are so rigid that it causes us to harm our neighbor instead of love him or her, then our interpretation of the rules must change, not necessarily the rules themselves (although there may be some that do need revision depending upon how impossible to achieve they are). I can attest to a friend of mine who has been the victim of what happens when the Church approaches its neighbor with such strict severity that leaves no room for exception. I know a friend who loves tech and is passionately committed to the field. He’s been covering mobile tech for 5 years now, chasing the major companies, their phone announcements, as well as the most renown mobile platforms. And in the last 5 years, all his jobs in the tech world have mandated his Sundays so that he hasn’t been able to attend Sunday services as he once did. Prior to his mother’s death, he was a minister of music at his church as well as a teacher and preacher of Scripture. He was active in everything from Bible Study to Homecoming services and then some. His parent died a few years ago while he was at seminary and he’s been fully on his own with no financial support since then. He’s had to work for his bread every day, seven days a week, even as high as 80 hours a week while pursuing a postgraduate degree at seminary. You’d think that in those circumstances, there’d be some compassion from his seminary in regards to Sunday attendance. The seminary always mandated Sunday attendance, and he was a faithful attendee while his provider parent was living. Death forced a change in his circumstances. Unfortunately, his seminary was anything but understanding. He was told that he had to sit on a church pew nearly every Sunday in the semester or else, he could no longer pursue classes at the institution because they wanted all their students to be active in Christian ministry. Somehow, by working and helping save money to bless his elderly grandparents in lieu of his parent’s absence and blessing friends of his who couldn’t work and depended on him for food wasn’t “ministry” enough for them. And, in the end, when he got so burdened down financially that he could no longer pay his rent, his seminary of 9 years pretty much tossed him high and dry and the Dean of that institution suspended him for a semester – which, according to school rules, constituted a second semester he was unable to take classes (couldn’t afford tuition) and was the seminary’s way of kicking him out of the institution and program. I know, I know, it’s hard for some folks to believe this happened, but I wouldn’t believe it unless it happened to someone I knew. It did happen. After all the kindness he’d extended at seminary (paying for meals for friends and families that have yet to this day to repay anything, creating a home for friends who had no home, helping all those he could reach out to, all while being a student and doing his best to adhere to seminary rules and regulations), the seminary “rewarded” him by suspending him from the institution and telling him that, even if he had no one to drive him to church, he was still “responsible” for getting there. Can you believe that? After all the good he’d done for others and the seminary with his financial investment and love of his neighbor, the seminary responded by kicking him when he was down (figuratively speaking), tossing him out of seminary and cancelling his academic program. It’s a sad story in and of itself, but what’s even more unfortunate is that this was done at a seminary, a place where the Word of God is preached, studied, and discussed, where men and women can go to learn the “deeper things of God,” a place where you’d think, just like you’d think about the Pharisees, that “these people will get interpretation right. Matthew 12:1-8 shows that there are exceptions to the Sabbath rules, and a seminary would get this right. A seminary that upholds the Bible would get this right. A seminary devoted to studying biblical languages and interpretation would get this right.” Unfortunately, the seminary he attended was only teaching and preaching in order to collect tuition and rent money from students; they weren’t serious about the Word of God and applying it because, if they were serious, they would’ve seen that he was an exception. No one in their right mind would tell a student he was responsible for getting to church when he had no transportation, worked from the internet, and couldn’t secure a ride despite asking numerous people. What else could he have done in his situation to make things better? Nothing. And to make matters worse, the seminary is of a certain Protestant denomination, and the student in question wasn’t a member of that denomination (but he was there because it was closest to home so that he could be near his parent who was suffering with breast cancer at the time). He gets mistreated because of his circumstances, but how was it his fault? How was it his fault that his parent died? How was it his fault that his friends graduated and left school, and he couldn’t secure rides from other students because no one wanted to drive him? And what about the people in charge? He was seeing a seminary counselor whose job it was to help students. Why couldn’t the seminary counselor get out of his comfort zone and give the student a ride to church? Why couldn’t the Dean give the student a ride to church? Why is it that the people up top barking commands couldn’t reach in their pockets and give some cash and/or a ride to regular church services? Why is it the case that the people in charge who were barking orders were the ones that, like the Levites, saw the man along the side of the road but were too busy to help? In all their reading Scripture, writing books, studying Scripture, and preaching Scripture day in and day out, they didn’t see and understand how to apply Matthew 12:1-8. If they had, a dear friend of mine might still be at seminary and might have graduated this past May with his postgraduate degree. The seminary in question was as guilty as the Pharisees Jesus encountered: they were so busy being strict, trying to craft rules for everyone, that they left no room for exceptions. Exceptions are messy and require some room be made for laws to be broken. Humanity likes to have rules because the rules can be made and applied to everyone; exceptions are a public way of understanding that not everyone can fulfill the laws we set. Exceptions require us to get into people’s lives and treat them differently, and we don’t like exceptions because we’re afraid of how we’ll be perceived if we treat others based on their circumstances. And yet, the love of God is shown when we learn how to give a break to those who need it, and remain disciplined toward those who need it. Jesus excepted the priests, the disciples, and David and his companions from following the strict letter of the Law because of their immediate needs to eat and minister to the people of God (priests). The disciples needed to eat, and the Lord Jesus excepted them from the punishment due to those who violated the Sabbath rule. If Jesus, one greater than the temple, could make exceptions, why couldn’t the Pharisees? More close to home: if Jesus could grant exceptions and declare those individuals innocent and guiltless, then why couldn’t the seminary declare my friend innocent with regard to Sunday observance? Where was the love of neighbor that the seminary read in the Scriptures? Where was the love of neighbor found in the Word of God that they studied on a regular basis? Unfortunately, the seminary was to him what the Pharisees were to their society: the so-called religious elite who didn’t know the first thing about the Scriptures. Sadly, the so-called “teachers” needed Jesus to teach them what they should’ve known. If they couldn’t understand the basic stuff, what were they teaching the people? And if they were teaching rightly but living wrongly, how much of the right teaching did they actually believe? Very little. - The Strict Sabbath Jesus’ response to the Pharisees about breaking the Sabbath and exceptions to the strict Sabbath rule give modern-day Christians food for thought today. The Pharisees themselves weren’t keeping the strict Sabbath they demanded of everyone else, and today’s believers aren’t keeping the Sabbath as strictly as the yoke they set on everyone else, either. Have you met or know someone in your family that holds to Sunday observance strictly, that always reminds you of the need to attend church, and tells you that, should you not go, you’re “forsaking the assembling” of the saints? Well, I’m about to give you some biblical ammunition to use against these individuals. What you may never have thought about (and what I’m sure these critics have never thought about) is that they don’t keep the Sabbath as strictly as they believe they do. Here are a few reasons behind this. First, if they’re as strict a Sabbath-keeper as they presume to be, why don’t they attend church service on Saturday, the original Sabbath? After all, Sabbath was the seventh day of the week (which is Saturday), not Sunday, the first day of the week. In Exodus 20:8-11, the Lord says that they are to rest on the seventh day because He rested on the seventh day after creating the world. Also, Sabbath didn’t start on Sunday; it started Friday evening at sundown. This is why Jesus’ body was taken down from the Cross before the Sabbath day (Sabbath is on Saturday; the day before Sabbath is Friday), according to Mark 15:42-47. If Friday is the day before Sabbath, then Sabbath has to be Saturday, not Sunday. Why then, do Christians worship and attend church on Sunday? Here’s where you’ll hear something along the lines of, “Well, Jesus rose the first day of the week, so Christians observe the Sabbath on Sunday.” And yet, how did Christians get this special right to move Sabbath (or Shavat, as the Jews call it in the Hebrew tongue) from Saturday to Sunday? What biblical commandment have Christians received, or what exception does the Law make for the day of Sabbath worship? How did we gain the authority to move Sabbath from its original day (Saturday) to another day that we decided works best for us? By meeting on a day outside of Saturday, we are breaking the Sabbath and violating the Sabbath law. We’re not remembering the Sabbath day, as the Lord told the Jews, because we work on Saturdays, cook on Saturdays, drive out to town on Saturdays, mow our lawns, fix our cars, go shopping, bake food, and perform other errands on Saturday. Thus, we’re all in violation of the Sabbath rule. This is in addition to the ministers and church staff in our day, who work on Sunday to perform church service and minister to the church congregation. As the priest break the Sabbath, so do pastors, teachers, preachers, elders, deacons, and other church staffpersons like musicians and choir singers. If the Sabbath Law says to remember Saturday and keep it holy, then we’re all violating the Law because we’re not remembering Saturday as the day of worship, but Sunday instead. The next question becomes for some, “How did we arrive at Sunday as the ideal day for the Sabbath?” Well, there was a need for Christians to meet and worship together, so some day had to be selected. Romans 14 tells us that, while the Jews observed 1 day, the Gentiles viewed all days alike. This was the debate in the early church at Rome, with Jews and Gentiles fighting over not only the day of observance but also whether to eat meat and vegetables or, as the Jews believed, to keep kosher and eat vegetables only: 5 One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. 7 For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; 8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. (Romans 14:5-9) Notice that Paul mentions the two positions on worship: there are those who regard 1 day above all others, and there are those who regard “every day alike.” To regard every day alike means to treat every day the same, not to exalt one specific day above another. Since the Jews were the ones who kept the Sabbath, as we’ve seen through a plethora of passages in Scripture that testify to it, the Gentiles were those who had never had a specific day to worship. The Gentiles were not God’s chosen people originally, so they did not have a day to worship. Of course, the Lord did mandate that Gentiles who visited Jews observe the Sabbath day as though they were Jews: 14 If an alien sojourns with you, or one who may be among you throughout your generations, and he wishes to make an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to the Lord, just as you do so he shall do. 15 As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the alien who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the alien be before the Lord. 16 There is to be one law and one ordinance for you and for the alien who sojourns with you.’” (Numbers 15:14-16) This seems to be the principle behind Gentiles who lived as Jewish “proselytes” or converts and were present in the Upper Room in Acts, for example, but on the whole, the Gentiles had no specific day they were commanded to worship — which is what the dispute in Romans 14 was all about. The Gentiles were not allowed to come into the land of the Jews and worship differently, though; they were commanded to worship as the Jews when in the land of the Jews. Paul doesn’t mandate a specific day, but instead tells every believer to “be convinced in his own mind,” to have his own conscience clear about how he worships. The one who observes a particular day does it to the Lord; the one who doesn’t observe a particular day lives every day to the Lord. Believers are not living for themselves, so, a set day or not, they’re still living for the Lord and can rest assured that the Lord accepts their worship regardless of how alike or different it is from someone else’s. With that said, the question still remains: where did Sunday worship observance come from? It comes from early church history, from the fact that many in the early church worked Saturdays and could not take off Saturday to observe worship. The history of the Sabbath is an interesting one indeed, but for those who want a quick look at the history without diving too deeply, I recommend the following article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Day The article is shorter than the research required to discover all the inns and outs of the Sabbath day. In a brief analysis, Saturday was the Sabbath day of the Jews, but, since Christ fulfilled the Law in its entirety, in the same way that Christians do not keep or observe Jewish feasts, early church believers did not need to observe the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday). Since Jesus rose on the first day of the week (Sunday), Christians decided that Sunday would be their day of observance. Even when Constantine declared that Sunday would be the Sabbath for the Roman Empire, he still designated that agriculture workers or farmers, as we know them to be, would have a choice to decide whether or not they could afford to take the day off or be forced to continue working because Sunday was the ideal day to grow crops and sow new ones. Of course, there is some biblical precedent for the first day of the week as the designated day of Christian worship: 7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered together. (Acts 20:7-8) In Acts 20, we see that the early church was gathered together to not only feast on physical food but also the Word (“he prolonged his message until midnight”). So, in this sense, worship services today could be held on Sunday since the early church was observing its gathering on Sunday. There’s more evidence for Sunday gathering: 16 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. 2 On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. 3 When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem; 4 and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me. (1 Corinthians 16:1-4) Here again, the saints are to save money “on the first day of the week” for the collection for the saints (to help fellow believers who were in financial need). The reference to Sunday here shows that these believers, as was the case with the Galatian churches (“as I directed the churches of Galatia,” Paul says), are to set aside a freewill offering for the Church’s less fortunate (the “church” referring to believers as a whole, no matter the church; the church universal, we’d say). We could say, based on these passages about Sunday gatherings, that the church had an understanding about Sunday being their Sabbath rather than Saturday. There seems to be good basis for this, though there is no inherent commandment or mandate to have church service or worship on Sunday. In fact, the same Paul that assembled to preach on Sunday in Acts is the same Paul that wrote in Romans 14 that everyone should worship in the liberty of their conscience. So, there was no prescribed day to gather in the Lord’s name, at least not one that Scripture mandates. With the set day for believers to assemble being fluid, the rest of the New Testament confirms this: that, while believers are to assemble, whatever day they assemble is fine as long as they’re giving a set time unto the Lord each week. What this goes to show is that 1) there was a strict Sabbath day, Saturday, but that the Gentiles, upon getting saved, decided to designate a new day of worship (for whatever specific reason). 2) the new Sabbath day for Gentile Christians was set for Sunday, not Saturday, and that this became a normal thing because Christ fulfilled the Sabbath Law of the OT. What we also learn is that 3) now, since the Sabbath Law has transferred the day of observance to Sunday for many, the early church and modern-day church has established the Sunday Sabbath as a strict rule that mandates observance. We’ve torn down one day (Saturday) but built up another (Sunday); torn down one rule (Saturday Sabbath) but mandate another (Sunday Sabbath). Are we not Pharisees in our own right, who mandate our new “Sabbath Law” and force people to adhere to it at the expense of their lives, when we forbid them to work for their bread and sustain their livelihood (even through proper bodily rest) on the “Sabbath”? When we make Sabbath observance on Sunday a weekly thing that we mandate believers to keep, are we not going beyond what the Scriptures teach about believers assembling together to worship? Here’s what Scripture teaches us about worship: 19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:19-25) Yes, we are to assemble together and encourage each other to love one another and do good deeds. Yes, we need to assemble because we’re all vital to the church and the body of Christ. And yet, where we assemble (whether in a house or sanctuary), what day and time we assemble, and the nature of our worship services are a matter of agreed-upon preference. Since there’s nothing set in stone, we can’t impose this upon everyone. Even in a church where everyone has agreed to Sunday, life circumstances change and situations change. Some members that were once able to attend on Sunday are now having to forgo that due to work and life situations. When life situations change, the church must be willing to change with them. If the church pastor gets unemployed due to layoffs but then finds a job that mandates his Sundays, then the church has to be flexible and work with the man or woman of God, not against him or her. If the church Pastor needs to move worship observance to Thursdays, for example, then the church should cooperate. The church staff may need to move worship to a day other than Saturday or Sunday so that they can minister to their families and ministry patients. If they need this done, then the church should move the date to accommodate their leaders who serve them in the Word and ministry. This provides some relief for their ministry staff leaders so that they are able to handle their families and ministries while still being faithful to the flock of God. The Word of God leaves some things up to preference and personal choice; not everything about how, where, and when we worship is explicitly dictated in Scripture. So, the deciding factors related to place, time, and the nature of the worship service will have to be agreed upon with each congregation. In Baptist life, for example, each church is autonomous and can make their own decisions (even those that differ from another Baptist church). Presbyterian life is different, since councils dictate the laws for the churches. Methodists also have councils to answer to that hold them accountable for their actions, so council churches will have different rules that may mandate changing and voting on rules (or having them dictated by a few council members). Baptist churches will probably vote on the change of issues, or amendments to current church laws allowing the specific worship service time, place, and weekday to change as the need arises. A number of rules and regulations exist in Catholic and Protestant denominational life because there are no explicit rules in the text of Scripture. The same can be said for the Lord’s Supper, what we call Holy Communion: Paul tells us to observe this “as often as” we do it (1 Corinthians 11:26). In other words, there’s no set number of times a week, month, or year we are commanded to observe the Lord’s Supper. If you observe it once a month, four times a month, or 18 times a year, you can observe it as much as or as little as you prefer; as long as you observe it with your heart slanted toward God, the Lord is pleased. With all the variables that are open-ended, and the fact that the Sabbath itself has been changed for the Christian church and moved beyond its original day, we shouldn’t be surprised that some individuals, living in an unsaved world or a world where business and work are key to livelihood, would have to work on the agreed Sunday Sabbath. The Sabbath is a rule that we should remember in principle, but how we observe it and the exact nature of what that looks like will differ across the board. It turns out that seventh-day Adventists aren’t necessarily wrong (contrary to Baptist belief) because they observe the original Sabbath worship day. Baptists are not wrong either, contra many seventh-day Adventists, because they choose to worship on Sunday. And, contrary to many Christians, those who need to “pluck grain” in their context (work on the Sabbath) are not wrong, because “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” Jesus says. The Sabbath was made to help meet man’s needs, not designed as a day of ritual to harm his livelihood and deprive him of his needs. III. Is Sabbath worship tied to the church? This is a question that deserves something of its own separate treatment, but ties into our study here on the Sabbath and worship on the day itself. We’ve talked about how some modern-day Christians are Pharisaical in that they judge those who must “pluck their grain” and cannot honor the Sabbath as they do. In this section, though, we want to explore the Pharisaical idea behind the criticism about strict observance of Sabbath: is Sabbath worship tied to the church or even a building, for that matter? Jesus tackled something similar to this very discussion in John 4 in His encounter with the Samaritan woman: 19 The woman *said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” 21 Jesus *said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:19-24) The Samaritan woman, in her encounter with Jesus, talks about worshipping on a given mountain. She was a Samaritan, and Samaritans didn’t worship on the same mountain as the Jews because the Jews and Samaritans were at racial odds with each other. Samaritans were considered to be “half breeds” of Jewish and Gentile parents, while Jews were considered to be “pure breeds,” claiming the Law, the Temple, and even salvation as theirs. Jesus Himself claims His Jewish heritage in this very passage in John 4:22). And yet, regardless of the mountain where one worshipped, whether the location of the Jews or the Samaritans, Jesus wasn’t concerned about a location or place of worship; instead, He wanted to convey that worship should be with one’s whole being and that it should be right worship. There’s a right way to worship God, and, when done in the right way, worship toward God is acceptable to Him, regardless of place or location. In application, Jesus is saying that whether one worships in a church or outside a church, true worship with a sincere heart toward God is what counts for something. Using this argument, then, we can say that Sabbath worship need not be done in a church building. Yes, the Jews worshipped in the temple or synagogue, but a number of early churches were house churches: 3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles; 5 also greet the church that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia. (Romans 16:3-5). Priscilla and Aquila worked with Paul in ministry and risked their lives for him. They had a house church, and Paul notes this when he says “Greet the church that is in their house.” Priscilla and Aquila didn’t have a church building but instead met at home, and Paul commends their work rather than tear it down. 15 Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and also Nympha and the church that is in her house. (Colossians 4:15) Here Paul greets the gathering in Laodicea, and Nympha and her church. While some say that the Nympha here, listed as feminine in the NASB, could really be masculine (this is to be discussed at a later time), we can see that she had a church in her home, and Paul greeted the church. Since she’s greeted first before the house church, we can presume that she headed up the church. She could have very well been an early church Pastor of a home church. In Paul’s letter to Philemon, he addresses the church over which Philemon presided: 1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved brother and fellow worker, 2 and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philemon, vv. 1-3) Notice that Paul gives the same greeting he gives the other churches (“grace to you and peace…”), an indication that there was nothing inherently wrong with house churches. These believers didn’t meet in a sanctuary, but God’s grace and blessing were still upon them and the congregations that assembled in their homes. They were still worshipping the Lord in spirit and in truth, even in the absence of an elaborate building or sanctuary structure. At the end of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, he greets Aquila and Priscilla, who, apparently, also had a house in Corinth at one point or another: 19 The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Prisca greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. 20 All the brethren greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. (1 Corinthians 16:19-20) Aquila and “Prisca,” or “Priscilla,” we’ve already met in the church at Rome. Apparently, they also had a church in Corinth, so this couple likely served as early church planters, establishing home churches in the area, then deciding to move around after these fledgling churches began to grow and establish themselves. We could give more examples of this, but this will suffice. We can see from Paul’s letters that he blessed those who had house churches, not condemned them, and we can be sure that, if a church today meets in a home and not a sanctuary, God is pleased with their worship if it’s done with their whole being and in the right way. Have you ever met people that’ve told someone they had to join a church before they die? I’ve seen it quite a bit in my life. Whenever fellow believers attempt to win someone to Christ, you’d think that Christ would be the center of the conversation. Unfortunately, the center of the conversation is the church: “you have to join the church,” they say. I always thought it curious that salvation was of the Lord, all about Jesus saving us from our sins, but that people who accepted Christ had to join a church, even if death was knocking on their door. Well, being older now, I’ve come to understand that, in my circles, some individuals are told to join the church in order to have a burial plot on the church grounds to be buried. Those individuals join the church because church law dictates that their families must pay something should the loved one die without being a church member in good standing. So, the individual joins the church so that he or she can be buried there without the family having to pay some crazy amount of money to bury the loved one elsewhere. And yet, is this not Roman Catholic theology? Is this not what Roman Catholics believe? Roman Catholics taught the same thing: if someone dies and they’re not in good standing with the church, and they don’t have the priest to come over and perform “the last rites,” then that person has died out of the state of grace rather than in it. In fact, believers who faced excommunication in the Roman Catholic church were treated as though they were outside of salvation and the saving grace of God, and they were treated as though they didn’t even belong to God. Martin Luther had to correct this in his day, as he suffered excommunication by the Roman Catholic church. So, the whole “you’ve gotta join a church” adopts the mentality that says, “if you’re not joined to a church, you’re not joined to Christ (John 15:4-5).” The problem with this is that there’s nothing that can separate an individual from the love of God (Romans 8), including a particular church or lack thereof. What about the thief on the Cross, who didn’t have time to join a church before his death (Luke 23:39-43) ? What about the laborers who entered the vineyard at the last hour? They didn’t miss anything and received all that the all-day laborers received (Matthew 20:1-16). Above joining a church, the individual must be joined to Christ. No matter the condition of that individual physically, if he or she accepts Christ as their personal savior, they are saved – whether or not they ever get to do any work in a church building. For Christ, it’s about being joined to Him and following Him. All the other things are important, but they’re not the most important. More than having your name on a church roll is to have your name found in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 21:27; Revelation 20:15; Philippians 4:3). The Lord cares more about hearts and acknowledging He is Lord than He cares about tradition and ritual. Tradition and ritual are important, just not as important as the condition of the heart. Jesus told the Samaritan woman that true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth, not “in a certain mountain” or place. True worship is a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord, even if it’s on an airplane or over a Skype conversation on the internet. IV True worship in the modern-day context We’ve discussed the importance of true worship, that the Lord favors a sincere here over external rituals performed well, and we know that the Lord condemned the Pharisees because of the state of their hearts. We’ve also talked about John 4 and how, regardless of the mountain, the Lord wanted the Samaritan woman to truly worship Him with all she had, with a most sincere heart. The Lord is seeking these kinds of worshippers, Jesus told her (John 4), leading us to understand that true worship doesn’t put faith in “sacraments,” “relics,” and “location” such as a Temple or a church building. So, today, what does this look like for some modern-day believers? Well, the best place to start is with common believer statements. At my church, whenever we talk about praying for believers, we refer to them as “the sick and shut-in.” I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase a million times as well, and it’s a familiar one, though I don’t think most churches fully understand what it means. When we refer to the sick, we’re referring to those who have an ailment or medical condition in body that can’t get to church due to the restraints of their body. We often visit the sick in our churches, and do our best to pray for them and serve them in any way possible. When it comes to “shut-in,” though, we just presume that these individuals are the sick ones, but that’s not true (otherwise, why even refer to the “shut-in”? Calling them “shut-in” is redundant in that line of thought, since they’re already shut-in by virtue of being sick). These shut-in are trapped in their homes or some other location and are away from church for various reasons, but they’re all part of the body of Christ and should be prayed for, even in their absence from the gathering of believers that our churches conduct each week. One such case pertains to inclement weather. Snow is 6 feet high, my friend in New York has to help her dad dig their vehicles out of the snow, and the snow is starting to topple the front door. Can she make it to church? Probably not. She fits the definition of someone who is shut-in, even if her condition with the snow is temporary. Someone else could be shut-in taking care of their sick children. Such an individual is staying home and ministering to his or her children, which is the mark of a godly parent. Caring for the home is an excellent indication of how a person will serve in the church. A shut-in person could be someone who is too far away from a church and cannot attend any worship service at all. I once watched a televangelist on TV who had people calling in to ask him questions. One woman came on the air and asked him about help for her situation. She lives 2 hours away from the nearest church, and it would be a full-time job for her to drive 2 hours one way and 2 hours back (4 hours total) on Sunday, on bible study nights during the week, and so on. She has become part of the “media church,” a gathering of believers online and home via television who have no other means of getting to church for worship. It’s hard to believe that in America, some individuals are still geographically shut-in, but it’s true. Part of the reason behind why I think we’re so sacrament and building-driven is because we don’t seem to have knowledge of how to survive in the modern-day context. What does a person do who is shut-in? Well, let me encourage you if you’re a person who’s shut-in from the church gathering: you may be shut-in, but you’re not shut-out, and the Lord loves you and welcomes your worship, just as you are, just where you are. You don’t need to feel inadequate, as though you’re away from the Lord and separated from His love. Nothing can separate you from His love, not even geographic location and lack of building access. You have other venues that technology has made possible so that you can worship Christ in spirit and in truth. There’s the internet, where you can go on and watch sermons, discuss the Word in forums, and even interact with individuals online. You can even have some Skype bible study sessions with some believers and that counts as sincere worship. I was blessed to have such an experience this past week, where I shared this material I’m giving you with friends of mine who live states and hours away from me. We had a blessed time in the Lord, our hearts were encouraged, and our souls were revived, knowing that wherever we are, the Lord is with us, and remembering His promise: “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst” (Matthew 18:20). You, too, can rest assured that if you’re a child of God and His Spirit lives within, that He is with you no matter where you are. For the soldier who reads his Bible alone every morning at 3am in his or her war tent and longs for the gathering of the saints, he or she can be assured that the Lord is there, wherever they are. For He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5b). “For I am with you always, even until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). For the believers who are unable to get out and about due to their long work hours and crazy schedule, they can engage fellow believers on the internet by scheduling an internet bible study on Skype. There are a number of web applications today that let you group video chat and engage your friends from behind a computer screen, and this is a great way to not only see your friends but to study Scripture as well. Since there’s no formal meeting in a church, there’s no formal, “stuffed shirt” dress attire, no concerns about your hair being out of place (I taught Bible study last Thursday night on Skype and didn’t care that my hair was weird-looking), and no concerns about getting personal about the things that affect you and the things you need prayer for or want prayer about. And, you can have a meal and “break bread” together by eating dinner, breakfast, or lunch at the same time. It’s not quite The Last Supper Jesus had with His disciples, but technology has afforded us an opportunity to share moments with those we love and care for without having to be in the same room. Computers, tablets, smartphones, and television are just some of the technology resources the Lord has given us that help keep us connected to fellow believers and loved ones. These are tools the Lord has given us, and they come in handy when we can’t be in desired places. So, with that said, if you’re tuning in to Sunday worship by way of a loved one’s computer (you’re at home, watching the service on Skype), then you’re still there in the service. You can still see everyone, talk to them, and feel as though you’re there. Though you’re at home, or stranded at the airport, you can still “be at the service” or the believers’ meeting. For those who are true worshippers, even using these mediums can provide a true worship experience because, when you put your mind on the Lord and take your mind off ritual, praising the Lord at the airport, on the beach with the sand beneath your feet, or in the car with the church service playing on your iPhone or Android device, you can still worship the Lord as though He’s right there with you – because He is. We’ve said more than enough here to the point that I don’t need to say any more. God’s Word illuminates the heart and mind and shows us our prejudices, biases, and presuppositions. Believers have become something of modern-day Pharisees with our insistence that one day in particular, whether Saturday or Sunday, is the specific day we are to meet (that is the rule, no exceptions). The problem with this approach is that, like the Pharisees, the criticism against those who are unable to attend service due to health, geographic location, or other reason is one that lacks love for one’s neighbor. Jesus didn’t want the disciples to starve in order to observe the day, and we shouldn’t want fellow believers to forgo eating bread just to observe the day. Even in the fourth century AD, when Constantine declared Sunday as the new Christian Sabbath, agricultural workers still got to work on the day in order to earn their bread from the harvest (Constantine didn’t want the food of the land to be lost just for the sake of one day of the week). Why it is the case today that we want to bash believers who work on Sunday is beyond me. Next, we are in no place to demand Sunday as the inherent Sabbath day that we must meet without exception because it isn’t the original day the Lord designated as Sabbath in the Old Testament. The original day was Saturday, and, despite some biblical evidence in the New Testament that the early church chose Sunday, the day of the Lord’s resurrection, as its designated day, the Lord hasn’t left one shred of information in His Word to hint that we “must” meet on Saturday or Sunday. In fact, if at a given church the believers are available for Thursday or Friday night service, they can gather in His name and He is in the midst of them. The Lord did not condemn the disciples nor the priests who minister in the temple, but using the priests as an example was to get the Pharisees to see how hypocritical they were: they could excuse the priests in the temple from Sabbath rest but couldn’t make exception for the disciples, who were plucking grain so as to fill their hungry stomachs. The Lord Jesus quotes exceptions to the Sabbath rule and then gives His approval of them by declaring the named parties “innocent” and “guiltless.” The end result is that the Pharisees lacked compassion and mercy and if they really knew the Law, they would’ve thought about these exceptions before forbidding the disciples to provide themselves with immediate need. The Lord made the Sabbath day, and, as a result, has sovereignty over it. He made the rule, and He can make exceptions. To many of us, these exceptions seem to undermine the rule, but the Lord doesn’t engage our logic here. Instead, He says that “the Son of Man is Lord over the Sabbath.” For those today that want to be hard-hearted and stiff-necked like the Pharisees, without making any exceptions in the Law for breaking the Sabbath, the Lord says the same thing: it doesn’t matter how you feel, because He’s Lord over the Sabbath, and He gives grace in various amounts to those He wills to give it to. You, me, and those we know and love don’t have the same blessings, so this shouldn’t be hard to understand. What the Lord wants us to do above all is to know where we stand with Him and to make sure that He owns our hearts, minds, and bodies first. The rituals are a wonderful aroma to the Lord when we first “present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). When our all is on the altar of our hearts, and the Lord is the one we give it all to, then He’ll accept the rituals and the gifts. And for those who are sick and shut-in, remember that you’re not shut out. The Son of Man is not only Lord of the Sabbath, He’s also Lord over your life and mine and the true “scorekeeper” of all that man does here on earth. When we stand before God, all that matters is that we worshipped Him in spirit and in truth and that we loved the Lord and our neighbor. If Christians believe that we’re saved by grace and not through our own merit, then pew-sitters have nothing more to brag about than internet church members. Our circumstances, as well as the trials and tribulations we face throughout this life, will all be a testimony to the Lord’s goodness and grace – both now and when we’re finally at home with Jesus in eternity. To God, be the glory! Author: Deidre Richardson Deidre is happy to answer any questions you may have. Feel free to use the comments box below!

Historical novel on Holland's largest Holocaust rescue operation slammed for 'awful' errors December 25, 2020 AMSTERDAM (JTA) - It was meant as an ode to one of the most courageous yet little-known rescue efforts of Jews during the Holocaust. But a week after its publication, a Dutch-language historical novel is at the heart of a controversy over whether the author twisted the historical record in ways that risk distorting public understanding of the genocide. Critics say "The Nursery," which is based on a daring rescue operation to smuggle hundreds of Jewish children out of Amsterdam and describes itself on its cover as a "real-life story," contains dozens of historical inaccuracies. Chief among...