Monday, February 05, 2007

NYC ON SHORT LEASH





Number of People Stopped by Police Soars in New York







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.”

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.


Sunday, February 04, 2007

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.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

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).


Friday, February 02, 2007

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.
Previous Story:
January 31, 2007: 'Suspicious' Package Destroyed
Copyright 2007 by TheBostonChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/10890113/detail.html#

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

THE YEAR OF FEAR






The Year Of Fear




Suddenly, Nukes are the New Black
New York Post January 29, 2007
Adam Buckman


WHAT'S that on the horizon? It's a mushroom cloud -something we haven't seen this often on TV since the Cold War.
But this season, mushroom clouds are back as TV taps into our worst fears - namely, terrorist attacks with nuclear weapons - and makes them real.
"I think that's what we're all afraid of," says Carol Barbee, executive producer of "Jericho" on CBS. "We're all afraid that some crazy person will get hold of a bomb and will blow up the United States."
On her show, that's exactly what happened, though the details of the conspiracy have yet to be revealed. "Jericho," starring Skeet Ulrich and Gerald McRaney, is the series about a town in Kansas whose approximately 5,000 residents have survived a nuclear attack that wiped out at least eight major cities and probably more. (New York is not one of them, Barbee assured me on the phone from L.A. last week.)
"Jericho" is the nuclear-destruction champ so far this season, but catastrophic explosions have also been glimpsed on "24" and "Heroes." One nuke has gone off (so far) on "24"and the blast seen on "Heroes" is positioned as an event prophesied for the very near future. Whether or not it actually takes place depends on whether the heroes of "Heroes"can prevent it.
The season's first mushroom cloud was seen last fall in the premiere episode of "Jericho"as the citizens of Jericho witnessed the apparent destruction of Denver on the far western horizon.
This explosion will be seen again when "Jericho" resumes its season next month after a 10-week hiatus. The episode - titled "The Day Before" - explains what some of the show's characters were up to in the 36 hours leading up to the bombings.
The Denver tragedy is seen from a distance, a perspective Barbee feels is necessary for telling such a terrible story.
"There was a lot of concern when we started out that the show would be too dark or that people wouldn't want to watch it because it would be too frightening or this is not something people want to think about,"she said.
"Our story is not told in the middle of Denver, ground zero," she says. "It's told in a town that was safe from the blasts and they watched it from a distance. And yet they see from a distance something that is obviously going to affect their lives."
In "24," however, the dirty nuke that detonated in the southern California community of Valencia was viewed from up closer - just a couple of miles - by the show's anti-terror superman Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and, by extension, us.
The yet-to-happen blast seen on "Heroes" is even closer - in the middle of a large city (possibly New York) just blocks away.
So, why nukes and mushroom clouds?
To put it bluntly: Because people are afraid of them. And TV people are not shy about admitting they're trying to scare people.
"Certainly we're trafficking in fear - that's the point," said Joel Surnow, executive producer and co-creator of "24," in an interview last week in the London newspaper, The Guardian. "If the show's not scary, we haven't succeeded."
And why now?
Barbee feels it's not just the rise of terrorism.
Part of it is that the sight of nuclear holocaust is not really all that unfamiliar anymore.
"The two events that we look to when we're writing the show are 9/11 and Katrina,"she said. "Both of those events showed us that we could watch what looked like the end of the world on television."

Source: www.inforwars.com

Sunday, January 28, 2007

SECRECY IS AT ISSUE


January 26, 2007

Secrecy Is at Issue in Suits Opposing Spy Program
By ADAM LIPTAK

The Bush administration has employed extraordinary secrecy in defending the National Security Agency’s highly classified domestic surveillance program from civil lawsuits. Plaintiffs and judges’ clerks cannot see its secret filings. Judges have to make appointments to review them and are not allowed to keep copies.
Judges have even been instructed to use computers provided by the Justice Department to compose their decisions.
But now the procedures have started to meet resistance. At a private meeting with the lawyers in one of the cases this month, the judges who will hear the first appeal next week expressed uneasiness about the procedures, said a lawyer who attended, Ann Beeson of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Lawyers suing the government and some legal scholars say the procedures threaten the separation of powers, the adversary system and the lawyer-client privilege.
Justice Department officials say the circumstances of the cases, involving a highly classified program, require extraordinary measures. The officials say they have used similar procedures in other cases involving classified materials.
In ordinary civil suits, the parties’ submissions are sent to their adversaries and are available to the public in open court files. But in several cases challenging the eavesdropping, Justice Department lawyers have been submitting legal papers not by filing them in court but by placing them in a room at the department. They have filed papers, in other words, with themselves.
At the meeting this month, judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit asked how the procedures might affect the integrity of the files and the appellate records.
In response, Joan B. Kennedy, a Justice Department official, submitted, in one of the department’s unclassified filings, a detailed seven-page sworn statement last Friday defending the practices.
“The documents reviewed by the court have not been altered and will not be altered,” Ms. Kennedy wrote, and they “will be preserved securely as part of the record of this case.”
Some cases challenging the program, which monitored international communications of people in the United States without court approval, have also involved atypical maneuvering. Soon after one suit challenging the program was filed last year in Oregon, Justice Department lawyers threatened to seize an exhibit from the court file.
This month, in the same case, the department sought to inspect and delete files from the computers on which lawyers for the plaintiffs had prepared their legal filings.
The tactics, said a lawyer in the Oregon case, Jon B. Eisenberg, prompted him to conduct unusual research.
“Sometime during all of this,” Mr. Eisenberg said, “I went on Amazon and ordered a copy of Kafka’s ‘The Trial,’ because I needed a refresher course in bizarre legal procedures.”
A federal district judge in the case, Garr M. King, invoked another book after a government lawyer refused to disclose whether he had a certain security clearance, saying information about the clearance was itself classified.
“Frankly, your response,” Judge King said, “is kind of an Alice in Wonderland response.”
Questions about the secret filings may figure in the first appellate argument in the challenges, before the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, on Wednesday. The three judges who will hear the appeal met with lawyers for the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union on Jan. 8 in a judge’s chambers in Memphis.
“The court raised questions about the procedures the government had used to file classified submissions in the case and the propriety and integrity of those procedures,” said Ms. Beeson, associate legal director of the A.C.L.U., which represents the plaintiffs in the appeal.
“They were also concerned about the independence of the judiciary,” given that “the Justice Department retains custody and total control over the court filings.” Ms. Beeson said.
Nancy S. Marder, a law professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law and an authority on secrecy in litigation, said the tactics were really extreme and deeply, deeply troubling.
“These are the basics that we take for granted in our court system,” Professor Marder said. “You have two parties. You exchange documents. The documents you’ve seen don’t disappear.”
A spokesman for the Justice Department, Dean Boyd, said employees involved in storing the classified documents were independent of the litigators and provided “neutral assistance” to courts in handling sensitive information. The documents, Mr. Boyd said, are “stored securely and without alteration.”
The appellate argument in Cincinnati will almost certainly also concern the effects of the administration announcement last week that it would submit the program to a secret court, ending its eavesdropping without warrants.
In a brief filed on Thursday, the government said the move made the case against the program moot.
Ms. Beeson of the A.C.L.U. said the government was wrong.
At least one case, the one in Oregon, is probably not moot. It goes beyond the other cases in seeking damages from the government, because the plaintiffs say they have seen proof that they were wiretapped without a warrant.
In August 2004, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which was investigating an Oregon charity, al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, inadvertently provided a copy of a classified document to a foundation lawyer, Lynne Bernabei.
That document indicated, according to court filings, that the government monitored communications between officers of the charity and two of its lawyers without a warrant in spring 2004.
“If I gave you this document today and you put it on the front page of The New York Times, it would not threaten national security,” Mr. Eisenberg, a lawyer for the foundation, said. “There is only one thing about it that’s explosive, and that’s the fact that our clients were wiretapped.”
Ms. Bernabei circulated the document to two directors of the charity, at least one of them in Saudi Arabia, and to three other lawyers. She discussed them with two more lawyers. A reporter for The Washington Post, David B. Ottaway, also reviewed the document.
The full significance of the document was apparently not clear to any recipient, more than a year before The New York Times disclosed the existence of the N.S.A. program in December 2005.
The F.B.I. learned of the disclosure almost immediately in August 2004, Judge King said at a court hearing last year, but made no effort to retrieve copies of the document for about six weeks.
When it did, everyone it asked apparently returned all copies of the document. In a statement reported in The Post in March, for instance, Mr. Ottaway said he the F.B.I. had told him that the document had “highly sensitive national security information.”
“I returned it after consulting with Washington Post editors and lawyers, and concluding that it was not relevant to what I was working on at the time,” Mr. Ottaway said.
In a sworn statement in June, a lawyer who had the document, Asim Ghafoor, said the bureau took custody of his laptop computer “in order that the document might be ‘scrubbed’ from it.”
The computer was returned weeks later.
In February 2006, the charity and the two lawyers who say they were wiretapped sued to stop the program, requesting financial damages. They attached a copy of the classified document, filing it under seal. They have not said how they came to have a copy.
Three weeks later, the lawyers for the foundation received a call from two Justice Department lawyers. The classified document “had not been properly secured,” the lawyers said, according to a letter from the plaintiffs’ lawyers to the judge.
As Mr. Eisenberg recalled it, the government lawyers said, “The F.B.I. is on its way to the courthouse to take possession of the document from the judge.”
But Judge King, at a hurriedly convened hearing, would not yield it, and asked, “What if I say I will not deliver it to the F.B.I.?”
A Justice Department lawyer, Anthony J. Coppolino, gave a measured response, saying: “Your Honor, we obviously don’t want to have any kind of a confrontation with you. But it has to be secured in a proper fashion.”
The document was ultimately deposited in a “secure compartmented information facility” at the bureau office in Portland.
In the meantime, copies of the document appear to have been sent abroad, and the government concedes that it has made no efforts to contact people overseas who it suspects have them.
“It’s probably gone many, many places,” Judge King said of the document at the August hearing. “Who is it secret from?”
A Justice Department lawyer, Andrew H. Tannenbaum, replied, “It’s secret from anyone who has not seen it.”
He added, “The document must be completely removed from the case, and plaintiffs are not allowed to rely on it to prove their claims.”
Judge King wondered aloud about the implications of that position, saying, “There is nothing in the law that requires them to purge their memory.”
Mr. Eisenberg, in an interview, said that was precisely the government position. “They claim they own the portions of our brains that remember anything,” he said.
In a decision in September, Judge King ruled that the plaintiffs were not entitled to review the document again but could rely on their recollections of it. In October, they filed a motion for summary judgment, a routine step in many civil litigations. In a sealed filing, they described the classified document.
Government lawyers sent Judge King a letter saying the plaintiffs had “mishandled information contained in the classified document” by, among other actions, preparing filings on their own computers.
In a telephone conference on Nov. 1, Judge King appeared unpersuaded. “My problem with your statement,” he told Mr. Tannenbaum, “is that you assume you are absolutely correct in everything you are stating, and I am not sure that you are".
Mr. Boyd of the Justice Department said the government “continues to explore with counsel ways in which the classified information may be properly protected without any intrusion on the attorney-client privilege.”

Saturday, January 27, 2007

THE 12 APOSTLES


One in Messiah Congregation

The 12 apostles

Please see the 4 lists below. Each shows three groups of four apostles. When grouped together, you can see many similarities between them.

Matthew 10:2-4
Mark 3:16-19
Luke 6:13-16
Acts 1:13, 16-19
Simon Peter, Andrew, James & John
Simon Peter, James, John & Andrew
Simon Peter, Andrew, James & John
Peter, James, John & Andrew
Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas & Matthew the publican
Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew & Thomas
Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew & Thomas
Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew & Matthew
James son of Alphaeus , Lebbaeus Thaddaeus, Simon the Canaanite & Judas Iscariot
James son of Alphaeus , Thaddaeus, Simon the Canaanite & Judas Iscariot
James son of Alphaeus , Simon Zelotes, Judas brother of James & Judas Iscariot
James son of Alphaeus , Simon Zelotes & Judas brother of James (Judas is dead)


The names that are not exactly the same in all four lists are:

Matthew 10:2-4
Mark 3:16-19
Luke 6:13-16
Acts 1:13, 16-19
Matthew the publican
Matthew
Matthew
Matthew
Lebbaeus Thaddaeus
Thaddaeus
Judas brother of James
Judas brother of James
Simon the Canaanite
Simon the Canaanite
Simon Zelotes
Simon Zelotes
Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot
(Judas, which was guide to them which took Jesus)


The differences come down to this:

Matthew is Matthew the publican.
Lebbaeus surnamed Thaddeus, is Judas brother of James. Lebbaeus means a man of heart. Thaddaeus means large-hearted or courageous. Both are the apostle named Judas. They are one and the same person.
G3002 Λεββαιος Lebbaios
Thayer Definition: Lebbaeus = a man of heart
one name of Jude, who was one of the twelve apostles
G2280 Θαδδαιος Thaddaios
Thayer Definition: Thaddaeus = large hearted, courageous
Simon the Canaanite is Simon Zelotes. The term Zelotes means "zealot." "Canaanite" simply describes where he is from, and "Zelotes" tells us he was a zealot.
G2208 Ζηλωτης Zelotes - dzay-lo-tace'
The same as G2207; a Zealot , that is, (specifically) partisan for Jewish political independence: - Zelotes.
As we can see, these lists do not contradict each other.
PS:
G2469 Ισκαριωτης - Iskariotes
Thayer Definition: Iscariot = men of Kerioth - Judas Iscariot , the apostle who betrayed Yeshua / Jesus.

Shalom

Source: http://www.oneinmessiah.net/THE12.htm

PSALM 91


Psalm 91


1He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
3Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
4He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
5Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
7A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
13Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
14Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
15He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
16With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

Friday, January 26, 2007

SIGNS


Luke 21


1And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
2And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
3And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:
4For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.
5And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said,
6As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
7And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?
8And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.
9But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
10Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
11And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
12But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.
13And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
14Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:
15For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
16And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
17And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
18But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
19In your patience possess ye your souls.
20And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
21Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
22For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
23But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
24And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
25And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
26Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
27And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
28And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
29And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;
30When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.
31So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
32Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
33Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
34And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
35For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
36Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
37And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives.
38And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.

FORD POSTS RECORD LOSS


Ford Posts Record Loss of $12.7B in 2006
Email this StoryJan 25, 7:44 AM (ET)By TOM KRISHER

(AP) The company logo glimmers off the grille of an unsold 2007 Five Hundred sedan while a 2006 Mustang...Full Image

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - Ford Motor Co. (FPA) lost $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter amid slumping sales and huge restructuring costs, pushing the fabled automaker's deficit for the year to $12.7 billion, the largest in its 103-year history.
The annual loss reported Thursday surpassed its previous record for a year of $7.39 billion set in 1992. It earned $1.44 billion in 2005.
The Dearborn-based company expects continued losses for this year. It expects to burn up $10 billion in cash on automotive operations through 2009 and spend another $7 billion to invest in new products.
Excluding special items, Ford lost $1.50 per share in all of 2006, worse than Wall Street predicted. Fourteen analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a loss of $1.35 per share for the year, excluding special items.
Ford said that special items associated with restructuring costs totaled $9.9 billion for the year as the company continues efforts to shrink itself to match reduced demand for its cars and trucks.
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On the Net:
http://www.ford.com/

Thursday, January 25, 2007

PRESIDENT ODERS TO BEGIN JAILING


US President Orders Military To Begin Jailing All Civilian Protestors To War
By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers


In yet another shocking prelude towards becoming a Total Police State, Russian Intelligence Analysts are reporting today that the American War Leaders have issued orders to the United States Military Northern Command authorizing the jailing, and military tribunals, for any American citizen critical of the ‘war effort’.
These reports state that the American President has ‘lost his confidence’ in the American Judicial System and has further ordered his War Cabinet to begin attacking civilian judges, and as we can read as confirmed by the MSNBC News Service in their article titled "Gonzales: Judges unfit to rule on terror policy", and which says:
"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says federal judges are unqualified to make rulings affecting national security policy, ramping up his criticism of how they handle terrorism cases.
“We want to determine whether he understands the inherent limits that make an unelected judiciary inferior to Congress or the president in making policy judgments,” Gonzales says in the prepared speech. “That, for example, a judge will never be in the best position to know what is in the national security interests of our country.”
The American War Leaders have further launched attacks against their own civilian judiciary from the Pentagon, and as we can read as reported by the Jurist Legal Research and News Service in their report titled "US law deans 'appalled' by Stimson criticism of law firms for representing detainees", and which says:
"More than 130 deans of US law schools signed a statement released Monday expressing their dismay at comments made last week by DOD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Detainee Affairs Charles "Cully" Stimson in a radio interview critizing top US law firms for providing pro bono representation to Guantanamo detainees.
"We," the deans wrote, are appalled by the January 11, 2007 statement of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles "Cully" Stimson, criticizing law firms for their pro bono representation of suspected terrorist detainees and encouraging corporate executives to force these law firms to choose between their pro bono and paying clients.”
Furthering the complete destruction of the rights of the American people to ‘due process’ and ‘fair trials’, the American War Leaders have passed a new law subjecting their citizens to Military, instead of Civilian trials.
According to reports from the United States, this little known law was ‘slipped into’ a large spending bill unbeknownst to US Congressional Leaders, and though ‘seemingly’ applying to American contractors in fact subjects all American citizens to Military Arrest and Trials.
The most destructive of these ‘new’ laws ‘slipped into’ much larger legislation, and bypassing the notice of US Lawmakers, has overturned over 200 years of American procedures for appointing US Federal Prosecutors, and who are, according the American Constitution, charged with being ‘politically neutral’ so as to afford the citizens of the United States protection against prosecution by a vengeful government, and as we can read as reported by the Associated Press News Service in their article titled "2 U.S. Attorneys in Calif. quit, critics say Bush forced them out", and which says:
"Two U.S. Attorneys in California announced they are stepping down, as critics alleged political pressure from the Bush administration was pushing them and others out of their jobs. Kevin Ryan, chief federal prosecutor for the state's Northern District, and Carol Lam, who headed the state's Southern District, both announced Tuesday they would be leaving their positions.
The two are among 11 top federal prosecutors who have resigned or announced their resignations since an obscure provision in the USA Patriot Act reauthorization last year enabled the U.S. attorney general to appoint replacements without Senate confirmation."
Russian Legal Analysts familiar with American Law state in these reports that the significance of these actions being taking against American citizens by the US War Leaders shows the ‘complete ascendancy’ to ‘total power’ of the American President, and who now is free to rule his Nation by decree free from interference by either the US Congress, or the American people themselves.
So powerless have the US Congress and American people become, that as outrage continues to build within the United States against the expansion of the war in Iraq, and the planned US attack upon Iran, the spokesman for the American War Leader has stated in response to a US Congressional move to block further war making:
"Presidential spokesman Tony Snow said resolutions passed by Congress will not affect Bush's decision-making. "The president has obligations as a commander in chief," he said. "And he will go ahead and execute them."
Russian Intelligence Analysts in these reports to President Putin have asked, “If President Bush feels that he is not constrained by either the elected representatives of the American people, or the American people themselves, we must then consider that he, and his Administration, have become powers unto themselves and that the United States should therefore be considered a dictatorship, not a democracy.”
To the American people themselves, they remain in abject denial of the dark Fascist forces descending around them; but soon, and much sooner than they could believe, and with their families and neighbors disappearing into the vast American Gulag, what they once believed in as the American Dream, will soon be shown for what it really is, an American Nightmare.

January 18, 2007 EU and US all rights reserved.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

SERMON ON THE MOUNT (MAT. 7)

Matthew 7

1Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
6Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.
7Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
9Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
12Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
13Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
15Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
21Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
24Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
28And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
29For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Monday, January 22, 2007

AFFORDABLE HOUSING


Americans Struggle to Afford Housing

An annual income of about $85,000 is needed to afford median-priced homes; salaries have not seen modest gains, according to a study.
CHICAGO (Reuters) -- U.S. home prices may have dipped over the past year, but many American workers would still struggle to afford a median-priced home in major cities, a new study said Wednesday.


"American workers are really not gaining ground and they're so far behind in the first place," said Barbara Lipman, research director for the nonprofit Center for Housing Policy, which conducted the study.While the median home price in the 202 largest metropolitan areas declined 2 percent from a year ago to $248,000 in the third quarter of 2006, mortgage rates rose enough over the year that homes actually became less affordable as pay did not keep pace."The real story is what happened to salaries," Lipman said. "Lower-paid occupations -- such as in retail, or home health workers - their salaries went up only about 3 percent."The study found an annual income of nearly $85,000 was needed to afford the median-priced U.S. home.In the New York metropolitan area, a $500,000 median-priced home required a $171,000 annual salary. The median-priced home in San Francisco, the most expensive U.S. market, was $759,000, requiring income of $260,000. In less-expensive Chicago, the median-priced home cost $254,000, requiring an $87,000 salary.On the opposite end of the spectrum, Mansfield, Ohio, homes cost a median $85,000, requiring $29,118 in income.The study assumed home buyers needed a 10 percent down payment and could afford to pay 28 percent of their income on mortgage payments, property taxes and home insurance.Unstructured Blog: Share Your ThoughtsIn reality, many households expend a much higher percentage of their incomes on mortgage payments, Lipman said. To afford that, consumers cut other expenses such as for health care and transportation, she said, citing research showing unaffordable housing is the major reason families lack health insurance.Other ways families cope with high housing expenses is to work longer hours or extra jobs, or by crowding in more income producers, she said.An October 2006 survey by the group found families who seek to buy less-expensive homes in further-out suburbs -- adding to urban sprawl -- pay so much more for transit that it eliminates the savings.While home prices range widely across the country, wages for low-wage jobs -- from teachers to janitors -- are about the same no matter where they are located, Lipman said.The report cited housing aid programs offered by some big-city hospitals that have plenty of modestly-paid workers."For the low- to moderate-income individuals that we're talking about, they're not going to be helped by marginal declines in home prices," Lipman said. "The only way to address the problem is to create more affordable units [homes] -- which may mean higher density units, townhouses and condos."
2006-11-28 14:55:00
Source: http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/americans-struggle-to-afford-housing/20070112115409990001

Sunday, January 21, 2007

TWO CLINTON PRESIDENTS: HILARIOUS

--------------------------------- IT'S OFFICIAL SHE'S RUNNING: Hillary released a video on her website announcing that she will start a "dialog", to see if she will run for president of the U.S.
Hillary wants to up the ante; If the Bushes can do it, so can the Clintons. Apparently tossing her weight around on Capital Hill (with her Secret Service Detail), just isn't enough for HillBill. She longs to once again reside at 1600 Pensylvannia Avenue, a.k.a. The White House. What a shame that she un-abashedly makes a spectacle of herself, with no one to publicly remind her that she is a has-been, washed-up, reached her ceiling opportunist.

Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton please have your transparent dialog, then just disappear, please, let someone else make a fool of themselves. There are more important things in life, and in this world than your urge to be "Queen of the Hill".

Could all that hot air Hillary is emitting contribute to "global warming"? Or to smoke screens and mirrors? Either way she quite a "one woman show".