Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Clintons, Revelers Ring in 2009 in Times Square


Clintons, thousands of revelers celebrate end of troubled 2008, ring in '09 in Times Square


By COLLEEN LONG Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK January 1, 2009 (AP)


The Associated Press


Hundreds of thousands of revelers rang in 2009 from frigid Times Square as the famous Waterford crystal ball dropped, signaling the end of a historic and troubled year that saw the election of the first black U.S. president and the worst economic crisis in decades.

As the clock struck midnight, a ton of confetti rained down while the partygoers hugged and kissed.

Josh Torres and his girlfriend, Sarah Manganello, both 21, screamed and cheered as they watched the ball drop. Manganello had advice for people in the new year: "Learn from what you've done and move forward."

The wind chill made it feel like 1 degree in the area, but that didn't stop the throngs bundled in fur hats, heavy coats and sleeping bags from attending the event.

Former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton helped Mayor Michael Bloomberg lower the ball atop 1 Times Square for the 60-second countdown to midnight. Last year, Hillary Clinton was in Iowa campaigning for the presidency, and now she's expecting to be secretary of state in President-elect Barack Obama's administration.

Many other New Year's Eve traditions around the country were in place, but some festivities fell victim to hard times, and those that remained felt somewhat subdued. The nation's economic troubles made many people less interested in giving 2008 an expensive send-off. Public celebrations were canceled in communities from Louisville, Ky., to Reno, Nev., and promoters in Miami Beach, Fla., reported slower ticket sales than expected for celebrity-studded parties that they say would have sold out in past years.


But New York's celebration was still going strong. Five minutes before midnight, 1,000 balloons with the words "Joy," "Hope" and "2009" were released from rooftops in the area. The Waterford crystal ball — 12 feet in diameter and weighing nearly 12,000 pounds — dropped as the crowd erupted in cheers.

Sam Tenorio and his family drove to New York from Orlando, Fla., so his teenage daughter Brianna could see the Jonas Brothers perform live in Times Square.


Milk Toast Christianity


Milk Toast Christianity

It's the order of the day!

The days of preaching the Eternal Gospel* are over; The stage has been cleared for the Social Gospel to replace the Final Warning. Christianity Light is the mood of the day; Like in Miller-Lite, and it's no coincidence that what is being preached from 'most pulpits' is from the pits of hell, it's the wine of Babylon. That lightness produces a stupor that impairs its hearers from distinguishing truth from error, and virtually prepares them to be duped into the fold of the enemy of souls. Actually, it's the enemy's creation; Who else could have invented a gospel that is less filling (no substance) and low on calories (no lasting spiritual nourishment).

milk-toast 
Pronunciation [milk-tohst]

adjective
1.
easily dominated; extremely mild; ineffectual; namby-pamby; wishy-washy.–noun
2
.
milquetoast.


Origin: 1815–25


Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006


Milk Toast Christianity is what I've called this strange phenomenon. It seems as if all the Protestant, Evangelical, Pentecostal, and Catholic Churches are using the same format; As if the Ecumenical goals that were set during the Roman Catholic Church's Vatican II Council, had been achieved: All have followed in the steps of the holy see. None call her the whore of Babylon any longer, or maintain a clear definition of prophecy. The lackadaisical, and the nonchalant has replaced the Protestant convictions of Sola Scriptura, and have opted for the RC doctrines, and traditions. For example they regularly find a new Bible version that seems better than the last one they sanctioned. They are adrift in a sea of confusion without a sail, without a paddle bound for perdition. Oh, that they would come to their senses and return to deliver the Final Warning, to give the trumpet that certain sound?


For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? . 1 Corinthians 14:8.


Milk Toast Christians love to quote John 3:16:


For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.


It provides them a warm-fuzzy feeling. All they have to do is just "believe"; Well, if they read the rest of the Lord's words they would discover that the Lord requires obedience also. Let's read verses 17 through 21, and see if it is so:


17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Brethren, Milk Toast Christians are not what the Lord is coming to redeem someday soon. It will be obedient servants similar to their Master, not foolish virgins, or unfaithful stewards. He will spew those out of His mouth, and say: I never knew thee!

21Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
24Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Matthew 7:21-27.

Those that insist on having Milk Toast Christianity; I suggest you prayerfully read Matthew 25. Return to the sound doctrines, feed the sheep.


Arsenio.


Maranatha.

*The Everlating Gospel

Urban Danger (MMM)


Just a quick update...Thank you for your prayers for our trip this fall/winter. It was a tremendous blessing to be able to share with so many at each of the 15 locations visited. There was so much interest that we could not fit all the locations into this trip, so we have decided to start working on another trip early this spring and visit locations all the way from California, across the south, to the east coast. Please let us know ASAP if you are/will be working on hosting an event at your church/group during that time period.
We also wanted to send this note to let you know that we have been working away on the Urban Danger project and hope to have it completed by the end of February. We had previously posted a 13 minute preview several months ago which was simply a collage of snippets from interviews that had been completed up to that point. The new 18 minute preview should be very similar to how the first 18 minutes of the DVD turns out.
To view the new 18 minute preview, simply click on the link below:
You can also visit our website, http://mountainmediaministries.org/ , to see an update on the latest projects we are working on.
Wishing you and yours a very blessed new year. It gives promise of being an extremely eventful one.
The MeissnersMountain Media Ministries
372 Habersham Hills Cir. #211Cornelia, Ga. 30531

Ustashi


Ustashi The Ustaše (often spelled Ustashi in English; singular Ustaša or Ustasha) were the Croatian nazi/fascist organisations put in charge of the so-called Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Powers in 1941 and expelled by Yugoslav partizans and the Red Army in 1945.


At the time of their founding in 1929, the Ustaše were nationalist political organisations that committed terrorist acts. When they came to power in the WWII they also had military formations some 300,000 strong at their peak in 1944.


The content of this article is disputed and .

Victims
Ustaše with the head of a Serb Orthodox priest,Drakulići Feb 7, 1942
The Ustaše hated and tried to exterminate Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and basically all others that opposed them (including some Communist Croats, ). Once they came in power during World War II, they founded several concentration camps, most notorious of which was the Jasenovac complex.


Exact numbers of victims are not known, only estimates exist, however it is certain that hundreds of thousands of innocent people were rounded up and killed in concentration camps and outside of them.


According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center:
"Ustasa terrorists killed 500,000 Serbs, expelled 250,000 and forced 250,000 to convert to Catholicism. They murdered thousands of Jews and Gypsies." [1]


The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum says:
"Due to differing views and lack of documentation, estimates for the number of Serbian victims in Croatia range widely, from 25,000 to more than one million. The estimated number of Serbs killed in Jasenovac ranges from 25,000 to 700,000. The most reliable figures place the number of Serbs killed by the Ustaša between 330,000 and 390,000, with 45,000 to 52,000 Serbs murdered in Jasenovac." [2]

Concentration camps
Danica
Djakovo (around 3,000)
Gospic
Jadovno (around 35,000)
Jasenovac I-IV (around 500,000)
Stara Gradiska (Jasenovac V)
Jastrebarsko (1018) - children's concentration camp
Kerestinac
Kruscica
Lepoglava (around 1,000)
Loborgrad
Pag (around 8,500)
Tenja

History
After the Kingdom of Yugoslavia banned all national parties in January 1929, the Croatian Party of Rights' militant wing founded the Ustaše movement. Its leaders were Ante Pavelić and Gustav Perčec, but Perčec was later assassinated by Pavelić in 1933.


Ante Pavelić
The origin of their name is in the noun "ustaš" which means "insurgent". Their name didn't have fascist connotations during their early years in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as it was used throughout Hercegovina to denote (Serb Orthodox) insurgents from the 1875 Hercegovinian rebellion. Later, the name would become acquire its pejorative connotation, particularly among the Hercegovinian Serbs who would be hardest hit by the atrocities.


They came into power when the Axis invaded Yugoslavia. A group of several hundred Ustašas, led by Pavelić himself, infiltrated from Italy and with the help of the foreign armies installed their regime on April 14th 1941. Pavelić was named the head of state, poglavnik (führer).


The Ustaše named their rogue state the "Independent State of Croatia", capitalizing on the Croat people's desire for independence which had been unfulfilled since 1102, and endangered by the Yugoslav royal dictatorship of the last decade and a half. It encompassed today's Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and parts of Serbia (Srem and Sandžak regions). Vladko Maček, the leader of the Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS) which was the most influential party at the time, was placed under house arrest despite having supported Pavelic initially. All who opposed the Ustaše were outlawed, although cooperation between the HSS and the Ustaše is claimed to have lasted well into the war.


As early as June, 1941, rebels started to organize in response to Ustaša atrocities. There were two factions among them: the Partizans, who were guerilla composed of all nations with a common cause to fight the fascists and were mostly led by communists, and Chetniks who were Serb royalist rebels that opposed the Ustašas. The first partisan armed unit was formed on June 22nd in Brezovica near Sisak, and the partisans first engaged in combat on June 27th in Srb in Lika.


Eventually the Red Army and partisans liberated all of Yugoslavia and Ustaše were utterly defeated as well. After the World War II, the remaining Ustaše went underground or fled to foreign countries. All attempts to try to continue the fight for Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia were spoiled by Yugoslav intelligence agencies.


Symbols
Symbol of Ustaše is a wide capital letter U with pronounced serif. This symbol could easily be spraypainted.


Their hat insignia was the shield of Croatian coat of arms surrounded or embossed with the U.


The Ustaše variant of Nazi greeting "Sieg - Heil" is "Za dom - Spremni":
Greeting: Za dom! For home(land)!
Reply: Spremni! (We are) ready!

The flag of the Independent State of Croatia was a red-blue-white horizontal tricolour with the shield of Croatian coat of arms in the middle and the U in upper left. Its money was the kuna.


Ideology
The Ustaše embraced the Nazi ideology of the time. They aimed at an ethnically "pure" Croatia, and saw their biggest obstacle as the Serbs that lived in Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina. Thus, Ustaše ministers Mile Budak, Mirko Puk and Milovan Zanic declared in May 1941 that goal of


Ustaše is:
One third of the Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia (ISC) to be catholicised


One third of the Serbs to be expelled out of ISC


One third of the Serbs in the ISC to be liquidated


A small problem with Nazi ideology was that the Croats are Slavs, and thus themselves "inferior" by Nazi standards. The Croats thus created a theory about a pseudo-Gothic origin of the Croats in order to raise their standing on the Aryan ladder.


Jews and Serbs who were family members of Ustaše leadership were granted titles of "honorary Aryans". It is known that Ustaše of lesser rank proved their loyalty by killing their Serb wives and children.


Ustaše held that Slavic Muslims are Muslim Croats. Unlike Orthodox Serbs, Muslims were not persecuted by them and some joined in the Ustaše forces and their grim atrocities (see SS Hanjar and SS Kama). The state even transferred a former museum in Zagreb to be used as mosque.
On other subjects, Ustaše were against industrialisation and democracy.

Basic principles
1. The Croatian nation is an independent ethnic and national unit, a nation by itself, and that sense it is not identical with any other nation nor it is a part or a tribe of any other nation.
2. The Croatian nation has its original and historical name, CROAT, under which it came 1300 years ago to its present territory, and under which it lives today. That name cannot and must not be replaced by any other name.
3. The Croatian nation made its present country its homeland already in ancient times, inhabiting it permanently, becoming one with it and giving it the original and natural name CROATIA. That name cannot and must not be replaced by any other name.
4. The land which was occupied in ancient times by the Croatian people, and which became their Croatian homeland, extends over several provinces, many of which had their names even before the arrival of the Croats and some of which were given their names later, but all of them constitute one single Croatian homeland, and therefore nobody has the right to claim for himself any of those provinces.
5. The Croatian people came to their homeland of Croatia as a completely free nation in the time of the Great Migrations, by their own will, thus conquering that land and making it their own forever.
6. The Croatian nation was completely organized when it came to its Croatian homeland, not only in a military sense but also in a familial sense, so that it immediately founded its own state with all of the attributes of statehood.
7. The state of Croatia was already formed when many other nations lived in complete chaos. The Croatian nation preserved its state through the centuries until the end of the World War, and never abandoned it, not by any act or by any legal resolution, nor did it give away its rights to anyone else, but at the end of the World War foreign forces prevented the Croatian people from exercising their sovereign right to form their own CROATIAN STATE.
8. The Croatian nation has the right to revive its sovereign authority in its own Croatian State in its entire national and historical area, that is to say to reconstitute a complete, sovereign and independent Croatian state. This reconstitution may be accomplished by any means, including force of arms.
9. The Croatian nation has the right of happiness and prosperity, and every single Croat has that right as a part of the Croatian nation. Happiness and prosperity can be revived and fulfilled for the nation in general and for individuals as members of the nation only in a complete, sovereign and independent Croatian state which must not and cannot be a component of any other state or any creation of a foreign power.
10. The Croatian nation is sovereign, therefore only it has the right to rule an independent state of Croatia and to manage all state and national affairs.
11. In the Croatian state and in the national affairs of a sovereign and independent state of Croatia no one can make decisions who is not by origin and by blood a member of Croatian nation, and in the same way no other nation or state can decide the destiny of the Croatian people and the Croatian state.
12. The Croatian nation belongs to western culture and to western civilization.
13. The peasantry is not only the foundation and source of life, but it alone constitutes the Croatian nation, and as such it is bearer and agent of all state authority in Croatian state.
14. All classes of the Croatian people constitute one unified whole, defined by their Croatian blood, who can trace back their origins and who maintain a permanent familial connection with the village and the land. In ninety-nine out of a hundred cases someone in Croatia who does not originate from a peasant family is not a Croat at all, but a foreign immigrant.
15. The material and moral wealth of the Croatian state is the property of the people, therefore the people are the only ones authorized to possess and to use it.
16. The essence of the moral strength of the Croatian people is found in an orderly and religious family life; its economic strength is in agriculture, communal life and the natural wealth of the Croatian land; its defensive strength is in its valor, and its educational and cultural progress is based on a natural genius and proven ability in the fields of science and learning. Craftsmanship is the helping hand of the entire peasant economy.
17. Balanced breeding, the promotion and perfection of these virtues and branches of national life is the goal of all public welfare and of state authority as such, because they have guaranteed survival for centuries of existence and will guarantee the prosperity of future generations of the Croatian nation and existence of that security in the independent Croatian state.

Connections with the Catholic Church
Ever since the Great Schism of 1054, the Catholic Church regarded all Catholic Croats and Serbs as Croats and all Orthodox as Serbs and tried to catholicise as many Orthodox believers as possible, either by forcible baptisms or by heading (or forcing) them into Union or Uniatism. (This part is particularly disputed.)


In the 20th century, when most south Slavs became united in Yugoslavia, Pope Benedict XV supported the creation of separate states for the Catholic Croats and Slovenes.


Ustaše held the Orthodox faith as their greatest foe, in fact, they never once recognized the existence of a Serb people on the territories of Croatia or Bosnia (they only recognized Croats of the Eastern faith). Catholic priests among the Ustaše were carrying out forced conversions of Serbs to Catholicism throughout Croatia.


Some priests, mostly Franciscans, particularly in but not limited to Herzegovina and Bosnia, took part in the atrocities themselves; Miroslav Filipović is most prominent of them. (See the list of incriminated Croat Catholic Ustashi clergy.) Some Franciscan monasteries were used as Ustaše bases. (This part is particularly disputed.)


At the same time the Muslims were not looked upon at all negatively, even though they weren't Christians at all.


For the whole duration of the war, the Vatican kept up full diplomatic relations with the Ustaša state, had its papal nuncio in the capital Zagreb and was even briefed on the efforts of conversions. The pogroms were never condemned by the Catholic church. (This part is particularly disputed.)


After the Second World War was over, the Vatican saved the remaining Ustaše by smuggling them to South America through rat lines. This operation was directed by Catholic priest Krunoslav Draganović, Petranović and Dominik Mandić of the Illyrian College of San Girolamo in Rome which to this very day marks April 10th, the birthday of the Ustaša state. Even Pavelić himself spent most of his days peacefully in Argentina, before being hunted down by a Serbian royalist (Chetnik) who wounded him in [Argentina]. He died in Spain in 1959.


It is also claimed that the Ustaša regime had kept 350 million Swiss Francs in gold which it had plundered from Serbian and Jewish property during WW II. About 150 million was seized kept by the British troops however the remaining 200 million reached the Vatican and is allegedly still being kept in the Vatican Bank. The issue was the theme of a class action lawsuit in a California court of law which declined the case claiming a lack of jurisdiction, although some point to pressures from the Vatican. (See .)


In 1998 Pope John Paul II beatified Alojzije Stepinac, Archbishop of Zagreb during the Second World War. Stepinac is accused of supporting the Ustaše, organising Ustaše military clergy and exonerating it of complicity in war crimes and atrocities. (This part is particularly disputed.)


On June 22, 2003, John Paul II visited Banja Luka. During the visit he held a mass at Petrićevac monastery and proclaimed beatification of Catholic priest Ivan Merz, the founder of the Croatian Eagles, Ustaše version of Hitlerjugend. (This part is particularly disputed.)


This caused public uproar as on February 6, 1942, in Petrićevac, Ustaše led by Catholic priest Tomislav Filipović brutally massacred 2730 Serbs including 500 children. The same Filipović later became Chief Guard of Jasenovac concentration camp where he was nicknamed "Fra Satan".


Neo-Ustašism
In the 1990s, modern independent Croatia was formed and Croats and Serbs again waged war. There was no official connection between the Ustaše ideology and the new government that made the country independent of Yugoslavia. President Tuđman had controversial views on the topic, claiming that the Ustaša state was indeed an expression of Croat state tradition. (This part is particularly disputed.)


Some Ustaša emigrants freely returned to Croatia. Some factions wished to restore the Ustaše ideology and iconography, and even though they weren't successful, they were never banned by the government. During the war, these committed war crimes against the Serb population on several occasions.


The term neo-Ustaše itself is an external designation; those in question referred to themselves simply as Ustaše, as in the 1940s.


The right-wing parties often attracted votes by promoting extreme nationalism. A singer by the name of Miso Kovac, who rose to prominence as an evergreen singer of the 1970s once sported an exact replica of an Ustaša uniform during a concert. Pop/folk singer Marko Perković-Thompson sings borderline fascist lyrics, is not afraid to display his Ustaša sentiment. Supported by the right-wing politicians, his concerts attracted support from tens of thousands of people based on this sentiment.


The exodus of Serbs from Croatia following the 1995 offensive Storm in the Krajina was greeted and in part perpetrated by the neo-Ustaše as if the plan from 1941 was finally getting fully implemented.

The neo-Ustaše, however, didn't and don't have grass roots support among the Croatian people. The right-most parties like the Croatian Party of Rights are most commonly associated with Ustašism and they have support of a few percent of the population. (This part is particularly disputed.)


Dinko Šakić, one of the commanders of the Jasenovac concentration camp, was tried in 1999 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Croatia has been cooperating with the ICTY in the legal prosecution of all war criminals. The government is also making an effort to return all refugees to their homes. (This part is particularly disputed.)


Bibliography
Aarons, Mark and Loftus, John. Unholy Trinity: How the Vatican's Nazi Networks Betrayed Western Intelligence to the Soviets. New York: St.Martin's Press, 1992. 372 pages.
Paris, Edmond. "Genocide in Satellite Croatia 1941- 1945". (First print: 1961, Second: 1962), The American Institute for Balkan Affairs, 1990.
Manhattan, Avro. "The Vatican's Holocaust". Ozark Books, 1986.

External links
The Pavelic Papers: "An independent project researching the history of the Ustase movement"
Atlas Ustasha Genocide of the Serbs
About connections with Vatican
Vatican Bank Claims
Time Magazine on Ustasa Gold in Vatican Bank
Vatican and Ustasa links
The Vatican's Holocaust by Avro Manhattan
The Fate of the Ustasha Wartime treasury (official US Gov't report)




New Nations From Old Ones


Chapter 1

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

NEW NATIONS FROM OLD ONES



When in 1917, during the First World War, the Papal Nuncio in Munich, E. Pacelli, secretly negotiated with the Central Powers to accomplish the Pope's Peace without Victory, in order to save both Germany and Austria-Hungary from defeat, he had already made his first attempt to strangle a nation as yet unborn; Yugoslavia. If the Vatican's attempt was directed at preserving its most useful Hapsburg lay partner, it simultaneously had another no less important goal: to prevent a motley of nationalities from springing out of the Empire's ruins as sovereign States in their own right. In such States, Poland excepted, Catholicism would have sunk to the level of a minority. Worse, it would have been dominated by heretical churches and their political Allies: i.e. by the Protestant and Liberal in Czechoslovakia, by the Orthodox in Yugoslavia. With its last attempt to save the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Vatican therefore struck a final blow against the yet unborn "Hussite" Czechs and the Catholic Slovaks on one side, and the Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats and Slovenes on the other, the fulfillment of their dreams lying as it did in the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian colossus.

The Emperor Charles was advised to transform the Empire into a Federation. The idea, which originated at the Vatican, was repellent to both, as it meant, besides the loosening of Imperial control, the loosening of Catholic control over the various races of the tottering Empire. But in the circumstances the alternative was total collapse. In October Charles announced the transformation of the Hapsburg Monarchy into a Federal State. The offer—which, significantly, was made only at the last moment—although accompanied by secret papal moves, left the Allies determined to end for good the rule of the double-headed Austrian eagle. President Wilson's reply to Charles, and thus to the Pope, was firmly hostile. The USA, said Wilson, admitted "the justice of the national aspirations of the Southern Slavs." It was for these people, he added, to decide what they would accept.

As far as the USA was concerned, he concluded, it had already recognized Czechoslovakia as a belligerent independent State. The American reply had sealed the fate of Austria-Hungary. On October 28, 1918, the Czechoslovaks declared their independence. On the 29th the Yugoslavs proclaimed theirs. On December 1 the Yugoslav Council invited the Regent, Alexander, in Belgrade, to proclaim the Union. The new independent kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes—Yugoslavia—had come into being.

The birth was welcomed in certain quarters—e.g. by the Allies—and was unwelcome in others—e.g. the Vatican—to which the new nation, besides being the unnatural creature of the Allies' political blindness, was a religious aberration not to be tolerated. Orthodoxy, swept away in Russia, where it had seemed unassailable, with the birth of Yugoslavia had now become paramount in a country the population of which was more than one-third Catholic. Worse still, in addition to permitting Orthodoxy to rule Catholics, Yugoslavia was preventing the latter from setting up a wholly independent Catholic community. When to the above was added the fact that Yugoslavia, by her mere existence, represented the greatest obstacle to the long-range Catholic strategy, the Vatican's feeling, more than one of hostility, become one of implacable hatred, a wind which boded no good to the young nation. This hatred became the main inspirer of the Vatican's anti-Yugoslav strategy, the objective of which was the destruction of Yugoslavia. Having embarked on such a course, the Vatican began a vigorous campaign, the fulfillment of which to some extent depended on another factor: the collapse of Bolshevik Russia, the early disappearance of which was, at that period, taken almost for granted by everyone, particularly by the Allies, who had dispatched sundry armies to hasten her collapse. The Vatican counted, then, on a Russian collapse in order to execute its policy of a forced Catholic domination of the Balkan peninsula through the sword of Pilsudski. The creation of the Catholic Danzig-Odessa Polish Empire would have meant one thing: the death of Yugoslavia and other Balkan Orthodox and Protestant countries. When, however, Pilsudski's bloody adventure terminated and the Allies' efforts to destroy Bolshevik Russia relaxed, the Vatican changed its tactics and embarked on a new policy: destruction of Orthodoxy by penetration, instead of by force. Consequently, when in 1920 Pilsudski's Catholic Empire vanished, and the Pope set out to convert Russia, a parallel policy was pursued in connection with Yugoslavia. Although the keynote of this new anti-Orthodox strategy was penetration, its tactics were different in each country. Thus, whereas in Russia they were meant to penetrate in order, in the long run, to dominate her religious life, in Yugoslavia they consisted of penetrating Yugoslav political life in order, once Catholics had come to control it, to enhance the power of Catholicism, and thus ultimately stultify, and indeed paralyze, the Orthodox Church throughout Yugoslavia.

Such a policy, vigorously promoted, mostly by ambitious, clerically-dominated Catholic politicians in Croatia, yielded no little success. In no time Catholic clericalism became a power behind the scenes, with the result that, within a few years, the Hierarchy began to exert undue weight in the administration, not only of Croat affairs, but also of those of Yugoslavia as a whole. This alarmed several honest Catholic Croats, notably Radich, leader of the powerful Croat Peasant Party, aware of the danger that such tactics were creating both for Yugoslavia and for Croats. Defying the Hierarchy—and thus indirectly the Vatican—he began to combat the Catholic Trojan-horse tactics, warning Croatia that, by permitting their politicians to be led by the Hierarchy in political matters, they were bound, sooner or later, to lead all Croats to disaster. Radich's counsel was followed; and for almost a decade Catholic strategy, weakened where it should have been at its strongest, was far less successful than if Radich had acted otherwise.

But in 1928 Radich was assassinated. The assassination coincided with the general overhaul of Vatican European strategy towards Communism. In that same year the Curia finally broke off its negotiations with Soviet Russia. The Papal Nuncio in Germany, E. Pacelli, led the powerful Catholic Centre Party sharply to the extreme Right, thus allying it with the forces which were to sky-rocket Hitler to power. In Italy the Vatican strengthened Fascism by signing a pact with Mussolini (1929). Fascist Catholic movements rose everywhere. An era of Catholic policy had ended, and a new one had begun. The policy of penetration had been replaced by one of active agitation and the swift mobilization of all the religious and political forces of Europe against



Strip of photographs from the Album of Terrorists, maintained by the Yugoslav Secret Police, as early as 1933. Bottom row, first left, Ante Pavelic, the future Leader of the Independent Catholic State of Croatia. Prior to the latter's establishment, all the men above, as sworn Ustashi were engaged upon the promotion of a policy of terrorism, within and outside Yugoslavia. This they did by murdering singly or collectively, political enemies or innocent people alike. They placed explosives in public places, ships or trains. For instance, a train compartment was blown up by an Ustashi bomb at Zemum, killing the family of Professor Bruneti.

Before the Second World War these men were active all over Europe. Their most spectacular success was the simultaneous assassination of the King of Yugoslavia and of Mr. Barthou, the French Foreign Minister, during a State visit to France, 9 October 1934. The double murder was the forerunner of a series of many others which were to contribute to the birth of the Independent Catholic State of Croatia.

The Ustashi and Ante Pavelic were "protected" by Mussolini, and tacitly but effectively by the Vatican. Both supported them financially.


Bolshevik Russia. Thus, while in the West the Vatican had launched upon a global hate campaign against Communism, in the Balkans, after Radich's death, it embarked upon a policy directed at the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

Radich's successor, Dr. Macek, reorientated the Croatian Peasant Party into a rabid nationalist movement which, by becoming increasingly bold, became an active factor for the growing political tension inside Yugoslavia. From this period onward, Separatism became the keyword of Croat Nationalism, with the result that the latter began increasingly to play into the hands of the Catholic Hierarchy and thus into those of the Vatican. The Vatican's policy in the first decade implied Yugoslavia's existence as a united nation; in the second—i.e. since the emergence of a naked Separatism—it overtly aimed at Yugoslavia disintegration. In the promotion of the Vatican's new grand strategy, Yugoslavia was reckoned a major obstacle even more than in the past, in that now it was impeding the swift Fascistization of Europe and the eventual Fascist attack on Soviet Russia, with all the ensuing Balkan commotion which, it was hoped, would cause the tumbling of Yugoslavia itself. In connection with the latter, the Vatican laid down a three-fold policy:

(a) The detachment of Catholic Croatia from the rule of Orthodox Serbia,
(b) the setting up of Croatia as an independent Catholic State, and, last but not least,
(c) the possible creation of a Catholic Kingdom in the Balkans.
For such goals to be attained, one thing was necessary: the partial or total disintegration of Yugoslavia.

To assert that Yugoslavia succumbed thanks only to Vatican machinations would be to falsify history. On the other hand, to minimize its role would be a crude historical distortion. Factors alien to religion played into its hands. These could be summarized as: the animosities of the Croats and the Serbs in the domestic field, the political ambitions of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in the international. Croat Separatism became an increasingly important factor as the internal and external tension grew. Its identification with Catholicism made it almost a blind tool of the Catholic Hierarchy, and thus of the Vatican, which unhesitatingly used it to further not only its local interests, but also its vaster Balkan schemes of religio-political domination.



Typical portraits of Ustashi leaders. Men like the above were the brains behind the numberless acts of terrorism carried out by the Ustashi in Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungary, Germany, France and in other countries, chiefly from their headquarters in Fascist Italy.

(Left) Mijo Bzik, known as "Miko," was chief of the Ustashi camps in Italy, and the recruiter of the assassins who came from Yanka-Pusta. One of his main tasks was the placing of internal machines in public buildings, or crowded places.

(Centre) Eugen Kvaternik, one of Ante Pavelic's principal accomplices. He personally accompanied from Italy to France, the assassins, who went to murder the King of Yugoslavia. Pavelic created him Minister of Police when Catholic Croatia became independent.

(Right) Zvonimir Pospishil, one of the most brutal of terrorists. He belonged to a special group of Catholic Ustashi charged with the assassination of eminent personalities. He was given the task of killing King Alexander, by blowing him up in Paris had the Marseille plot failed in 1934.


The Croat leader, Radich, never tired of warning the Croats against following the Vatican in political matters; in this he echoed the voice of another great Catholic patriot, the leader of the Polish Nationalists, Roman Dmowski, whose slogan became a by-word of certain Catholic Polish Nationalists: "Never rely upon the Vatican in political affairs."

Hostility to Vatican political directives by Catholic political leaders was born out of bitter experience: e.g. during the First World War, when Roman Dmowski, having gone to Rome to ask for help to establish Polish independence, was greeted with open disfavour, such Vatican hostility being inspired by political interests identified with those of Austria and other great European Powers who had worked against Polish aspirations for centuries. The extraordinary result of this was that the Poles never got any support from the Vatican, even when they rose against the Czars—an attitude which incensed them to such a degree that one of their great national poets, Julius Slowacki, coined the famous warning: "Poland, thy doom comes from Rome." Which subsequent events proved was more than prophetic.

Radich adopted the same slogan, although with more tact. When, however, his Party was taken over by Macek, the original ideal of Ante Starcevic was swiftly injected with a new overdose of undiluted extremism, which made it turn sharply to the extreme Right. The main exponent of this new trend was one Ante Pavelic, an individual obsessed by the idea of an independent Croatia, inspired by racialism, erected upon Fascism, wholly impregnated with Catholicism, a formidably compact miniature totalitarianism. A movement sprang out of this weird conception; its backbone a ruthless core of terrorist bands, led by Pavelic himself, whose policy consisted of blackmail, murder, plots, and assassinations. The shadow of powerful protectors from across the sea descended swiftly upon them, thus enabling them to carry on their activities in defiance of national or international procedure—e.g. from Italy and Germany, both of whom saw in Pavelic's Croatia a useful instrument for Fascist and Nazi expansion in the Balkans.

The expansionist policies of these nations often ran parallel with that of the Vatican, which, by skillfully manipulating them, could frequently promote its own interests. It did that, not by remaining only an aloof spectator of various Fascist and Nazi activities, but by promoting a most vigorous anti-Yugoslav policy of its own.



The Vatican and Fascism helped each other from the beginning. Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) ordered the Leader of the Catholic Party to disband it (1926), the better to consolidate the regime of Mussolini. The latter negotiated the Lateran Treaty and Concordat with the Church (1926-1929).

By virtue of the first, the Vatican became a sovereign state within Rome. While with the second, the Church was granted immense privileges and Catholicism was declared the only religion of Fascist Italy, which it wholeheartedly supported.

Bishops took an oath of allegiance to the Fascist Dictatorship, and the clergy were ordered never to oppose it or incite their flock to harm it. Prayers were said in Churches for Mussolini and for Fascism. Priests became members of the Fascist Party and were even its officers.

One of the main supporters of the Fascist-Vatican pact was Mgr. E. Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII), then in Germany. His brother, a lawyer, became one of the chief secret negotiators. He is seen in this photograph standing behind Cardinal ...... Later, the Papal Nuncio to Germany, Mgr. E. Pacelli saw to it that his brother was made a Prince.


This yielded a rich harvest sooner than was expected. While the Vatican's Fascist associates were busy engineering political or terrorist activities, Catholic diplomacy—as previously in Spain, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, and France—came to the fore with the promotion of a powerful Catholic fifth column. This, which had already gnawed at the internal structure of Yugoslav unity, consisted of all those Croats infected with national-religious fanaticism, of the Catholic Hierarchy of Croatia, and of an illegal Nationalist Army composed of bands of Catholic terrorists, called the Ustashi, the last led by Ante Pavelic, supported by Vladimir Macek, leader of the Croat Peasant Party, who in 1939 arranged for Mussolini to finance him with 20 million diners for the Croat Separatist Movement, and by [1] Archbishop A. Stepinac, leader of the Catholic Hierarchy in Croatia.

The specific role played by the Vatican followed the familiar pattern: use of the Hierarchy to help political and military plotters engaged in undermining or overthrowing the legal Government. Unlike its practice in other countries, however—e.g. Petain's France or Franco's Spain—here the Catholic Church attempted to erect, and indeed did erect, a State in complete accord with all her tenets. The result was a monster standing upon the armed might of twin totalitarianism: the totalitarianism of a ruthless Fascist State and the totalitarianism of Catholicism—the most bloodthirsty hybrid yet produced by contemporary society. What gives to such a creature of Vatican diplomacy its peculiar importance is that here we have an example of the Catholic Church's implementing all her principles, unhampered by opposition, or by fear of world opinion. The uniqueness of the Independent Catholic State of Croatia lies precisely in this: that it provided a model, in miniature, of what the Catholic Church, had she the power, would like to see in the West and, indeed, everywhere. As such it should be carefully scrutinized. For its significance, by transcending its local background, is of the greatest import to all the freedom-loving peoples of the world.


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

Footnotes

1 See The Ciano Diaries, 1946, pp. 46,48,50-60. [Back]


The Vatican's Holocaust
The sensational account of the most horrifying religious massacre of the 20th century

By Avro Manhattan



There shall not be left one stone upon another...



Mark 13


1And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!

2And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

3And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,

4Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?

5And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you:

6For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

7And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.

8For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

9But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.

10And the gospel must first be published among all nations.

11But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.

12Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.

13And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

14But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:

15And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein, to take any thing out of his house:

16And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment.

17But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

18And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter.

19For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.

20And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.

21And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not:

22For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.

23But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.

24But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,

25And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

26And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.

27And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

28Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near:

29So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors.

30Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.

31Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

32But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

33Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.

34For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.

35Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:

36Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.

37And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

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

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

‘Jonah,’ an Adventist, Appears at Pentagon Prayer Breakfast


Jonah,’ an Adventist, Appears at Pentagon Prayer Breakfast

Dick Stenbakken’s ‘characters’ a hit in nation’s capital

A retired Seventh-day Adventist pastor is making a big impression in Washington, D.C. -- and he’s doing it ‘undercover.’

Former U.S. Army chaplain, Christian author, and much-in-demand presenter, Dr. Dick Stenbakken, spoke at the Pentagon Prayer Breakfast on December 3. Well-known for his gripping presentations of biblical characters, Stenbakken once again spoke to a packed house. This time, he portrayed the biblical character of Jonah.

Stenbakken also presented at the U.S. Senate Bible Study Luncheon this Friday, Dec. 5. Other past presenters for the U.S. Senate Bible Study Luncheon include well-known Christians, such as Rick Warren. This will be the fourth time Stenbakken has presented at this event.

Stenbakken is a frequent speaker at conventions, hospitals, youth rallies, and colleges, because of his compelling, first-person portrayals of Bible characters that bring the ancient stories to life and into modern-day context. He has been a guest on the Trinity Broadcast Network as well as Adventist-owned Hope TV. In addition, he has performed at the Army Chief of Chaplains Senior Leadership Conference and the National Association of Evangelicals Chaplains’ Conference, as well as for other events around the globe.

Stenbakken, who has a doctorate and five master’s degrees, spends hours researching each character he portrays, right down to the clothing they would have worn. His performances are described as one of kind.

Dr. Barry C. Black, U.S. Senate chaplain, says, “Dick Stenbakken has presented his powerful first-person biblical characters multiple times at our Friday U. S. Senate Bible Study events. He has been richly received with rave reviews from those attending.”

Stenbakken, who personalizes each Bible character he portrays, says, “How many people have ever wondered what it would be like to meet Moses or have lunch with Jonah? I know I have, and I want people to see these characters as real people, who lived and breathed.”

Stenbakken also has his first book coming out this spring, based on one of the characters he portrays. The book, The Centurion, is being published with Pacific Press, based in Nampa, Idaho.

A sample of Stenbakken’s performances can be viewed on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8if2ezDDCk.

-- reported by Nicole Batten with AR staff.



Source: http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=2297

P.S. undercover?....................Arsenio.


Correcting Samuele Bacchiocchi's Newsleters on 666



Correcting Samuele Bacchiocchi's Newsletters on 666.
Correcting Samuele Bacchiocchi'sENDTIME ISSUES NEWSLETTER No. 139



In newsletter 139, Dr. Bacchiocchi makes the following assertion:
... "it has been wise for our Adventist church to abandon the traditional numeric interpretation of VICARIUS FILII DEI which lacks both exegetical and historical support."


The Exegetical Support


Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Note that this "name of blasphemy" is associated with the heads of the sea beast. The word translated "name" in that verse is onoma:
G3686. onoma, on'-om-ah; from a presumed der. of the base of G1097 (comp. G3685); a "name" (lit. or fig.) [authority, character]:--called, (+ sur-) name (-d).


The same word is translated "name" in the following verse:
Rev 13:6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
This "name of blasphemy" of the sea beast is again mentioned in the following verses


Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
So the blasphemous name of the beast from the sea equals 666. A key piece in this mystery is the next verse:
Rev 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.


The same Greek word is used in that verse for "name". Note that it refers to a Title of Jesus. So Revelation 13:1, 6, 17 and 18 can refer to a blasphemous title assumed by the heads of the sea beast.

The same wisdom that unlocks the name/number of the sea beast is mentioned in Revelation 17:
Rev 17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.


That points us directly to the woman (church) seated in Rome, the Roman Catholic Church.


So, now let's let scripture tell us a definition of blasphemy:


John 10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

John 10:32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?

John 10:33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.


VICARIVS FILII DEI (Taking the place of the Son of God) is a blasphemous title that has a long history in Roman Catholic documents (whether it ever appeared on a tiara or not), and it does equal 666 when the Roman numeral value of the letters are added up.


See http://biblelight.net/666.htm for the historical documentation.
It is also worth noting that Roman Catholics, while denying any "official" standing for VICARIVS FILII DEI, will readily admit that the synonymous VICARIVS CHRISTI is the proper and official papal title (it does not add up to 666). Well, let's notice this next verse:
Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.


So there are many blasphemous titles assumed by the sea beast, not just the one that adds up to 666. Well, another perfectly valid way of saying VICARIVS CHRISTI is ANTICHRIST, both of which mean "Taking the place of Christ".


So, there is both historical and biblical exegetical support for blasphemous papal titles being the name associated with the sea beast in Revelation 13.


I have corresponded via email with Dr. Bacchiocchi, and asked him to show me any flaw in the above page, and he flatly refuses to do so. He responds with ad hominem. All he wants to do is sell me his material, saying I obviously do not wish to learn if I do not immediately order his study, that I am "afraid of being enlightened", if I do not send him money for his pearls of wisdom. He is obviously running a business, and that is his priority.



Noted Sabbath Scholar Samuele Bacchiocchi Dies


Noted Sabbath Scholar Samuele Bacchiocchi Dies

Retired Andrews Theology Professor Had Global Influence

BY MARK A. KELLNER, News Editor

Samuele Bacchiocchi, a retired theology professor at Andrews University and one of the world’s leading proponents of the seventh-day Sabbath, died December 20, the Sabbath, following a two-year battle with cancer. He was 70 years of age and resided in Berrien Springs, Michigan.

“Sam was best-known for his scholarship on the seventh-day Sabbath. He was a prolific writer, a tireless preacher, and appreciated as an energetic and passionate teacher. I’m going to miss my long-time friend and colleague,” said Keith Mattingly, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who worked alongside Bacchiocchi in the Andrews University Department of Religion and Biblical Languages.

Bacchiocchi, who spent 26 years teaching at the Seventh-day Adventist-owned university and more than 30 years lecturing worldwide about the Sabbath and its significance, was the first Protestant to attend and graduate from the doctoral program at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy. It was at the “Gregoriana,” as it is known in Italian, that his studies in church history led to the publication of From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity, the English version of his doctoral thesis. The doctoral dissertation received a grade that merited his graduation “summa cum laude,” and Bacchiocchi received a gold medal for academic achievement donated by Pope Paul VI. Both were high honors, particularly for a non-Roman Catholic student at the Jesuit-run university.

SAMUELE BACCHIOCCHI



The book has been in print for more than 30 years and is widely recognized as a seminal text on the subject, even by those who disagree with his conclusions. For example, Cambridge University scholar R.J. Bauckham, in “From Sabbath to Lord's Day: A Biblical, Historical and Theological Investigation” (D.A. Carson, ed.; Wipf & Stock, 2000), said that while “a number of scholars have in the past argued that Christian Sunday observance originated in the second century[,] the most recent and fullest version of this thesis is that of S[amuele] Bacchiocchi.”

In the 1970s, Bacchiocchi was featured on “It Is Written,” a weekly television program sponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in which his thesis was noted. This led to numerous invitations to speak, and for the following two decades, Bacchiocci would spend many weekends on the road traveling to Adventist churches and other settings to present messages about the Sabbath, its biblical roots and continuing significance. His influence spread in the age of the Internet, reaching out to members of the Worldwide Church of God, a distant off-shoot of the nineteenth century Millerite movement, which had abandoned its own Sabbatarian tradition in the 1990s.

Samuele Bacchiocchi was born on January 29, 1938, in Rome: “I was born in a godly Catholic family that lived close to the Vatican wall,” he wrote in an issue of his monthly newsletter, “Endtime Issues.”

He added, “My parents attended Sunday Mass regularly and recited the rosary faithfully every night. This continued until my father was introduced for the first time to the study of the Bible by a fellow carpenter who belonged to the Waldensian Church.”

Eventually, the Bacchiocchis were convinced that the Sabbath was a creation ordinance and at first worshipped privately on the seventh day at home, until connecting with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Samuele Bacchiocchi earned a bachelor’s degree at Adventist-owned Newbold College near London, and then earned a master’s in theology at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University.

From there, he and his wife Anna went to Ethiopia. For five years, Bacchiocchi served as a Bible and history teacher at an Adventist school there. He then went on to graduate studies at the Grigoriana, after which he was invited to join the Andrews faculty.

Bacchiocchi wrote or edited 17 different books, many of which expanded on his Sabbath theme. His seminar schedule was somewhat curtailed during his illness, although, his family said in a statement, his life was that of “a man who sacrificed practically all of his time and energy to help others understand the Bible more fully, even up to end as he gave his last seminar in England the Sabbath before being taken to the emergency room.”

The family statement noted, “We believe that it is fitting that God chose the Sabbath day, the day that he loved most and spent his life preaching and writing about, to be the day that he entered into his final earthly rest.”

“Dr. Bacchiocchi’s reputation as a theological and biblical scholar is widely respected within Adventist circles and beyond. His family continues to have a significant impact on our campus and in our community. He will be very much missed by his colleagues and friends in the Andrews University community,” said Heather Knight, provost of Andrews University.

A funeral is planned for December 27 at Pioneer Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Church on the campus of Andrews University in Berrien Springs. The family is receiving condolences via e-mail at the addresses of his children Loretta Bacchiocchi, at loretta_bacchiocchi@fhchs.edu , Gianluca Bacchiocchi at bacchiocchi@gmail.com , or Daniel Bacchiocchi at dbacch@sbcglobal.net.


Source: http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=2300
:

Pakistan Sees No Evil


Tuesday, December 30, 2008


Pakistan Sees No Evil


You've got to love the Pakistani government's sense of humor, which is so vividly on display with its official position on Ajmal Amir Kasab, the surviving terrorist involved in the execution of the Mumbai terror assault.
Pakistan has repeatedly denied that Kasab is even a Pakistani, let alone a member of the Inter-Services Intelligence-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba. Even President Asif Ali Zardari, in an interview with the BBC said there is no proof Kasab is a Pakistani. "Have you seen any evidence to that effect. I have definitely not seen any real evidence to that effect," Zardari told the BBC in mid-December.


More than one month after the Mumbai attack, Pakistani National Security Adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani waffles on the issue of Kasab's nationality. "Could be," Durrani said when asked if Kasab was a Pakistani citizen. "I am not saying more than that because we don't have, I hate to say this we don't have proof."


But Pakistan has been given proof of Kasab's nationality. Kasab himself admitted he is from Pakistan and submitted a request for consular access. The request is "under review." Kasab's father and neighbors were interviewed by Pakistani television and news outlets and confirmed he was indeed from Pakistan. His own father identified him and provided a nearly identical account of his son's background as Kasab gave to Indian intelligence. "This is the truth," Kasab's father told a Pakistani news outlet. "I have seen the picture in the newspaper. This is my son Ajmal."
Pakistan's response was to cordon the village, remove Kasab's family from their home and move someone else in, and force the townspeople to retract their statements. That's humor, Pakistani style. But nuclear-armed India doesn’t think it is funny.



Posted by Bill Roggio at

Kenyan government imposes gag order on Obama family

Gagged: Mama Sarah Obama


No media contact: 'We are doing this because we want to ensure better flow of information'


Posted: December 20, 20086:50 pm Eastern© 2008 WorldNetDaily

The Kenyan government has barred unapproved contacts between the media and President-elect Barack Obama's extended family.

Family members will be required to receive permission from the government before making any public statements about their famous relative, according to the Nairobi Star.

"We are doing this because we want to ensure better flow of information," Athman Said, an under-secretary in the Ministry of Heritage, told the Obama family in Kogelo.

"The government has decided that you should inform its officers who will be based here if you want to address the media."

Journalists wishing to speak with the family must first be approved by the government.

Where's the proof Barack Obama was born in the U.S. or that he fulfills the "natural-born American" clause in the Constitution? If you still want to see it, join more than 193,000 others and sign up now!


This is not the first a ttempt to block press interest in President-elect Obama's African connections.

Prior to the U.S. election, WND senior staff reporter Jerome R. Corsi was detained in Kenya while investigating Obama's close ties to the nation's prime minister, Raila Odinga.

The Kenyan official who reportedly orchestrated the detention was Odinga himself, according to WND sources inside Kenya


Corsi, whose recent book, "The Obama Nation," raised questions about the Democrat when he was a candidate for president, had scheduled a news conference in Nairobi to discuss his discoveries during his visit this fall.

However, he was detained by immigration officials and held without food for much of a day until he was escorted onto his already-booked flight leaving Kenya with the sendoff, "See you in hell."
Corsi had earlier seen the flow of information stymied by the Obama campaign itself:
"I was able to interview Obama's uncle, Sayid Obama, the brother of Obama's father, when I was doing the research for 'The Obama Nation,'" Corsi said. "But Auma Obama, Obama's half-sister, declined an interview by telephone, telling me that the Obama campaign had advised the Obama family not to speak with me, either from the United States by phone, or in person in Kenya."

Get the full story about an Obama presidency: "The Obama Nation," by Corsi, at a special $4.95 price!

Two weeks ago, parliament passed the Kenya Communications Amendment Bill, a controversial measure that gives the state power to raid TV stations and newspaper offices, as well as to control broadcast content. The bill awaits the approval or rejection of President Kibaki.
Kenya's press independence was tested in 2006 when armed and masked police officers raided news offices following a series of exposés about official corruption.

While the latest attempt to embargo news about and from the president-elect's African family may anticipate passage of the "media gag" bill, economics, tourism and boosterism are also part of the equation.

Under-secretary Said, who informed the Obamas they were muzzled, announced the Obama Cultural Home project, which will include a museum, a gallery and a leadership center in the family's town of Kogelo. A video featuring Mama Sarah Obama, the president-elect's step-grandmother, will relate the Obamas' family history. Said added that the Ministry of Heritage is negotiating with the U.S. government to display Obama's publications.

The investment in the family's village so far has caused land prices to double in the past several months. Electicity service has been routed to the community and investors are rumored to be planning hotel construction to serve the tourists expected to travel the "Presidential Heritage Tourism Circuit."

The proposed heritage center's siting in Kogelo has not been well received by the entire Obama clan. Some are demanding that the project be built in Kanyadhiang, the ancestral home of Barack Obama's father before the family moved to Kogelo.

Heritage minister William Ole Ntimama confirmed the government's intent to invest in the project.

"This is a great opportunity to open up the western tourism circuit and we have asked Treasury to find us some money so that we can roll out a number of projects that will make this a truly memorable cultural site," Ntimama told the Star.

He took issue, however, with his under-secretary, saying he had not been informed about the press ban.

"It will be surprising if they have done that because it is not right," said Ntimama. "The Obama family should be allowed to say whatever they want to without any bureaucracy."



Source: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=84172

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett: NUCLEAR ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE



Congressman Roscoe Bartlett
NUCLEAR ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE
Congressional Record
US House of Representatives
June 9, 2005
@4:30pm Eastern

[Page: H4340-H4345] GPO's PDF
---


The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Mack). Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett) is recognized for 60 minutes.
Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, the subject that I want to spend a few moments talking about this afternoon really began for our country in 1962. We were still testing nuclear weapons then, and for the first time the United States tested a weapon above the atmosphere. This weapon was detonated over Johnston Island in the Pacific. This was a part of a series of tests called the Fishbowl Series, and this was Operation Starfish in 1962. We had no prior experience with the detonation of a weapon above the atmosphere. We prepared for this test with airplanes and ships using radar and theodelites and instrumentation to measure the effects on the ground from a blast that was some 400 kilometers in altitude.


Please visit site read the whole article:


Air Force Seeks (Non Lethal) City Stopper





Posted by George Hulme, Dec 7, 2008 01:20 PM


While it won't destroy buildings, or directly kill people, it will shut down everything in its path with a power button.

Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) bombs have been written about for quite some time, and are supposed to have been used in a number of conflicts in the past 15 years. These weapons are designed to shut down cities, as well as military communications and weapon systems, not physically destroy them.

Well, only the electrical parts.

The U.S. military already has EMP capabilities, but it looks like, based on this Air Force solicitation published in the past couple of days, that they're about to get more tactical:

Combatant commanders (COCOMS) have expressed desires for additional military options against the variety of electronic systems that are used in military, industrial, civil, and asymmetrical applications. To provide viable military options to the COCOMS, the Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate's High Power Microwave Division (AFRL/RDH) is seeking to develop and demonstrate the capability and operational utility of a high power microwave (HPM) aerial demonstrator.
The objective of this effort is to develop, test, and demonstrate a multishot and multitarget aerial HPM demonstrator that is capable of degrading, damaging, or destroying electronic systems. For this effort, the contractor shall develop a compact HPM payload for integration into an aerial platform. The contractor shall produce five aerial demonstrators. One aerial platform without the HPM source shall be developed for a flight test to demonstrate delivery, controlability, and fusing. The remaining four aerial platforms with the integrated HPM source shall be developed for flight testing, demonstration, and HPM effects tests.


Want to cause mayhem before an invasion, or perhaps get a bright-white surrender flag waving at you before the first physical bullet is fired? Unleashing one of these over a modern city has the potential to shut down TV and radio broadcasting and receiving, car starters, home and office electronic circuitry, network routers, computers, embedded circuitry.

Want to use your cell phone? Forget it. Need an ATM? No cash for you. Dependent on a life-support system? You have a problem.

Sounds like the perfect weapon to use against any modern society. The more dependent that society is on electronics, the better.

Perhaps that's why a number of U.S. commanders believe Iran is working on a similar weapon to be used against the West.

I've got to run to Home Depot now, see if they carry gas-powered generators and have the materials to build one of these around my home.