Tuesday, November 20, 2007

THE COMING CONSUMER CRUNCH

The coming consumer crunch

Recession or not, American families will be forced to tighten their belts

By Michael Mandel
updated 10:43 a.m. ET, Mon., Nov. 19, 2007

The long-awaited, long-feared consumer crunch may finally be here. That might not mean an economywide recession, but the pain for American households will be deep.

In recent years the U.S. mostly has seen narrowly focused downturns, where a few sectors are hit hard while the rest of the economy and financial markets remain relatively unscathed. In the dot-com bust of 2001, for example, tech companies and stocks took it on the chin, while consumer spending and borrowing sailed through without a pause. This time the positions will be reversed, as consumers tank while much of the corporate sector stays on track.

It's been a glorious run for the consumer. In the past 25 years, Americans have kept shopping through good times and bad. In every quarter except one since 1981, consumer spending rose over the previous year, adjusted for inflation. The exception was the first quarter of 1991, and even then the decrease was a mild 0.4% dip.

The main fuel for the spending was easy access to credit. Banks and other financial institutions were willing to lend households ever increasing amounts of money. Any particular individual might default, but in the aggregate, loans to consumers were viewed as low-risk and profitable.

The subprime crisis, however, marks the beginning of the end for the long consumer borrow-and-buy boom. The financial sector, wrestling with hundreds of billions in losses, can no longer treat consumers as a safe bet. Already, standards for real estate lending have been raised, including those for jumbo mortgages for high-end houses. Credit cards are still widely available, but it may only be a matter of time before issuers get tougher.

What comes next could be scary—the largest pullback in consumer spending in decades, perhaps as much as $200 billion to $300 billion, or 2%-3% of personal income. Reduced access to credit will combine with falling real estate values to hit poor and rich alike. "We're in uncharted territory," says David Rosenberg, chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch, who's forecasting a mild drop in consumer spending in the first half of 2008. "It's pretty rare we go through such a pronounced tightening in credit standards."


Don't expect the spending to come to a screeching halt, however. Remember the stock market peak in early 2000? It wasn't until a year later that tech spending fell off the cliff and the sector didn't hit bottom until 2003. The same delayed impact holds true here. The latest retail sales numbers, which showed a soft 0.2% gain in October, suggest that spending may hold up through this holiday season.

Next year, though, will be much tougher. The consumer slump may be deep and long-lasting, and the political implications could be enormous. "There's growing evidence that the economy will become a dominant, if not the dominant issue of 2008," says independent pollster John Zogby. "It's even to the point where the numbers of people who say Iraq is the No. 1 issue are starting to decline."

Wide-open credit window
Truth is, economists have been complaining about excessive borrowing and spending since the early 1980s. Journalists began writing about consumers being "tapped out," "profligate," and "spendthrift." Magazines and newspapers regularly ran stories about debt-ridden Americans not being able to buy holiday presents for their kids.

But no matter how many times economists predicted the demise of the consumer, the spending continued. The latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis show that the personal savings rate — the share of income left after consumption — fell from 12% in 1981 to just over zero today. And debt service, which is the share of income going to principal and interest on debt, kept rising. Those numbers aren't dead-on accurate: The data has been revised endlessly, and the BEA includes outlays on higher education as consumption rather than saving, which would seem odd to families who have socked away thousands of dollars for college.

But the story line is clear. Consumers' outlays have outpaced the growth of their income for a long time. Lenders learned how to judge risk and expand the pool of potential borrowers—and the party was on. "The most important factor has been that it is easier to borrow," says Christopher D. Carroll, a Johns Hopkins University economist.

While many companies struggled in the 2001 recession and afterward, American consumers just kept borrowing. "In 2001-02, the credit window was open for anyone who had a pulse," says Merrill's Rosenberg.

INTERNET UNDER ATTACK

Internet UNder Attack


By Dana Gabriel http://newworldordermustbestopped.com/DanasBlog.html

The United Nations control freaks seek to micro-manage all aspects of our lives, and this includes the Internet. Many have used the Internet as an instrument of truth to counter the spin, lies, and disinformation spewed by the mainstream media. That is not to say that everyone in the alternative media can be trusted, and furthermore, the Internet is also being used to spread government propaganda. The mainstream media and government are so intertwined, and often the media simply parrots and toes the line. In many cases, the Internet gives the other side of the story with different points of view which encourage critical thinking on important issues of the day, where as the corporate media caters to the dumb-downed public. More and more people are moving to the web for their source of news and entertainment, and in the process are abandoning television and newspapers altogether. Even with all its imperfections, the Internet is truly one of the last havens of free speech and offers an alternative to the corporate-controlled media. Attacks are coming from all directions, and there is a desire by some to shut down the Internet under its current format, and curb, control, and further restrict its access.



The Internet has become a vast worldwide infrastructure which more and more people rely on in their everyday lives. It is a free market of ideas and creativity, and has accelerated our capacity to share information. In the process it has challenged the mainstream media's monopoly on news gathering and has lead to unpopular legislation being defeated that might not have been otherwise. That is not to say that you should believe or trust everything you read on the Internet, but there are many creditable and well-researched sites and archived news information. The Internet has become a force in politics, and no where is that more apparent than Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's campaign. It has been used to rally grassroots support and volunteers, and raise substantial amounts of money. There is also a lot of fear-mongering surrounding the net as many are warning that it is struggling to survive under the strain of technical limitations. There has been much speculation that Internet 2, which is used by universities working side by side with government and industry, could replace the current format. The Internet of today poses a threat to any illegitimate government, and the stage is being set to hand over its control to the United Nations.



The UN wishes to end U.S. control of the Internet, and at the same time silence many who oppose its agenda of world governance. At the 2006 World Summit on the Information Society, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was created as a permanent standing body. The Internet of today is run by a non-governmental organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which has the task of managing the assignment of domain names and IP addresses. They do not decide who can and cannot access the Internet, and there is a genuine fear that shifting ICANN control over to the UN could facilitate censorship of the web. The IGF recently met in Brazil, and is being used by the UN to achieve control of the Internet in an effort to standardize legislation and fund their world government through a series of global taxes. The UN has talked about keeping the world safe from SPAM, cyber crime, terrorists, increasing Internet access to the third-world, and instituting a global e-mail taxation system. A ban on taxing the Internet in the U.S. recently received a seven year extension. Some are warning that UN control could lead to a slower and more expensive Internet. Any challenges and problems that face the Internet cannot be solved by the UN or any another global entity. That is not to say that the Internet is perfect the way it is now, but I would take the status quo over UN control. By controlling the Internet, the UN could severely restrict information, silence free speech, and quell dissent. China's massive censorship of the web is the UN model. The Heritage Foundation said of UN control of the net, “it would give meddlesome governments the opportunity to censor and regulate the medium until its usefulness as a vehicle for freedom of expression and international competition is crippled.” An Internet governed and managed by the UN would represent a serious threat to our freedom, sovereignty, economy, and security.



China has been leading the charge to further globalize Internet control, their technological capabilities have further enabled them to track and restrict access and they have exported such tools to other countries. Companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo are also accomplices in Chinese Internet censorship, and their involvement and complacency illustrates how this could be achieved anywhere. Recently, Yahoo settled a case with two Chinese journalists who were jailed for ten years as a result of information of their on line activities provided to Chinese authorities. Google is hypocritical as they state that Internet censorship is a threat to their business, yet censor their own website in China. Asia director of Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams said, “When companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google decide to put profits from their Chinese operations over the free exchange of information, they are helping to kill that dream.” Many western computer companies are providing filtering equipment to the Communist Chinese government, and are aiding to suppress free speech and political activism, which is leading to the further control and management of information. In China, there are divisions inside the police department whose task is to delete any information they find harmful that could challenge the system and impede social stability. Chinese President HU Jintao said that Internet cultural units need to, “take on the responsibility of encouraging development of a system of core socialist values.” There is no room for dissenting voices, and thus access to many political websites has been blocked or is content-censored. Bloggers are being targeted, and any breaking news that has not been reported by the official government media is also blocked and censored. Thousands of Internet cafes have been closed, and there are even pop-ups that worn users not to access unapproved sites. Amnesty International campaign director Tim Hancock said, “The Chinese model of an Internet that allows economic growth but not free speech or privacy is growing in popularity, from a handful of countries five years ago to dozens of governments today who block sites and arrest bloggers.” There is an agenda by some to further tighten surveillance and restrict access to the Internet around the world.



Many other countries besides China are filtering Internet content in areas of politics, religion, and sex. Any effort to curb hate speech could constitute a ban on any speech the government disapproves of or fears. In late September, a bill was introduced in Australia's Parliament that would give the police the power to control which sites can and cannot be accessed. In Malaysia, there are new rules where by bloggers can be held without trial indefinitely. Many bloggers are being prosecuted using terrorism laws. Much of the control aimed at the Internet centers around terrorism, with the aim of preventing terrorists from using it as a tool to further achieve their goals. A definition of the terrorists could include anyone who criticizes the government. With the advent of the alternative and independent media, and bloggers alike, the days of media blackouts are a thing of the past. In many cases, they are breaking more stories than the mainstream media. For many, the Internet is the only true source of uncensored news and opinion. The battle for the Internet rages on with freedom of speech hanging in the balance. In his article, 'What The Chinese Style Internet Will Look Like,' PrisonPlanet.Com reporter Paul Joseph Watson said, “The new Internet will be nothing more than an electronic police state, merely acting as a tool for authorities to track down and incarcerate dissidents who dare question the government.”



The United Nations is undermining our sovereignty, independence, and security. They seek to control the environment as well as the oceans of the world through the Law of the Sea Treaty. The U.N. wishes to institute a global ban on guns, and the disarming of the population can only be seen as tyrannical. It is not surprising that they also wish to control the free-flow of information on the Internet as it has been used as a weapon in the info war and has sparked a mass awaking. Many are using the Internet as a resource tool that has lead to countless research and investigations that demand real answers. This is exactly why the global elite want the Internet controlled, much like it is in China. It would mean the end of free speech on the web, and any site that criticizes the government. The days of the Internet as we now know it are numbered.


Sunday, November 18, 2007

BUSH CLEARS THE AIR R-OUTS

Bush orders to open military space to reduce Thanksgiving air travel jam
www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-16 06:12:17

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Pentagon will open part of its unused military airspace to commercial airlines as President George W. Bush's administration tries to reduce air traffic congestion and long delays that are expected to hit the country during Thanksgiving, the government said on Thursday.

An unused military airspace from Florida to Maine will be opened to create a "Thanksgiving express lane" for commercial airlines from Wednesday through Sunday, the busiest days of thanksgiving travel, the White House said.

The new measure will also apply to the Christmas travel season, it added.

Calling holiday travel "a season of dread for too many Americans," Bush said that "anybody who has been traveling" are clear about the problems including very crowded airports, stranded travelers and delayed flights sometimes with a full load of passengers sitting on the runway for hours.

"These failures carry some real costs for the country, not just in the inconvenience they cause but in the business they obstruct and the family gatherings they cause people to miss," Bush said.

Apart from "Thanksgiving express lane," other measures were also under consideration to channel air traffic including charging airlines higher landing and takeoff fees at peak hours, he added.

According to the Air Transport Association, the U.S. domestic carriers are expected to fly roughly 27 million passengers worldwide over 12 days beginning Nov. 16, with planes about 90 percent full.  

Editor: Mu Xuequan


Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/16/content_7084554.htm

****************

A new role for Bush: Air traffic controller

But critics say plan will do little to help

WASHINGTON

With Thanksgiving and peak holiday travel approaching, President Bush announced several steps Thursday aimed at alleviating "the epidemic of aviation delays," but critics immediately said the moves lacked the necessary substance to make much of a difference.

The Pentagon, for its part, is opening "Thanksgiving Express Lanes," freeing some of the military's dedicated airspace to commercial airlines along the Eastern seaboard for five days surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday. Meanwhile, airlines have promised to make available more workers for passenger check-ins, baggage handling and relief for bumped passengers, as well as additional ticket-dispensing kiosks.

The president's action on aviation comes at a time of increasing congestion at the nation's biggest airports -- particularly in the New York metropolitan area -- which has caused nationwide flight delays, cancellations and baggage losses. Domestic airlines expect to fly 27 million people worldwide during the holiday period starting Friday -- a 4 percent increase over last year, with planes averaging 90 percent capacity, according to the Air Transport Association, the major airlines' trade group.

"We can restore the confidence of America's consumers, improve the efficiency of America's airports and bring order to America's skies," Bush said, using a White House podium to promise answers for "the epidemic of aviation delays. ... It's one thing to analyze the problem, but the American people expect us to come up with some solutions."

Many aviation experts immediately blasted the Bush administration's measures as a last-ditch effort to prevent chaos in the coming days, and they said it shows how politicized airline flight delays have become in the worst year to fly since overscheduling caused a near-meltdown of the airline industry in 2000.

The experts said the White House's strategy represents a mixture of old initiatives to simply urge the airlines -- without any threat of enforcement -- to ensure ticket counters, aircraft and baggage sorting rooms are adequately staffed this holiday season.

"This is President Bush saying, 'Let me get out there just days before Thanksgiving and make it look like I'm doing something,'" said Joe Brancatelli, a travel columnist who focuses on how the airlines run their businesses and treat their customers.

Not impressed

Brancatelli dismissed the Federal Aviation Administration's announcement Thursday that it will help head off flight delays by imposing a special holiday moratorium on most airport maintenance projects, saying it is a standard procedure that should be done anyway, just as highway departments routinely halt road construction over holidays.

Likewise, the administration's promise Thursday to double the compensation that airlines would have to pay passengers who are bumped from overbooked flights, starting next summer, will do nothing to address flight delays and airport congestion -- either now, next summer or ever.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said, "We are determined not to let airline delays turn holiday cheer into runway gloom. Now, if we get an ice storm up and down the Eastern seaboard, I'm going to tell you, it probably won't be pretty. But we're going to take every precaution we can to make sure that we can handle passengers and handle them well."

Bush announced several federal actions aimed initially at easing travel during the Thanksgiving holiday. Aside from opening the reserved military airspace from Maine to Florida, there will be a "holiday moratorium on all non-essential work" at the FAA, so all its personnel and equipment can be used to keep flights on time and reduce bottlenecks in New York and Newark, N.J., in particular. Bush called air traffic there "the source of most chronic delays."

With an eye toward improving air traffic in the long-run, the president proposed new federal regulations to ensure that passengers are "treated fairly." This includes a proposed doubling of compensation for passengers bumped from overbooked flights -- raising it from $400 to $800 for bumped passengers whose travel is delayed by more than two hours.

Congestion pricing

Bush also called for congestion pricing for the airlines, such as increased airport fees at peak hours and auctioning of rights to "the highest-value flights," to encourage carriers to spread flights over more hours. The FAA has opened a Web site --http://www.fly.faa.gov/ -- enabling travelers to check delay times.

Bush called on Congress to "modernize" the FAA.

The administration is proposing legislation to "upgrade" aviation technology with a more automated air-traffic control network based on global positioning satellite technology rather than a radar and radio-based system that dates to World War II. The bill includes a "blueprint" for market pricing to reduce congestion.

The president's call for action caps a year of poor performance by the airline industry. Through September, more than 24 percent of flights arrived late, according to the Department of Transportation -- the worst on-time performance since data was first collected in 1995.

James May, president of the Air Transport Association, said, "We share the administration's frustrations and applaud the efforts of President Bush, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Defense for the numerous operational steps they are taking to improve air service and reduce delays. Airlines remain focused on improving the service that they provide to customers."

Military airspace has been opened to commercial flights over previous holidays, but provided only minor relief from congestion.

"We've used military air lanes out East and even over Cleveland to reroute planes around bad weather," said FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory.

Solutions distant

"It should improve efficiency across the airspace system, even though the changes are only out East. But bear in mind any advantage could be wiped out over the busy Thanksgiving travel period if we have weather delays," Cory said.

FAA officials acknowledged that the real solutions to congestion at airports and in the skies are still years away, when air-traffic control transitions from the existing ground-based radars to a satellite system that helps pilots circumvent congestion and choose the most direct routes.

But the administration and Congress are deadlocked over how much to invest in modernizing the nation's aviation system and how to split the bill between government and the private sector.

Despite massive travel snafus earlier this year, Dave Barger, chief executive of JetBlue Airways, assured the House aviation subcommittee Thursday, "Our reservations and airport staffing levels are higher than they've ever been. We do have a good-news story as we prepare for the peak holiday period."

Many of the ideas that the White House mentioned Thursday to ease aviation congestion and delays "come right out of our bill," Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, said in reference to the FAA Modernization Act of 2007.

"Today's announcement by the president is better late than never," Costello said.

----------

mdsilva@tribune.com

jhilkevitch@tribune.com

IN THE WEB EDITION: Watch President Bush's announcement of an airline "express lane" and check the status of flights with Flight Tracker at chicagotbiune.com/commute

more articles in /travel

SECRET HISTORY OF AMERICA - THE OCCULT BACKGROUND

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Secret history of America - The occult background

Runtime: 2h-44min

Secret History of America unfolds the fascinating history behind the founding of America, and exposes the esoteric underbelly of its design. Why is Washington D.C. build on the 77th Meridian? Are the Revolutionary War cities really built in perfect alignment with Stonehenge? If America was founded as a Christian nation, why are many of its symbols based on Pagan traditions? There is no doubt that much of America’s national heritage was Christian, but just as a coin has two sides, our national heritage has a second side – one based squarely on occult secret societies and their values.

To find the answer to these questions, we follow the journey of secret societies from England to the New World and learn of their ancient hope: to rebuild the lost empire of Atlantis.


For fullscreen click the link below:
Full Screen video

Download: - AVI (Original format)

HOW TV PROGRAMS AND CONTROLS MINDS

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

How television controls and programs minds


Turn Off Your Television

Read this powerful indictment of uncontrolled TV viewing written in the early 1990s and then take stock of how much the Boob Tube is on in your own home. Its message is even more important today with TVs blaring in airports, bars, even offices. It is time to try Mr. Wolfe's therapy: "Do you want to stay stupid and let your country go to hell in a basket? Why don't you just walk over to the set and turn it off. That's right, completely off. Go on, you can do it. Now isn't that better? Don't you feel a little better already? You've just taken the first step in deprogramming yourself. It wasn't that hard, was it? Until we speak again, try to keep it off. Now that will be a bit harder." -Jim Marrs

READ THE FULL STORY

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA PRESIDENT IN 2008?

Barack Obama

THE CLUB OF ROME (1997)

The Club of Rome:
A Learning Organization?

by Dr. Jim Botkin

Background:

The Club of Rome is an international think tank which became well-known in the early 1970s for its report entitled The Limits to Growth. Limits, translated into nearly 30 languages and over 4 million copies sold, was part of the fledgling environmental movement. Since its publication in 1972, the Club of Rome has commissioned more than a dozen reports - among them No Limits to Learning - but none attracted attention so widespread as its first one did. People not familiar with the Club assumed it had ceased functioning, particularly after the death of its charismatic founder Aurelio Peccei in 1984.

Not so. Organizations, once founded and successful, seldom wither away, and the Club of Rome is no exception. Still limited to one hundred members and buttressed by national associations in many countries, the Club continues to commission reports on global issues and hold annual meetings at the invitation of members or more likely invited by interested governments all over the world.

The most recent reports in progress concern the world unemployment dilemma, the problems of governability (or lack thereof) of most of the world's nations and societies, and the global warming problem. Interim reports on these three subjects were presented at the last annual meeting, which was held in Puerto Rico November 29-December 1, 1996.

Authors of the unemployment report told us the world needed a new concept of work where everyone would have a part time job to assure basic necessities and that the balance of a person's work day would be optional.

Authors of the governability study reported that no country was governable anymore -- the Clinton - Gingrich stalemates are occurring in nearly all democracies; low voter turnout is low everywhere; and we need a more modern concept of democracy to give life to the ebbing power and influence of nation-states.

The author of the global warming work created a stir when he said in understated tones that we may be in for a surprise sometime in the next decade or two. Umberto Colombo, head of Italy's IRI (National Energy Agency), said that if his studies of data of past weather patterns repeat themselves -- which they seem to be doing -- than we can expect that emissions of carbon dioxide will result in raising sea levels by an average of 10 feet. This will be of particular interest to people living in port cities, and to whole populations of countries like Bangladesh, substantially all of which is at 10 feet or below sea level!

Provocative as this and the other reports in progress were, some of us at the meeting were addressing an internal issue, namely whether the process of issuing reports in the hopes of stirring debates, was becoming outmoded. "A definition of stupidity or insanity," according to one of our more outspoken and highly respected members from Chile, "is continuing to do the same thing and expect a different result."

Dr. Jim Botkin, a member of the Club or Rome since 1980 when he delivered the No Limits to Learning report, and an advisor to New Horizons for Learning, was one of those at the Puerto Rico meeting who felt that the Club's global mission would benefit by changes in process.

Botkin said in his note to Dee Dickinson: "The 1997 meeting will be held in Washington DC for the first time ever in the continental U.S. The topic is Multimedia and Society. The meeting will be chaired by Vice President Al Gore. This will be a good opportunity for our members to review how we operate, and whether books are still the best way -- not to provide answers but to ask the right questions."

Below are Jim's remarks to the Club of Rome at the Puerto Rico meeting, in which he asks "What would it take to make the Club of Rome a learning organization?"

Remarks by Dr. Jim Botkin
Club of Rome Meeting, Puerto Rico
November 29 - December 1, 1996

Jay Forrester, the MIT professor, is a name known to most Club of Rome members. Most of you are also familiar with the name of one of his students, Dennis Meadows, who wrote Limits to Growth. What you may be less familiar with is Jay's other famous student: Peter Senge and his book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization, which has been nearly as influential as was Limits to Growth.

With a few brief remarks, I'd like to summarize some new developments in the field of learning organizations; to alert interested members to the World Bank's efforts to become a learning organization; and to ask what it would take to make The Club of Rome a learning organization?

When Mircea Malitza and I wrote No Limits to Learning with Mahdi Elmandjra nearly twenty years ago, people still confused learning with students and young people. Today, thanks largely to Senge's work, we have come to see learning in a much broader context, where schools are the place where the least learning occurs and the private business sector as the largest initiator of the art and practice of learning.

Corporate universities in Europe and North America now appropriate more funds to support learning than all the world's universities combined. They are growing 100 times faster than the university world, and the lifelong adult learning they support is 25 times larger than the traditional university student market. If you wonder about the quality, global reach, and intent of this free-market education, you should. This is the one of the single most powerful movements sweeping the world today which many smart people fail to believe, or even see, and it will have major impacts both for better and for worse.

By the mid 1980s, business became interested in the subject of learning, and I was invited to speak at IBM, AT&T, and General Motors in America and Volvo, Skandia Insurance, and others in Europe. Based on this interest, I cofounded InterClass - the International Corporate Learning Association, a consortium composed of major private and public organizations to help them become learning organizations.

The World Bank is one of the most active members of our consortium. This gives me a rare inside view of how transformation can rejuvenate an important international organization.

The World Bank will sponsor its first-ever global conference on learning called "Knowledge for Development: Building the Global Knowledge Partnership." It will be held June 22-25, 1997 in Toronto Canada. It is envisioned to recur every year in a different part of the world. The one in Toronto is expected to draw from one to two thousand participants, invited through 180 Ministries of Finance throughout the world. The InterClass consortium is the outside Design Team, volunteering its collective know-how in learning as it does for all its members.

I would urge any of you who are interested to pick up the documentation on the conference which I have appended to excerpts from my remarks and my book (in process) on Networked Intelligence. I would also invite the Club of Rome and its officers to consider making a presentation in this important global forum.

This brings me to my third and final point: What would it take to make The Club of Rome a learning organization? Some of you might ask, well, what is exactly a learning organization? Others might think, well, we already promote lots of learning - we even did a report on that subject. And others of us, especially the smartest, might think, "No way. We are into science and debate, not the art and dialogue of so-called learning organizations." So I shall conclude my remarks, not with answers, but by repeating the question: What would it take to make The Club of Rome a learning organization?

More about The Club of Rome:

In response to these remarks and its question on how to become a learning organization, Bertrand Schneider, Secretary General, and Ricardo Diez, President, both noted that the initial charter of the Club of Rome was learning. It was a way for individual members to learn more about the four central themes of the Club: Long range thinking, global thinking, holistic thinking, and whatever it takes to start understanding the know of interrelated global problems such as food, energy, poverty, and basic needs.

To learn more about the Club and its activities, visit http://www.clubofrome.org/, where you can offer your comments to its main office.

About the Author:

Dr. Jim Botkin
President, InterClass
30 JFK Street, Third Floor
Harvard Square
Cambridge, MA 02138-4909 USA
Tel: (617) 864-5300
Fax: (617) 864-7902

Copyright © January 1997 New Horizons for Learning, all rights reserved.

Source: http://www.newhorizons.org/future/botkin1.htm

EARLY D.C. HISTORY


D.C.
History
Washington History necessarily begins on the Potomac River - known to many Native Americans as the "Co-hon-ho-roo-ta", to the Spanish as the "Espiritu Santo"; to the first English explorers as the "Elizabeth"; and to Lord Calvert's pilgrims as the "St. Gregory." "Europeans were on the Potomac River in the first half of the 16th century," says Catholic historian Shea. But the earliest explorer who is known to have sailed for any considerable distance up the river was the Spanish admiral, Pedro Menendez, founder of Saint Augustine (1565) and governor of Spain's Florida possessions. He ascended, in 1571, as far as Aquia Creek - possibly as far as Occoquan Creek, about 25 miles below Washington. His departure, in the same year, marks the end of Spanish connection with Potomac history.

Captain John Smith explored the Potomac River in 1608, at least as far as Great Falls. He was the first European to reach the river's navigable head, though some authorities think he did not actually land upon what is now Washington soil. From 1608 to 1622 no other European is known to have reached the upper tidewater Potomac region. Then a foraging party from Jamestown, aided by friendly Indians from what is now the Virginia side, crossed from Potomac Run to the Maryland side of the river, and raided the Indian town of Nacotchtant, in what is now the Anacostia region.

George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, came to Virginia in 1629, "to plant and dwell." But as a devout Roman Catholic, he would not take the Protestant oath required of all colonists, and Governor Hervey ordered his return to England. In the homeland, Lord Baltimore received a royal grant of that part of Virginia north and east of the Potomac River between 38 degrees and 40 degrees north latitude. The tacit understanding between King Charles I and Lord Baltimore was that in this proprietary domain, christened "Maryland", the persecuted Catholics from the homeland might find refuge. The first Lord Baltimore died in 1632, but his son and heir, Cecil Calvert, sent his younger brother, Leonard, with "very near 20 gentleman of very good fashion and 300 laboring men" and two Catholic fathers, Andrew White and John Altham to begin the Maryland colonization.

They arrived in Chesapeake waters in March 1634, coming to anchor near the mouth of the "Petomeack" - or, as they renamed it, the "St Gregory" - at Blakistone's Island. Soon, however, Calvert hurried up-river in the smaller of his two ships. The ruler of the native tribes on the Maryland side was the "emperor" of the Piscataway Indians. To gain the latter's good will was Calvert's mission in sailing up the river to Piscataway Creek, about a dozen miles below Washington. He took with him as interpreter, Henry Fleet, a fur trader who had spent 2 years in the region - according to A.R. Spofford, the first white man authentically known to have trodden upon what is now Washington soil. The Native Americans were hostile to Calvert; and so he returned with Fleet down the Potomac to its mouth and settled a short distance inland north of the river, where "the Cittie of St. Mary", first capital of Maryland, developed.

From that point settlement rapidly and peacefully spread up the river. Grants of land to gentlemen planters were in most cases large. The manorial system prevailed - an estate of 1,000 acres or more became a manor and its master a lord. Settlement seemed sparse, yet by the beginning of the 18th century most of the land on both sides of the Potomac had been taken up and the upper tidewater region peopled by some of the most aristocratic families of both Virginia and Maryland.

Opposite Mount Vernon, at the mouth of Piscataway Creek, stands Warburton Manor, granted in 1641 to the Digges family. A little south and weast of this is Marshall Hall, granted to William Marshall in 1651. Bordering on "the freshes of Piscataway" was Mount Airy, the seat of Benedict Calvert, son of the fifth Lord Baltimore; here General Washington often stayed, and Calvert's daughter Eleanor married John Parke Custis, son of Martha Washington. Nearer the present city of Washington was another historic mansion, Oxon Hill, home of the Addisons. Between Oxon Creek and the Eastern Branch (or Anacostia River) was Blew Playne, a tract of 1,000 acres granted in 1692 to George Thompson. In 1663 Thompson was granted three other tracts: Duddington Manor, 100 acres; Duddington Pasture, 300 acres; and New Troy, 500 acres. In 1670 he leased his tracts for 1,000 years to Thomas Notley, who in 1671 patented them as Cerne Abbey Manor. At his death in 1679, his godson Notley Rozier inherited the manor. In 1716 it was again given its orginal name of Duddington Manor; and in the last decade of the 18th century, the manor (then, by intermarriage, owned mainly by the Carroll and Young families) was the largest and most valuable estate within what then became the District of Colombia.

Immediately north of Thompson's New Troy tract (which extended far north of what is now called Capitol Hill) was a tract called Scotland Yard, Patented to Captain Robert Troope in 1663, or earlier; and immediately north of Troope's land lay the tract known as Room, or Rome, granted to Francis Pope in 1663, and wrongly supposed by many writers to include the high land upon which our Nation's Capitol now stands. In 1600 James Langworth, of Charles County, Maryland, bequeathed to his son John his rights in 670 acres "yet to be taken up"; this, it is thought, was the 600-acre tract granted to John Langworth in 1664 - the so-called Widow's Mite, lying to the north. It changed hands many times during the next 130 years. A tract known as Vineyard, in what became the Georgetown area, was patented to William Hutchinson in 1696; part of it was owned by Robert Peter in 1791. In 1703 Col. Ninian Beall, of Upper Marlborough, acquired much land in the same vicinity - the so-called Rock of Dunbarton (or Dumbarton), and that recorded as Beall's Levels. Part of the latter passed to the Burnes family, including much of the land now comprised in the White House region and along Pennsylvania Avenue to the east.

The "10 mile square"; which in 1791 became the Federal area was fringed with many notable manors - Riversdale, belonging to the Calverts; Northampteon, manor of the Fairfaxes of Cameron; the Darnall homes, including Woodyard; the Caroll manors, including Rock Creek Mansion, where Father (later Archbishop) John Carroll lived; Chillum Manor, where one branch of the Digges family lived; Clean Drinking Manor, which passed from the Coates to Charles Jones; Friendship; one of the Addison manors; Rosedale, the Beall properties, and others.

Long before towns began to have any importance in the region, the social life of the great landowners was varied and delightful. Tobacco had brought vast wealth to the gentleman planters of Virginia and Maryland, and the abundance of slaves had given them ample time for leisure. The gentlefolk lived much in the saddle, thinking little of riding five, ten even more miles to pay a social call, or to dine, with a neighbor. "Every house was a house of entertainment,"; says Spofford, "for hotels were almost unknown. Any decent stranger was sure of welcome."; Card - parties, horse races, shooting matches, athletic sports, fencing, and other gentlemanly tests of alertness and skill, river parties, hunting meets, riding matches, etc... - all were popular in their due season. The table of gentlefolk gave evidence of abundance and good taste. Liquors were to be had in every variety, and hospitality was so open and sincere that it was rare day when some stranger did not sit at the family table.

But these landed proprietors, with their charming affluence and leisure, by no means comprised the whole of humanity in Colonial Virginia and Maryland. There were many small planters who worked the less fertile land themselves - sometimes with a slave or two, sometimes alone; and some of the great Maryland landowners made fortunes by settling German immigrants on their plantations as tenant farmers. these small growers could not, like the rich proprietors, profitably consign their crops to English agents. "The large planters, therefore, became traders, buying the tobacco of their poorer neighbors and opening plantation stores in which the small farmers bought necessary merchandise."; There were also rather considerable artisan, mechanic, and laborer class, mostly persons sent over from England under indenture to Colonial employers, whom they were required to serve for a period of 3 to 5 years, as recompense for the cost of their passage and a commission to the agent or ship owner who had arranged the transaction. To all of these economically oppressed classes, the western "back country"; offered a promised land toward which they pushed in ever-increasing numbers. But no path of escape in any direction stood open to the hordes of African slaves, who constituted by far the largest population group in the tidewater region, and upon whose labor the imposing structure of plantation prosperity the region was chiefly based.

The DC History Project is cooperative effort made possible by volunteers in the DC Metropolitan area. New sections will be added as contributions come in. If you would like to make a contribution to the DC History Project please e-mail us at history@dcpages.com.

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* Edits: Added or corrected.

MASONIC SYMBOLS IN WASHINGTON D.C.

MASONIC SYMBOLS
IN THE NATION'S CAPITAL
WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA


The United States of America is not merely a nationality. In the two centuries since its founding the United States has grown from a coastal alliance of colonial divisions into an entire civilization. Whereas many countries are identified by use of a native language, or allegiance to a certain religion, the United States encompasses all. If the rest of the world were to burn to a cinder tonight, every language, every nationality, every culture, every religion and virtually every gene pool would still exist within the borders of the United States.

English is the international language of business and up to the time this was posted,the U.S. dollar has been the benchmark currency from which global values are derived. The United States has become this largely because of the individual freedom that is recognized as birthright in the Declaration of Independence, and Constitution which governs, regulates, and limits the power of the State to control individual actions, save those deemed criminal. Nothing more than the hope that freedom, both political and economic, might exist has caused wave after wave of international immigration.

In the U.S., not only is freedom a native birthright, but, until recently, also conveyed to all who came to stay, or to those merely here to visit. Our citizenship has always been available on a truly open basis. The U.S. has always been open to people, business, religion, culture, and politics. As if by magic are both personal privacy and economic freedom accommodated. Coupled to a system of scheduled political referendum, the U.S. has done nothing but grow since its inception. The United States rose to glory on the basis of its permissiveness.

The keys to this were the elimination of royalty and hereditary titles, the permanent separation of political alliances between church and state, and a mechanical system of political referendum. The great promises of the United States are freedom and liberty. As long as freedom and liberty are expanding, the United States will expand. If liberty and freedom become restricted, the power, prestige, and influence of the United States will contract. This is the all and all of the entire formula.

This model of government was largely crafted by members of an international continuum of intellectually gifted, and open minded thinkers known as the Freemasons. Virtually all of the founding Fathers were Masons. It is no wonder then, that masonic symbols adorn our money, our documents, and our architecture. As with the all seeing eye in the capstone of the Pyramid which appears on a dollar bill, many of the symbols are of ancient Egyptian origin. It may be that no one alive today possesses the knowledge of their exact meaning. The only thing for certain is that the Masons thought it important, and were acting with deliberate intent. Being a secret society, and one which had suffered unspeakable persecution by alliances of Church and States wherever they organized, the Masons had good reasons for disguising their arcana. Even today, their rites of initiation, and lore are largely oral. But with the design of the Federal City it was their intent to incorporate their symbols in a monolithic way.

As can be seen on the following map section, the District of Columbia conformed to a very specific plan. While its streets were to laid out on a grid which was perfectly north/south, east/west; the corner- points of its borders were found at the cardinal points of the compass. The borderlines were set at 45 degree angles to the grid. More so, while the street grid was aligned to true North, the corner-points were aligned to magnetic North. The map section referenced in this essay was first issued by the U.S. Geological Survey, and was based on aerial photographs made by the Air Corps, U.S. Army in 1914. If one looks at it with an initiated mind,patterns emerge which have never been specifically identified before. This is made possible, in part, by the fact that certain landmarks have been changed since the map was made. Looking first at the pink bordered figure , it can be plainly seen that a gigantic pentagram star had been laid out which went from what is now Howard University at its northern point, from Georgetown to a point north of Benning Road, on its E/W axis, and the descending lines met diagonals at points in Anacostia, and Alexandria. The largest portions of this star are formed by actual streets, the cross-bar being ‘K' Street, and the others being diagonals named after States.

It must be noted that the descending diagonals bisect both the U.S. Capitol Building, and The White House with Pennsylvania Avenue set as a sight line for the Constellation Orion. At the center of the ‘K' Street cross-bar (at its intersection with New York and Massachusetts Avenues, [yellow,]) is sited the first of the Carnegie Libraries, at Mount Vernon Square. This location is certainly no accident, and it is probable that within its structure, or perhaps cornerstone will be found explanatory documents. Currently it hosts the University of the Museum of the District of Columbia, and is across the square from the new convention center. Here ‘ X ' marks the spot as New York and Massachussetts Avenues intersect in the square.

The area encompassing The White House from Pennsylvania Avenue, south across the Ellipse, to a site line [green,]formed by the conjunction of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument (Egyptian obelisk,) and the Dome of the Capitol Building is absolutely spectacular in its subtlety. The circle formed by the Ellipse is actually part of an Ankh ([Purple] Egyptian symbol of eternal life) the arms of which are a segment of Independence Avenue, and the tail of which is a road which formerly extended to the axis line described above. In other words, the White House grounds appear from the air to be sitting atop an Ankh.

The White House grounds themselves are bordered by a horseshoe-shaped perimeter which is round at the bottom (southern border,) and open at the top (Pennsylvania Avenue.) Within this border sits the White House. Its southern driveway forms within the larger borders a circle of closure which circumscribes a sun disk, which taken together with the semi-circular Pennsylvania Avenue driveway forms a very distinct, and accurately scaled Crown Of Hathor (Egyptian Mother-Goddess [orange]). Within the Executive reservation are a Crown atop an Ankh, with an obelisk thrown in for good measure. The driveway from Pennsylvania Ave. under the portico of the White House forms the horns of an apis bull, which when appearing atop the Crown of Hathor denotes the symbol of the goddess Isis. This may commemorate the Masonic Lodge of Isis in Paris, where much of the twin revolutions in America and France were planned.

The zero milestone marker may represent the third eye, in this case at the conjunction of higher and lower consciousness (the spiritual, and the temporal; the pineal and the pituitary). Of note is the fact that the height of Jefferson's head in his memorial across the Tidal Basin is dead level with the pinnacle of the zero milestone. Measure down from this line at mean high tide and sea level may be established at the Tidal basin from the South lawn of the White House itself.

Every President to occupy the White House has been living and serving within a monolithic Egyptian glyph.

The combined symbols of the ankh, the obelisk, and the Crown of Isis constitute a very powerful protected reservation. They are in and of themselves transcendental in nature. These types of symbols have the power to convey understanding without education or training. One wonders how many, if any, of our Presidents have known or comprehended this.

The Capitol Building is another story however. The Capitol dome is the zero point for the four quadrants of the city: Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, Southeast. Streets running East-West bear alpha-numeric designation, while streets running North-South are themselves numbered. Diagonals are named after states. In theory, it is possible for anyone to identify their location on the grid at every street corner. 1st Street N.W. and 1st Street N.E. are two blocks apart, separated by North capitol Street, and so forth. Logic was imparted to the grid beginning at the Capitol, but the zero milestone from which the survey actually began is sited at the conjunction of the Crown of Isis/Hathor, and the Ankh of eternal life.

The Capitol building is sited on grounds that appear to be a flower. It is an imprint of a rose. As such, a basic Masonic symbol has been installed sub-rosa, which is a method they used in times of persecution to disguise their work, but to identify it to the initiated. It forms the entire Capitol Building reservation. This sub-rosa emblem is purely Masonic. At the base (western edge) of the symbol are twin circular reflective pools (blue- now gone) equidistant and aligned with diagonals of Pennsylvania and Maryland Avenues. The center axis of the Capitol dome aligns itself with the center axis of the Washington Monument, the dome of the Lincoln Memorial, and the White House. All axes of which are maintained with unobscured sight lines. The Capitol dome, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial are all sited in a perfect East/West alignment and in conformity with the Golden section (PHI). The symbol of the Rose is seen as the baseplate for the Capitol Building itself.

In the Northwest section of the city, circles were incorporated at the intersections of diagonal streets (blue) There are six of these, seven if the circumscription of the Lincoln Memorial is included. In the Southeast quadrant however, squares and rectangles were incorporated at the intersections of diagonal streets. The NW circles may represent a configuration of heavenly bodies as once aligned, or the same which may be observed in a future alignment. The circles of Northwest, and the squares of Southeast may also represent the northern and southern hemispheres. In an area just to the left of Connecticut Avenue and South of Rock Creek Park, is found another ankh (red.) It appears atop the hieroglyph for a djed pillar. The djed pillar represented the stability and order of ancient Egypt. This was also known as 'Maat.' Crowned by an ankh, it comes to mean the stability of eternal life. Just why it appears where it does is a mystery.

The star configuration was obviously overtaken by other events which included the State of Virginia taking back its land. This ultimately prevented its completion. Enough of it exists that its phantom members can be identified from existing remnants however. Accurate conclusions may never be drawn, but as with this description, enough facts blended with a little imagination makes for a very entertaining theory.

Sacred geometry has its laws and Washington, D.C. is in conformity with them. With this conformity, it is possible to tell the time and date of the year from above or below. The Federal complex functions as both a clock and a calendar. It is beyond comprehension to suggest that this was at random, or was designed independently by separate planners. The entire plan was drawn and scaled prior to execution.

Like the pyramids, it was implemented and installed over multiple generations by architects, artisans, and laborers who were serving a Divine plan without being aware of the plan itself.

The very strangest mystery of all lies in the fact that these monolithic symbols can only be identified from the air, and yet their planning occurred at a time when airborne travel had not yet been envisioned. Further, we know today that they are readily visible from space. For whom then, were these symbols intended, and why were they so systematically incorporated?

The men who gave us freedom must be recognized 200 years later as having had a superior ability to turn thoughts, ideas, dreams, and visions into reality. Their powers of creation rank foremost among those of modern Times. It is evident that they sought to preserve the symbols of their dreams and visions in a way so blatantly permanent, that no matter how much time it took, eventually the meaning would become clear to succeeding generations. The Masons as a matter of routine, stored explanatory documents within their architectural structures. Such may be found in the institutions incorporated within the grand design. Meanwhile, the perfection of their accomplishments continues to educate, entertain, and fascinate scholars of every disposition, as the foundations of Egyptian legends are preserved.

Over 200 years later, the electronic internet arrives. This picture was compiled at the University of Illinois supercomputing center in 1994. It appeared in Newsweek magazine. It is a graphic representation of trillion line bytes of internet traffic. As can be seen, the internet is a star radiating from Washington, D.C. The U.S. government accounts for half of all daily internet traffic on the world wide web. One star seems to predict the other. This is, of course, very strange. It may indicate the guiding hand of the Grand Architect, the one who put the constellation of the Eagle over the U.S. landmass. The explanations are probably endless. But it certainly seems to be a perfectly prescient prediction.

It seems that the city of Washington, D.C. was both designed as, and has become, the Stargate City.

AS GOES ROME...SO GOES THE WORLD

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Source: http://www.opencheops.org/page7.htm

ROME, MARY-LAND U.S.A.


Rome, Maryland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Rome, Maryland, was the original name of a community within Prince George's County, Maryland, which would eventually become Washington, District of Columbia. Specifically, Rome was the original community name of Capitol Hill, upon which the United States Capitol Building sits.

In 1663, the property that would become the Capitol's site was inscribed in the Maryland property records as “Rome,” its owner a man named Francis Pope. The southern boundary of this property was shaped by a river named for the river that runs through Rome, Italy, the Tiber.

The community was part of the ten mile square tract of land which would become the American capital Washington, D.C., and its owner, Daniel Carroll, transferred the community to the federal government after the amendment to the United States Constitution sanctioning the building of the new United States capital city was ratified.

Daniel Carroll was the chairman of a three-man commission appointed by President George Washington to find a suitable location for the capital city. A signer of the Declaration of Independence, Daniel Carroll was a Roman Catholic educated by Jesuits in Maryland and France. His brother John Carroll became the first Catholic bishop in America, presiding over the See of Baltimore, which included Washington, D.C. John Carroll also founded Georgetown University.

References

  • Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C.
  • The Catholic Encyclopedia, Charles G. Herbermann
  • Rulers Of Evil: Useful Knowledge About Governing Bodies, F. Tupper Saussy, HarperCollins, 1999, 2001
  • Ovason, David, The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital: the Masons and the building of Washington, D.C. New York City: Perennial, 2002. ISBN 0060195371 ISBN 978-0060195373

The Darkest Day: The Washington-Baltimore Campaign During the War of 1812, Charles Geoffrey Muller

See also


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Saturday, November 17, 2007

THE ELECTED ELDERS

And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee.
Numbers 11:16.
17Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.

18For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.

19Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.

20Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.

21I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.

22Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure.

1 Timothy 5:17-22

***

1The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:

2Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

3Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.

4And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.


1 Peter 5:1-4

THE LORD WILL HAVE MERCY ON JACOB


1For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.


2And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

3And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,

4That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

5The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.

6He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.

7The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.

8Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

9Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

10All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

11Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. ..................................Isaiah 14:1-11.

THE GREAT MULTITUDE OF THE REDEEMED

The Great Multitude of the Redeemed

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. Rev. 7:9.


All classes, all nations and kindreds and people and tongues will stand before the throne of God and the Lamb with their spotless robes and jeweled crowns. Said the angel, These are they that have come up through great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white, while the lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, the self-indulgent and disobedient, have lost both worlds. They have neither the things of this life nor the immortal life.

That triumphant throng, with songs of victory and with crowns and harps, have trodden in the fiery furnace of earthly affliction when it was heated and intensely hot. From destitution, from hunger and torture, they come, from deep self-denial and bitter disappointments. Look upon them now as conquerors, no longer poor, no longer in sorrow, in affliction and hated of all men for Christ's sake. Behold their heavenly garments, white and shining, richer than any kingly robe. Look by faith upon their jeweled crowns; never did such a diadem deck the brow of any earthly monarch.

Listen to their voices as they sing loud hosannas and as they wave the palm branches of victory. Rich music fills heaven as their voices sing forth these words: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain and rose again forevermore. Salvation unto our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." And the angelic host, angels and archangels, covering cherub and glorious seraph, echo back the refrain of that joyous, triumphant song saying, "Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever" (Rev. 7:12).

Oh, in that day it will be discovered that the righteous were the wise ones, while the sinful and disobedient were fools. . . . Shame and everlasting contempt is their portion. Those who have been colaborers for Christ will then be near the throne of God, girt with purity and the garments of eternal righteousness.

Maranatha, Ellen G. White, Page 329.

THE ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY FOUR THOUSAND

THE ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY FOUR THOUSAND

Upon the crystal sea before the throne, that sea of glass as it were mingled with fire,--so resplendent is it with the glory of God,--are gathered the company that have "gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name." [REV. 15:2.] With the Lamb upon Mount Zion, "having the harps of God," they stand, the hundred and forty and four thousand that were redeemed from among men; and there is heard, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of a great thunder, "the voice of harpers harping with their harps." [REV. 14:1-5; 15:3; 7:14-17] And they sing "a new song" before the throne, a song which no man can learn save the hundred and forty and four thousand. It is the song of Moses and the Lamb,--a song of deliverance. None but the hundred and forty-four thousand can learn that song; for it is the song of their experience,--an experience such as no other company have ever had. "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." These, having been translated from the earth, from among the living, are counted as "the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb." "These are they which came out of great tribulation;" [REV. 14:1-5; 15:3; 7:14-17.] they have passed through the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation; they have endured the anguish of the time of Jacob's trouble; they have stood without an intercessor through the final outpouring of God's judgments. But they have been delivered, for they have "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." "In their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault" before God. "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." [REV. 14:1-5; 15:3; 7:14-17.] They have seen the earth wasted with famine and pestilence, the sun having power to scorch men with great heat, and they themselves have endured suffering, hunger, and thirst. But "they shall hunger no more; neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." [REV. 14:1-5; 15:3; 7:14-17.]

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The Great Controversy (1888), Ellen G. White, Pages 648-649.

PSALM 121

Psalm 121

1I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

2My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

3He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

4Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

5The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

6The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

7The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

8The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.