PASTOR STOLE THE CHURCH

California Pastor Stole the Whole Church
By GARANCE BURKE
AP
RIPON, Calif. (Feb. 12) - For nearly a decade, members of Ripon's First Congregational Church bared their souls to Pastor Randall Radic. But clearly it didn't work both ways. There were certain things he wasn't telling them.


A Pernicious Pastor?
Former Pastor Randall Radic used his ill-gotten gains to buy a brand-new black BMW and a laptop.


That became obvious a year ago, when Radic pleaded guilty to betraying his flock and secretly selling the church and its rectory out from under them. He used the money to buy himself a brand-new black BMW and a laptop - exploits he later chronicled in a cheeky, almost gleeful blog about his double life as a sinner.

"We didn't know anything until we got a call from the bank that he had bought a BMW," said David Prater, who led the church board during Radic's tenure. "He drove that car right down Main Street."

Irate parishioners had been rooting for a long prison term of up to 16 months at his sentencing, set for Thursday.

But Radic's lawyer said last week that the 54-year-old former pastor, who spent six months in jail awaiting trial, will not have to serve any more time behind bars because he agreed to testify about the alleged murder confession of a jailmate.



"Most of the congregation, being a good Christian congregation, has forgiven him. But there are still things happening to the church that we can't understand," said Judy Edwards, who took over as pastor last year. "If the parsonage was stolen, why isn't it being returned?"

Radic was a respected figure in Ripon, population 14,000, a quiet town of 1940s-era homes and tree-lined streets just off California's Highway 99, where 18-wheelers thunder down the San Joaquin Valley.

"The church was basically senior citizens, people in their 80s, 90s and close to 100," Prater said. "He was their favorite son."

Radic's pulpit was in a wooden, 90-year-old chapel, and he lived in a church-owned house a few blocks away.

"This is a town with a lot of faith," said Navid Fardanesh, president of the Ripon Chamber of Commerce. "People had a lot of trust in him, and unfortunately he took advantage of the situation."

First, Radic faked documents giving him possession of the parsonage, and used the property to take out about $200,000 in personal loans, prosecutors said. Then he forged papers saying he had the power to sell the church, and sold it to a couple for $525,000.

After investigators began inquiring about the $102,000 BMW, Radic fled to Denver. Prosecutors coaxed him back, and he was arrested in 2005.

It was in jail that Radic met Roy Gerald Smith, a sex offender awaiting trial in the 2005 slaying of a woman in a death penalty case. In Radic's blog on a now-defunct Internet site, the former pastor suggested that as he gained Smith's confidence, Smith confessed.

Radic soon struck a deal: He would plead guilty to embezzlement and be released from prison. And prosecutors would drop nine other felony charges in exchange for Radic's testimony.


Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

Source: http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/california-pastor-stole-the-whole-church/20070212161209990001?cid=2449

MIRANDA RIGHTS

Miranda RightsSpanish from the Drudge Report:

Usted tiene el derecho de guardar el silencio. Caulquier cosa que Usted diga puede ser usada contra Usted en una corte de ley.
Usted tiene el derecho de hablar con un abogado, y tener un abogado presente durante neustras preguntas.
Si Usted quiere un abogado antes de o durante nuestras preguntas, pero no tiene medios para emplear un abogado, se le asignara uno, sin costo, antes de iniciarse las preguntas.

AltaVista Translation:

You have the right to keep silence. Caulquier thing that You say you can be used against You in a law cut.
You have the right to speak with a lawyer, and to have a present lawyer during neustras questions.
If You love a lawyer before or during our questions, but she does not have means to use a lawyer, assigned one to him, without cost, before beginning the questions.

DEATH OF A TRAGEDY

Model, Reality TV Star Anna Nicole Smith Dies
Collapsed While Staying at Hard Rock Hotel in Florida
By SUZETTE LABOY, AP
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (Feb. 8) - Anna Nicole Smith, the pneumatic blonde whose life played out as an extraordinary tabloid tale - Playboy centerfold, jeans model, bride of an octogenarian oil tycoon, reality-show subject, tragic mother - died Thursday after collapsing at a hotel. She was 39.

Remembering Anna Nicole: Leave Your Comments More Video: Press Conference Anna on 'Larry King' in 2004

Get the Latest Anna Nicole Smith Headlines
She was stricken while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and was rushed to a hospital. Edwina Johnson, chief investigator for the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office, said the cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy would be done on Friday.Just five months ago, Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, died suddenly in the Bahamas in what was believed to be a drug-related death.Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger said a private nurse called 911 after finding Smith unresponsive in her sixth-floor room at the hotel, which is on an Indian reservation. He said Smith's bodyguard administered CPR, but she was declared dead at a hospital.Dr. Joshua Perper, the chief Broward County medical examiner who will perform the autopsy, said if her death was from natural causes, the findings would likely be announced quickly. He cautioned, however, that definitive results could take weeks.


"I am not a prophet, and I cannot tell you before the autopsy what I am going to find," he said.Through the '90s and into the new century, Smith was famous for being famous, a pop-culture punchline because of her up-and-down weight, her Marilyn Monroe looks, her exaggerated curves, her little-girl voice, her ditzy-blonde persona, and her over-the-top revealing outfits.Recently, she lost a reported 69 pounds and became a spokeswoman for TrimSpa, a weight-loss supplement. On her reality show and other recent TV appearances, her speech was often slurred and she seemed out of it. Some critics said she seemed drugged-out."Undoubtedly it will be found at the end of the day that drugs featured in her death as they did in the death of poor Daniel," said a former attorney for Smith in the Bahamas, Michael Scott.


Another former Smith attorney, Lenard Leeds, told the celebrity gossip Web site TMZ that Smith "always had problems with her weight going up and down, and there's no question she used alcohol." Leeds said it was no secret that "she had a very troubled life" and had "so many, many problems.""She wanted to be like Marilyn her whole life and ironically died in a similar manner," Leeds said. Monroe died of a drug overdose at age 36 in 1962.Smith attorney Ron Rale told The Associated Press that he had talked to her on Tuesday or Wednesday, and she had flu symptoms and a fever and was still grieving over her son."Poor Anna Nicole," he said. "She's been the underdog. She's been besieged ... and she's been trying her best and nobody should have to endure what she's endured."The Texas-born Smith was a topless dancer at strip club before she entered her photos in a search contest and made the cover of Playboy magazine in 1992. She became Playboy's playmate of the year in 1993. She was also signed to a contract with Guess jeans, appearing in TV commercials, billboards and magazine ads.In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, owner of Great Northern Oil Co. In 1992, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $550 million.In a 2005 interview with ABC, Smith recalled meeting Marshall at what she called a "gentleman's club' in Houston. "He had no will to live and I went over to see him," she said. "He got a little twinkle in his eyes, and he asked me to dance for him. And I did."Marshall died in 1995 at age 90, setting off a feud with Smith's former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over his estate. A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million. That was later overturned. But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court.The stepson died June 20 at age 67. But the family said the court fight would continue.Smith starred in her own reality TV series, "The Anna Nicole Show," in 2002-04. Cameras followed her around as she sparred with her lawyer, hung out with her personal assistant and interior decorator, and cooed at her poodle, Sugar Pie. She also appeared in movies, performing a bit part in "The Hudsucker Proxy" in 1994.After news came of Smith's death, G. Eric Brunstad Jr., the lawyer who represented Marshall, said in a statement: "We're very shocked by the news and extend the deepest condolences to her family."In a statement, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner said: "I am very saddened to learn about Anna Nicole's passing. She was a dear friend who meant a great deal to the Playboy family and to me personally."Smith's son died Sept. 10 in his mother's hospital room in the Bahamas, just days after she gave birth to a daughter.An American medical examiner hired by the family, Cyril Wecht, said he died accidentally of a combination of methadone and two antidepressants. Last month, a Bahamas magistrate scheduled a formal inquiry into the death for March 27.Meanwhile, the paternity of Smith's now 5-month-old daughter remained a matter of dispute. The birth certificate lists Dannielynn's father as attorney Howard K. Stern, Smith's most recent companion. Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead was waging a legal challenge, saying he was the father.Debra Opri, the attorney who filed his paternity suit, said Birkhead "is devastated. He is inconsolable, and we are taking steps now to protect the DNA testing of the child. The child is our No. 1 priority."Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children. Her parents split up when she was a toddler, and she was raised by her mother, a deputy sheriff.She dropped out after 11th grade after she was expelled for fighting, and worked as a waitress and then a cook at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken restaurant in Mexia.She married 16-year-old fry cook Bill Smith in 1985, giving birth to Daniel before divorcing two years later.(Associated Press Writers Sarah Larimer in Hollywood, Fla., and Ana Cholo in Los Angeles contributed to this story.)
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-02-08 15:11:21

Source: http://www.aol.com/

THE PRICE OF EMPIRE

Nemesis
by Charley Reese

It's axiomatic, based on history, that no nation can maintain an empire abroad and a democracy at home. We are now about to pay for our empire, and the price is American freedom.
This is the message of a new book by Chalmers Johnson, a historian. His latest book is titled Nemesis and is the third work in what has turned out to be a trilogy on the American Empire. The first two were Blowback and The Sorrows of Empire.
No American president in my memory has shown more disdain for the Constitution and its limits on power than George W. Bush. His ridiculous claim that his "signing statements" can alter the laws passed by Congress and his latest claim to alter the rule-making of various government agencies are just two examples.
The outrageous claims by his attorney general that the U.S. could conduct warrantless wiretaps and Internet intercepts and that the Constitution does not guarantee the right of habeas corpus are about as stark a warning that freedom is in grave danger as you could ask for. The Bush administration has politicized science and intelligence and taken this country to war based on lies. It has condoned torture and scoffed at international law by using secret prisons where people are tortured and denied the most basic rights.
The federal authorities can break into your home and plant surveillance devices without notifying you. They can get a list of books you buy or check out of a library and put the bookseller or librarian in prison if the person tells you about it. If you are an alien, perfectly legal, you can still be picked up and held indefinitely.
Of course, it is all done in the name of protecting the American people. That is the standard excuse that has been used since the earliest empires. We're only trying to make sure you're safe, they claim. Well, one should remember that there were no safer streets than Moscow under Stalin or Berlin under Hitler – unless, of course, it was the government that wanted to do you harm.
Given a choice between government security and freedom with risks, always choose freedom. Criminals, including terrorists, don't have much power, but government possesses crushing power. Of course, we Americans are conditioned to view our government as friendly and protective, but that is a mistake.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn made an interesting point in his "Gulag Archipelago." He said the reason so few Russians resisted when the secret police came to get them was because they were innocent. They had done nothing wrong, they were loyal, and they expected their government to realize that their arrest was a mistake. The government didn't, of course, because they were victims of a dictator's paranoia.
Unfortunately, Americans have virtually no control over their government between elections. President Bush has two years to go and can do anything he wants to, including taking us to war with Iran. Government propaganda against Iran is following the exact same pattern as propaganda against Iraq. It is accusing Iran of seeking nuclear weapons in the face of evidence to the contrary. Now it is accusing Iran of making improvised explosive devices for the Iraqi insurgents. That strikes me as a lie. The IED is just a bureaucratic name for a booby trap, and you don't need to be an explosives expert or an electronic wizard to make them.
Congress really has only two choices. It could initiate impeachment proceedings against Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, or it could cut off the funds for the war. I doubt there is enough sand to do either.
February 3, 2007
Charley Reese [send him mail] has been a journalist for 49 years.
© 2007 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
Charley Reese Archives

Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese338.html

CHRIST AND MASONS

Monday, January 08, 2007

Christ and masons

First. Christ, our Master, neither instituted nor countenanced these orders. Reviewing his whole earthly ministry, he said (John xviii: 20): "I spake openly to the world;" and "in secret have I said nothing." By this double affirmation he strongly suggested his preference for open, unsecret ways and proceedings.Secondly. In those rites, proceedings, and regalia which do appear, these orders are frivolous, belittling, and unworthy of respect. If the revealed are such, what must the unrevealed be?Thirdly. These orders stand convicted of deceit and falsehood. They profess secrets and mysteries worth buying. Hundreds of high-minded men, of irreproachable character and integrity, who have, therefore, "renounced these hidden things of dishonesty," testify over their own signatures, that their secrets are but signs, pass-words, ceremonies, etc., covering nothing but emptiness and vanity.Fourthly. These orders are unfriendly to domestic happiness and well-being, breaking in upon the sacred confidence and unity of husband and wife, pledging him to conceal from her the proceedings of perhaps fifty nights yearly, thus often sowing seeds of distrust, filling his breast with what must not be divulged to her, involving him in affairs and habits not unfrequently injurious to the best interests and state of the family.Fifthly. These orders are hostile to the heavenly-mindedness, the spirituality of those who join them. We speak from much testimony. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed." The prudent man foreseeth the evil, but the foolish pass on and are punished. This voice of one is that of many concurring wise, faithful, and godly men, viz.: "I am afraid of these secret societies; they have sucked the spirituality out of all the members in our church who have joined them." Young, promising Christians have often been blighted by them. The fervor of piety, interest in the church and its work, interest in Christ and his people, interest in God's Word and Spirit, all the various elements of an earnest life of faith and heavenly-mindedness have been blighted in these lodges. And in urging this, we appeal to so many witnesses, and cover so wide a field of observation, as to make it certain that this is not the exceptional but the ordinary result.Sixthly. These orders tend to destroy Christian fellowship. Let them grow until a given church is broken into squads, each pledged to secrets from the other, but bound within itself by special ties; give to each its own weekly meeting, mysteries, rites, signs, grips, pass-words; let each be sworn to provide for, protect, shield, and love its own adherents above others, and is not "church fellowship" annihilated? Can the Spirit of Christ flow freely from member to member through such partitions? Is this "one body in Christ, and every one members one of another?"Seventhly. These orders tend to subject the church to "the world" in some of its dearest interests. For example: When a few leading members join a neighboring lodge, and make vows to the "strange" brotherhood, how easy for that lodge to interfere secretly but controllingly in its discipline of members, or in its selection or dismission of a pastor! These suggestions are not merely imaginary. Subjection of the church, in this way, to the cunning craftiness of evil and designing men is no mere dream.Eighthly. These orders dishonor Christ. Those claims which he makes for himself are disallowed. He is required to disappear or find a place amidst other objects for worship. There is a necessity, because these orders are designed for adherents of all religions. Were they on the footing of an insurance company or a merchants' exchange, or any similar body, this fact would not be so. But they profess to include religion among their elements, and its services, in whole or in part, among their ceremonies. They have prayers and solemn religious rites. And in these Christ is dishonored. His exclusive claims are disallowed or ignored, and this not by accident, but of set purpose. Out of twenty-three forms of prayer in the "New Masonic Trestle-Board," (Boston edition, 1850,) only one even alludes to him, and that one in a non-committal way. These secret orders are under bonds not to honor Christ as he claims, lest the Jew, or the Deist, or the Mohammedan, all of whom they seek to enroll in equal membership, should be offended. When the higher "degrees" of Masonry allude to Christ and Christianity, it is but as one amidst many equals. We repeat it: Did these orders stand on the same footing with mercantile or other bodies in this matter, this objection might go for nothing; but they do not. Unlike them, they profess to have religious services. Indeed, they often boast of their religiousness, and avow their full equality in this with the church of God itself! Yet, if you join them, their "constitutions" prohibit you acknowledging, in their boasted religious services, what Christ, your Lord, not only claims for himself, but commands you to give unto him: that glory which is due to his holy name. Are they, then, not Anti-christ in this thing? And can you, without sin, consent to it, or uphold institutions which forbid you and others, in religious services, to honor him as your God and Savior, and which thus place him on the same level with Zoroaster, Confucius, or Mohammed?Ninthly. These orders--the things now alleged being true--impede the cause and kingdom of God, and are, therefore, hostile to the largest, best, and deepest interests of mankind. Recognizing this, churches, conferences, associations, synods, and many eminently godly men, living and dead, have put forth their solemn testimony against them. Great lawyers, like Samuel Dexter; great patriots and statesmen, like Adams, and Webster, and Everett; great communities, like the American people from 1826 to 1830, have united to declare them not only "wrong in their very principles," but "noxious to mankind." But many Christians, rising higher and standing on "a more sure word of prophecy," have discovered in them the enemies of the Gospel and of the cross of Christ. Following him, their great exemplar in philanthropy as in godliness, who did nothing in secret, they refuse to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, choosing rather to reprove them.

Source: http://secretsociety-freemason.blogspot.com/2007/01/christ-and-masons.html

BLACK HAWK DOWN DEJA-VU.

First, a Black Hawk was shot down recently.

Then, it was an Apache Helicopter;

Now, it's a Chinook Chopper.

What and when is it enough?

That's right you didn't go to Viet-Nam to learn the lessons of that failed "Police Action".

Yet, you so willingly went to Ho-Chi-Min City, recently to receive The Keys to the City.

Now that's courage

When the citizenry is inebriated and obsessed with "Superbowls and Tatoos"; Yet, oblivious to recent history.

Anyone can re-write it, or act as if it never occured! Thereby, govern by decree. Nobody will notice the ironies.

PROPHECY AND WORLD HISTORY

Today the signs of the times tell us that we are standing on the threshold of grave and controversial events. It seems that the entire world is in an uproar. Before our eyes, the prophecy of Jesus in reference to the events just before His second coming are being fulfilled:
"And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars…. For nation will rise against nation... And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows" Matt. 24:6-8.
The present and future are of great interest for all mankind. More and more people realize that something great and decisive is about to take place; that the world is on the brink of an overwhelming crisis. The daily news is filled with catastrophes and violence of every kind. Jesus Himself prophesied that during the time of the end there would be
"on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity…" and "Men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth..." Luke 21:25-26.

The Amazing Prophecy of the Great World Empires
In the Bible, especially in the books of Daniel (Dan.) and in Revelation (Rev.), many events both historical and present-day are clearly prophesied. A careful study of these books helps us to see God's purpose in the history of nations. It helps us to understand the true meaning and purpose of life and the plan of salvation for mankind through God's Son Jesus Christ.
Over 2600 years ago, the prophet Daniel foretold the rise of the great world empires, namely Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and what is known in the present-day as Europe. In a dream, Daniel saw a great image whose body parts symbolized the exact sequence of those world empires:
"This image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay" Dan. 2:32-33.
Those great world empires and their unique characteristics were revealed to the prophet, this time symbolized as beasts.
"Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise..." Dan. 7:17,
as "...the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea" Dan. 7:2.
Rev. 17:15 explains that "water" represents "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues", while "winds" symbolize wars Jeremiah 4:11-16. The four winds of heaven, which strove upon the great sea, represent the terrible conquests by which those kingdoms came to power.
In the pages linked to the image of Daniel 2 (on this page) you will find a brief account of the secular history of these various eras. This will give you the evidence you need to place these prophecies where they belong in the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and the confidence in God that will lead you in a closer walk with Him.
Mysterious Babylon Beast Of Daniel 7 Seal Of God Mark Of The BeastJudgement Time U.S. In Bible Prophecy Who Changed Gods' Law?
Prophecy and World History is part of the Earth's Final Warning Website - Updated October 2, 2005

Source: http://www.earthsfinalwarning.com/

NATIONAL "ID" BACKLASH

States challenge nat‘l driver‘s license 2007/2

By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press Writer Sun Feb 4, 10:36 PM ET

WASHINGTON - A revolt against a national driver‘s license, begun in Maine last month, is quickly spreading to other states.
Within a week of Maine‘s action, lawmakers in Georgia, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington state also balked at Real ID. They are expected soon to pass laws or adopt resolutions declining to participate in the federal identification network.
The law‘s supporters say it is needed to prevent terrorists and illegal immigrants from getting fake identification cards.
About a dozen states have active legislation against Real ID, including Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.
"This is almost a frontal assault on the freedoms of America when they require us to carry a national ID to monitor where we are," Guest said in an interview Saturday. "That‘s going too far."
Though most states oppose the law, some such as Indiana and Maryland are looking to comply with Real ID, Sundeen said.
Republic, , ) of New Hampshire, , , ) of Hawaii, filed a bill last year to repeal the law. Sununu expects similar legislation will be introduced soon.
Privacy advocates say a national driver‘s license will promote identity theft.
Barry Steinhardt, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union , said the Real ID ordered by Congress would require a digital photo and probably a fingerprint on each driver‘s license or state-issued ID card. That, he said, will make it more valuable to identity thieves because the ID card will be accepted as much more than a driving credential.
An identity thief, he said, could buy a Real ID from a rogue motor vehicle department employee with is own photo and fingerprint on it.
"The victim is never going to be able to undo this," Steinhardt said.
Other criticisms include:
_Some states will have to invest millions in new computer systems that can communicate with federal databases. That is something they probably will not accomplish by the deadline.
_It will be difficult to comply with the requirement that license applicants prove they are in the country legally. There are more than 100 different immigration statutes, Steinhardt said, which will pose problems for motor vehicle clerks unfamiliar with immigration law.
_It does not solve the problem of terrorism. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and some of the hijackers from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, had legitimate driver‘s licenses.
_Even the requirement that applicants‘ full legal names appear on licenses will pose problems because some states limit the number of characters on the face of the card.
___
On the Net:
Background on Real ID Act: http://www.ncsl.org/standcomm/sctran/realidsummary05.htm
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.onelocalnews.com/newhopecourier/ViewArticle.aspx?id=56425&source=2

MEATLESS PUPPETS

Meatless Puppets

Eat your greens: chewing over the history and politics of vegetarianism

by Lenora Todaro

February 2nd, 2007 4:34 PM

Two announcements regarding food sailed quietly by in December 2006: The FDA endorsed meat and milk from cloned cows, ignoring concerns raised about its safety by scientists; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture appointed representatives from General Mills and Campbell's Soup, among others, to fill seats on the National Organic Standards Board—seats meant for a scientist, consumer advocate, and environmentalist.

Whether you're a vegetarian or carnivore, these pieces of information up the ante on the age-old dilemma: What should we eat? Once you get past the basics, the questions get thorny. How much pollution from large-scale agribusiness can the environment (and thus our bodies) absorb? What type of farming yields healthier food for more people? How much animal suffering, if any, are we willing to accept?

Historically, one solution to these dilemmas was to become vegetarian. Tristram Stuart, a Cambridge-educated deer hunter and veteran dumpster-diver, makes an ecological argument in The Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism from 1600 to Modern Times. Stuart argues that the affluent West (and increasingly China) must reduce consumption of meat to conserve resources for future generations—in particular to preserve forests and water and emit fewer greenhouse gases.

It's a strong argument for eating more vegetables with your fresh venison. Stuart devotes most of his book, however, to meticulously detailing the varieties of vegetarian experience in Europe over the last 400 years. War made 17th- and 18th-century Europeans question the necessity of meat-eating in the face of oppression and food shortages. And when travelers to India returned with accounts of a nation of pacifist vegetarians, the European belief in human dominance came under scrutiny. When Sir Isaac Newton saw that gravity united the universe, he wondered if there might be a moral law to unite creatures as well. As Stuart notes throughout the book, the battle lines were drawn and are still more or less in place today. Scholarly and at times colorful, The Bloodless Revolution follows the tides of vegetarian thought as one generation influences the next, but it also gets at what it means to be human, part of something larger than oneself.

The book sometimes reads like a cross between the New York Review of Books —pinpointing the intellectual fissures of the vegetarians versus meat-eaters debate—and a People magazine for the 17th and 18th centuries. It's a vegetarian "Who's Who" of the last 400 years (Stuart stops at 1945): Descartes, Benjamin Franklin, Voltaire, Gandhi, Hitler, Kafka. Colorful evangelizers made influential arguments on behalf of vegetarianism: 17th-century Roger Crab, a hat-maker/soldier turned hermit made the economic argument (meat-eating equals wealth equals inequality) and the religious one (at the time of Adam and Eve, God provided a fruit, herb, and vegetable diet; after Noah's flood meat-eating plunged mankind into violence; to purify oneself meant returning to the diet of Eden). 18th-century George Cheyne, "a drunken fatso" who had a falling-out with Newton, embraced vegetarianism and slimmed down. A "celebrity doctor," he prescribed a form of bulimia and then mercury, poisoning his clients until they adopted a milk-and-vegetable diet.

Bloodless Revolution chronicles a European veggie history over an American one and fortunately for Stuart, the latest wrinkle in the eater's dilemma—genetically modified (GM) foods—has been mostly banned by the European Union, where they have been dubbed "Frankenfoods." In the U.S., GM products entered the food chain circa 1994, having been altered genetically by scientists to have desirable features— say an internal pesticide. About 80 percent of American supermarket foods now contain GM ingredients. But what happens when a laboratory-created gene for antibiotic resistance enters the human gut?

Heralded as safe by agrichemical corporations like Monsanto—makers, once upon a time, of Agent Orange and DDT—GM foods are not required to be labeled, despite a 2003 ABC News poll in which 92 percent of Americans said they desired such information. "The motivation of biotechnology companies for opposing labeling is obvious," writes nutritionist and NYU professor Marion Nestle in her recent book What To Eat. "You might choose not to buy them." The medical argument in support of vegetarianism, as Nestle puts it, is "the meat industry's big public relations problem" because vegetarians have a lower risk of heart disease and certain cancers. But today some staple foods in a vegetarian diet—like soy and corn—are large-scale GM crops. And with the jury still out (or silenced depending upon your perspective), their safety remains questionable.

Jeffrey M. Smith, director of the Institute for Responsible Technology, makes one of the stronger cases against GM foods in his book Seeds of Deception. He points out that in one study, rats fed GM tomatoes developed stomach lesions; cows, when given a choice to eat GM or non-GM grain, choose non; in the early '90s when documents were submitted to the FDA urging long-term safety tests on rBGH (a synthetic hormone) in milk, the request was rejected by Michael Taylor, the FDA's deputy commissioner for policy and a former attorney for Monsanto, who later became one of its vice presidents.

The long-running bloodless revolution Stuart details continues, fueled by figures like Jeffrey M. Smith, an evangelizer against GM foods who stands on a soapbox decrying the toxins that course through our veins, invisible until they take the form of cancer or some as yet unnamed disease.

Source: http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0706,todaro,75710,10.html

NYC ON SHORT LEASH

Number of People Stopped by Police Soars in New York

NY Times February 3, 2007

AL BAKER and EMILY VASQUEZ

The New York Police Department released new information yesterday showing that police officers stopped 508,540 individuals on New York City streets last year — an average of 1,393 stops per day — often searching them for illegal weapons. The number was up from 97,296 in 2002, the last time the department divulged 12 months' worth of data.
After inquiries by the City Council and civil rights advocates, the department delivered four bound volumes of statistics to the Council in midafternoon. The raw data showed that more than half of those stopped last year were black: an average of 67,000 per quarter.
At the same time, the average number of people arrested per quarter as a result of such stops almost doubled to 5,317 last year, from 2,819 in 2002, and summonses nearly quintupled, to a quarterly average of 7,292 last year from 1,461 in 2002.
Until yesterday, the most recent information released by the Police Department about how and why it stops people to search them, sometimes looking for illegal guns, was from 2003, according to city officials and city and court records. Some officials have said that lag put the department at odds with a pair of legal requirements that sprang from public outrage at the 1999 fatal police shooting of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed black street peddler.
The department, which rejects such assertions, has not released numbers from 2004 and 2005, or from the last three months of 2003.
Those who review the data are now grappling with dual issues: determining why the Police Department waited so long to release any new figures, and why it is stopping more people and searching them.
The issue of these police-public encounters — called “stop and frisks” — became an emotional flashpoint after the shooting of Mr. Diallo, whose death in a barrage of 41 police bullets led to weeks of protests and scores of arrests outside 1 Police Plaza, in Lower Manhattan.
Many of the protesters contended that there was a pattern of racial profiling in stop-and-frisks. A state study later in 1999 confirmed racial disparities in such stops.
The guidelines to monitor stop-and-frisks in detail were set forth in a city law signed in 2001, and in a federal court case settled by the Bloomberg administration in 2004. Both called for the Police Department to release to the City Council, four times a year, basic data about the people who are stopped and questioned by officers, and the reasons for such encounters.
But until yesterday, it had been a year since the department reported its stop-and-frisk activity, and those numbers dated from a three-month period ending in September 2003.
In the meantime, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent city agency that investigates charges of police misconduct, found that complaints involving stops and searches have more than doubled in recent years, increasing to 2,556 last year from 1,128 in 2003. Complaints involving police stops now account for 33 percent of all complaints, up from 20 percent in 2003.
At a City Council hearing on Jan. 24, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly assured council members that his officers were not practicing racial profiling in street stops.
“Officers are stopping those they reasonably suspect of committing a crime, based on descriptions and circumstances,” Mr. Kelly said, “and not on personal bias.”
Paul J. Browne, the chief police spokesman, said later that the department's analysis of the numbers showed that while 55.2 percent of the stop encounters last year involved blacks, 68.5 percent of crimes involved suspects described as black by their victims (or by witnesses, in the case of homicides). Hispanics, he said, made up 30.5 percent of those stopped and 24.5 percent of suspected offenders. For whites, he said, the numbers were 11.1 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively.
Mr. Browne said that aggressive street enforcement was partly responsible for the increase in stop-and-frisks. Also, he said, “careful accounting” of such encounters by the department in recent years made the increase seem greater. “Part of it is taking guns off the street and responding to complaints where we use stop-and-frisk,” he said.
It was unclear last night how much of the increase in stops was due to suspected gun possession or how many led to gun arrests. Mr. Browne could not confirm a direct line between gun arrests and increases in stops, and said officers' efforts to take guns off the streets were just one facet of the crime suppression the stop-and-frisk forms reflected.
The 2006 figures, delivered yesterday by two officers in plain clothes, were contained in four books of about 250 pages each. Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., chairman of the Council's public safety committee, said his staff was unable to interpret the numbers immediately.
The department's lag in releasing the numbers came to light after the fatal shooting in November of another unarmed black man, Sean Bell, and has been seized on by civil rights advocates, academics and current and former government officials. Mr. Bell's death was not related to a stop-and-frisk operation, but it has become a valve for frustrations over relations between the police and minority residents. But members of the City Council said they had been requesting the material even before the Bell shooting.
Jeffrey Fagan, a professor of law and public health at Columbia University who studied the issue in 1999 for Eliot Spitzer, then the attorney general, said he was not surprised that the number of stop-and-frisks went up “during a period of no accountability.”
But, he added, “it is an astonishing fact that stop rates went up by 500 percent when crime rates were flat.” Police officials and a city lawyer said there were several reasons the department had fallen behind in releasing the numbers. Compiling the reports, they said, has been hampered by antiquated technology, especially since the numbers have risen. The department has been working to modernize its reporting system, officials said, and has not been withholding the data deliberately.
Some observers questioned whether producing data on street stops remained on the department's front burner during the age of terrorism.
“I just don't think it's a priority,” Dr. Fagan said of the data collection.
The total number of stops includes cases in which the officers acted to prevent what could have been terrorist activity, the police said. But those stops are relatively rare, they said, and there is no separate category for keeping track of them. Searches of subway riders' bags are not considered stop-and-frisk encounters because people willing to forgo entry to the subway can decline them.
Joel Berger, who monitored matters of police conduct as an executive in the city's Law Department from 1988 to 1996, said: “It is particularly frightening that the Police Department is not following the statute that requires reporting on stop, question and frisks. It is the thing that happens most often and most troubles people, and the failure to report the numbers is, effectively, very alarming.”
Mr. Spitzer first dug into the issue of street stops after the Diallo shooting and found that Hispanics and blacks were being disproportionately targeted. After adjusting for varying crime rates among racial groups, his analysis found that blacks were stopped 23 percent more often than whites. Hispanics were stopped 39 percent more often than whites.
In the wake of those findings, the city signed a law allowing the Council to collect the Police Department's stop-and-frisk data on a quarterly basis. Separately, the federal class-action lawsuit, Daniels v. City of New York, alleged that the police habitually used racial profiling in stop-and-frisk situations. When the city's corporation counsel settled the case in January 2004, the agreement required the police to disclose data on such encounters through 2007.
The idea was that increased transparency about police stops would not only foster analysis of one of the department's most crucial tactics for reducing crime, but also would help restore the public's trust.
Mr. Spitzer's study reviewed police records known as UF-250s. Officers must fill them out after making forcible stops, including those in which a person is frisked or searched. His report noted that officers did not always fill them out. The form shows the race of the person stopped as well as the reason.
Under a system begun in the spring of 1999, police officials said, forms completed at individual precincts were taken to 1 Police Plaza, where their 50 points of data were gathered. Envisioning a daunting backlog, Mr. Kelly in 2005 directed that the process be decentralized so that the raw data could be recorded quickly, at the precinct level.
Mr. Kelly told officials at the Jan. 24 hearing that the data for the remainder of 2003, and for all of 2004 and 2005, would take longer to provide. That is “because it must be compiled manually, rather than in a technologically advanced way,” according to a letter sent Thursday from the Law Department to a plaintiff in the federal case.
“We've been patiently waiting for years now,” Councilman Vallone, told Mr. Kelly at the hearing. “We would again request that you give us that information.”
For a time, the police gave the data to the City Council with some regularity. But the frequency of the reports slowed, and in February 2006, the department released data for the third quarter of 2003.
Then, the flow of data stopped. Until yesterday.
But city leaders came under criticism as well for failing to more forcefully demand the data. “The City Council has failed to ensure that the Police Department is producing the reports, as required by the statute,” said Christopher Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “As a result, it has not been doing any monitoring of stop-and-frisk activity, which was the very point of the statute.”

Source: www.infowars.com

HRC'S LOGIC

The logic of the Lizard Queen

Posted: February 5, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern

It is always interesting to watch the media shape the electoral possibilities during the early stages of the presidential campaign. Those who still operate under the illusion that America is a democracy, even the limited form of democracy known as representative democracy, would do well to study the process by which prospective candidates are divided into permissible and not permissible categories.
The media's preferred term is, of course, ''electable'' and ''unelectable'', but it is easy enough to show that these are inaccurate and intentionally misleading terms. For example, a reasonable observer would conclude that the two most unelectable candidates of the apparent field are Rudy Giuliani and B. Hussein Obama.
It's worth noting that Giuliani couldn't win a Senate race against a carpet-bagging Hillary Clinton, holds a panoply of views that are expressly contrary to his nominal party's platform, is a poor speaker and has no record of achievement except for having successfully fought crime in a single city. His candidacy is primarily based on his grand accomplishment of ''holding the city together after 9/11'', which is about as nebulous as an accomplishment can get and still be articulated; it's not as if New Yorkers were on the verge of breaking into civil war or fleeing the city en masse and leaving an empty, depopulated shell behind.
Moreover, there's a reason Newt Gingrich didn't dare list New York City and Washington D.C. among his list of potential targets should Iran acquire only three nuclear devices. Considering the very low esteem in which those two cities are held by a substantial minority of Americans, Gingrich's attempted scaremongering would have had the opposite effect. Indeed, if Ahmadinejad would only promise to take out Hollywood with his third nuke, he'd probably find it easier to raise funds across America than UNICEF.
(We pause here for a moment to allow the professionally offended to take a deep breath and commence with the shrieking. ... The point, which will no doubt be ignored, is that ''saving New York City'' isn't necessarily the big national plus that the New York-based media believes it to be.)
Amazingly, B. Hussein's candidacy is even less credible than the sometime drag queen's. While Obama is, as Sen. Joe Biden informs us, an exemplary Negro who can be trusted not to break into inopportune rap or be found in the company of young women with an unaccountable predilection for poop-rolling, there are a few small matters such as the cocaine use, the Muslim schooling and the mysterious biographical gaps to be taken into account. And given that the American electorate has not hitherto been prone to electing many blacks, senators or people named Hussein as their president, his oft-asserted ''electability'' is more than a little suspect.
A comparison with Tom Tancredo is illuminating. Rep. Tancredo is an elected politician of no particular achievement in the forefront of one of America's most popular political movements, the anti-illegals wave. Obama is an elected politician of no particular achievement primarily known for being black and taking showers. Which one sounds more ''electable'' to you? Naturally, the media has announced that America is pining for a leader who doesn't fear running water and they will repeat this ad infinitum until it becomes sufficiently true.
Of course, as the recent polls demonstrate, no one actually intends to vote for Obama. He is merely a feel-good candidate, one who allows white liberals to engage in their ritual demonstration of moral superiority prior to voting for whoever the party machinery decides will be its standard bearer. Since the Democratic anointment has already fallen upon the Lizard Queen, Obama merely serves as a much-needed distraction for the next eighteen months, for which his reward will likely be the vice-presidency.
Since the Republicans are showing every sign of nominating the only sort of candidate who could lose to Ms. Rodham-Clinton, a pro-war moderate Republican guaranteed to keep conservatives home on election day, the only way Hillary can blow her chances of becoming President Rodham is by failing to tack right on immigration during the general campaign. Whichever party runs anti-Iraq and anti-illegals will claim the Cherry Blossom Throne, at this point, the only candidate likely to do so is the Lizard Queen.
And don't forget that none of this means either of those policies will change once she has ascended the throne, changed her name and shed her human skin. She'll be far too busy making use of the Patriot Acts and other liberty-enhancing tools which the present regime has so helpfully constructed in preparation for her coming.
As for me, I tend to agree with those who argue that Americans deserve better and shouldn't be content with settling for the lesser evil. Fa'thagn Cthulhu! Cthulhu 2008!
Vox Day is a novelist and Christian libertarian. He is a member of the SFWA, Mensa and the Southern Baptist church, and has been down with Madden since 1992. Visit his Web log, Vox Popoli, for daily commentary and responses to reader e-mail.

Source: http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54093

TEXAS MANDATES VACCINES

From the NewsMax.com Staff

For the story behind the story... Friday, Feb. 2, 2007 3:57 p.m. EST

Texas Gov. Mandates Cancer Vaccine for Girls

Gov. Rick Perry ordered Friday that schoolgirls in Texas must be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, making Texas the first state to require the shots.
The girls will have to get Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that are responsible for most cases of cervical cancer.
Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass laws in state legislatures across the country mandating it Gardasil vaccine for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.
Details of the order were not immediately available, but the governor's office confirmed to The Associated Press that he was signing the order and he would comment Friday afternoon.
Perry has several ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company's three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, his former chief of staff. His current chief of staff's mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.
Toomey was expected to be able to woo conservative legislators concerned about the requirement stepping on parent's rights and about signaling tacit approval of sexual activity to young girls. Delisi, as head of the House public health committee, which likely would have considered legislation filed by a Democratic member, also would have helped ease conservative opposition.
Perry also received $6,000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign.
It wasn't immediately clear how long the order would last and whether the legislation was still necessary. However it could have been difficult to muster support from lawmakers who champion abstinence education and parents' rights.
Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion rights and stem-cell research using embryonic cells, counts on the religious right for his political base.
But he has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different than the one that protects children against polio.
"If there are diseases in our society that are going to cost us large amounts of money, it just makes good economic sense, not to mention the health and well being of these individuals to have those vaccines available," he said.
Texas allows parents to opt out of inoculations by filing an affidavit stating that he or she objected to the vaccine for religious or philosophical reasons.
Even with such provisions, however, conservative groups say mandates take away parents' rights to be the primary medical decision maker for their children.
The federal government approved Gardasil in June, and a government advisory panel has recommended that all girls get the shots at 11 and 12, before they are likely to be sexually active.
The New Jersey-based drug company could generate billions in sales if Gardasil - at $360 for the three-shot regimen - were made mandatory across the country. Most insurance companies now cover the vaccine, which has been shown to have no serious side effects.
Merck spokeswoman Janet Skidmore would not say how much the company is spending on lobbyists or how much it has donated to Women in Government. Susan Crosby, the group's president, also declined to specify how much the drug company gave.
A top official from Merck's vaccine division sits on Women in Government's business council, and many of the bills around the country have been introduced by members of Women in Government.
© 2007 Associated Press.

Source: http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/2/2/155930.shtml?s=he

THEATRICAL PERFOMANCES AND APPLAUSE

Applause and Theatrical Performances In the Seventh-day Adventist Church

Ellen G.White Comments

THE DANGER OF APPLAUSE

Wealth or high position, costly equipment, architecture or furnishings, are not essential to the advancement of the work of God; neither are achievements that win applause from men and administer to vanity. . . .
Ellen G. White, Ministry of Healing, page 36. (emphasis supplied).

'Unless the minister shall fearlessly declare the whole truth, unless he shall have an eye single to the glory of God and shall work under the direction of the great Captain of his salvation,' Ellen White warned, 'unless he shall move to the front, irrespective of censure and uncontaminated by applause, he will be accounted an unfaithful watchman.' (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, page 263, emphasis supplied).

The Pharisees sought distinction by their scrupulous ceremonialism and the ostentation of their worship and their charities. They proved their zeal for religion by making it the theme of discussion. Disputes between opposing sects were loud and long, and it was not unusual to hear on the streets the voice of angry controversy from learned doctors of the law.
In marked contrast to all this was the life of Jesus. In that life no noisy disputation, no ostentatious worship, no act to gain applause, was ever witnessed. . . .
Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, page 261; Ministry of Healing, page 32. (emphasis supplied).
Jesus did not seek the admiration or the applause of men. . . . He did not court the favor of the wealthy and honored of the world. . . . He set at nought the artificial distinctions of society. The aristocracy of birth, wealth, talent, learning rank, He ignored.
Ellen G. White, Ministry of Healing, page 197. (emphasis supplied).
'In the heart of Christ, where reigned perfect harmony with God, there was perfect peace,' Ellen White wrote. 'He was never elated by applause. . ..' (ibid., Desire of Ages, page 330, emphasis supplied).
The fact that their minds turn in this channel is proof that they are of an inferior order, narrow, conceited, and selfish. They feel high above the lowly and humble poor, such as Jesus says He has called. They are forever trying to secure position, to gain applause, to obtain credit for doing some great work that others cannot do. . . .
Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 2, page 466. (emphasis supplied).
Some ministers of ability who are now preaching present truth, love approbation. Applause stimulates them, as the glass of wine does the inebriate. Place these ministers where they have a small congregation which promises no special excitement and which provokes no decided opposition, and they will lose their interest and zeal, and appear as languid in the work as the inebriate when he is deprived of his dram. These men will fail to make real, practical laborers until they learn to labor without the excitement of applause.
Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 3, pages 185-186. (emphasis supplied).
If, in connection with the theory of the truth, our ministers would dwell more upon practical godliness, speaking from a heart imbued with the spirit of truth, we should see many more souls flocking to the standard of truth; their hearts would be touched by the pleadings of the cross of Christ, the infinite generosity and pity of Jesus in suffering for man. These vital subjects, in connection with the doctrinal points of our faith, would effect much good among the people. But the heart of the teacher must be filled with the experimental knowledge of the love of Christ.
. . . If all the proud and vainglorious, whose hearts are panting for the applause of men and for distinction above their fellows, could rightly estimate the value of the highest earthly glory in contrast with the value of the Son of God, rejected, despised, spit upon, by the very ones whom He came to redeem, how insignificant would appear all the honor that finite man can bestow.
Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 4, page 375. (emphasis supplied).
Self-esteem and self-flattery will be sure to stir up in the heart resentment against any who venture to question one's course of action. . .. Self-sufficiency must be overcome. Love of applause, must be seen as a snare. . . .
Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers, page 250. (emphasis supplied).
'Many receive applause for virtues which they do not possess,' Ellen White stated. 'The Searcher of hearts inspects motives, and often the deeds which are highly applauded by men are recorded by Him as springing from selfish motives and base hypocrisy. . ..' (Testimonies for the Church, page 512, emphasis supplied).

THEATRICAL PERFORMANCES IN THE CHURCH

There is an abundance of theatrical performances in our world, but in its highest order it is without God. We need now to point souls to the uplifted Saviour. Deceptions, impositions, and every evil work are in our world. Satan, the wily foe in angel's garments, is working to deceive and destroy. The object of the death of Christ was to declare His righteousness, and no man, woman or child can do this in his own strength, or by his own words.
. . . But they have not had an experimental knowledge of what is truth. The principles of truth have never been stamped upon their souls. The deceptive temptation that they can be a blessing to the world while serving as actresses is a delusion and a snare, not only to themselves, but to your own soul. Said Christ, 'Without Me ye can do nothing.' Can the Lord Jesus Christ accept these theatrical exhibitions as service done for Him? No. All this kind of work is done in the service of another leader. . . .
Ellen G. White, Letter 58a, 1898; Manuscript Release #909 (emphasis supplied).
I am instructed that we shall meet with all kinds of experiences and that men will try to bring strange performances into the work of God. We have met such things in many places. In my very first labors the message was given that all theatrical performances in connection with the preaching of present truth were to be discouraged and forbidden. Men who thought they had a wonderful work to do sought to adopt a strange deportment and manifested oddities in bodily exercise. The light given me was, 'Give this no sanction.' These performances, which savored of the theatrical, were to have no place in the proclamation of the solemn messages entrusted to us.
Ellen G. White, Evangelism, page 137 (emphasis supplied).
Death, clad in the livery of heaven, lurks in the pathway of the young. Sin is gilded over by church sanctity. These various forms of amusement in the churches of our day have ruined thousands who, but for them, might have remained upright and become the followers of Christ. Wrecks of character have been made by these fashionable church festivals and theatrical performances, and thousands more will be destroyed; yet people will not be aware of the danger, nor of the fearful influences exerted. Many young men and women have lost their souls through these corrupting influences.--R.& H., Nov. 21, 1878.
Ellen G. White, Counsels on Stewardship, page 202(emphasis supplied).

VIDEO MOVIES IN THE HOME

If Ellen G. White were alive today, what would she say about watching video movies at home? The following testimony should shed light on the subject.
God has committed to my care children, not to train for worldly amusement, but for Heaven; and it is my duty to place them in the best possible conditions to understand their duty to God, and to become heirs of immortality. It is impossible for me to be guiltless if I place them in the way of temptation, where there is danger of their being thrown into every class of society, and being corrupted by surrounding influences. There is enough frivolity existing all around us, having a tendency to discourage serious impressions, and to put God out of the mind. Thousands of youth have bid fair to be an honor to their parents, and useful members in society, who have in an evil hour yielded to the Tempter who came in the form of a professed friend, and for the first time broke over the barrier to their conscience and attended the theater, to see and hear the performance of some celebrated actor. Everything fascinates them--their imagination is lively--their senses, their hearts, are carried away captive-- they are intoxicated with excitement. They leave the theater; but their imagination continues to dwell upon the scenes they have witnessed, and they are anxious to go again, and again. They acquire a passion to witness THEATRICAL PERFORMANCES. At times they may be convicted that card-playing and attending theaters are not having a beneficial influence upon their health and morals; yet they do not possess sufficient fortitude and independence to tear away from these exciting pleasures. They may strengthen themselves with the thought that physicians have not only attended theaters themselves, but have recommended others to do so, and these physicians were Christians. They thus stifle conscience with the example of worldly, pleasure-loving, professed Christians [Seventh-day Adventists]. They have learned to play cards, considering it an innocent amusement. In attending the theater they place themselves in the most dangerous company, and are exposed to the deceptive, fascinating charms of the gambler, the sensualist, and that class of females 'whose steps take hold on hell.' They yield to temptation, and continue their downward course until their consciences become seared, and they will not hesitate to degrade themselves by any vice.
Ellen G. White, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, February 20, 1866 (emphasis supplied).

Source: http://www.a4t.org/Toolbox/applause-theater.html

CONFEDERACY?

Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.

Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.

For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,

Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.

Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.

Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?

To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

ISAIAH 8: 9-20 KJV.

*(Picture inset) ON LEFT IS JEB BUSH (EX- GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA) CATHOLIC CONVERT, EX- METHODIST!

LUKE 15

Luke 15

1Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.
2And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
3And he spake this parable unto them, saying,
4What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
5And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
6And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.
7I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
8Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?
9And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.
10Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
11And he said, A certain man had two sons:
12And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
13And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
14And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
15And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
16And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
17And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
18I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
19And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
20And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
21And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
22But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
23And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:
24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
25Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing.
26And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant.
27And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.
28And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.
29And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:
30But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.
31And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.
32It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

FLORIDA STORM KILLS 14

Powerful Storms Kill at Least 14 in Florida
By JIM ELLIS
AP
LADY LAKE, Fla. (Feb. 2) - At least 14 people were killed early Friday as severe thunderstorms and at least one tornado struck central Florida, flattening hundreds of homes and a church, causing power outages and lifting a tractor trailer into the air, officials said.

Jump Below: Watch VideoWeather Resources:Local Seven-Day ForecastNational Severe Weather Alert MapNational Doppler Radar MapTalk About It: Post Thoughts
The tornado appeared to be the deadliest to hit Florida since 1998. Dozens of mobile homes in a 20-square-mile area of Lady Lake and other towns were destroyed by the storms that hit in the middle of the night. Chairs, beds and clothes were strewn about yards, with debris hanging from trees. Some homes were tossed from their foundations, while others had their roofs ripped off. Residents startled out of bed by the noise later came back to their homes, trying to look for friends or loved ones in the rubble and salvage anything that wasn't blown apart. "I'm not going to be able to live here, but it could have been worse," said Lady Lake trailer park resident Tammy Peace. "All of this can be replaced, but life can't be."

'They Came at the Worst Time'
Lake County spokesman Christopher Patton confirmed the 14 deaths to The Associated Press. Eleven deaths were reported in Paisley and three in Lady Lake, he said, both towns in Lake County about 50 miles northwest of Orlando. Two victims were teenagers, but no further details were available on the other fatalities. "The most dangerous tornado scenario is a threat for killer tornadoes at night, and that was the case," said Dave Sharp, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Melbourne. Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency for Volusia, Sumter, Lake and Seminole counties and planned to head to the area to handle his first natural disaster since taking office last month. State emergency manager Craig Fugate estimated that hundreds of homes were destroyed. "Our priority today is search and rescue," Crist told reporters in Tallahassee at the state Emergency Operations Center.

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He said he was in contact with the White House, but Fugate reassured Floridians that experience gained from the eight hurricanes to hit the state in 2004 and 2005 would help the response. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has offered assistance, including a damage team to go out with state and local crews. Lady Lake was one of the worst hit areas. The Lady Lake Church of God was demolished, its pews, altar and Bibles left in a jumbled, leveled mess. The 31-year-old, steel-reinforced structure was built to withstand 150-mph winds, the Rev. Larry Lynn said. By daybreak, parishioners gathered on the lot where the church once stood, hugging each other and consoling Lynn. They planned to clear the debris and hold Sunday services on the empty lot. "That's just the building, the people are the church. We'll be back bigger and stronger," Lynn said. Two of the 14 dead in Lake County were teenagers, a male freshman at Umatilla High School and a 17-year-old Leesburg High School female student who lived in Lady Lake, an official said. The names of the teens weren't released. Damage also was severe in The Villages retirement community, where Lee Shaver shielded his wife Irene with his body while huddling in a closet as the roof peeled off their home. Fence posts launched as projectiles were embedded into the wall of their home, Irene Shaver said. "Every muscle and bone in my body shook," said Lee Shaver, 54. "We don't know what to do. We have no cell phones, wallets, IDs." In Volusia County, more than 100 homes were damaged in New Smyrna Beach and 10 people were transported to hospitals countywide with injuries, officials said. A county medical clinic in DeLand was severely damaged, officials said. "We heard a big boom then we heard the freight-train noise. All five of us got in the closet," said Linda Craig, 44, who lives in Hontoon Island, a heavily damaged area of Volusia County. Many homes were turned into rubble along Lake Mack. Vern Huber, 87, said his weather radio went off around 3:30 a.m. and he and his wife, Louedna, 81, huddled in the hall and put pillows from the couch on top of themselves. "It was a deafening roar," Huber said. The storms moved across portions of Sumter and Lake counties about 3:15 a.m. and then headed to Volusia County, said Peggy Glitto, another weather service meteorologist in Melbourne. Forecasters started issuing tornado warnings for central Florida around midnight, but by midday, the tornado threat had diminished significantly, Sharp said. "I can say with high confidence that it's tornado damage. It's not straight-line wind damage," Sharp said. At least five separate crashes took place within a quarter mile of each other near Interstate 4's New Smyrna Beach exit, shutting the highway down for about three hours. The most serious one was when a semitrailer was lifted up and landed on another semi, pinning the driver in his cab, said Kim Miller, a spokeswoman with the Florida Highway Patrol. The driver didn't suffer life-threatening injuries. Exit signs along the highway were torn down and uprooted trees lay along the road, Miller said. About 10,000 customers were without power across a wide swath of central Florida, Progress Energy spokeswoman Cherie Jacobs said. But repair crews were already out restoring service as the storms passed. Florida Power & Light reported about 200 customers were without power in the DeLand area. The state's Department of Emergency Management already had crews in the area for an unrelated event that are now being used to help, spokesman Mike Stone said. Several counties opened shelters for those who lost their homes. Friday's storms were reminiscent of past tornados during years where El Nino was a weather factor. In February 1998, five twisters hit near Orlando over two days, killing 42 people and damaging or destroying about 2,600 homes and businesses, according to the National Weather Service. It was Florida's deadliest tornado event on record. Associated Press reporters Curt Anderson, Damian Grass, Suzette Laboy, Stephen Majors, Adrian Sainz and Ron Word contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-02-02 10:36:05

Source: http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/

P.S. By day's end, 19 deaths were reported due to the tornados.

CARTOON HOAX AFFECTS BOSTON

TV Network Takes Responsibility For 'Hoax Devices'
Crews Respond To Bridges, Hospital
Jamy Pombo, Senior News Editor
POSTED: 2:08 pm EST January 31, 2007
UPDATED: 6:49 pm EST January 31, 2007

BOSTON -- Turner Broadcasting plans to take responsibility for the "hoax devices" that were found at several locations in and around Boston Wednesday that forced police bomb units to scramble throughout the area.
The incidents were part of a marketing campaign that involved a character from the cartoon show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."
"The 'packages' in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger. They are part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities in support of Adult Swim's animated television show 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force,'" Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of Cartoon Network, said in a statement.

The company said that they have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Turner Broadcasting is in contact with local and federal law enforcement on the exact location of the billboards, according to the statement, and regrets that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger.
The cartoon airs as part of the Adult Swim late-night block of programs on the Cartoon Network. It features characters called "mooninites," who were pictured on the found devices. A feature length film based on the cartoon is scheduled to be released late next month.
Gov. Deval Patrick praised the response of law enforcement and said that he was "dismayed to learn that many of the devices are a part of a marketing campaign by Turner Broadcasting."
"This stunt has caused considerable disruption and anxiety in our community. I understand that Turner Broadcasting has purported to apologize for this. I intend nonetheless to consult with the attorney general and other advisors about what recourse we may have," Patrick said.
"Emergency deployment teams were sent into the center of the city immediately upon these reports. There were significant shutdowns of not only highways, but rail traffic with the MBTA," Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said. "Several of the devices do have common characteristics, but it is too early to say how many are connected."
The first device was found under Interstate 93, and the state police bomb squad was called and detonated the package in Sullivan Square just before 10 a.m. Officials said it contained an electronic circuit board with some components that were "consistent with an improvised explosive device," but they said it had no explosives.
Several hours later, Boston police said the department received four calls, all at about 1 p.m., reporting the devices. Officials responded to at least nine locations, including the Boston University Bridge, the Longfellow Bridge, the McGrath O'Brien Highway in Somerville, a comic store on Harvard Avenue in Brighton, a location near the intersection of Stuart and Columbus streets, a location near Washington and Water streets and under the McCarthy Overpass in Somerville, according to Davis.
A device described by officials as a pipe bomb was found in the basement of the Tufts New England Medical Center at 185 Harrison Ave.
Davis said that residents should not be afraid to enter or leave the city and that additional police resources have been deployed to help ensure people that they are safe.
"It's a hoax, and it's not funny," Patrick said. "I think we fell at this point, that there is not a reason for anyone to panic, but there are reasons to be diligent."
Mayor Tom Menino said that all of the packages found posed no danger and that several police departments are working together to investigate suspicious calls about the devices.
"Public safety officials are all working together. There is no time for anyone to panic. We believe we have the situation in hand. Go about your business," Menino said. "The individuals who placed these packages should be warned that there is a heavy penalty -- two to five years imprisonment for each one of them. We are not playing around."
Storrow Drive eastbound was shut down for a brief time, and the MBTA suspended service on the Red Line and planned to bus afternoon commuters between Kendall and Park Street stations.
"Anytime you get a report of a suspicious device, it is always a concern," U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Scott Carr said. "We went ahead and shut down the waterways so we could clear the area and keep everybody safe."
"Our device was not an active device. We are still treating the area as a crime scene. There were no injuries. Everyone was evacuated properly, and everyone now back to their locations," Tufts New England Medical Center's Brooke Hynes said.
MBTA Lt. Sal Venturelli said police were told about the first package by a transit passenger who spotted it on a column that supports I-93. The parcel was located on an elevated structure above the bus way and below I-93 in the Charlestown section of Boston at about 8 a.m.
"This is a perfect example of our passengers taking part in Homeland Security," Venturelli said.
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January 31, 2007: 'Suspicious' Package Destroyed
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