Wednesday, March 17, 2010

20 Signs That The United States Is Rapidly Becoming A Totalitarian Big Brother Police State

Mar10 2010

Posted by Admin

Once upon a time, the United States was a land of unparalleled freedom. The rest of the world envied the freedom that ordinary Americans had to think, say and do what they wanted. But all of that has changed. Now Americans have to fear that they will be tackled by a squad of security goons and dragged off to a detention facility somewhere if they spill a Pepsi on a flight attendant or take a few too many pictures of a public building. The United States used to be the polar opposite of totalitarian regimes like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, but now America is rapidly becoming very much like them. Due to the fear of a boogeyman living in a cave somewhere or some guy with explosive powder in his underwear we are all being forced to give up our freedoms and learn to live in a Big Brother police state.

But have things really changed so much that we have to give up all of the cherished freedoms that our fathers and grandfathers fought and died for? Haven't there always been fanatics and crazies and criminals out there? Why do we suddenly have to become so afraid of them?
In the past, Americans would not let anyone make them live in fear. If some unbalanced individual did something bad, it wasn't the end of the world, was it? No, in the past Americans dusted themselves off and continued to live as free men and women. You see, when we live in fear and radically alter our way of life just to feel a little more secure, we lose. We have let someone else steal our freedom and our dignity.

But now in the name of "security" all kinds of bizarre proposals have been implemented on the local, state and national levels. Somehow we think that if everything that we do is watched, monitored and analyzed we will all be safer somehow.

Maybe we are safer and maybe we aren't, but we are certainly a whole lot less free.
The following are 20 signs that the United States is rapidly becoming a totalitarian "Big Brother" police state....

#1) A new bill being pushed by Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman would allow the U.S. military to round up large numbers of Americans and detain them indefinitely without a trial if they "pose a threat" or if they have "potential intelligence value" or for any other reason the President of the United States "considers appropriate".

#2) Lawmakers in Washington D.C. working to create a new immigration bill have decided on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would be required to obtain.

#3) Barack Obama is backing a plan to create a national database to store the DNA of people who have been arrested but not necessarily convicted of a crime.

#4) Just to get on an airplane, Americans will now have to go through new full-body scanners that reveal every detail of our exposed bodies to airport security officials.

#5) If that wasn't bad enough, the Transportation Security Administration has announced that airport screeners will begin roving through airports randomly taking chemical swabs from passengers and their bags to check for explosives.

#6) Starting this upcoming December, some passengers on Canadian airlines flying to, from or even over the United States without ever landing there, will only be allowed to board their flights once the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has determined they are not terrorists.

#7) Organic milk is such a threat that the FDA has been conducting military style raids on Amish farmers in Pennsylvania.

#8) An NYPD officer has broken his silence and has confessed that innocent citizens are being set up and falsely arrested and ticketed in order to meet quotas.

#9) A growing number of police departments across the U.S. are turning to mobile camera systems in order to fight motor vehicle theft and identify unregistered cars.

#10) For decades, Arizona has been known as "the sunset state", but lately many frustrated residents have started calling it "the surveillance state".

#11) Judges and police in Florida have been caught using "secret codes" on tickets in the state of Florida.

#12) An extensive investigation has revealed that between 2003 and 2007, that state of Texas quietly gave hundreds of newborn baby blood samples to a U.S. Armed Forces laboratory for use in a forensics database.

#13) A 6-year-old girl was recently handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.

#14) One 12-year-old girl in New York was recently arrested and marched out of her school in handcuffs just because she doodled on her desk.

#15) In Florida, students have been arrested by police for things as simple as bringing a plastic butter knife to school, throwing an eraser, and drawing a picture of a gun.

#16) When a mother on a flight to Denver spanked both of her children and cussed out a flight attendant who tried to intervene, she suddenly found herself handcuffed and headed for prison. Why? She was charged with being a domestic terrorist under the Patriot Act.

#17) A new global treaty may force U.S. Internet service providers to spy on what you do online.
#18) A leaked Obama administration memo has revealed plans for the federal government to seize more than 10 million acres of land from Montana to New Mexico.

#19) 56 percent of Americans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll said that the U.S. government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.

#20) But one other recent poll found that 51 percent of Americans agree with this statement: "It is necessary to give up some civil liberties in order to make the country safe from terrorism."


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Source: http://thisistheendoftheworldasweknowit.com/archives/20-signs-that-the-united-states-is-rapidly-becoming-a-totalitarian-big-brother-police-state


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Blair courts controversial US pastor Rick Warren in bid to unite

Former prime minister builds network of Christian allies as he prepares to launch a religious 'offensive' in North America

Jamie Doward and Paul Harris

The Observer, Sunday 14 March 2010
Article history



Tony Blair. Photograph: Nathan Denette/AP

Tony Blair is preparing to launch a "faith offensive" across the United States over the next year, after building up relationships with a network of influential religious leaders and faith organisations.

With Afghanistan and Iraq casting a shadow over his popularity at home in Britain, Blair's focus has increasingly shifted across the Atlantic, to where the nexus of faith and power is immutable and he is feted like a rock star.

According to the annual accounts of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, a UK-based charity that promotes cohesion between the major faiths, the foundation is to develop a US arm that will pursue a host of faith-based projects. The accounts show that his foundation has an impressive – and, in at least one case, controversial – set of faith contacts. Sitting on some £4.5m in funds as of April last year, mostly gathered through donations, it is now well placed to make its voice heard.

The foundation's advisory council of religious leaders includes Rick Warren, powerful founder of the California-based Saddleback church. It attracts congregations of nearly 20,000 and is reportedly one of the largest in the US. Warren, who has addressed the UN and the World Economic Forum in Davos, has been named one of the "15 world leaders who matter most" and one of the "100 most influential people in the world".

His influence was confirmed in December 2008 when Barack Obama chose him to give the invocation at his presidential inauguration. But the decision angered many liberals, who see Warren as an opponent of gay rights and abortion on demand; a prominent alliance with Warren is likely to attract similar attacks on the former British prime minister.

Also on the council is David Coffey, president of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), a Virginia-based network of churches that spans the globe and is particularly active in the US.

Another initiative has been to team up with the Belinda Stronach Foundation in Toronto. Unknown in the UK, Stronach, daughter of a Canadian billionaire, is hugely influential in Canada where as a philanthropist, businesswoman and former politician she has served in both the Conservative and Liberal parties. Attractive and barely into her 40s, media commentators have dubbed her "bubba's blonde", a reference to her friendship with Bill Clinton.

According to the accounts, Blair intends to open an office in Toronto to develop the relationship.

His desire for North America to be the focus of his faith-based operations was confirmed by the decision to hold his foundation's inaugural event in May 2008 in New York, for the "charity's key partners and religious stakeholders".

The accounts also shine a light on the close connections the foundation now enjoys with major political institutions in the US. "With the Washington-based Centre for Interfaith Action, the foundation supported a meeting of major international organisations active in faith-based approaches to combating malaria (plus the White House, World Bank, UN, World Health Organisation) to co-ordinate international efforts," the accounts state.

That Blair, a charismatic politician driven by faith, should be at home across the Atlantic is no surprise to political analysts. "He comes across as confident and persuasive," said Professor Shawn Bowler, of the University of California at Riverside. "He does not talk like a modern robo-candidate in the way so many US political figures do." Unlike in the UK, Blair's religious fervour is seen as a strength. "Blair is very open about his faith and that plays a lot better in the US than in Britain," Bowler said.

But the overtly religious dimension has drawn criticism. "The Tony Blair Faith Foundation is a fundamentally flawed concept," said Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society. "If religion is constantly at the fore, then the old suspicions and hatreds will continue to fester."

Other North American faith-based initiatives endorsed by the foundation include the New York-based Global Nomads Group, which brings together young people through video conferences "to discuss the global issues that affect their lives", and the Faiths Act Fellowship, which selects "30 young leaders aged 18-25, drawn from the different faiths from the US, UK and Canada, to embark on a 10-month journey of interfaith service".

Blair's status is such that he is now called on to sprinkle stardust at religious gatherings, such as a speech he delivered at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. Even his autobiography, The Journey, for which he was paid a £4.6m advance, appears to be aimed at the US market. "Tony Blair is an extremely popular figure in North America," said Sonny Mehta, his publisher. "His memoir is refreshing, both for its candour and vivid portrayal of political life."

So embedded is he that Blair regularly crops up in Washington society diaries. Last September, the former Republican vice-president, Dick Cheney, was dining in the same restaurant. Blair got top billing in the gossip columns.

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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/14/tony-blair-faith-foundation-america
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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Did the CIA test LSD in the New York City subway system?


By PHILIP MESSING

Last Updated: 5:05 AM, March 14, 2010

Posted: 1:28 AM, March 14, 2010

On Nov. 28, 1953, Frank Olson, a bland, seemingly innocuous 42-year-old government scientist, plunged to his death from room 1018A in New York’s Statler Hotel, landing on a Seventh Avenue sidewalk just opposite Penn Station.

Olson’s ignominious end was written off as an unremarkable suicide of a depressed government bureaucrat who came to New York City seeking psychiatric treatment, so it attracted scant attention at the time.

But 22 years later, the Rockefeller Commission report was released, detailing a litany of domestic abuses committed by the CIA. The ugly truth emerged: Olson’s death was the result of his having been surreptitiously dosed with LSD days earlier by his colleagues.

The shocking disclosure led to President Gerald Ford’s apology to Olson’s widow and his three children, who accepted a $750,000 civil payment for his wrongful death.

But the belated 1975 mea culpa failed to close a tawdry chapter of our nation’s past. Instead it generated more interest into a series of wildly implausible “mind control” experiments on an unsuspecting populace over three decades.

Much of this plot unfolded here, in New York, according to H.P. Albarelli Jr., author of “A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments.”

“For me, in countless ways the Olson story is a New York City story,” said Albarelli, a former lawyer in the Carter White House, who has written extensively about biological warfare and intelligence matters. “The CIA itself was created and initially composed of wealthy men who came from Wall Street and New York City law firms.”

Olson was a research scientist assigned to the CIA’s Special Operations Division, at Ft. Detrick, Md., who was performing top secret research relating to LSD-25, a powerful new drug whose properties were barely understood. Could psychedelic drugs be used to get enemy combatants to lay down their arms, or work as a truth serum on reluctant prisoners?

Albarelli spent more than a decade sifting through more than 100,000 pages of government documents and his most startling chestnut might be his claim that the intelligence community conducted aerosol tests of LSD inside the New York City subway system.

“The experiment was pretty shocking — shocking that the CIA and the Army would release LSD like that, among innocent unwitting folks,” Albarelli told The Post.

A declassified FBI report from the Baltimore field office dated Aug. 25, 1950 provides some tantalizing support for the claim. “The BW [biological weapon] experiments to be conducted by representatives of the Department of the Army in the New York Subway System in September 1950, have been indefinitely postponed,” states the memo, a copy of which the author provided to The Post

An Olson colleague, Dr. Henry Eigelsbach, confirmed to Albarelli that the LSD subway test did, in fact, occur in November 1950, albeit on a smaller scale than first planned. Little, however, is known about the test — what line, how many people and what happened.

The purported experiment occurred nearly a year before a more infamous August 1951 incident in the small town of Pont St. Esprit, in the south of France, when the citizens were hit by a case of mass insanity.

Over a two-day period, some 250 residents sought hospital care after hallucinating for no apparent reason. Thirty-two patients were hauled off to mental asylums. Four died. Mercury poisoning or ergot, a fungus of rye bread, was cited as the culprit. But ergot is also one of the central ingredient of LSD. And curiously enough, Olson and his government pals were in France when the craziness erupted.

Albarelli also introduces us to George Hunter White — a ne’er-do-well agent for the Bureau of Narcotics, a forerunner to the current Drug Enforcement Administration, he was on “special contract” with the CIA.

It was White, Olson’s colleague Eigelsbach contends, who was behind the November 1950 New York City subway test — as well as a second test two years later, Albarelli claims.

“George White in 1952 did release a small amount of aerosol LSD in a subway car. He was pleased with the results as indicated in his diary, but his reports on the incident were destroyed by the CIA in 1973,” he says.

But with the CIA’s most important records on such matters destroyed or cloaked in national security claims, it remains difficult to prove whether these purported subway tests occurred.

Still, Albarelli’s portrait of White — a gruff, chain-smoking, gin-swilling reprobate with an occasional fondness for opium, hookers and Mafiosi drug-dealers — makes it apparent that if anyone could have tested LSD on an unsuspecting public, it would be him.

White had set up a CIA safe house at 81 Bedford Street, in Greenwich Village, comprised of two apartments conjoined with a hidden two-way mirror and doorway. Posing as a seaman or artist, he would regularly recruit strangers for social gatherings there, where they would be plied with psychedelic drugs, often without their knowledge. The aim was to see if White could successfully extract information from them and to assess those results, according to one CIA document.

In between home experimenting, White was well known as a carouser. The safe house was down the block from Chumley’s, a former speakeasy and now defunct bar, where White once took James Jesus Angleton, the former CIA head.

The good news for people of New York, was when they stumbled out of Chumley’s, it was a short walk home — and they didn’t need to ride the subway to get there.


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2 Catholic Pope Icons Within The United States Capitol

House Chamber
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The President delivers the annual State of the Union address in the House chamber

The House of Representatives Chamber has 448 permanent seats. Unlike Senators, Representatives do not have assigned seats.[39] It is adorned with relief portraits of famous lawmakers and lawgivers throughout history.

In order clockwise around the chamber:
George Mason
Robert Joseph Pothier
Jean Baptiste Colbert
Edward I
Alfonso X
Pope Gregory IX*Saint Louis
Justinian I
Tribonian
Lycurgus
Hammurabi
Moses
Solon
Papinian
Gaius
Maimonides
Suleiman the Magnificent
Pope Innocent III*
Simon de Montfort
Hugo Grotius
Sir William Blackstone
Napoleon I
Thomas Jefferson
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There is also a quote etched in the marble of the chamber, as stated by venerable statesman Daniel Webster: "Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered."[40]
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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol
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Relief Portraits of POPES
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Bas-relief in the U.S. House of Representatives Chamber
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Bas-relief in the U.S. House of Representatives Chamber
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P.S. What are these guys doing in a Federal building of a nation that has an Establishment Clause? A nation which is the last bastion of religious and civil liberties? Why in a land where the pilgrims came to escape the tyranny of the kings and popes of Europe?
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Also, Thanks Christian Pinto & Greg for the info.
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Partisan politics and a church/state punch-up in Texas


Mar 12, 2010 15:07 EST

Ed Stoddard

Partisan politics and America’s culture wars have been on full display again in Austin at the Texas State Board of Education. According to a Friday report in The Dallas Morning News, Republicans on the board defeated a Democratic-backed proposal on Thursday to would have required that Texas students be taught the reason behind a prohibition of a state religion in the Bill of Rights. You can see the report here by The Dallas Morning News which has done some fine stuff on this and related subjects.

The seven social conservatives on the panel were joined by three moderate Republicans in rejecting the proposal, which was backed by all five Democrats on the board.

Former U. S. president George W. Bush (C) speaks at a rededication of the National Archives in Washington, September 17, 2003/Larry Downing

The so-called “Establishment Clause” in the U.S. Bill of Rights — which states that: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” — has become one of the many flashpoints in the country’s culture wars which outsiders often find bewildering. U.S. liberals and secular humanists have said this is the basis for America’s separation of church and state; for many religious conservatives, this is a dangerous fiction that has been advanced by activists judges. Battles over it have taken many shapes and have included those over school prayer.

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Catholic daily buries the news in sexual abuse headline


Mar 13, 2010 14:24 EST

Tom Heneghan


Catholic daily buries the news in sexual abuse headline

Headlines are supposed to highlight the news, but sometimes the news is uncomfortable. Like the sexual abuse cases for the Roman Catholic Church. Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian Catholic bishops’ conference, played down the big news in its front-page headline on Saturday about an interview with the head of the Vatican office dealing with charges of sexual abuse against priests.

In the middle of the front page (at left), it ran the headline “Il ‘pm’ vaticano: in tutto il mondo trecento i preti accusati di pedofilia.” — Vatican public prosecutor: 300 priests accused of pedophilia in the whole world.” That actually doesn’t sound like that many, given all the cases we’ve heard about all these years.

It’s only in the interview on page 5 that the real picture emerges. There the reader finds a much larger figure of 3,000 accusations of sexual misdeeds of all kinds made against priests since 2001, concerning cases dating back up to 50 years ago. That sounds more like it, although it still must be lower than the real number of cases because so many don’t get reported.
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UK Government and Catholic Bishops welcome state visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom


16/03/2010

Press release

Issued by the CBCEW


UK Government and Catholic Bishops welcome state visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom

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Issued jointly by HM Government of the United Kingdom and the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Scotland, England and Wales

The UK Government and the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Scotland, England and Wales today welcomed the forthcoming visit to the United Kingdom of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. At a joint press conference, they said that the Papal Visit represents an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen ties between the UK and the Holy See on global initiatives, as well as the important role of faith in creating strong communities.

Her Majesty The Queen announced earlier today that the visit will take place from 16-19 September. It will be the first ever official Papal Visit to the UK – the visit by Pope John Paul II in 1982 was a pastoral visit only.

The Pope will be received at the Palace of Holyroodhouse by Her Majesty The Queen. His Holiness will give a major speech to British civil society at Westminster Hall. He will also visit the West Midlands to beatify the nineteenth century theologian and educationalist Cardinal John Henry Newman at a public mass in Coventry.

Other key elements of the visit will include a public mass in Glasgow, a prayer vigil in London and an event focusing on education. Relations between the Christian Churches will be a theme of the visit as will the relations between the major faiths. The Pope will visit the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace and pray with other Church leaders at Westminster Abbey.

Full details of the Pope’s itinerary will be announced nearer the time.

Rt Hon Jim Murphy MP, Secretary of State for Scotland, is the Government Minister leading the preparations for the visit. He said:

“This is an historic visit at an important time. The Pope will receive a very warm welcome from Catholics and people of all faiths.

“As well as providing spiritual leadership to over a billion Catholics around the world, including six million in the UK, the Pope and the Holy See have great influence on global policy in areas such as international development, sustainability and the relationships between religions.

“The Papal visit represents an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen ties between the UK and the Holy See on action to tackle poverty and climate change as well as the important role of faith in creating strong and cohesive communities. We aim to build further on the positive relationship we have developed in recent years.”

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, said:

"I am thrilled that the Pope has accepted the UK Government's gracious invitation and I am sure he will receive a heartfelt welcome from Catholics as well as members of other faiths and people of goodwill.

“A defining feature of Pope Benedict's teaching has been to remind Europe of its Christian roots and culture and to give us guidance on the great moral issues of our day and it is my hope that we all open our hearts to his words.”

The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Catholics Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said:

“As Catholics we are delighted to welcome Pope Benedict. We thank Her Majesty The Queen and her government for extending this historic invitation to His Holiness.

“We are confident that the presence and message of Pope Benedict will encourage everyone to aspire again to a vision of life in our society marked by mutual trust, compassion and truth. The great Christian tradition of faith and life, which has so shaped our culture, has so much more to offer. This gentle yet profound teacher of his faith will encourage and strengthen all who receive his words.”

Notes
1. Pope John Paul II visited the UK in 1982, coinciding with the reestablishment of full diplomatic relations between the UK and the Holy See. However, this was not an official Papal Visit. The visit in September 2010 will be a Papal Visit, with the status of a State Visit. As such, the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Scotland, England and Wales will contribute to the organisation and costs of the visit.

2. The Holy See has taken a great interest in many of the same foreign policy priorities as the UK. As well as backing the UN Millennium Development Goals for aid to the developing world, Vatican City was also the world’s first state to become carbon neutral. In 2006 the Pope bought the world’s first International Finance Facility bond on immunisation, a UK initiative to raise over $1bn to immunise people in 70 of the poorest countries of the world against diseases such as yellow fever, polio, measles and tetanus (see iff-immunisation.org for more information). The Pope has supported the actions of the UK government to encourage reform of the international financial institutions and establishment of an arms trade treaty, while the UK government supports and encourages the Catholic Church’s proactive stance on climate change.

3. The Catholic Bishops’ Conferences have set up the official website with more information on the Pope’s visit to United Kingdom: thepapalvisit.org.uk

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Cabinet Office Press Office 22 Whitehall LONDON SW1A 2WH
Tel: 020 7276 0432

cabinetoffice.gov.uk

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Out of hours telephone 07699 113300 and ask for pager number 721338
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Related:
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Mobilisation for the protection of Sunday at European level



Press Releases
Mobilisation for the protection of Sunday at European level
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A Conference to relaunch the debate on Sunday protection at European level will be held on 24 March in the European Parliament in Brussels. It is organised by the MEPs Thomas Mann (EPP, Germany) and Patrizia Toia (S&D, Italy) together with the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation. Several European trade unions, civil society organisations and Churches support the conference. László Andor, the new EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs will take the floor, as well as numerous experts and MEPs.
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The European Commission will soon be presenting a new draft of the "Working Time Directive". In its initial 1993 version the Directive stipulated that Sunday should be « in principle » the weekly day of rest for European workers. This reference had been withdrawn in 1996 by the European Court of Justice, on the grounds that the European legislator had not given sufficient reasons as to a link between a work-free Sunday and the protection of workers' health.
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Meanwhile, recent studies[1] have demonstrated the existence of a strong link between workers' health and a work-free Sunday. Furthermore, a common weekly rest day for the whole of society allows families to spend time with each other, and all citizens to engage in cultural, spiritual and social activities. Sunday moreover strengthens the social cohesion of our societies, which has been undermined by the current economic crisis. It therefore represents a precious achievement, which should be recognised as a pillar of the European Social Model.
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That is why COMECE supports the initiative of the MEPs Thomas Mann and Patrizia Toia and invites every interested person and organisation to take part in this Conference.
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Wednesday 24 March 2010, 16h30-19h30 in the European Parliament
Building JAN, Room 2Q2, Rue Wiertz, B-1047 Brussels

Registration required (access badge) by Friday 12 March via:
Email
:thomas.mann@europarl.europa.eu
Fax : +32 (0) 22 84 93 18
For further information, please contact
Johanna Touzel, COMECE Press Officer
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Download the programme and invitation here.
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Comece Agenda

COMECE supports the Conference on Work free Sunday
24 March 16:30 at the European Parliament


COMECE Spring Plenary Assembly 2010
14-16 April 2010 in Brussels


COMECE Autumn Plenary Assembly 2010
24-26 November 2010 in Brussels

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[1] http://www.travail-dimanche.com/expertises-etudes-reflexions/etude-dimpact-du-travail-du-dimanche-sur-la-sante-des-salaries.html
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Source:http://www.comece.eu/content/site/en/press/pressreleases/newsletter.content/1185.html?SWS=b09f417b1b8c30d9dd9fb1e4dfde7d02
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P.S. Thank you John for the link. .

It's not about Conservatives, it's not about Liberals...


ALL THIS HUB-BUB IS MAKING ME DIZZY AND READY TO HURL


The great debate we see in Washington D. C., the "disconnect" we are observing has nothing to do with political parties, or persuasions. It is rather a matter of authority, (though I'm not a expert on the Constitution) or possibly the subversion of the established Protestant Republican form of politics in which the principle of government of the people, by the people, for the people, is paramount. We see our president hollering at the top of his voice: "I want courage, Ohio"; As if he were on the campaign trail, calling for support of his overhaul of the Medical System a.s.a.p (while Medicaid is being cut back). If it were only this abrupt change to the status quo that the president was trying to make, it wouldn't be so shocking? Yet, at the same time some other legislators are busy attempting to drastically transform other aspects of our free enterprise system. It all seems like one of those (covered wagon mad dash) land grab events in the 19th century American West; To put it in one word that became so popular right after Sept. 11: It's surreal! The politicians are attempting to "nationalize" and regulate anything they can. Soon everything from soups to nuts will be owned or controlled by the federal government.

Senator Christopher Dodd today said that Congress needs to fast track financial reform. Here's another revamping that according to Sen. Dodd needs urgent attention. More of the hard sell: Hurry up, buy now! Urgency, buy now! Laws will be changed so that the next time that there is a major financial risk of bankruptcy of banks or other financial institutions (that may threaten to affect the greater economy), the government will allow them to fail. Isn't it a little too late for that after all the billions "given away" through TARP?
...............................Bah Humbug!

Next on the Obama Administration's hurry up and wait agenda: Overhauling No Child Left Behind. This week there is an effort to "overhaul" the government educational system by relaxing some of the laws, and toughening-up others; One of the aims is to ensure that 100% of High School grads go on to college by 2020. What? And study Chinese, or Egyptology?
Anyway, this reminds me how courageously Obama moved to repeal Clinton's first piece of legislation the infamous "Don't ask, Don't tell" act.

The F.C.C. released yesterday, a blueprint for upgrading the Internet for "all" Americans by 25x faster and expanded airwaves for mobile services; The call it a National Broadband Plan. Here's another boondoggle. Soon they will have everyone "wired" via broadband; And when they want to they will just cut you off. You'll then have to go the library to use a computer if your Library Card is not on the "Do Not Surf List". Frankly, all these changes are creepy. If I want faster speed I'll get it my self? I don't need the FCC making my computer faster for me. Why would they want to do anything if it weren't that the taxpayer's will foot the bill? There are no free lunches. Especially if you want to "wire" every, town, suburb, and hamlet. That's a Billion dollar pork-barrel if I've ever seeen one.
I get it, a computer in every room and a webcam in every home? No way, Jose.

All this upgrading, and overhauling and fast-tracking is a little too much to take. It's like too many different medicines to swallow at once. Especially when the ones administering the medicine won't give you a chance to reject that medicine. They say: It's good for you, it's what you need! Not now, but, right now! OR, ELSE!
What makes them think they know what's best for us?
They aren't doctor's, they're Lawyers and Politicians.
They are cons with condos!
Cigars, Cigarettes, Tiparillos?.... No thanks, I don't indulge!

This has nothing to do with politics, Left or Right; Liberal or Conservative. It has to do with too much meddling by the government. The United States was supposed to be different from the rest of the nations of the world, not a free-country for bureaucrats. The old adage comes to mind: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". The System, it's not broke; What's broke is the synapses in the politicians brains, so they can't hear the folks tellin' them; enough already! Get a job! Is that what they pay you guys $200K a year for, while the average American with boots on the ground makes only $30-$60 a year? Still, you guys know what's best for the average Joe, or Jane? While you have a town house in Washington, and a Mansion back in Illinois or Kali-fornia? Then you want to make laws about salt, and sugar, and fat children, and endangered minnows, etc. Get a life! Scare tactics don't work on an informed public. For your information, the hard-sell is passe'. Who wants to buy a car, anyway (cash for clinkers)?
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Speaking of Cars

All this chatter about the Cadillac plan? The government actually has the Cadillac plan, and the Oldsmobile plan; also the Pontiac, Chevrolet, and if they hadn't discontinued the Buick, they'd have that plan too. So please give it a rest. Soon it will be like Cuba right after the 1959 New Year's Revolution when everything became State property. George Santayana, knew his stuff.
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*Speaking of Cuba: Those fellows (Castro's) aren't on the no fly list?
They must be on that other list the SMoM and the Jesuits list. Global Good-Old boys.

Arsenio.
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Magnitude 4.4 earthquake shakes southern Calif.

(AP) – 28 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES — Millions of southern Californians have been shaken awake by an early morning earthquake.

The magnitude 4.4 quake was centered about 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, near Pico Rivera. It happened just after 4 a.m.

Los Angeles County Fire Department supervisor Andre Gougis says the agency is surveying the area, but has received no immediate reports of damage. But the quake did present a sharp jolt to slumbering residents in eastern Los Angeles County.

Tuesday's quake was centered near the October 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake, a magnitude 5.9 quake that killed eight people and caused more than $350 million in damage.

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Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hUc9kwa4O1dFQFzqoOwGzUaKq-IAD9EFMR301
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The Ultimate Hedge?







A new multi-part series highlighting current events in Venice Florida

March 8 2010
by Daniel Hopsicker

An investigation into suspicious circumstances surrounding the sale of the former Huffman Aviation has unearthed an explosive secret at the heart of an otherwise unremarkable aviation facility.

Almost since its inception, the specter of heroin trafficking has hung over the airfield which would later become the Venice Municipal Airport.

During World War II, when it was known as the Venice Army Air Field, it was home to the Stateside operations of a man widely and credibly accused of using proceeds from international heroin trafficking to prop up the war machine of a corrupt Chinese warlord whose army, even after its defeat, hung on to a lion's share of Southeast Asian real estate which became known as the Golden Triangle.

Contemporary newspaper clips from the time show that the Venice Airport has had an extraordinary six-decade long history, and been the scene of covert activities including gunrunning, international heroin and cocaine trafficking, and being used as a launch pad for coups in the Caribbean and Central America.

These activities required, available evidence will show, the regular and systematic corruption of officials in Venice and Sarasota County.

The recent infamous and still-painful history of the Venice Airport, home base for Mohamed Atta and his crew of terrorist hijackers, it turns out, is just the most recent in an extraordinary history of elite deviance, criminal mischief, and international intrigue.
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Fiji declares state of emergency as Cyclone Tomas hits

08:15 GMT, Tuesday, 16 March 2010


A state of emergency has been declared in northern and eastern parts of Fiji, after Cyclone Tomas blasted through the Pacific island nation.

The National Disaster Council said troops would take food, water and other necessities to worst-hit areas.

At least 17,000 people fled to evacuation shelters as the storm passed. One death has been reported and communications to some islands are cut.

Cyclone Tomas, a category four storm, is expected to weaken as it moves away.

The eastern Lau group of islands bore the brunt of the storm and the country's second largest island, Vanua Levu, was also hard-hit.

There is particular concern about the islands of Cikobia and Qelelevu; nothing has been heard from them since the cyclone hit there on Monday.


Reports from northern Fiji say houses and crops have been damaged by wind, and that some buildings were washed away by floods. Sea surges of up to 7m (23ft) were reported in some areas.

Across the country schools have closed and public services have been suspended. However international flights have resumed from the main airport in Nadi.

National Disaster Management Office spokesman Anthony Blake said an aerial survey of the damage would be done on Wednesday.
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Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8569476.stm
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Monday, March 15, 2010

Next Pope Betting Odds Make Francis Arinze Favourite As Pope Benedict XVI Is Expected To Resign


Next Pope Betting Odds Make Francis Arinze Favourite As Pope Benedict XVI Is Expected To Resign

Monday 15 March 2010 at 15:46


Paddy Power have seen a flurry of bets on Pope Benedict XVI resigning his papacy and also on Francis Arinze of Nigeria to replace him in their Next Pope Betting Odds.
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Resignation Now Looking Likely After Flood Of Money Is Reported
Paddy Power had this to say on recent events and the gamble that has taken place: “The dark clouds of clerical abuse scandals show no sign of abating and recent reports from Germany are surely a little too close to home for the Pope. Current betting patterns hint toward a possible papal resignation and should this happen Cardinal Arinze seems the most papabile”
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Paddy Power were forced to cut the odds of Pope Benedict XVI resigning from 12/1 all the way down to 3/1. At the same time they saw significant money for Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze to be the next Pope and he is now a clear favourite at 4/1 with Paddy Power.

After The Favourite We Have Six Contenders Very Closely Matched
We have joint second favourites in the Next Pope Betting Odds, Cardinal Angelo Scola, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga and Cardinal Peter Turkson are all rated at 8/1 with Paddy Power whilst things after this trio are just as unclear, Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco from Italy and American Cardinal William Levada are all rated at 12/1 with Paddy Power. There has never been a better time to open a Paddy Power account as you can currently earn an exclusive free bet of up to £250. For more contenders to be Next Pope, visit the Paddy Power website.


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Church Fights Back After Arizona Town Bans Home Bible Study


Monday, March 15, 2010


GILBERT, Ariz. — The national Alliance Defense Fund says a town code that bars religious assemblies in private homes in the Arizona community of Gilbert is unconstitutional.
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The Oasis of Truth church began meeting at Pastor Joe Sutherland's house in November and rotated homes several times a week for Bible study and fellowship.
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A Gilbert code compliance officer hit the church with a violation notice after seeing a sign near a road advertising a Sunday service.
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A zoning administrator told the church that Bible studies, church leadership meetings and fellowship activities are not permitted in private homes.

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The Alliance Defense Fund's Doug Napier says no neighbors complained.
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The Scottsdale-based group has filed an appeal with the town of Gilbert, contending its code violates the U.S. Constitution.

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Health Care Reform, Communist Style by Ken Adachi


Health Care Reform, Communist Style by Ken Adachi (March 12, 2010)

Allow me to review the most basic parameters surrounding so-called 'Health Care Reform' in America. What we are about to be saddled with, if this nightmare legislation passes into law, is a huge leap forward in totalitarian control and domination over our lives, coupled with a precipitous degradation in the quality and expediency of treatment received, and all of it delivered at tremendous cost and loss of Constitution guaranteed liberties. When the government FORCES you to buy "health" insurance, even if they tell you that the already overburdened U.S. taxpayers will subsidize the poor and unemployed (and for a time at least, illegal aliens), we are no longer living in a free republic, but rather have transitioned into a communist system.

We have a foreign national who is fraudulently posing as President of the United States, ramrod-ed into office by the Illuminated Rockefeller empire (the very architects of communism in the 20th century), telling us how much "better" things are going to be for the poor and disenfranchised here in America when they pass their wonderful health care reform bill. Well, things aren't going to be "better" for those of us who still cherish freedom and the desire to decide for ourselves what "health care" we want, and from whom we want it.

For starters, there is no "reform" taking place because there was never a health recovery system in place. America's medical care was overtaken by the pharmaceutical/allopathic medical industry at the beginning of the twentieth century and has been tightly clutched within their talons ever since. People don't recover their "health" from orthodox allopathic medicine, they acquire disease symptom management, a huge difference. It's a racket and their partners in crime have been the "health" insurance industry for the past 50 or 60 years. You don't NEED either of them and you certainly shouldn't be forced to pay protection money (called vigorish or 'vig' by mafia enforcers) to subsidize their racket or engorge a new army of government bureaucrats to help oversee the robbery and the corruptive influence that is sure to follow.

When the government mandates that you MUST participate in subsidizing the health care racket, then the door is swung wide open to legitimize ANY imposition upon you, whether it's MANDATED national ID cards, or MANDATORY vaccinations. When the state DICTATES terms to you about how you can live your life and how you must spend your money, then we are no longer living in a free society, but rather in a controlled society. Its appropriate name is communism.

Ken Adachi
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Obama Supports DNA Sampling Upon Arrest

By David Kravets March 10, 2010 6:40 pm



Josh Gerstein over at Politico sent Threat Level his piece underscoring once again President Barack Obama is not the civil-liberties knight in shining armor many were expecting.

Gerstein posts a televised interview of Obama and John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted. The nation’s chief executive extols the virtues of mandatory DNA testing of Americans upon arrest, even absent charges or a conviction. Obama said, “It’s the right thing to do” to “tighten the grip around folks” who commit crime.

When it comes to civil liberties, the Obama administration has come under fire for often mirroring his predecessor’s practices surrounding state secrets, the Patriot Act and domestic spying. There’s also Gitmo, Jay Bybee and John Yoo.

Now there’s DNA sampling. Obama told Walsh he supported the federal government, as well as the 18 states that have varying laws requiring compulsory DNA sampling of individuals upon an arrest for crimes ranging from misdemeanors to felonies. The data is lodged in state and federal databases, and has fostered as many as 200 arrests nationwide, Walsh said.

The American Civil Liberties Union claims DNA sampling is different from mandatory, upon-arrest fingerprinting that has been standard practice in the United States for decades.

A fingerprint, the group says, reveals nothing more than a person’s identity. But much can be learned from a DNA sample, which codes a person’s family ties, some health risks, and, according to some, can predict a propensity for violence.

The ACLU is suing California to block its voter-approved measure requiring saliva sampling of people picked up on felony charges. Authorities in the Golden State are allowed to conduct so-called “familial searching” — when a genetic sample does not directly match another, authorities start investigating people with closely matched DNA in hopes of finding leads to the perpetrator.

Do you wonder whether DNA sampling is legal?

The courts have already upheld DNA sampling of convicted felons, based on the theory that the convicted have fewer privacy rights. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that when conducting intrusions of the body during an investigation, the police need so-called “exigent circumstances” or a warrant. That alcohol evaporates in the blood stream is the exigent circumstance to draw blood from a suspected drunk driver without a warrant.
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Chavez criticises Internet freedom


All your Internet are belong to us
By Inquirer staff


Mon Mar 15 2010, 05:52
VENEZUELA'S PRESIDENT has called for more online regulation after he wrongly fingered a website for writing about a murdered minister.

According to Reuters, Hugo Chavez was lambasted by Internet freedom groups for his call to regulate the Internet. The Venezuelan President made his remarks after he claimed that the Venezuelan online gossip site, Noticierodigital, misreported an earlier comment from Chavez about the assassination of Diosdado Cabello, a senior minister. Unfortunately for Chavez, he was incorrect in his accusation that the site misstated his words for two days.

According to Reuters, Chavez said, "The Internet cannot be something open where anything is said and done. Every country has to apply its own rules and norms."

"We have to act. We are going to ask the attorney general for help, because this is a crime. I have information that this page periodically publishes stories calling for a coup d'etat. That cannot be permitted," he continued.

Chavez has now added Venezuela to a growing list of countries that are toying with the idea of suppressing Internet freedom.

Wherever this sort of talk rears its oppressive head, whether it be in communist China, Cuba or Vietnam, socialist Venezuela, Brazil, or Scandinavia, theocracies in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel or other countries in the Middle East, or in the corporate dominated 'democracies' of the US, UK and Europe, we oppose it. µ

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Guns in Pentagon, Vegas attacks came from Memphis PD


Monday, March 15, 2010
Guns in Pentagon, Vegas attacks came from Memphis PD

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The AP reports that guns used in a shooting at the Las Vegas federal courthouse and a Pentagon transit stop had been in the custody of Memphis police, who had seized them during arrests. While some departments destroy seized weapons, Memphis is one that will trade them to get better weapons or other equipment.

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Posted by James Hart on Monday, March 15, 2010 at 06:15 AM
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Related:


Tell Us: what should happen to evidence like guns after they're seized by police?
WBIR-TV - ‎1 hour ago‎
Guns used in two deadly shootings at the Pentagon and in Las Vegas have been traced back to the Memphis Police Department. We want to know what you think. ...






High-profile firearms traced to Memphis
Memphis Commercial Appeal - Devlin Barrett - ‎20 hours ago‎
Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that one of the weapons in the Pentagon attack was seized by Memphis police from a convicted felon in a ...
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The Conspiracy Behind The European Union: What Every Christian Should Know


Date Posted:11/16/1998


A Lecture delivered at the Annual Autumn Conference of the United Protestant Council in London on Saturday,

November 7, 1998


Professor Arthur Noble


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The Vatican and the EU

Which brings me to the subject of religion. What further aspects of our national sovereignty are envisaged for the sellout in later treaty amendments? Will an attempt at religious unity follow in the wake of monetary and political unity in this "imperialist" Europe? After all, that is the confessed vision of Pope John Paul II when he speaks about European unity on his numerous propaganda jaunts, now numbering about sixty. His message has consistently been that European identity is "incomprehensible without Christianity" (for "Christianity", of course, read "Romanism"). In other words, his vision of European unity is based on the principle of strong Vatican influence on political governments, reminiscent of the situation in the Middle Ages.



Developments in Europe are not planned to end with merely economic and political union. The envisaged European superstate plans to go even further.


Read More: http://www.ianpaisley.org/article.asp?ArtKey=conspiracy

Beware The Ides Of March



March 15, 2010
Beware the Ides of March -- what does it mean

"Beware the Ides of March" is a great quote. It's short, has an ominous tone and a sense of the supernatural. Unfortunately, it's also greatly misunderstood. Most people know it's related somehow to Shakespeare. But what the heck is an Ide anyway, and where can I buy one?

So here's a primer: -- The quote comes from Act I, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," as the Roman leader stands amid a crowd and hears a warning from a seer. (When I read this I can't help picturing a beleaguered U.S. president slouching towards his helicopter, as brash TV reporter Sam Donaldson shouts out questions about some embarrassing scandal.) Here's the exchange:

Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me?

I hear a tongue shriller than all the music

Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.

Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.

-- What does it portend? This is the day in 44 B.C. that Caesar will be assassinated by conspirators including Brutus and Cassius. Caesar shrugs off the warning and heads off on his political business. If only recliners, TVs and DVDs had been invented then.

-- So what's an Ide? It's a term of the ancient Roman calendar, signifying a division based on the moon's phases. It falls on the 15th of March, May, July and October, but on the 13th of the other months.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 9:45 AM

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Source: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/2010/03/beware_the_ides_of_march_what.html
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P.S. Et tu, Brutus?
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But thou shalt not go over thither.



Deuteronomy 34


1And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan,

2And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea,

3And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.

4And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.

5So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.

6And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

7And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.

8And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.

9And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses.

10And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,

11In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land,

12And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.

The Final Putsch




The Final Putsch ?


House Speaker Pelosi promised that this week Congress would...

President Obama postpones his asian trip so he can...


(This morning's news sound bytes.)

March 15, 2010

Sunday, March 14, 2010

The doctrine and preaching of Christ's second coming so unwelcome to the churches


From age to age the warnings which God has sent to the world by His servants have been received with like incredulity and unbelief. When the iniquity of the antediluvians moved Him to bring a flood of waters upon the earth, He first made known to them His purpose, that they might have opportunity to turn from their evil ways. For a hundred and twenty years was sounded in their ears the warning to repent, lest the wrath of God be manifested in their destruction. But the message seemed to them an idle tale, and they believed it not. Emboldened in their wickedness they mocked the messenger of God, made light of his entreaties, and even accused him of presumption. How dare one man stand up against all the great men of the earth? If Noah's message were true, why did not all the world see it and believe it? One man's assertion against the wisdom of thousands! They would not credit the warning, nor would they seek shelter in the ark.

Scoffers pointed to the things of nature,--to the unvarying succession of the seasons, to the blue skies that had never poured out rain, to the green fields refreshed by the soft dews of night,--and they cried out: "Doth he not speak parables?" In contempt they declared the preacher of righteousness to be a wild enthusiast; and they went on, more eager in their pursuit of pleasure, more intent upon their evil ways, than before. But their unbelief did not hinder the predicted event. God bore long with their wickedness, giving them ample opportunity for repentance; but at the appointed time His judgments were visited upon the rejecters of His mercy.

Christ declares that there will exist similar unbelief concerning His second coming. As the people of Noah's day "knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away; so," in the words of our Saviour, "shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matthew 24-39. When the professed people of God are uniting with the world, living as they live, and joining with them in forbidden pleasures; when the luxury of the world becomes the luxury of the church; when the marriage bells are chiming, and all are looking forward to many years of worldly prosperity--then, suddenly as the lightning flashes from the heavens, will come the end of their bright visions and delusive hopes.

As God sent His servant to warn the world of the coming Flood, so He sent chosen messengers to make known the nearness of the final judgment. And as Noah's contemporaries laughed to scorn the predictions of the preacher of righteousness, so in Miller's day many, even of the professed people of God, scoffed at the words of warning.

And why were the doctrine and preaching of Christ's second coming so unwelcome to the churches? While to the wicked the advent of the Lord brings woe and desolation, to the righteous it is fraught with joy and hope. This great truth had been the consolation of God's faithful ones through all the ages; why had it become, like its Author, "a stone of stumbling" and "a rock of offense" to His professed people? It was our Lord Himself who promised His disciples: "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself." John 14:3. It was the compassionate Saviour, who, anticipating the loneliness and sorrow of His followers, commissioned angels to comfort them with the assurance that He would come again in person, even as He went into heaven. As the disciples stood gazing intently upward to catch the last glimpse of Him whom they loved, their attention was arrested by the words: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Acts 1:11. Hope was kindled afresh by the angels' message. The disciples "returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God." Luke 24:52, 53. They were not rejoicing because Jesus had been separated from them and they were left to struggle with the trials and temptations of the world, but because of the angels' assurance that He would come again.

The proclamation of Christ's coming should now be, as when made by the angels to the shepherds of Bethlehem, good tidings of great joy. Those who really love the Saviour cannot but hail with gladness the announcement founded upon the word of God that He in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered is coming again, not to be insulted, despised, and rejected, as at His first advent, but in power and glory, to redeem His people. It is those who do not love the Saviour that desire Him to remain away, and there can be no more conclusive evidence that the churches have departed from God than the irritation and animosity excited by this Heaven-sent message.
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The Great Controversy (1911), E. G. White, pp. 337-339.
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