PROTESTANTISM UNITES WITH THE PAPACY

Protestantism Unites with the Papacy

And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. Rev. 17:12, 13.


As we approach the last crisis, it is of vital moment that harmony and unity exist among the Lord's instrumentalities. The world is filled with storm and war and variance. Yet under one head--the papal power--the people will unite to oppose God in the person of His witnesses. {Mar 187.1}

What is it that gives its kingdom to this power? Protestantism, a power which, while professing to have the temper and spirit of a lamb and to be allied to Heaven, speaks with the voice of a dragon. It is moved by a power from beneath. {Mar 187.2}

"These have one mind." There will be a universal bond of union, one great harmony, a confederacy of Satan's forces. "And shall give their power and strength unto the beast." Thus is manifested the same arbitrary, oppressive power against religious liberty, freedom to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, as was manifested by the papacy, when in the past it persecuted those who dared to refuse to conform with the religious rites and ceremonies of Romanism. {Mar 187.3}

In the warfare to be waged in the last days there will be united, in opposition to God's people, all the corrupt powers that have apostatized from allegiance to the law of Jehovah. In this warfare the Sabbath of the fourth commandment will be the great point at issue; for in the Sabbath commandment the great Lawgiver identifies Himself as the Creator of the heavens and the earth. {Mar 187.4}

Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience. {Mar 187.5}

Marantha, Ellen G. White, page 187.

HUSS & LUTHER BANNED FROM HEAVEN?

John Huss and Martin Luther...
barred from Heaven?
In the left transept of the Chiesa del Gesu, the Jesuit Church of Rome, built during the Catholic Counterreformation of the 16th century, there is a sculpture group I wish to draw your attention to. It is titled "Faith's Triumph over Heresy" by Pierre Le Gros, and is located at the altar built over the tomb (pictured at left) of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.

The statuary in question is to the lower right of the altar, and is a little difficult to see in this picture, but it does show the overall altar. It depicts a woman (Mary?) casting two of the Protestant reformers, Martin Luther and John Huss, out of heaven.

Another photo of the altar.

In this closeup you can see that in her right hand the woman has a lightning bolt, about to be cast at the two heretics, and in her left a cross, which the outcasts are recoiling from in apparent horror.

From the book "The New Illustrated Great Controversy"
Copyright © LLT Productions - Used by Permission

Here is a link to another, and even better photo of this sculpture group - Casting out the heretics.

From the video "Israel of the Alps"
Copyright © 1993 LLT Productions - Used by Permission

At the base of the altar, we see an angel tearing pages out of a book. What book is it? A little history first.
John Huss was a student of John Wycliff, who translated the Bible into English in 1382. Wycliff advocated the right of the common man to read the Bible in his own language. Both Wycliff and Huss believed scripture to supercede the dogmas and ordinances of the church and both declared the Papacy to be the AntiChrist foretold in scripture. John Huss was burned alive* at the stake in 1415 for his "heresy" and rebellion against Catholic authority.
Martin Luther challenged the Traditions of the Roman Catholic Church and coined the phrase Sola Scriptura, meaning the Bible only. In 1517 Luther posted 95 thesis to the door of the church in Wittenburg, challenging the authority of the Papacy and the sale of Indulgences. Martin Luther also declared the Papacy to be "nothing else than the kingdom of Babylon and of very AntiChrist" in his book On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. Luther also translated the Bible into German, so that the German people could read scripture for themselves, in their own language.

So both John Huss and Martin Luther championed the Bible over the Traditions and dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church and declared the Papacy to be the AntiChrist taught clearly by the Bible. So what book is the little angel tearing pages out of? What book did the reformers look to as "the authority" on matters of faith and doctrine, rather than decrees of the church? The answer should be quite clear.

I have information from a credible source, who has visited Loyola's tomb in the Gesu, that it is indeed the Bible that the angel is tearing pages out of, based on the inscription on the back of the book. However, in some reference books, like "The Pilgrim's Guide to Rome's Principal Churches," by Joseph N. Tylenda, the little cherub, called a putto, is described as destroying heretical books.

* The Vatican Information Service (VIS) reported that on Dec 17th, 1999, Pope John Paul II made the following apology regarding the burning at the stake of Hus, while speaking before an international symposium on Jan Hus held at the Vatican:

"Today, on the eve of the Great Jubilee, I feel the need to express deep regret for the cruel death inflicted on Jan Hus and for the consequent wound of conflict and division which was thus imposed on the minds and hearts of the Bohemian people."

Source: http://www.aloha.net/~mikesch/gesu.htm

THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY - MARTIN LUTHER

The Babylonian Captivity surpassed everything which he had written so far against the Roman Church…It was the chief evidence of Luther’s heresy” –Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: His Road to Reformation, 1483-1521

“On Oct 6, 1520, (Luther’s) Babylonian Captivity emerged from the press of Melchior Lotter in Wittenberg – a forty-four page Latin bomb planted in the midst of the delicate machinery of the Catholic sacramental system.

The publication of the Babylonica, as it came to be known in English, shattered any lingering illusions that Luther was a reformer cast in the mold of Erasmus…His tone and radicalism jarred educated Europe.” –Richard Marius, Martin Luther: The Christian Between God and Death

Martin Luther’s manifesto of religious individualism,
one of the central documents of the Protestant Reformation
exceedingly scarce 1520 first.

"God does not deal, nor has he ever dealt, with man otherwise than through a word of promise… We in turn cannot deal with God otherwise than through faith in the Word of his promise. He does not desire works, nor has he need of them…There is no doubt, therefore, that in our day all priests and monks, together with their bishops and all their superiors, are idolators, living in a most perilous state by reason of this ignorance, abuse, and mockery of the mass, or sacrament, or promise of God.”

“But you will say: What is this? Will you not overturn the practice and teaching of all the churches and monasteries, by virtue of which they have flourished all these centuries? For the mass is the foundation of their anniversaries, intercessions, applications, communications, etc., that is to say, of their fat income. I answer: This is the very thing that has constrained me to write of the captivity of the church. For it is in this manner that the sacred testament of God has been forced into the service of a most impious traffic.”

-Martin Luther, The Babylonian Captivity.

LUTHER, Martin. De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesiae. Wittenberg: [Melchior Lotter, 1520]. Quarto, period-style binding of modern three-quarter pigskin over wooden boards. A-L4; 44 leaves. $48,000.

First edition of Martin Luther's revolutionary call to spiritual individualism. The Babylonian Captivity is Luther’s most severe attack on the Roman Church and one of the central documents of the Protestant Reformation. In it Luther articulated a radical theology that reduced the essence of Christianity to just two core elements: God’s promise to man as set forth in Scripture, and man’s faithful acceptance of that promise. The ecclesiastical and cultural implications of this doctrine were momentous, as theologians across Europe recognized immediately. The Babylonian Captivity undermined the bond between Church officials and the laity and set forth a powerful doctrine of spiritual individualism that would change Europe forever
EXTREMELY SCARCE. We can find no record of another copy being offered for sale in the last 30 years.

Condition: Text generally clean with scattered occasional spotting and offsetting; residue on gutter of title page and last leaf; very small (approx. half-inch) repaired tear to lower corner of last leaf (in margin, not affecting text).

Please read below for a detailed description of The Babylonian Captivity.

Martin Luther’s attacks on the medieval Roman Catholic Church’s doctrines and practices initiated perhaps the most momentous revolution of the past two millennia and made him, without question, one of the truly pivotal figures of Western Culture. Few documents played a more central role in the history of the Protestant Reformation than Martin Luther’s Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. The Captivity was the second of Luther’s three great treatises of 1520, and marks the peak of Luther’s incendiary theological radicalism. The first of the 1520 treatises, Luther’s Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, argued that in times of crisis Scripture allowed for secular powers to act independently of the pope to call a council to bring about Church reform. The immediate political significance of this document was immense, especially among the German peoples. However, while the tone of this letter was bitterly critical of the Roman Church, in it Luther wrote as one who would reform the Church, not lead a revolt against it. Luther’s position changed dramatically with the publication of the Babylonian Captivity, the second of his great treatises of 1520. It was here that Luther took an explicitly insurrectionary position, writing that the pope was the antichrist and arguing that true Christianity had to be rescued from the “Babylonian Captivity” into which the Roman Church had led it. The Captivity marked the crowning moment of Luther’s theological radicalism and represents the point of irreparable fracture between his own writings and the Roman Church.

As a work of theology, the Captivity is primarily an attack on the Roman Church’s sacramental system, the practices and teachings that gave the Church its spiritual and temporal authority. For Luther, a reformed theology of the sacraments was the key to rescuing true Christianity from its “Babylonian Captivity”. The central argument of the Babylonian Captivity was that the essence of a true sacrament is that of a divine promise, and that each Christian had to accept this promise for himself. The incendiary corollary to this was Luther’s argument that there was no role for the Church to play in administering the mass. This amounted to an act of theological sedition for it severed the bond between laymen and the pope, and called for individual Christians to cement their bond with God independently of the Roman Church. In Luther’s view the centuries-old notion that priests were intermediaries who administered the mass was the fraudulent and self-enriching “teaching of godless men”. The radicalism inherent in Luther’s entirely novel re-conceptualization of the sacraments was no minor theoretical matter. Luther himself saw that the practical implications of the Captivity ’s argument were enormous and potentially lethal for the Church. He addressed this question in the Captivity, writing, “But you will say: What is this? Will you not overturn the practice and teaching of all the churches and monasteries, by virtue of which they have flourished all these centuries? For the mass is the foundation of their anniversaries, intercessions, applications, communications, etc., that is to say, of their fat income. I answer: This is the very thing that has constrained me to write of the captivity of the church. For it is in this manner that the sacred testament of God has been forced into the service of a most impious traffic…”.

By severing the bond between priests and laymen Luther had set forth an argument that undermined the Roman Church at its most fundamental level. From a broader historical perspective the still greater importance of this argument was that it was the first clear and authoritative expression of the spiritual individualism at the heart of the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s Captivity drove a wedge between Church authority and the individual Christian and effectively reduced the core of a Christian’s bond with God to two simple elements: God’s promise, or sacrament, and man’s faith in that promise. Luther’s reformed notion of the sacraments put each individual’s spiritual fate in his own hands. More than this, Luther’s notion of the sacraments galvanized the distinctly evangelical thrust of Protestantism as he argued that the way to know and accept God’s promise was through Scripture and faith, not the practices and teachings of the Roman Church. This meant that spreading the gospel was the essence of being a ‘priest’ of Christ, not careful observance of Church-sanctioned rituals and practices.

The fact that the Captivity was Luther’s most revolutionary work was immediately apparent to Church officials and theologians all across Europe. Nothing that he wrote was more important in sealing his break with the Catholic Church. Indeed, the outcome of his trial at the Diet of Worms in 1521 was determined by his refusal to publicly disavow authorship of the Babylonian Captivity. The publication of the Captivity and Luther’s refusal to recant it at Worms marks a point at which individual conscience and the forces of empire crashed with astounding and epoch-shaping force, setting off a disruption so great that five centuries later the shock waves are still rippling through the social, cultural, religious and economic fabric of the Western world.

More on the content of the Babylonian Captivity

While the Captivity’s stinging rhetoric, the call for a “priesthood of all believers” and Luther’s characterization of the Pope as the antichrist got the attention of all of Europe, the true importance of this slim pamphlet lies in the fact that in it Luther offers, for the first time, a sustained and comprehensive ecclesiastical attack on Church power and practice. The Babylonian Captivity was Luther’s theological tour de force.

The subject of the Captivity is the Church’s sacramental system, through which the Church exercised spiritual and cultural control over Christians’ lives from birth to death. Luther’s method was to compare the practices of the Church’s centuries-old sacramental system with what was written in the New Testament. For Luther, the true Christian’s bond to God could be secured only through acceptance of God’s testament – i.e., through faith: “Without this faith, whatever else is brought to it by way of prayers, preparations, works, signs, or gestures are incitements to impiety.” Luther’s conclusion was that of the seven sacraments observed by the Catholic Church – baptism, eucharist, penance, confirmation, marriage, ordination and extreme unction – only two, baptism and the eucharist, were true sacraments. Luther wrote, “Only in these two do we find both the divinely instituted sign and the promise of forgiveness of sins.” For Luther the other so-called sacraments were mere works, as opposed to faith in God’s promise. Luther wrote, “For God does not deal, nor has he ever dealt, with man otherwise than through a word of promise…We in turn cannot deal with God otherwise than through faith in the Word of his promise. He does not desire works, nor has he need of them…There is no doubt, therefore, that in our day all priests and monks, together with their bishops and all their superiors, are idolators, living in a most perilous state by reason of this ignorance, abuse, and mockery of the mass, or sacrament, or promise of God.”

Luther’s discussion of the mass was the central and most incendiary component of the Captivity and posed the greatest practical threat to the Church. Luther’s argument was that there was no role for the Church to play in administering the Mass – effectively this amounted to an act of theological sedition for it severed the bond between laymen and the Pope and called for individual Christians to free themselves from the tyranny of the Roman Church. Sedition was exactly what Luther thought was required to restore Christianity to its true foundation, human faith in God’s promise. Luther wrote in the Captivity, “For where faith dies and the word of faith is silent, there works and the prescribing of works immediately crowd into their place. By then we have been carried away out of our own land, as into Babylonian Captivity, and despoiled of all our precious possessions. This has been the fate of the mass; it has been converted by the teaching of godless men into a good work”. Luther’s attack on the Church’s role in administering the mass went against centuries of Church practice, and Church leaders recognized from the first that this view not only undermined their authority but also the Church’s primary sources of revenue. Luther knew that his critique of the seven sacraments was a threat to the Church’s very existence as an institution. Luther wrote, “But you will say: What is this? Will you not overturn the practice and teaching of all the churches and monestaries, by virtue of which they have flourished all these centuries? For the mass is the foundation of their anniversaries, intercessions, applications, communications, etc., that is to say, of their fat income. I answer: This is the very thing that has constrained me to write of the captivity of the church. For it is in this manner that the sacred testament of God has been forced into the service of a most impious traffic.” In Luther’s Captivity he argues that the whole machinery of the Church along with its carefully proscribed rituals and practices were not just theologically groundless but dangerous diversions from the essence of what it was to be a Christian. While the Captivity is one of Luther’s most theoretical writings, its practical implications were truly momentous.

The shockingly caustic tone of Luther’s attack on the Church and his revolutionary insistence on understanding the Mass strictly according to Scripture are enough to make the Captivity a central document of the Reformation. However the Captivity’s importance is greater still, for this document integrates Luther’s attack on existing Church practice with his notion of the “priesthood of all believers.” Luther’s notion of the “priesthood of all believers,” a slogan which spread like wildfire from Luther’s pen to the lips of dissenters all across Europe, was one of his great contributions to the Protestant movement, initiating a groundswell of spiritual egalitarianism and underwriting the distinctly evangelical cast of early Protestantism. As with his notion of the Mass, for Luther the essence of Christian priesthood was to be discovered and understood only through Scripture. The account of Christian priesthood that Luther found there – i.e., that all Christians are Christ’s priests by virtue of having been baptized – was, again, very much at odds with Church practice. Luther writes: “If they (the papists) were forced to grant that as many of us as have been baptised are all priests without distinction, as indeed we are, and that to them was committed the ministry only, yet with our consent, they would presently learn that they have no right to rule over us except in so far as we freely concede it. For thus it is written in 1 Peter 2:9, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a priestly kingdom." Therefore we are all priests, as many of us as are Christians…And the priesthood is nothing but a ministry, as we learn from 1 Corinthians 4:1, "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries of God." In arguing that all Christians are priests through baptism, as opposed to select individuals being made into priests through ordination by the Church, Luther was denying that the Church played any essential role in selecting and bestowing upon priests any so-called “indelible character” that guaranteed their spiritual authority over laymen. For Luther the notion of a Church-bestowed “indelible character” was, as he wrote, “a laughing-stock.” Elaborating on this, Luther wrote, “I admit that the pope imparts this character, but Christ knows nothing of it; and a priest who is consecrated with it becomes thereby the life-long servant and captive, not of Christ, but of the pope; as it is in our day. Moreover, unless I am greatly mistaken, if this sacrament and this lie fall, the papacy itself with its characters will scarcely survive; our joyous liberty will be restored to us; we shall realize that we are all equal by every right, and having cast off the yoke of tyranny, shall know that he who is a Christian has Christ, and that he who has Christ has all things that are Christ's and is able to do all things (Philippians 4:13).” Luther’s doctrine of the “priesthood” of all Christians galvanized a movement of religious individualism and spiritual egalitarianism that continues to reverberate through Western Culture to this day.

The radicalism of Luther’s reasoning and rhetoric in the Babylonian Captivity was the focus of his trial at the Diet of Worms in 1521. His refusal to disavow authorship of this pamphlet led to his being branded a heretic and an outlaw – he would have been executed were it not for the protection of Frederick the Wise. It is worth noting that if Luther had recanted his Captivity, a reconciliation with the Church would almost certainly have been negotiated – indeed, by 1521 gradual reform of Church practice was already underway under the impetus of moderate thinkers such as Erasmus and even the Luther of 1517, whose famous 95 Theses were controversial but still within the bounds of what Church leaders could and would tolerate. Not so for the Luther who wrote the Babylonian Captivity of 1520, for unlike the 95 Theses, the Captivity struck a direct and piercing blow to the Church’s ecclesiastical and economic core and threatened to completely discredit the authority of church officials from the pope all the way down to parish priests. As the Church immediately recognized, Luther’s Captivity was an act of revolution, a revolution they sought to avoid by trying to persuade its author, under threat of execution, to publicly deny that he ever wrote it. There can be no question that Luther’s Babylonian Captivity is a document of surpassing importance in the history of the Protestant Reformation and indeed Western Culture.

. . Source: http://www.theworldsgreatbooks.com/luther.htm .

Highlights added for emphasis. Blogman.

PROTESTANT VIEWS ON THE ANTICHRIST

Some Protestant Churches have made it an issue of faith to identify the Bishop of Rome and the papal system as the Antichrist. See, for example, the Smalcald Articles, Westminster Confession and the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith; early Protestant Reformers, including Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, John Knox, Cotton Mather, and John Wesley, identified the Roman Papacy as the Antichrist [1]. Headed by Matthias Flacius, several Lutheran scholars in Magdeburg, known as the Centuriators of Magdeburg, wrote the 12-volume "Magdeburg Centuries" to discredit the papacy, including identifying the pope as the Antichrist. Virtually all popes have been called the Antichrist by their enemies, and many popes have applied this title of "Antichrist", "son of perdition", or "man of sin", to their enemies as well. Some Catholics expected a son of Martin Luther to be the Antichrist, as his scion would be the son of an ex-priest and ex-nun.

The Lutheran Churches of the Reformation [2], the Concordia Lutheran Conference [3], the Church of the Lutheran Confession [4], and the Illinois Lutheran Conference [5] all hold to Brief Statement. In 1959 the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) formally issued its "Statement on the Antichrist", a doctrinal statement that declared, "we reaffirm the statement of the Lutheran Confessions, that 'the Pope is the very Antichrist'". "WELS Statement on the Antichrist".

Widespread Protestant identification of the Papacy as the Antichrist persisted until the early-1900s when the Scofield Reference Bible was published by Cyrus Scofield. Prior to the Scofield Bible, with few exceptions, the Protestant confessions of faith declared the Papacy as the Antichrist. Westminster Confession of Faith:

25.6. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the church against Christ, and all that is called God; whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.

(Col. 1:18; Matt. 28:18-20; Eph. 4:11-12; 2 Thess. 2:2-9)

In response to the identification of the Papacy as Antichrist, the modern view of Futurism (Christian eschatology), a product of the Counter-Reformation, was advanced beginning in the 16th century. This theory was developed by a Jesuit priest named Francisco Ribera in his 1585 treatise on the Apocalypse of John entitled In Sacrum Beati Ioannis Apostoli, & Evangelistiae Apocalypsin Commentarij. This view was then codified by St. Bellarmine, who gives in full the Catholic theory set forth by the Greek and Latin Fathers, of a personal Antichrist to come just before the end of the world and to be accepted by the Jews and enthroned in the temple at Jerusalem—thus endeavoring to dispose of the exposition which saw Antichrist in the pope. Bellarmine's interpretation, in modified form, is now accepted by most premillennial dispensationalists. [7]. The Leader of the Free Presbyterian Church, Ian Paisley, loudly denounced the then Pope, Pope John Paul II as the Antichrist when the pontiff was giving a speech at a sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg in 1988, when Paisley was an MEP.

Contemporary, conservative, Confessional Lutherans still hold that the pope is the Antichrist, insisting that this article of faith is part of a quia rather than quatenus subscription to the Book of Concord. In 1932, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) adopted A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod. Statement 43, Of the Antichrist:

43. As to the Antichrist we teach that the prophecies of the Holy Scriptures concerning the Antichrist, 2 Thess. 2:3-12; 1 John 2:18, have been fulfilled in the Pope of Rome and his dominion. All the features of the Antichrist as drawn in these prophecies, including the most abominable and horrible ones, for example, that the Antichrist "as God sitteth in the temple of God," 2 Thess. 2:4; that he anathematizes the very heart of the Gospel of Christ, that is, the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins by grace alone, for Christ's sake alone, through faith alone, without any merit or worthiness in man (Rom. 3:20-28; Gal. 2:16); that he recognizes only those as members of the Christian Church who bow to his authority; and that, like a deluge, he had inundated the whole Church with his antichristian doctrines till God revealed him through the Reformation -- these very features are the outstanding characteristics of the Papacy. (Cf. Smalcald Articles, Triglot, p. 515, Paragraphs 39-41; p. 401, Paragraph 45; M. pp. 336, 258.) Hence we subscribe to the statement of our Confessions that the Pope is "the very Antichrist." (Smalcald Articles, Triglot, p. 475, Paragraph 10; M., p. 308.) [8]

Revelation 13 contains a description of the Antichrist:

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."

2. "And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority."

3. "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast."

4. "And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"

5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months."

6. "And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven."

7. "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations."

8 ."And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (as per the King James Bible)

Some theorists attribute the wounding and resurgence in the third verse to the papacy, referring to General Louis Berthier's capture of Pope Pius VI in 1798 , and the pope's subsequent death in 1799 . Instead of reducing the power of the papacy, however, it grew and became the most influential political and religious power in the world.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antichrist

"TALKING LOUD AND SAYING NOTHING"

Talking Loud and Saying Nothing

Like a dull knife
Just ain't cutting
Just talking loud
Then saying nothing

Just saying nothing
Just saying nothing

You can't tell me
How to run my life down
You can't tell me
How to keep my business sound

You can't tell me
What I'm doing wrong
When you keep driving and
Singing that same old money song

You can't tell me
Which way to go
Cause three times seven
And then some more
You can't tell me, hey

You're like a dull knife
Just ain't cutting
You're just talking loud
And saying nothing

Just saying nothing
Just saying nothing

Don't tell me
How to do my thing
When you can't, can't
Can't do your own

Don't tell me how to be a boy
When, when you know I'm grown

Can't use me like a woman
Woman throws away her dress
And you can't tell me, hey
How to use my mess

You're like a dull knife
Jack, you just ain't cutting
You're just talking loud
Then saying nothing

Just saying nothing
And saying nothing

Shape up your bag
Don't worry bout mine
My thing together
And a doing fine

Good luck to you
Just allow you're wrong
Then keep on singing that
Same old money song

Then keep on singing that
Same old money song
Just keep on singing that
Same old money song

Just keep on singing that
Same old money song
Just keep on singing that
Same old money, oww

I got to, I want yo
I musta, I got to
Ashes ashes and a dust to dust
I musta, jump on back
I'm doing a, my hands

I say I will, the point
Is too dark to fill
You say I cant
You're phony, you're phony
I said, I said, you're phony...

James Brown, Bobby Byrd, 1972.

***

Yesterday, December, 27, 2007, following the assassination of Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto; Both, G.W. Bush, and Gordon Brown, conducted an emergency press conference or a press release. In the early afternoon President Bush, from the "western White House", appeared on an brief impromptu news conference. He walked to the podium with a somber countenance, and stated something similar to this: "Laura and I send our deepest condolences to the family of Ms. Bhutto". Then, he proceeded to say that the terrorists responsible for this assassination had to to be brought to justice and pay for this heinous atrocity (something to that effect).

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yep! Not another WMD affair?

Later in the afternoon, from London-England, came a press release of Gordon Brown, the new Prime Minister.

Brown stated something similar to President Bush. G.B. (G. Brown) of G.B. (Great Britain), stated that the terrorist will not get away with this blatant crime (or something to that effect).

G.B. and G. B., both issued statements on the assassination of Ms. Bhutto.

Not too long ago, President Bush was calling on President Musharraf, of Pakistan, to lose/loose the military uniform. Now, Bush is speaking of bringing the culprits of Benazir Bhutto's murder to justice. Does this sound a little like meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign, Asian; Not, a Western or American (as in Monroe Doctrine, etc.) nation? Secondly, for Gordon Brown the P.M. of Britannia the Great, to insinuate that something must be done to these culpable terrorists who attacked and killed Ms. Bhutto, is an understatement. I'm not sure that Pakistan or India, really want to hear any pronouncements (condescending) coming from the former Colonial Mater Britannia. I believe that the previous Vice-Royalty of India/Pakistan, can manage without the old 'chaps' and their 'spot of tea';

After all, the Bengals are now part of Pakistan, not trusted guards and soldiers of the Empire.

Let's not add insult to injury. Pakistan is an independent nation that has enough internal turmoil of its own, without foreign interests/powers getting into the mix!

I'm not Pakistani, but, I do see a lack of tact and decorum on the part of anyone trying to 'capitalize' on Pakistan's loss.

Arsenio.

NEW-HOMES SALES PLUNGE BY 9 PERCENT

A for sale sign hangs on a fence outside a home for sale in Chicago, Dec. 16, 2007. The upside to a housing slump is cheaper homes.

New-Home Sales Plunge by 9 Percent

Friday, December 28, 2007

WASHINGTON - Sales of new homes plunged last month to their lowest level in more than 12 years, a grim testament to the problems plaguing the housing sector.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that new-home sales tumbled by 9 percent in November from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 647,000. That was the worst showing since April 1995, when the pace of sales was 621,000.

The sales pace for November was much weaker than economists were expecting. They were predicting sales in the weakest sector of the economy to drop by around 1.8 percent, to a pace of 715,000.

The median sales price of a new home dipped to $239,100 in November. That is 0.4 percent lower than a year ago. The median price is where half sell for more and half for less.

By region, sales fell in all parts of the country, except for the West, where they rose.

New-home sales dropped by 19.3 percent in the Northeast. They plunged by 27.6 percent in the Midwest and they fell by 6.4 percent in the South. However, sales increased by 4 percent in the West.

Over the last 12 months, new-home sales nationwide have tumbled by 34.4 percent, the biggest annual slide since early 1991, and stark evidence of the painful collapse in the once high-flying housing market.

That market has been suffering through a severe slump following five years of record-breaking activity from 2001 through 2005. Sales turned weak as did home prices. The boom-to-bust situation has increased dangers to the economy as a whole and has been especially hard on some homeowners.

Foreclosures have soared to record highs and probably will keep rising. A drop in home prices left some people stuck with balances on their home mortgages that eclipsed the worth of their home. Other home buyers were clobbered as low introductory rates on their mortgages jumped to much higher rates, which they couldn't afford.

With credit now harder to get to finance a home purchase, the problems in housing have grown worse. Unsold homes have piled up. The problems are expected to persist well into next year.

The housing and mortgage meltdowns have raised the odds that the country will fall into a recession. And, it has given Democrats and Republicans politicians- including those who want to be the next president - plenty of opportunities to spread blame around.

To help bolster the economy, the Federal Reserve has sliced a key interest rate three times this year. Its latest rate cut, on Dec. 11, dropped the Fed's key rate to 4.25 percent, a two-year low. Many economists are predicting the Fed will lower rates again when they meet in late January.

The economy's growth is expected to have slowed to a pace of just 1.5 percent or less in the October-to-December. Analysts believe that the housing and credit troubles will force consumers and businesses to tighten the belts, causing the economy to lose considerable speed. The housing slump has been a drag on overall economic activity, lopping more than a full percentage point off growth during the summer alone.

Copyright © 2007, PeoplePC Inc. All rights reserved.

Source: http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=TopStories&id=20071228/477482d0_3ca6_1552620071228-399624728

ALL DRESSED UP AND NO PLACE TO GO

Monday, December 17, 2007
Bush and Cheney: All Dressed up and no Place to Go
by Rodrigue Tremblay

"The leader whose thinking process most resembles [Adolf] Hitler's is our own president. —Like Hitler, (George W.) Bush's ideological beliefs have blinded him to reality, and like Hitler, he seems impervious to advice that conflicts with his beliefs."
Charley Reese

"When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader. "
Plato, (428/427-348/347 B.C.), ancient Greek philosopher

"If the war is enlarged in the next 20 months to include Iran— if that happens—for the next 20 years the United States is going to be bogged down in a war which spans Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and then you can forget about American global leadership."
Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter

For many months, the Bush-Cheney administration and its Neocon allies in Congress and in the media have been inching toward a fresh new war against Iran, possibly using nuclear weapons, under the same flimsy pretext that it had used, in 2003, to launch an illegal war of aggression against Iraq. The military gear had been positioned, with three full armadas in or around the Gulf of Hormuz, and the propaganda machine was running full time to persuade the American people that a state of perpetual war was in their interests.

But something happened on the road to war. On December 3, Michael McConnell, Director of the National Intelligence Council, dropped a political bomb. His office—in close collaboration with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the fifteen other U.S. Intelligence agencies, regrouped under the umbrella of the United States Intelligence Community (IC)—issued a devastating report about the veracity of the claims made for months by the Administration that Iran was actively engaged in developing a nuclear arms program. The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report said, "We judge that in the fall of 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program....We assess with moderate confidence Tehran has not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007." The Director of the US National Council issued also a most unusual statement, saying that "the decision to release an unclassified version of the key judgments of this NIE [report] was made when it was determined that doing so was in the interest of our nation’s security. The Intelligence Community is on the record publicly with numerous statements based on our 2005 assessment on Iran. Since our understanding of Iran’s capabilities has changed, we felt it was important to release this information to ensure that an accurate presentation is available." In other words, even if the Intelligence Community felt that the disclosure would undermine a key Bush-Cheney policy, they were ready to go public with the damaging report for the sake of national interest.

The very claim of a nuclear Iran has been used by President George W. Bush to push to the limit, at the United Nations and in Congress, to obtain some cover for a bombing campaign against Iran. In fact, as recently as October 17, the American president had used the apocalyptic term of a possible "World War III," even raising the specter of a nuclear holocaust, to draw the darkest picture possible if Iran was not prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons, thus ending Israel's nuclear monopoly in the Middle East. Vice President Dick Cheney has also claimed that Iran had a "fairly robust new nuclear program," and that had to be stopped by all means. Indeed, for months, the person in the Bush administration who most wanted a hot conflict with Iran has been Vice President Dick Cheney.

Well, it turns out that both Bush and Cheney knew, at least since last August, that the Director of National Intelligence had concluded that Iran had abandoned its nuclear arms program as far back as 2003, four years earlier. The report had the effect of pulling the rug out from under any plan for a preemptive attack against Iran that the Bush-Cheney administration intended to implement in the near term. This was good economic news. Immediately, the price of oil receded from its lofty level around $100 a barrel, an indication that the market had factored in some probability of supply disruptions early in 2008.

Left naked, Bush is now uttering lies and absurdities. First, there was his claim that he had "only learned of the new intelligence assessment" the week before, when it is a fact that the President is briefed every morning by the Director of the United States Intelligence Community (IC). Quickly, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, contradicted him. Hadley said that "Bush was first told in August or September about intelligence indicating Iran had halted its weapons program." And Senator Rockefeller confirmed that "the president knew, even as he was saying 'World War III' and all that kind of stuff." And, second, Bush professed about not being deterred by mere facts: "The [National Intelligence Estimates that Iran has no nuclear weapons program] doesn't do anything to change my opinion about the danger Iran poses to the world—quite the contrary." I don't know which of these two statements undermine the most President Bush's credibility, if there is any left.

Where does all this leave the warmongering Neocon crowd? They are scurrying in all directions with op-eds in far right media to discredit the U.S. Intelligence Community, trying to rekindle the flames of war against Iran. This a crowd that revolves around the pro-Israel Lobby in the U.S., led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and by some Washington-based pro-Israel "think-tanks" such as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). They have been pushing for an illegal attack against Iran, using nuclear arms, for years. They have all the reasons now to be displeased. They have used their enormous influence within the Bush-Cheney administration and within the leadership of both Congressional parties to attack Iran, and all these efforts seem to have been made for nil.

Indeed, the Israel Lobby, led in Congress by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Ind-Conn.), has been strongly influencing some prominent so-called Bush Democrats to join in the war frenzy against Iran. As its point-man in Congress, Senator Joe Lieberman (Ind-Conn) has been calling for the U.S. bombing of Iran every other week, dutifully doing the round of Sunday morning public affairs TV shows. The Neocons have not been deterred by the fact that bombing another country without provocation is an international crime of high order. According to the Nuremberg Charter, it is even a crime punishable by death.

So far, all U.N. resolutions about sanctions against Iran have been specifically framed under Article 41, which entails "measures not involving the use of armed force." It is most doubtful that China and Russia, two Security Council members, will ever accept a resolution that would impose sanctions against Iran under U.N. Article 42, which allows the use of military force "to restore international peace and stability," now that official American intelligence assessments state that there is no Iran nuclear arms program. The United Nations is not going to serve as cover for military operations against Iran.

And the U.S. Congress, especially the non-neocon Democrats, will be increasingly reluctant to give the Bush-Cheney administration a blank check to launch a war against Iran. Last September, the U.S. Senate came very close to handing the Bush-Cheney administration a blank check for military strikes against Iran, when 75 Senators voted in favor of the so-called Kyle-Lieberman non-binding resolution. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), voted in favor of the resolution. This was counteracted last November 1, by 30 U.S. Senators, none of them Republican, led by Senator Jim Webb, from Virginia, who sent a letter to President George W. Bush stressing that the Administration did not have the legal authority to attack Iran without congressional approval.

In the past, Senator and presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has even accused Bush of playing down the threat of a nuclear Iran and has called for swift action at the United Nations to impose sanctions on the Iranian government. Similarly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ostensibly capitulated to Bush, after having attended AIPAC's annual meeting, stripping from a war finance bill the provision that would have forced Bush to go to Congress before launching an attack on Iran.

Now, with the NIE report officially out, it will be increasingly difficult for the Democratic leadership in Congress to pussycat with the Bush-Cheney administration regarding any future unprovoked aggression against Iran.

Last February, Admiral William Fallon, the head the Central Command (CENTCOM), expressed strong opposition to an administration plan to increase the number of carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf from two to three, and he vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM. And last June, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said that an attack on Iran over its refusal to freeze programs that could make nuclear weapons would be "an Act of Madness.''

For the time being, cooler-headed individuals have prevailed over the ideologues and the warmongers. As a result, the planned Bush-Cheney-Lieberman war against Iran has been sidetracked. With the subprime financial crisis scheduled to pick up steam in the first half of 2008, it is good news that a fabricated geopolitical crisis has so far been avoided. The main question now is to ask whether Bush and Cheney have the gall to ignore the official intelligence report and invent new lies to justify a war against Iran. Stay tuned for more on this incredible saga.


Rodrigue Tremblay is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Montreal and can be reached at rodrigue.tremblay@yahoo.com
He is the author of the book 'The New American Empire'
Visit his blog site at: www.thenewamericanempire.com/blog.
Author's Website: www.thenewamericanempire.com/
Check Dr. Tremblay's coming book "The Code for Global Ethics" at: www.TheCodeForGlobalEthics.com/
Posted, Monday, December 17, 2007, at 5:30 am

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DEATH RAY REPLACED BY A VOICE

Death Ray Replaced By The Voice of God

December 17, 2007: While U.S. efforts to deploy it's microwave Active Denial System (which transmits a searchlight sized bean of energy when makes people downrange feel like their skin is on fire) continue to be delayed, another non-lethal system, LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) has been quietly deployed to Iraq. And there the story gets a little strange.

LRAD is basically a focused beam of sound. Originally, it was designed to emit a very loud sound. Anyone whose head was touched by this beam, heard a painfully loud sound. Anyone standing next to them heard nothing. But those hit by the beam promptly fled, or fell to the ground in pain. Permanent hearing loss is possible if the beam is kept on a person for several seconds, but given the effect the sound usually has on people (they move, quickly), it is unlikely to happen. LRAD works. It was recently used off Somalia, by a cruise ship, to repel pirates. Some U.S. Navy ships also carry it, but not just to repel attacking suicide bombers, or whatever. No, the system was sold to the navy for a much gentler application. LRAD can also broadcast speech for up to 300 meters. The navy planned to use LRAD to warn ships to get out of the way. This was needed in places like the crowded coastal waters of the northern Persian Gulf, where the navy patrols. Many small fishing and cargo boats ply these waters, and it's often hard to get the attention of the crews. With LRAD, you just aim it at a member of the crew, and have an interpreter "speak" to the sailor. It was noted that the guy on the receiving end was sometimes terrified, even after he realized it was that large American destroyer that was talking to him. This apparently gave the army guys some ideas, for there are now rumors in Iraq of a devilish American weapon that makes people believe they are hearing voices in their heads.

This made more sense when an American advertising firm recently used an LRAD unit to support a media campaign for a new TV show. LRAD was pointed at a sidewalk in Manhattan, below the billboard featuring the new show. LRAD broadcast a female voice providing teaser lines from the show. The effect was startling, and a bit scary for many who passed through the LRAD beam. It appears that some of the troops in Iraq are using "spoken" (as opposed to "screeching") LRAD to mess with enemy fighters. Islamic terrorists tend to be superstitious and, of course, very religious. LRAD can put the "word of God" into their heads. If God, in the form of a voice that only you can hear, tells you to surrender, or run away, what are you gonna do?

Meanwhile, the microwave powered ADS, a non-lethal weapon that looks like a radar dish, languishes in politically correct limbo. The ADS "radar dish" projects a "burn ray" that is about four feet in diameter. It is effective in fog, smoke and rain. When pointed at people and turned on, it creates a burning sensation on the skin of its victims, causing them to want to leave the area, or at least greatly distracts them. The microwave weapon has a range of about 500 meters. ADS is carried on a hummer or Stryker, along with a machine-gun and other non-lethal weapons (like LRAD). The proposed ROE (Rules of Engagement) for ADS were that anyone who kept coming after getting hit with microwave was assumed to have evil intent, and could be killed. The microwave is believed to be particularly useful for terrorists who hide in crowds of women and children, using the human shields to get close enough to make an attack. This has been encountered in Somalia and Iraq.

Deployment of ADS has been delayed for years because of concerns about how non-lethal it really is. ADS has been fired, in tests, over 2,500 times. Many of these firings were against human volunteers, and the device performed as predicted, without any permanent damage. But generations of exposure to lurid science fiction descriptions of "death rays" has made the defense bureaucrats anxious over the negative public relations potential if something like ADS was actually used. From a publicity perspective, using more lethal "non-lethal-weapons" is preferable to deploying something safer, but that could be described, however incorrectly, as a "death ray." In any event, it appears that the cheaper, smaller (about 45 pounds), gentler and more flexible LRAD has taken ADS's place in the American arsenal. At least for now.

Source: http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htweap/articles/20071217.aspx

SMOM REJECTS ALLEDGED LINK TO ACTION

Knights of Malta rejects alleged link to military action

December 15, 2007 ·

“The painful saga of modern Arab-Muslim history evokes the battles fought in Crusades of the 11th centry - when the Knights of Malta began their operations as a Christian militia whose mission it was to defend the land conquered by the Crusaders. These memories return violently to mind with the discovery of links between the so-called security firms in Iraq such as Blackwater have historic links with the Order of Malta. You cannot exaggerate it. The Order of Malta is a hidden government or the most mysterious government in the world.”

- Jordanian MP Jamal Muhammad Abidat, from an editorial in the United Arab Emirates daily Al-Bayan entitled “The Knights of Malta - more than a conspiracy”. Abidat describes the role played by the Knights of Malta during the Crusades, and that the Order is playing a similar role in the Middle East today, citing the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 78th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, His Most Eminent Highness Fra’ Andrew Bertie (R), accorded the ecclesiastical precedence of a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, with the diplomatic honors due to a sovereign head of state, on state visit to Poland May 14th, 2007 reviewing Polish military troops in Warsaw with the President of the Polish Republic Lech Kaczynski.

ADN Kronos Dec 14, 2007

Rome, 14 Dec. (AKI) - The Roman Catholic Order of Malta on Friday rejected suggestions that it is in any way involved in military activity in Iraq or any other country in the world.

The organisation responded to a message posted a week ago on Islamist websites close to al-Qaeda, urging jihadists to carry out a terrorist attack on its embassy in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

The message urging the attack followed an editorial in the UAE daily al-Bayan, by Jordanian MP Jamal Muhammad Abidat claiming the order was playing a direct role in conflicts in the Middle East, such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Such statements, as well as causing deep upset because they are unfounded, have been expressed about an humanitarian organisation that helps the weak and disadvantaged in 120 countries around the world with medical and humanitarian programs,” the organisation said in a statement.

The order, better known as the Knights of Malta, stressed that more than once there had been confusion in many countries about names and symbols that were similar to its organisation.

“The Order of Malta’s mission is exclusively to help the poor, the sick and the most needy,” the statement said.

“Created in Jerusalem more than nine centuries ago, its focus today is international public rights. With its headquarters in Rome, it is neutral, impartial and apolitical.”

The organisation has 12,500 members and 80,000 volunteers that helps the elderly, children, the disabled, lepers, refugees and those with terminal illnesses on five continents without distinctions between race or religion.

The message posted on 6 December called for Egyptians to attack the organisation’s Cairo office.

“Do not stint on your attacks, Egyptians, either with car or truck bombs,” read the message.

In the newspaper article, Abidat gave a Muslim interpretation of the Order’s history, describing the role played by the Knights of Malta during the Crusades. Abidat claimed the Order is playing the same role in the Middle East today.

Order of the Knights of Malta

“The painful saga of modern Arab-Muslim history evokes the battles fought in Crusades of the 11th century - when the Knights of Malta began their operations as a Christian militia whose mission it was to defend the land conquered by the Crusaders.”

Abidat accused the Order of Malta of being run by men who are close to US president George W. Bush and neo-conservative political circles.

“You cannot exaggerate it. The Order of Malta is a hidden government or the most mysterious government in the world,” said Abidat in the editorial.

The Rome-based Order of Malta, whose full name is the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, is also known as The Knights of Malta.

It began as an organisation founded in Jerusalem in 1080, to care for poor and sick pilgrims to the Holy Land.

The Order of Malta retains its claim of sovereignty under international law and has been granted permanent observer status at the United Nations. It issues its own passports, stamps and coins and has formal diplomatic relations with 99 states. . .

Source: http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2007/12/15/knights-of-malta-rejects-alleged-link-to-military-action/

BUSH APPROVES $555 B SPENDING BILL - 2008

Bush Approves $555 Billion US Spending Bill for 2008
By VOA News 26 December 2007

President Bush has signed a massive spending bill for 2008 that includes $70 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

President Bush arrives at TSTC airfield in Waco Texas to spend the rest of the holidays at his ranch near Crawford Texas, 26 Dec 2007

Mr. Bush said in a statement Wednesday that the $555 billion budget bill funds the government without raising taxes and without what he called the most objectionable policy changes considered by the Congress.

Congressional Democrats lost their bid to link funding for the Iraq war with a timetable for withdrawal. Mr. Bush had threatened to veto any bill that included deadlines to pull U.S. forces out of Iraq.

Mr. Bush also said he is disappointed the bill includes more than $10 billion in earmarks -- spending allocations for projects favored by specific members of Congress. Mr. Bush has said he instructed his budget director to review the options for dealing with what he called "wasteful spending."

The president signed the bill before flying to his Texas ranch, where he will ring in the new year. The measure funds all government departments except defense through September 2008. A separate defense budget was signed into law earlier.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP .

Source: http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-12-26-voa53.cfm

OLD FOLKS AT HOME?

The Swanee River (Old Folks at Home) words and music by Stephen C. Foster (1826-1864)

FIRST VERSE Way down upon de Swanee Ribber, Far, far away, Dere's wha my heart is turning ebber, Dere's wha de old folks stay. All up and down de whole creation Sadly I roam, Still longing for de old plantation, And for de old folks at home. CHORUS All de world am sad and dreary, Eb-rywhere I roam; Oh, darkeys, *how my heart grows weary, Far from de old folks at home! SECOND VERSE All round de little farm I wandered When I was young, Den many happy days I squandered, Many de songs I sung. When I was playing wid my brudder Happy was I; Oh, take me to my kind old mudder! Dere let me live and die. THIRD VERSE One little hut among de bushes, One dat I love Still sadly to my memory rushes, No matter where I rove. When will I see de bees a-humming All round de comb? When will I hear de banjo strumming, Down in my good old home?

Adoption of State Song Old Folks at Home Courtesy University of Pittsbugh Stephen Collins Foster wrote "Old Folks at Home" in 1851, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was written for E. P. Christy and his performing troupe, Christy's Minstrels. An interesting bit of trivia is that Foster referred to the Pedee River instead of the Suwannee River in an original draft of the song. "Suwannee" had to be shortened to "Swanee" to fit in with the song's rhythms. As printed in the program for the dedication of the New Capitol on March 31, 1978, "brothers" was substituted for "darkeys" in the chorus of "Old Folks at Home." Leon and Lynn Dallin, in Heritage Songster, used "dear ones." The Dallins also eliminated all attempts at reproducing dialect. The song, "The Swanee River (Old Folks At Home)", words and music by Stephen C. Foster, was adopted as the official state song of Florida on May 25, 1935. House Concurrent Resolution On May 25, 1935, the Florida Legislature, in its 25th Regular Session adopted "The Swanee River (Old Folks at Home)" as the official state song, replacing "Florida, My Florida," which had been adopted as the State Song in 1913. "Swanee River (Old Folks at Home)" was promoted as the new state song in House Concurrent Resolution No. 22, sponsored by S. P. Robineau of Miami. Source: http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/song/fl_swanee_river.htm

THE REIGN OF TERROR

The Reign of Terror

Instead of a democracy the Convention established a war dictatorship operating through the Committee of Public Safety, the Committee of General Security, and numerous agencies such as the Revolutionary Tribunal. Known to history as the Reign of Terror, this period represented the efforts of a few men to govern the country and wage war in a time of crisis. Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre dominated the new government, with Robespierre gradually gaining over Danton and others. Price and wage maximums were unevenly enforced, and acceptance of the inflated paper currency, the assignats, was made mandatory. A huge number of suspects were arrested; thousands were executed, including Marie Antoinette. A revolutionary calendar, with 10-day weeks, was adopted.

The fanatic Jacques Hébert, who had introduced the worship of a goddess of Reason, was arrested and executed in Mar., 1794, along with other so-called ultrarevolutionaries. The next month Danton and his followers, the “Indulgents,” who advocated relaxation of emergency measures, were executed. To counter Hébertist influence, Robespierre proclaimed (June, 1794) the cult of the Supreme Being. France's military successes lessened the need for strong domestic measures, but Robespierre called for new purges. Fearing that the Terror would be turned against them, members of the Convention arrested Robespierre on July 27, 1794 (see Thermidor), and had him guillotined; a majority of Commune members were also executed.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Origins of the Revolution
• The Estates-General and the National Assembly
• The Revolution of 1789
• Factionalism and War
• The Revolution of 1792
• The Republic
• The Reign of Terror
• The Directory and the Coming of Napoleon
• Effects of the Revolution
• Bibliography

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0858287.html

OMEGA APOSTASY IN THE SDA CHURCH

This idolatrous standard of Rome was placed by the Vatican on the stage of the 1995 General Conference Session of Seventh-day Adventist in Utrecht, Netherlands.

Omega Apostasy in the Seventh-day Adventist Church

Introduction

The Lord will return soon, but before that happens our beloved Seventh-day Adventist Church and its individual members will go through some very trying times. It was predicted by Ellen White that as we near the end, the church will have the appearance of falling, but it will not fall. It was predicted that the condition of God’s people overall will be much like the condition of the Israelites when Jesus walked this earth. It was also predicted that false theories would be introduced right in our midst that would lead many astray. This article will deal with some of those false theories that have taken root in the minds of many professing Adventists. The article is not intended to condemn anyone, but only to reveal the nature of those false ideas, and to warn the unsuspecting.

TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE CLICK ON LINK BELOW:

(Source) http://www.sdabeaconlight.org/omega

WHAT SAITH ROME?

Spiritual Insights Into The New World Order So Startling
You Will Never Look At The News The Same Way Again

Virgin Mary Queen of Heaven

What saith Rome? Introduction

Pope John Paul II Bent Crucifix

We are living in what the Bible describes as "perilous times" popularly known as the End of the Age (2 Timothy 3:1). As we draw near to the dawn of the twenty-first century, the many religions of our world are endeavoring vigorously to achieve a false unity at the expense of the Bible's clear teachings. Much of this effort is being implemented through the employment of counterfeit or vague terminology. Words that are given different meanings sound like the truth but in reality are "doctrines of devils", or "doctrines that demons teach" 1 Timothy 4:1, Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified).

There are many people who are convinced that the Roman Catholic Church preaches the same Gospel as the Bible. Is this actually true? In our study we are going to examine the present-day teachings of Rome as found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church [Liguori Publications, Imprimi Potest + Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Interdicasterial Commission for the Catechism of the Catholic Church].

We will evaluate each Catholic teaching in light of the inerrant and completely sufficient Word of God (Sola Scriptura).

Our study will take us on a journey to examine "What saith Rome?" When you understand what Roman Catholicism REALLY teaches, you will be surprised and shocked! You will also be able to determine whether Roman Catholicism is truly "Christian" as she claims.

This is not an excercise in futility, because your eternal soul is at stake. If you carry your belief and trust for eternal life in Roman Catholicism to your grave, you will be as lost for eternity as if you believed nothing at all, like the Heathen. Therefore, read carefully, and prayerfully.

Remember, we love you all, and only wish that you would come to the Truth of Jesus Christ as taught in the Scriptures and the Scriptures alone. May God Richly Bless You.

Read the Articles

Read the Articles

Source: http://www.cuttingedge.org/articles/rome.html

BANKING ON PROSPERITY

Banking on prosperity

December 23 2007

Anniversary

TIME passes swiftly. It is now 10 years from the Asian banking crisis of 1997 and much has changed. Readers may remember that the collapse of the Thai bhat lost billions of dollars and put Asian economies into a state of turmoil. Much has changed for the better and far from losing a decade of development much of Asia has made great progress. As that progress continues, a damaged global financial sector needs to assess current and future risk and take action. Meanwhile the Asian financial sector must understand that the progress that they have made is progress only. The job is far from finished.

In a recent report McKinsey has analysed whether enough has changed in Asian banking to avoid another catastrophe. North American, European and some Asian banks are suffering from a crisis that they created. The danger is that the global economy may suffer with them. The answer to McKinsey's challenge appears to be "No". Let us take a look, however, at the facts before reaching any harsh conclusions.

Transformation

THERE can be little doubt that 10 years after the massive problems the Asian banking system is now far better placed to withstand shocks. The Japanese economy has risen from the ashes, India and China have developed into global economic giants. Investment capital is abundant and the need for it is obvious and growing. It would seem that all is well now and for the future, but perhaps we should never take things for granted and risks — even those that have apparently been resolved — should constantly be considered afresh as the global economy develops. When creativity and innovation are encouraged latent risks will emerge. Not only Asian, but global banks must be ready to deal with them.

Shocks will occur

THE rate of change carries with it the seeds of future concern. Imbalances are all but inevitable when growth is rapid. Does the present state of the financial sector in Asia give us cause for celebration or concern? Or is it, as experience suggests, a complex mixture of new strengths and old weaknesses? Ten years is a very short time for shock-proof risk management across a continent that is experiencing massive change.

Asia may well continue its momentum and soon stand equal to the USA and Europe as a global leader in financial services, but there will be problems to be faced and history to be studied en route. The West, with centuries of experience can hardly claim that they always get it right.

Growth

FOR a decade growth of many parts of the Asian economy has been the main economic and business "talking point" in the West. With expanding prosperity the financial sector has grown, is growing and will grow further. By 2015 it will account for nearly 30 per cent of the world increase in international financial services.

Today four Asian centres are included in the top 10 financial cities of the world. Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo are now major international centres that rival those of the West.

London and New York continue their long-term domination, but Asian achievement has been remarkable. The danger will be that, flushed with success, policy makers in Asia will discontinue the view that reform is "work in progress" and fall into the trap of believing that the whole task is accomplished.

The "to do" list

EFFECTIVE risk management needs to be come a key part of the culture of financial institutions to an ever greater degree. We have recently experienced what happens when global bankers move away from their traditional habit of conservatism. The global economy is only beginning to pay for short-term greed. Nobody appears to know how great the final cost will be. The danger still exists that a problem will develop into a full scale crisis in spite of the intervention by national banks.

Hopefully the Asian financial sector and that of the rest of the world will embed the lessons. Risk management must permeate every organisation. They and we must not point the finger and assume that there is nothing needing to be done on "our" part. The West should step back a little towards tradition while the East enhances a "new" culture.

Contingency planning must be careful and continuous. Threats abound. Some are foreseeable and therefore avoidable. Appropriate avoidance actions should be built into strategies, but some shocks will emerge. We are now suffering from what happens when contingency planning is slack and greed is rampant.

Corporate governance should be the focus of mind and behaviour for every board. Again this goes beyond the development of systems. Recent happenings in the UK involving the loss of data suggest that systems are meaningless unless the right "state of mind" is developed.

Talent, in this sector as elsewhere is scarce and needs to be acquired and developed. Talent offers creativity, but for the global economy's sake, innovation needs to be tempered by effective risk assessment and planning. Talented people should see a little further than most of us and should be encouraged and enabled to do so. Talented people with a deep understanding of the global situation will see further yet.

Ben Bernanke has recently begun the process of opening up, in the face of entrenched defensiveness, conduits of information that will enable closer relationships between the financial sector, regulators, central banks and policy makers so that all can be pulling in the same direction with clear and shared goals constantly in sight. For the USA this is virgin territory. For London it is an old story. We can all learn together as both West and East explore that territory with a new intensity.

The take away

AS the result of a decade of thought and hard work the finance industry in Asia has developed in a way that mirrors the continent's economic and trading success. The achievements have been great, but the job is far from finished. As Asia continues to tackle that job the West needs to ensure that we do not limit ourselves to advice on how to remove the "mote" from Asia's eye.

We have our own beam to "pluck out" and only by working together will the global economy prosper in a climate of reduced risk. Goldman Sachs record profits, announced this week, show what effective contingency planning can do. Without effective planning, governance and action the next crisis is never far away.

Tom Lambert is an international businessman and distinguished academic and author. He will be contributing a weekly column from Europe to the Khaleej Times.

Source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/ColumnistHomeNew.asp?section=proftomlambert&col=yes