Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Rifqa Bary's New Problem


Rifqa Bary's New Problem

By Pamela Geller


Rifqa Bary, the teenage girl who fled to Florida from her Ohio home in fear for her life after her Muslim parents discovered her conversion to Christianity, has just turned eighteen. Her life is now hers, and her Florida and Ohio lawyers have embarked upon an unseemly victory dance to spin their appalling and failed legal strategy. I have stood silently by watching this, but now they are spinning their failure into a fundraising circus and smearing me and my colleagues, and that cannot stand.

Now that Rifqa has turned eighteen, one of her lawyers, Kort Gatterdam, has done an interview with Tom Trento, an activist with the Florida Security Council. Trento has in turn sent around an e-mail raising funds on the name of Rifqa Bary and excoriating "so many friendly 'arm-chair' lawyers and bloggers who so viciously attacked their own side." By "arm-chair lawyers," Trento means my associate, the attorney John Jay, and by bloggers, he means me. Pot, meet kettle.

If I had to sum the interview in four words, they'd be mighta, cudda, wudda, and shudda. Wish I hadda.

The failed legal strategy of Rifqa's Florida attorney John Stemberger and his Ohio associate Gatterdam refused to address the issue of Rifqa's death threat, or the issues of Islamic apostasy and honor killing -- the only things that gave credibility to Rifqa's claim that her father had threatened to kill her. Their strategy also enabled the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other Islamic supremacists to manipulate the legal process and deny Rifqa her civil rights, isolating her from her closest friends.

Rifqa has now turned eighteen, and her immigration status is still in doubt. Gatterdam admits that Rifqa "won't make it" if she is sent back to Sri Lanka, as she could be easily killed there because of her apostasy, but nonetheless, Stemberger and Gatterdam did not make it part of their strategy to try to gain asylum for Rifqa on that basis. Gatterdam even acknowledges that "we didn't know what we were talking about." Got that?

An asylum case based on the death penalty for apostasy should have been Stemberger's opening shot, not a hindsight call.

Instead, their strategy was to obtain Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) for Rifqa, and only that. SIJS gives a minor the ability to stay in the U.S. separate from his or her family's immigration problem. In that case, the immigration status would not be based upon any contention that the immigrant would be in any kind of danger back home -- as Rifqa clearly would be. But Rifqa's crack legal team couldn't even secure this status for her.

Now her lawyers are crowing that she didn't have to go home to her parents, but she never would have had to anyway. No child of Rifqa's age at the time she fled from her home -- seventeen -- would have been returned to her home if she refused to go. Whether the threat described by the child has been substantiated or not, a child will not be returned to a home if the child refuses. Period.

In the video, Trento complains about the Barys' CAIR-appointed lawyers "running the clock" -- stalling on resolving the family's immigration status so as to ensure that Rifqa would still be illegal and liable for deportation when she turned eighteen. It is interesting to note that I painstakingly outlined that wrongheaded strategy six months ago at my website AtlasShrugs.com, as further evidence of Rifqa's lawyers' abject failure.

So why did Stemberger and Gatterdam continue to pursue this nonsensical legal approach? Rifqa's entire legal strategy hinged on obtaining SIJS for her. This was the objective, the end run. If they could keep Rifqa out of her dangerous home environment and secure immigration status, then it didn't matter how they did it, as long as the goal was achieved. So they tried to play ball with the Barys' CAIR lawyers and counted on cooperation from them.

They did not understand the nature of the threat and the enemy Rifqa faced. They were playing by a set of rules inapplicable to the challenge they faced. By pretending that Sharia was not the 800-pound gorilla in the room, they were out-strategized -- and now, Rifqa is eighteen and has no legal basis to be in the United States. At one point in the video, Trento notes the irreconcilability of the Islamic faith of the Barys and Rifqa's Christianity and asks Gatterdam, "Do you think that weighed in the fact that the parents would not allow this special immigration status for Rifqa?"

Attorney John Jay, who spent upwards of twenty years in the courtroom, three in juvenile court, observes that "it is not for the parents, who were, after all, Rifqa's adversaries, to agree to any special immigration status. That special immigration status for Rifqa was for her lawyers to secure for her, regardless of parental opposition."

Could Rifqa's lawyers have been more wrongheaded and clueless? They should have applied for apostasy asylum months and months ago.

But now they're singing a different tune. Even while taking shots at "bloggers" who supposedly "viciously attacked their own side," Gatterdam, in part I of Trento's video, at the seven-minute mark, cites exclusive material from AtlasShrugs.com concerning Mohamed Bary's immigration documentation. It proved that Bary perjured himself repeatedly when applying for immigration status under two separate and distinct applications. Gatterdam goes on to say that because of my exclusive documentation, Bary should be investigated and perhaps prosecuted by immigration authorities (he doesn't name me as the source, of course).

What is really rich is that at 13:04, when questioned about being criticized by bloggers, Gatterdam snarks, "Consider the source -- if the source is not a credible one, and most of the people writing those things are not credible." But not five minutes before that, he was citing my work as evidence credible enough to be introduced into a court of law.

It was symbolic of their overall confusion. Says Jay, "They have only these after-the-fact assertions" about how Rifqa's case should best have been conducted. Jay told me this about Rifqa's lawyers: "And like the Barys' perjury in immigration court, they learned what they learned mostly from you and other bloggers trying to help."

Stemberger and Gatterdam are ignorant of Islamic supremacism, CAIR tactics, and the threat doctrine. This makes them far less credible than they're trying to appear to be -- as is evidenced by their failure to secure Rifqa's immigration status. I have studied this subject matter for years. Robert Spencer is one of the world's leading scholars on Islam, and John, who practiced law for 25 years -- most of it as a felony level defender to include a five- or six-year stint as a juvenile court prosecutor and another two or three years working almost exclusively in juvenile dependency court -- observed that. Credible, indeed.

Gatterdam goes on to defend the strategy for pursuing SIJS (which I and many others knew would fail). It did fail, and Gatterdam says so in not so many words. In Gatterdam's own words, "we didn't get that."

The "major issue" is still immigration. The judge did not give Rifqa the legal language that she needed for SIJS.

The major issue still facing Rifqa Bary is her immigration status. As noted above, her legal team turned their backs on an apostasy application with the federal immigration authorities after being directly offered the help of the Pepperdine University School of Law Immigration Clinic, through the auspices of my blog Atlas Shrugs. I am fully capable of documenting this offer of help. But the major blunder occurred early on in the case, in January 2010, when, at the hearing in which an agreed-upon order on dependency was entered, Rifqa's legal team stipulated on the record that the case was not "an abuse case."

Now, in the Trento interview, Gatterdam bemoans the fact that certain "magic words" were not placed in the various orders governing the case by the court, and that the lack of those words have made it impossible to meet the statutory requirements under the United States Code that would make it possible for the Immigration Courts to grant Rifqa Bary SJIS status.

This was not the fault of the Ohio Juvenile Court. The Franklin County Juvenile Court Magistrate was prevented from offering up those "magic words" because of the stipulation that the case was not an "abuse case," as agreed to by Rifqa's own counsel, along with that of her parents. The magistrate was in a simple bind: How could she rule and later certify to the federal immigration authorities that the case was in fact based upon "abuse, neglect and abandonment," when the only factual basis provided to her by the parties for finding dependency was their agreement that this was simply a "conflict" between family members, with no abuse involved?

The Franklin County Juvenile Court did not commit the "miscarriage of justice" in Rifqa Bary's case that Gatterdam complains of. It was the miscalculation of her own attorneys that did that.

And it gets even worse. Rifqa's good friend and mine, Jamal Jivanjee, has been close to this case since the day it began. While my focus has been primarily on the legal machinations of those representing Rifqa Bary in court, he has dealt extensively on the issues relating to her emotional and her financial support, including the support of her friends in the Christian community. He makes some serious allegations about Rifqa's legal team here.

I hope Rifqa Bary establishes a Paypal or GPal account where people can donate to her directly and she gets the dough. There is no way I would recommend that readers who are concerned for her plight donate to these snake oil salesmen.

Pamela Geller is the editor and publisher of the Atlas Shrugs website and former associate publisher of the New York Observer. She is the author of The Post-American Presidency, just published. Rifqa Bary's New Problem .


Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/08/rifqa_barys_new_problem.html

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Aug 24, 1572: Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre


Aug 24, 1572:
Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre
Previous Day August 24 Calendar Next Day .
King Charles IX of France, under the sway of his mother, Catherine de Medici, orders the assassination of Huguenot Protestant leaders in Paris, setting off an orgy of killing that results in the massacre of tens of thousands of Huguenots all across France.

Two days earlier, Catherine had ordered the murder of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, a Huguenot leader whom she felt was leading her son into war with Spain. However, Coligny was only wounded, and Charles promised to investigate the assassination in order to placate the angry Huguenots. Catherine then convinced the young king that the Huguenots were on the brink of rebellion, and he authorized the murder of their leaders by the Catholic authorities. Most of these Huguenots were in Paris at the time, celebrating the marriage of their leader, Henry of Navarre, to the king's sister, Margaret.

A list of those to be killed was drawn up, headed by Coligny, who was brutally beaten and thrown out of his bedroom window just before dawn on August 24. Once the killing started, mobs of Catholic Parisians, apparently overcome with bloodlust, began a general massacre of Huguenots. Charles issued a royal order on August 25 to halt the killing, but his pleas went unheeded as the massacres spread. Mass slaughters continued into October, reaching the provinces of Rouen, Lyon, Bourges, Bourdeaux, and Orleans. An estimated 3,000 French Protestants were killed in Paris, and as many as 70,000 in all of France. The massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Day marked the resumption of religious civil war in France.
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Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/saint-bartholomews-day-massacre

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Stockholm Syndrome




Stockholm Syndrome



Stockholm hostages







“They weren’t bad people. They let me eat, they let me sleep, they gave me my life”

— A hostage from Flight 847

One way of describing this site would be “strange beliefs people have and how they got them.” A curious footnote that doesn’t seem to fit in nicely on any of the other pages is a phenomenon known as the Stockholm Syndrome.

In the summer of 1973, four hostages were taken in a botched bank robbery at Kreditbanken in Stockholm, Sweden. At the end of their captivity, six days later, they actively resisted rescue. They refused to testify against their captors, raised money for their legal defense, and according to some reports one of the hostages eventually became engaged to one of her jailed captors.

This struck some folks as weird, and as a way of coping with this uneasiness, as they started seeing more examples they named this class of strange behavior the “Stockholm Syndrome.”

Notorious in the United States is the case of Patty Hearst, who after being kidnapped and tortured by the Symbionese Liberation Army, took up arms and joined their cause, taking on the nom de guerre of “Tania” and helping the SLA rob banks.

The Stockholm Syndrome comes into play when a captive cannot escape and is isolated and threatened with death, but is shown token acts of kindness by the captor. It typically takes about three or four days for the psychological shift to take hold.

A strategy of trying to keep your captor happy in order to stay alive becomes an obsessive identification with the likes and dislikes of the captor which has the result of warping your own psyche in such a way that you come to sympathize with your tormenter!

The syndrome explains what happens in hostage-taking situations, but can also be used to understand the behavior of battered spouses, members of religious cults, Holocaust victims, household pets, and perhaps even users of Internet Explorer. I think it may also help explain the popularity of government and of the mass institutionalization of young people.




Source: http://sniggle.net/stock.php

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Scriptural Guidelines For Today’s Apostasy


OUR STANDARD:
God’s word is pure, light and life and is to be searched for learning, for examples and for our admonition (warning).



The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. (Psalms 19:8)
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. (Psalms 119:105)
The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. (Psalms 119:130)
For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: (Proverbs 6:23)
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isaiah 8:20)
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. (John 5:39)
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. (John 20:31)
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.(Acts 17:11)
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. (Romans 15:4)
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. (1 Corinthians 10:11)


WE ARE ADMONISHED (WARNED):

We are to recognize the fool, i.e, the stupidly wicked, to beware of the deception of false prophets, to be aware of those who teach the doctrines of men, and to take heed of false Christs and false prophets.
We are warned about receiving another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel, we are warned about false apostles, and those who pervert the gospel of Christ.
We are warned about philosophy and vain deceit that follow human traditions and worldly principles that disregard the teachings of Christ, and seducing spirits and doctrines of demons by apostate liars, the perils of these last days, those of corrupt minds and counterfeit faith.
We are warned that the godly in Christ will be persecuted, that wicked men and imposters will get worse, to continue in the things of God we have learned and of which we are convinced, and we are to know who we learned it from.
We are to preach at all times, when it’s appropriate and when it’s not appropriate and to correct, rebuke and encourage others even though they don’t want to hear truth and instead want to hear fables and myths.
We must hold on to the sound doctrine of the truth of the word of God as we’ve learned it from scripture. We are to encourage others in sound doctrine and to refute the detestable and disobedient who mislead others for the purpose of getting their money, whose works deny their claim that they know God, and who oppose sound doctrine.
We must deny ungodly and worldly lusts, and live righteously, expecting Jesus to come any day and continue to encourage and rebuke with the authority of the scriptures.
We must not get carried away by new moves of a variety of strange doctrines being taught as cleverly invented stories. Scripture was written as a sure word from God by inspiration of men through His Holy Spirit. False teachers of strange doctrines are heretical and even deny the salvific works of Jesus, and seek to discredit the gospel. They make up these false stories to get your money, and God has already condemned them.
Expect these people with the spirit of antichrist to come from your own local assemblies. Learn to test the spirits of these people by exercising the gift of discerning of spirits.
The word of God comes to us in written form so we will continue to believe in Jesus and have eternal life as we continue to contend for the faith which has cost the lives of saints throughout the centuries.
We are warned that there are certain people in the church, under God’s condemnation, who pervert the grace and gospel of Jesus Christ and practice immorality. They are murderers of their brethren, willing to prostitute their gifts and callings in Christ for money, and are disobedient to God and those God has called to serve the body of Christ.
These people are fault-finders, constantly criticizing and following their own human lusts and plans. They will flatter others in order to get their own way. They will cleverly manipulate and intimidate others in order to establish and maintain control over them. They are excellent speakers, and very popular, however, they mock God, walk in the flesh and not in the Spirit, and they teach worldliness, thus bringing division to the body of Christ.
We are to continue to abide in God’s love and expect to enjoy God’s mercy in granting us eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.


For the vile (Hebrew, nabal: stupid, wicked—Amplified Bible: fool) person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy, and to utter error against the Lord, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. The instruments also of the churl (Amplified Bible: fraudulent and greedy of gain) are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right. But the liberal (Amplified Bible: noble, open-hearted and liberal) deviseth liberal (Amplified Bible: noble) things; and by liberal (Amplified Bible: noble, open-hearted and generous) things shall he stand. (Isaiah 32:6-8)

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. (Matthew 7:15)
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:9)
And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (Matthew 24:10-13)
For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things. (Mark 13:22,23)
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. (2 Corinthians 11:3, 4)
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9)
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Colossians 2:8)
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; (1 Timothy 4:1,2)
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. (2 Timothy 3:1-9)
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; (2 Timothy 3:12-14)
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:2-4)
Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth. Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. (Titus 1:9-16)
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. (Titus 2:11-15)
Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. (Hebrews 13:9)
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (2 Peter 1:16-21)
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. (2 Peter 2:1-3)
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (1 John 2:18,19)
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13)
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 3,4)
Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. (Jude 11)
These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. (Jude 16-19)
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. (Jude 21)

WHAT TO DO:

Scriptural Lessons in Mercy, Discrimination, and Tough Love



Press toward the mark and pray for the salvation of the enemies of the cross

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13,14)


Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) (Philippians 3:17-19)

Bless them, do good to them and pray for the enemies of the cross


But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:44,45)

Pray that God will give the enemies of the cross repentance for a knowledge of the truth
And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; (2 Timothy 2:24,25)


Exhort one another daily to be steadfast in the faith until the end


Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; (Hebrews 3:12-14)

Be diligent, beware being led into doctrinal error, grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. (2 Peter 3:14-18)


Avoid those causing division and offenses contrary to scriptural doctrine

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. (Romans 16:17,18)


Let those who preach a compromising gospel be accursed


But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8,9)


Don’t fellowship with those in darkness, but reprove them

But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat (1 Corinthians 5:11).


And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. (Ephesians 5:11)


Deliver those who have departed from the faith to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1 Timothy 1:18-20)


Withdraw from those who do not teach the doctrine of Jesus Christ


If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. (1 Timothy 6:3-5)


Rebuke those who sin and whose works deny God


Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear. (1 Timothy 5:20)

For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth. Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. (Titus 1:10-16)


Reject those who teach heretical doctrine, after a second warning


This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men. But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself. (Titus 3:8-11)


Don’t receive those who don’t teach and live the doctrine of Christ into your house, or wish them well


Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. (2 John 9-11)


Be compassionate and pray that the unjust and filthy would repent of their evil works so they may receive a reward according to righteous and holy works


And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (Jude 22,23)


He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. (Rev 22:11-12)



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The Pure Mark of Truth


The Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. Eze. 9:4.


Mark this point with care: Those who receive the pure mark of truth, wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, represented by a mark by the man in linen, are those "that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done" in the church. The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declension, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of God. . . .

Not all who profess to keep the Sabbath will be sealed. There are many even among those who teach the truth to others who will not receive the seal of God in their foreheads. They had the light of truth, they knew their Master's will, they understood every point of our faith, but they had not corresponding works. . . .

Not one of us will ever receive the seal of God while our characters have one spot or stain upon them. It is left with us to remedy the defects in our characters, to cleanse the soul temple of every defilement. Then the latter rain will fall upon us as the early rain fell upon the disciples. . . .
What are you doing, brethren, in the great work of preparation? Those who are uniting with the world are receiving the worldly mold and preparing for the mark of the beast. Those who are distrustful of self, who are humbling themselves before God and purifying their souls by obeying the truth--these are receiving the heavenly mold and preparing for the seal of God in their foreheads. When the decree goes forth and the stamp is impressed, their character will remain pure and spotless for eternity.

Now is the time to prepare. The seal of God will never be placed upon the forehead of an impure man or woman. It will never be placed upon the forehead of the ambitious, world-loving man or woman. It will never be placed upon the forehead of men or women of false tongues or deceitful hearts. All who receive the seal must be without spot before God--candidates for heaven.

Maranatha - Page 241

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Monday, August 23, 2010

Andalusia on my mind...


Andalusia (Al Andalus) on my mind...


During the past months there have been several references to an historic region of Spain named Andalusia or Al Andalus (as it was called during the Moorish occupation of southern Spain). When I think of the Moors, I think of two cities: Granada and Cordoba. These were the two principal settlements; where still today one can experience the great cultural and architectural achievements of the Moors.

Let's look at some of the direct and collateral references to Andalusia that I've heard recently:


  1. First Lady Michelle Obama visited Granada--------------------------- About 15.30 hrs Michelle Obama and Sasha arrived at the Plaza de Isabel La Católica in Granada. First stop was a famous ice cream parlour called 'Los Italianos' where Michelle chose three flavours of Chocolate and Sasha chose melon and raspberry. The first lady with her hair tied up in a bun and wearing a printed rose, orange and green printed dress with black belt then entered the Cathedral. They were particularly interested in the tomb of the catholic monarchs who conquered the region from the Moors in 1492 and financed Columbus’ expedition. http://www.andalucia.com/history/people/michelle-obama.htm
    The tour of the city ended with a tour at sunset of the Alhambra fortress-palace, Spain’s most-visited tourist attraction. Once the residence of Moorish kings, the Alhambra is now one of the world’s largest open-air museums of Islamic architecture and a World Heritage Site. It features royal residential quarters, official chambers, a bathhouse, and a mosque, as well as a series of courtyards flanked by sweeping archways, columns and fountains.
    http://live.kyero.com/2010/08/06/michelle-obama-visits-granada-and-the-alhambra-palace/


  2. A controversy about a Muslim Cultural Center to be built near ground-zero in NYC, lead by an organization called The Cordoba Initiative.---- The world should know that the ‘Cordoba Initiative,’ the New York City based organization desiring to construct a massive Islamic house of prayer at ‘Ground Zero,’ has posted on its website, a peculiar and disingenuous statement indicating the desire to bring back the atmosphere of, “interfaith tolerance and respect that we have longed for since Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in harmony and prosperity eight hundred years ago.”

    I point this out because contemporary scholarship has clearly demonstrated that there was no ‘harmony’ or ‘prosperity’ for non-Muslims in Islamic Spain. The Cordoba Initiative is attempting to revisit some sort of mythical “tolerance and respect” which never existed.

    What is irrefutable is that living under Islam, the non-Muslim population was always mandated to submit to Islam, accept discriminatory laws, and make payment of a mandatory Quranic tax imposed upon every non-Muslim. For a period of about 800 years, most of Spain was ruled by Muslims and this area was known as ‘Al-Andalus.’ Islamic rule ended in 1492, when the city of Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Western Europe, capitulated to the Spanish Catholics.
    http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/127499.html


  3. Muslims Campaign to Worship in Spain's Cordoba Cathedral
    "There are things that are shared and others that are not, and the Cathedral of Cordoba is not shared with Muslims," said Fernandez, according to the Spanish-language Europa Press. Built in the 8th century after the Moorish invasion of Spain"...
    http://catawissagazetteer.blogspot.com/2010/08/muslims-want-to-worship-in-catholic.html
    Now, some Muslims are trying to repeat that history. Mansur Escudero, a Spanish convert to Islam, is leading the movement that is pushing for the right of Muslims to pray at the Cordoba Cathedral. "I don't think it's important for Muslims. I think it's important for humankind," Escudero says. "We think this is a beautiful paradigm of tolerance, knowledge, culture. People of different religions living together."
    Spain has more than a million Muslims, little more than two percent of the population. Most of that growth is made up of migrants from countries such as Morocco. But the southern European country has a significant community of Muslim converts inspired by its Islamic history.
    http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/08/17/cordoba.mosque.spain/?hpt=C2#fbid=HK1B0o9SqNa&wom=true

Judging from the sudden resurgence in Andalusia and Cordoba in the media, it seems as if there is a organized effort in "going forward" or pushing the envelope of Islamic influence in western nations. I believe in religious liberty for all; However, that includes allowing all religions to worship separately if they so desire. This new Islamic Renaissance with an Ecumenical appeal does not appeal to many; I am one of those that am not very enthusiastic about joining in worship with Muslims, or with any other denomination.

If so, to worship what god, Allah? No thanks, my God is not Allah; He is the great I AM!

Isn't it strange to now have Muslims pushing Ecumenism? Something that the Catholic Church has been actively promoting since Vatican II? And, a movement Evangelicals, and many other christian churches, also support.

Can a one-world religion as prophesied in the Bible be far way?

Arsenio.

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Sunday, August 22, 2010

Muslims Lobbying to Worship in Spain's Cordoba Cathedral


(Photo: AP Photo / Manu Fernandez, File)
In this Aug. 6, 2009 file photo, tourists visit what was formerly the Great Mosque of Cordoba in southern Spain. The mosque was transformed into a cathedral in 1236 when King Ferdinand III captured the city from the Moors. Since then, except on rare occasions, Muslim prayer rites have been forbidden inside.


While the dispute over the proposed Cordoba House near New York City’s Ground Zero has been highly publicized over the past few months, less known is the debate over Spain’s Cordoba Cathedral, which was formerly the Great Mosque of Cordoba.

For quite some time now, Muslim groups have tried to convince leaders of the Cathedral of Cordoba in southern Spain to allow the Catholic church to be used for both Muslim and Christian worship as the site still remains significant for many Muslims.

The Bishop of Cordoba, Demetrio Fernandez, however, says sharing the space with Muslims would be like a man sharing his wife with another man.

"There are things that are shared and others that are not, and the Cathedral of Cordoba is not shared with Muslims," said Fernandez, according to the Spanish-language Europa Press.

Built in the 8th century after the Moorish invasion of Spain, the Cordoba house of worship was transformed from a mosque into a cathedral in 1236 when King Ferdinand III captured the city of Cordoba from the Moors.

Since then, except on rare occasions, Muslim prayer rites have been forbidden inside.

Earlier this year, in April, there was a scuffle between police officers and Muslim tourists from Austria who were trying to pray in what was once the Great Mosque of Cordoba.

Historically, however, relationships between Christians and Muslims in Cordoba have been cordial. The city is known as the City of Three Cultures because Muslims, Jews and Christians lived there in harmony during medieval times.

And today, for many, that still holds true.

Fernandez told the Europa Press back in June that his church reportedly has "a good relationship with Muslims" and wants to collaborate with Muslims in search of "peace, justice and coexistence between peoples."

“But that is one thing," he said. "[It's] another, very different, to want to share the same temple for worship, which is neither possible for Muslims nor for Catholics," he stated.

Despite the bishop’s rejections, efforts to open Cordoba Cathedral for Muslim prayer and worship are ongoing.

Mansur Escudero, who is leading a movement that is pushing for the right of Muslims to pray at the Cordoba Cathedral, said the issue is not only important for Muslims but for humankind.

The Spanish convert to Islam told CNN recently that the sharing of Cordoba Cathedral would be “a beautiful paradigm of tolerance, knowledge, culture.”

“We want it to be a place where anyone – whether Muslim, Christian or Jew – can do his meditation or his internal way of worshiping, or praying or whatever he wants to call it," he added.

Presently, Roman Catholics make up 94 percent of Spain’s 40 million-large population while Muslims make up a little more than two percent. The city of Cordoba is home to around 330,000 people.
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Reformed bad boy Mark Wahlberg goes to church during Australian tour

NewsCore August 17, 2010 12:16PM




Mark Wahlberg arrives at Sydney airport on a promotional tour for the movie "The Other Guys" which co-stars Will Ferrell. Picture: Daniel Shaw Source: The Daily Telegraph


REFORMED bad boy Mark Wahlberg is dedicated to attending church each day -- even during his hectic Australian tour with Will Ferrell to promote their new film The Other Guys.
Wahlberg, 39, went to St Mary's Cathedral Catholic church in inner Sydney yesterday wearing his golf clothes after a game with Ferrell.

"I love golf and I love church. I do both every day,'' the committed Catholic, former rapper and Calvin Klein underwear model said as he entered the cathedral for 20 minutes of prayer.

Wahlberg, who was raised a Roman Catholic in Boston, Massachusetts, is a former drug addict who had several run-ins with police as a teenager.

But he cleaned up his image and has settled down wife Rhea Durham and their four children.

The actor, formerly known as Marky Mark during his earlier years as a rap musician with the band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, arrived in Sydney on Sunday.

"Anchorman" star Ferrell, 43, jetted in from Los Angeles yesterday and joined Wahlberg and their entourage for a round of golf at Rose Bay's Royal Sydney Golf Club.

The group played 18 holes and the loser - one of their entourage - had to dive in to the Sydney Harbour back at the Park Hyatt hotel where they were staying.

Ferrell and Wahlberg will be flying to the Gold Coast, on Wednesday to present a screening of their new film at the Australian Movie Convention.

"The Other Guys" is a comedy about two mismatched police detectives who have trouble getting along. The movie was released in the U.S. earlier this month and is due to hit Australian theatres in September.

The movie topped the U.S. box office when it debuted two weeks ago and is expected to make AU$130 million, showcasing Wahlberg's growing comedic skills and rebooting Ferrell's stalled career.
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Source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/confidential/reformed-bad-boy-mark-wahlberg-goes-to-church-during-australian-tour/story-e6frf96o-1225906318411
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Mormons Hoping to Squash Stereotypes with Media Campaign


The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' "I'm a Mormon" media campaign is an effort to bring about more open conversation and dispel myths about the faith.

Posted: Aug 17, 2010 6:38 PM EDT
Updated: Aug 18, 2010 1:27 PM EDT

By Colleen Chen, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A blitz of radio and television commercials in Oklahoma City are striking a chord with area Mormons. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has started a media campaign in nine different cities including Oklahoma City.

Church leaders said the goal is to dispel myths about the Mormon faith. The campaign is specifically focused on the idea that all Mormons are the same.

A series of ads feature Mormons who are songwriters, artists, parents, businessmen telling their stories. One ad featured a sculptor who said, "I believe the best dinner conversations are with those who don't agree with you."

Kim Farah with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said the cities were chosen based on size and no other motive. Farah added the ad campaign's timing has nothing to do with politics like Proposition 8 in California or Mitt Romney's political future.

"We have run a lot of campaigns over the last decade. This one is based on our research that only about 50 percent of people in the U.S. have ever met someone who is a member of the Church," Farah said.

University of Central Oklahoma advertising professor Sandra Martin said while she doesn't believe the ads will accomplish everything the church is looking for, she does believe it's made one important step.

"People are talking about it. They've been able to cut through the clutter which is the first step to get people to listen," Martin said.

Lloyd Norman, who is an Oklahoma City member of the Mormon church, said he thinks the ads have been a good portrayal of the church.

"I think the ads are great. They show us as we really are. I love them," Norman said.

Source: http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=12999670
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White House strikes back at 'Muslim' tag


August 19, 2010


Posted: August 19th, 2010 02:26 PM ET

From CNN White House Correspondent Dan Lothian


The White House on Thursday responded to new polls which indicate Americans do not know what religion President Obama practices.



Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts (CNN) - The White House is responding to new polls Thursday that show an increasing number of Americans believe that President Obama is a Muslim.

"President Obama is a committed Christian, and his faith is an important part of his daily life," Deputy White House Communications Director Jen Psaki told CNN. "He prays every day, he seeks a small circle of Christian pastors to give him spiritual advice and counseling, he even receives a daily devotional that he uses each morning. The President's Christian faith is a part of who he is, but not a part of what the public or the media is focused on everyday."

Psaki added that "the President's strong Christian faith is what guides him through the challenges – a recovering economy, bringing troops home from Iraq, putting healthcare and financial reform implementation in place - but he doesn't wear it on his sleeve."

According to a poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released Thursday, nearly one in five Americans believe Obama is a Muslim, up from around one in 10 Americans who said he was Muslim last year.


While most of those who think Obama is Muslim are Republicans, the number of independents who believe he is Muslim has expanded significantly, from 10 percent last year to 18 percent now.

The number of Americans who express uncertainly about the president's religion, meanwhile, is much larger and has also grown, including among Obama's political base. For instance, fewer than half of Democrats and African-Americans now say that Obama is Christian according to the Pew poll.
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Obama goes to Mass




Obama's hits links for more Mass. island golf‎ - 1 hour ago

By ERICA WERNER


The Associated Press

EDGARTOWN, Mass. — It's Sunday and President Barack Obama is on vacation, so that means it's time for another round of golf on Martha's Vineyard.

His motorcade got an early start for the Vineyard Golf Club for his second visit there during his summer break.

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/obamas-hits-links-for-597009.html

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3,000 Rally in Kaliningrad for Putin's Resignation

Photo (Coutesy) http://raketa.bloghi.com/2005/07/11/kaliningrad.html


3,000 Rally in Kaliningrad for Putin's Resignation

22 August 2010
Combined Reports

About 3,000 people rallied in Kaliningrad on Saturday to demand Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's resignation and a return of direct gubernatorial elections.

The gathering was considerably smaller than a protest of 10,000 people — one of the largest since Putin rose to power a decade ago — that was staged in the economically struggling exclave on the Baltic coast in January.

Boris Nemtsov, leader of the opposition Solidarity group, called the authorities "thieves," to chants from the crowd of "Fire Putin! Fire Putin!"

Both organizers and police said the demonstration ended peacefully.

Although Saturday's rally was relatively small, "this protest was more radical," Nemtsov said later by telephone.

After the January demonstration, Putin scolded his ruling party, United Russia, for not paying more attention to ordinary voters.

Nemtsov dismissed police estimates that only 700 to 800 people took part in the rally. Organizers, witnesses and a Reuters reporter estimated that about 3,000 turned out.

"[The police] are fulfilling Putin's orders," said Nemtsov, who three weeks earlier was detained during a Moscow rally against restrictions on freedom of assembly. He was also detained Sunday while attempting to lead a march of about 100 opposition activists with a giant flag in central Moscow to mark the Flag Day holiday.

In Kaliningrad, protesters from groups like Patriots of Russia, the Communist Party, Solidarity and The Other Russia adopted a resolution demanding the reinstatement of gubernatorial elections and the resignation of Putin's government. Putin scrapped the elections in favor of presidential appointments in 2004.

The January rally in Kaliningrad was mainly a call for the dismissal of the region's unpopular governor, Georgy Boos, a Putin appointee. Saturday's protest was to have conveyed the same message, but last week United Russia decided not to include Boos on its list of nominees for a new term. Boos' current term ends next month.


(Reuters, AP, MT)

Source: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/3000-rally-in-kaliningrad-for-putins-resignation/413402.html
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Russian police detain opposition leaders




Lynn Berry
August 22, 2010 - 11:14PM
AP

Police prevented about 100 opposition activists from marching through Moscow on Sunday with a giant Russian flag and detained two of their leaders, including prominent politician Boris Nemtsov.

The opposition activists were celebrating Flag Day, a holiday honouring the tricolour flag adopted by a newly democratic Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Nemtsov said the decision to stop a march honouring the Russian flag showed the mentality of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government.

"The flag is a symbol of freedom and democracy, only not for Putin," Nemtsov said, speaking to The Associated Press from a city police precinct.

The date for the holiday was chosen to celebrate the defeat of a hardline communist coup on August 22, 1991. Boris Yeltsin, who famously climbed on to a tank to lead the resistance against the coup plotters, turned the flag into a symbol of an independent Russia.

When the Soviet Union ceased to exist on December 25 of that year, the white, blue and red flag was raised over the Kremlin.

Nemtsov accused Putin, a former KGB officer, of sharing the mentality of the coup plotters, who were determined to prevent the democratisation of the Soviet Union.

Putin did not support the coup plotters at the time, but as president he lamented the demise of the Soviet Union and rolled back many of the democratic reforms that Yeltsin had introduced.

Nemtsov, who stood with Yeltsin in 1991, served in Russia's government in the 1990s, including two stints as deputy prime minister.

Moscow police said Nemtsov and Mikhail Shneider were detained for trying to lead an unsanctioned march. They had permission to hold a rally, but not to march through central Moscow.

"You get the impression that Nemtsov and Shneider intentionally provoked the police," police spokesman Viktor Biryukov told Russian news agencies.

Opposition marches and rallies are regularly broken up by police. In some cases, officers detain dozens of participants, carrying or pushing them into waiting buses. Most are freed within a day, but some have served jail time or been fined.
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Source: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/russian-police-detain-opposition-leaders-20100822-13b2c.html
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Communications problem shuts Greek airports


Today at 12:23 Associated Press


ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Officials say a breakdown in the communications system linking Greek airports prevented flights from taking off for 2 1/2 hours.

They say takeoffs were stopped at all airports at 8:30 a.m. (0530 GMT; 1:30 a.m. EDT) Sunday. Athens International Airport says that flights resumed around 11 a.m. (0800 GMT).

The cause of the breakdown is unknown. The head of the civil aviation employees' union told a radio station that the system was last upgraded 17 years ago.

Source: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/world/detail/79395/#ixzz0xLHmEeSU
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Strong quake rattles Greece, but no damage

Sun Aug 22, 2010 7:59am EDT

WASHINGTON/ATHENS (Reuters) - An earthquake struck western Greece on Sunday, but no injuries or damage were reported. The U.S. Geological Survey said the 5.7 magnitude quake struck at 1023 GMT (6:23 a.m. EDT) at a depth of 20.5 miles.

The Athens Geodynamic Institute measured the quake at 5.4 and said it was centered off the southwestern coast of the Ionian island of Zakynthos, 330 km away from Athens.

Police and witnesses said there were no reports of injuries or damage.

"We felt the earthquake but there are no immediate reports of any damage," said a police official in Zakynthos.

Greece is regularly hit by earthquakes.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou)


Source: http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE67L0PM20100822
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Saturday, August 21, 2010

Invasion of the Electronic Mind Snatchers

Published on August 17, 2010 by admin

By Hal Crowther/UK Telegraph



Photo: Andrei Maynard, Bradley Bryant & Thomas Mcguire playing Call of Duty 4, 2008, Robbie Cooper, courtesy of National Media Museum, Bradford

American children are even more plugged in to new technology than ours – and are paying the price as electronic gadgets prove more addictive than heroin, says Hal Crowther. Will this digital obsession destroy the creativity of future generations?

The other day, I found myself reading the back-to-school edition of The New York Times’ Circuits section with my usual stunned incomprehension and a heightened sense of alarm. The electronic gadgets that have become standard equipment for a 21st-century undergraduate bear generic names, brand names, acronyms, model and serial numbers (DVP-CX995? PIXMA MP760?) that no doubt mean something to many, but nothing whatsoever to me. A Times reporter interviewed a Duke University undergraduate named Eddy Leal, who confessed to owning three laptops with multifarious accessories (“It’s like another world in my dorm room”) as well as, of course, a cellphone and a 500-song iPod which are, he says, “with me no matter where I am – I wouldn’t mind if I could have them implanted in my body”.

“I know, it’s kind of crazy,” said Leal of his three-computer installation, guessing that he was eccentrically overwired – but guessing wrong. Other students in this same article boasted even more bewildering batteries of personal hardware, far beyond my vocabulary to describe. Returning college students in the United States now spend more than $8 billion to rewire themselves, two thirds of what they’ll spend on textbooks, and of course each year the gap decreases.

The long-term implications of mechanised education are overwhelming, but first let’s deal with the subject of silence. I’m not ancient, yet my college education 40-plus years ago was pretechnological, by current lights antediluvian. Though telephones and television had been invented, none of us, not even the most affluent, had installed them in our rooms, far less on our bodies. My fraternity house contained one of each, a battered basement television set with a small clientele and a payphone next to which we waited for hours, playing cards and drinking beer and coffee, for our turns to call home or plead our cases with girls.

Cellphones and email had not yet made their appearance in science fiction. Ninety-eight per cent of communication was verbal and face-to-face. If you had an urgent message for someone, you stuffed a note in his box at the student union or trudged half a mile across an icebound campus and hoped you’d find him in. Only juniors and seniors were allowed to drive cars.

Winter or summer, that was a lonely walk, silent, a time to think without threat of interruption. Blessedly disconnected. “Alone with his thoughts”, now a literary anachronism, was a commonplace reality. Without that freedom to disconnect, then and now, I for one would have gone mad. And at this point most readers under 45 may disconnect. How could Eddy Leal understand that if a cellphone and an iPod were implanted in my body, I’d pay virtually any price to have them removed?

Computers and allied technologies have created the most intimidating generation gap in human history, one so wide and so rapidly created that I stand staring across the chasm like an aborigine watching Krakatoa split the sky.

Not long ago, it was generally accepted that humanity’s most creative achievements, from art and poetry to major scientific discoveries, were the precious fruits of solitude. But in a single heartbeat on history’s timeline, this sacred, fecund privacy has become the unpardonable social sin for the generation on which future creativity depends. I’ve tried to explain to young people that unspoilt privacy is the most important thing a person like me could ever ask from his life. Just so they know where I stand. Urgent warnings that technology is recklessly exposing our darkest secrets to every eager peeping Tom – official, corporate or criminal – fall on deaf (or at least numb and overtaxed) ears. The traditional concept of privacy, which anchors America’s Bill of Rights, is a tough sell to technophiliacs who spend half their waking hours on sites such as MySpace and YouTube, recklessly exposing themselves.

A recent US study (published in January 2010) found that eight to 18 year-olds log an average daily exposure of just under 11 hours of electronic media. An increase of two hours daily since 2004, it includes computers and social networks, cellphones, instant messaging, television, video games and iPods. Media consume nearly all their waking hours when they’re not in school. Privacy has deep, deep roots in Western civilisation, yet a few mediocre gadgets uprooted it in less than a decade. Who knew the young were so lonely, so susceptible, so desperate for connection? Who’s to blame for their loneliness, for their seduction and metamorphosis into electro-cyborgs who bear only a physical resemblance to their parents? What sort of lives were they leading before they were wired? It’s as if prisoners buried in the dungeons of the Chateau d’If, with no previous communication except tapping on the stone walls of their separate cells, were suddenly issued mobile phones with email. What else but a compulsive frenzy of messaging, no content required?

Digital products seemed harmless enough in the beginning, meeting obvious demands for faster, more efficient commercial communication. Business will have its way. But the personal computer and all its derivative technology were not so obvious, not to most of us now left behind. We were sure it was boring – to liberal arts majors of my vintage, most tools more complex than a hammer are invisible. We never dreamed it was more addictive than heroin. “I lost my cellphone once,” a 25-year- old woman with a master’s degree told a reporter. “I felt like my world had just ended. I had a breakdown on campus.”

Some of the wizards who fathered the digital revolution have had misgivings. The late Joseph Weizenbaum, an MIT mathematician and computer scientist who authored one of the first conversational computer programs, became a profound sceptic about technology’s influence on the human condition. Weizenbaum, who was a child in Nazi Germany, believed that obsessive reliance on technology was a moral failure in society and an invitation to fascism.

Weizenbaum’s scepticism was shared by American computer pioneer and mogul Max Palevsky, who died recently at 85. Palevsky, founder of the computer-chip giant Intel, told an interviewer in 2008, “I don’t own a computer. I don’t own a cellphone, I don’t own any electronics. I do own a radio.” Given decades to reflect on what they wrought, it’s eerie that many of the scientists who created our electronic cocoon sound like the scientists who worked on the atom bomb at Los Alamos.

The wailing of the wire-wary only aggravates the captive multitudes and widens the dreadful gap. But we can’t just fold our tents and quit the field, because we, the pre-wired generations, bear most of the blame. We betrayed them. We turned them over to habit-forming, mind-altering, behaviour-warping gizmos when they were helpless children. There was almost no resistance. Politicians, colleges, school boards, doomed publishers, libraries and media all welcomed these technologies uncritically, enthusiastically, like Stone Age savages fainting with wonder over a transistor radio. Americans have always been suckers for technology – our love affairs with automobiles, television and nuclear power haven’t turned out well either. But this was the most pitiful submission, and may prove the most fateful.

No one denies the impact of these new devices, or their usefulness. Who at my age, watching precious time fly, wouldn’t bless email for the pointless, time-consuming conversations it replaces? Who denies that Barack Obama’s epic rout of the Republicans would have been impossible without his mastery of internet communication? But with truly revolutionary technology no one stops to factor in the human cost.

Chronic, epidemic obesity among American children, along with unprecedented levels of juvenile diabetes and heart disease, coincides exactly with the advent of “personal technology”. An alarming study that followed 4,000 subjects for three decades indicates that 90 per cent of American men and 70 per cent of American women will eventually be fat.

Worse news is that the American mind is emulating its body – it’s turning to suet. A few years ago the educational benefits of the new technology were hyped hysterically, with futurists and investors predicting an intellectual renaissance anchored by computers.

The reality seems to be just the opposite. Though the educational potential of the internet is limitless, it’s becoming apparent that students use technology less to learn than to distract themselves from learning, and to take advantage of toxic short cuts such as research paper databases and essay-writing websites. Entrance exams administered by ACT Inc establish that half the students now entering college in the US lack the basic reading and comprehension skills to succeed in literature, history or sociology courses. Reading and writing skills among eighth graders decline each year, as internet penetration rises. Only three per cent now read at the level scored “advanced” and the state of Maine recently scrapped its eighth grade writing test because 78 per cent of the participants failed. Half the teenagers tested by the advocacy group Common Core could not place the Civil War in the second half of the 19th century, a quarter drew a blank on Adolf Hitler, a fifth failed to identify America’s enemies in the Second World War. A third of America’s high school students drop out – one every 26 seconds – and two thirds prove incapable of higher education.

Doubts are spreading, though perhaps too late. In the spring of 2007, Liverpool High School in upstate New York made national news when it abandoned its laptop programme as a failed experiment and went back to books. “After seven years there was literally no evidence it had any impact on student achievement – none,” said Mark Lawson, president of the Liverpool school board. While their test scores stagnated, Liverpool students used their laptops to cheat on exams, message friends, hack into local businesses, update Facebook profiles and download pornography.

“The teachers were telling us that when there’s a one-to-one relationship between the student and the laptop, the machine gets in the way,” Lawson concluded. “It’s a distraction to the educational process.”

There’s so much more to dislike about our cocoon woven of wires, our house built of chips. Thieves, grifters and predators of every description have flourished in the cyber-forest; the signature crime of the 21st century is identity theft. The internet is the greatest gift to the paedophile community since the Vatican stood its ground on celibate priests.

But if you think these are all quibbles compared with the joy and comfort your hardware provides, try out your polished indifference on the prospect of environmental apocalypse. “E-waste”, as it’s now called, is the sobering dark side to even the rosiest view of an all-wired future. In the US in 2005, more than 1.5 million tons of discarded electronic devices ended up in landfills, where hi-tech’s toxic metals, including lead, mercury, cadmium and beryllium, find their way into the soil, the water tables and the air.

In China, which produces a million tons of e-waste annually and imports, for profit, 70 per cent of the world’s lethal garbage (estimated at as much as 50 million tons), whistle-blowers are already blaming high rates of birth defects, infant mortality and blood diseases on e-waste. With their reliance on instant obsolescence and limited commitment to recycling, hardware manufacturers create an unmanageable flow of poisonous trash that the planet can’t possibly tolerate: Americans alone discard 100 million computers, cellphones and related devices every year, at a rate of 136,000 per day. Half a billion of the US’s old cellphones sit in drawers, dead but not buried. There is no place and no plan for all this stuff. Our world has been wired by wildly inefficient technology – it takes roughly 1.8 tons of raw materials (fossil fuels, water, metal ores) to manufacture one PC and its monitor, and mining the gold needed for the circuit board of a single cellphone generates 220lb of waste. These industries are self‑evidently unsustainable. They are not environmentally sane.

The case against technology is not a difficult one to make, not even for someone from a generation like mine, which chose to fry millions of healthy neurons with LSD, psilocybin, cannabis and cocaine. The walking wounded from that excess are still around, but most of us kicked our habits and descended safely from those treacherous highs.

High tech is a habit too new to boast any record of survivors, recovering addicts, successful rehabs. So far, no one’s coming back. In the words of recovery programmes, users have yet to acknowledge that they have a problem. Or that there is a problem. Staring for hours at glowing squares, gossiping with needy strangers, poking away at little keyboards, playing half-assed violent games – does this strike anyone as an interesting and honourable life, or even a preparation for one? And the answer, more often than not, would come back, “Sure, what’s your problem?”

With that last outburst, I probably sacrifice half the readers I have left. But if you’re offended or threatened, console yourself with the impotence and rapid extinction of my kind. We pose no threat to your habit.

Technology’s sceptics are ageing and thinning out. Soon, by conversion or attrition, they will vanish. Soon, when everyone is born wired into the hive, no more of them will appear. All the more reason to have our say, leave our protests on the record, exit cursing and fighting.
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Naomi Klein: Disaster Capitalism


videonation September 18, 2007
Nation columnist Naomi Klein explores a key argument from her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism: After 9/11 the Bush Administration launched a new economy, driven by the notion of an endless war against an undefined notion of evil. Read more in her 2005 Nation column "The Rise of Disaster Capitalism."

THE LORD’S DAY - SABBATH OR SUNDAY?


In his Apostolic Letter - ‘Dies Domini’ from the Pope John Paul ll - it is stated that ‘The Lord’s Day, as Sunday was called from Apostolic times, has always been accorded special attention in the history of the church.’

How much truth is there in this statement? Has Sunday been called the Lord’s day since the times of the Apostles? This booklet will look at all the Bible Sabbath references in the apostolic period, which covers almost to the year 100 AD. If the day of the Sabbath and its honour was moved to Sunday in the times of the apostles, thereby transferring honour to the Resurrection rather than Creation, observable changes should be recorded in the Bible. John, the writer of the Revelation, for example, was the longest-living apostle and saw those years. This would have been the crucial period for this to be seen and explained. The statement that the Sabbath was changed in the time of the apostles is repeatedly stated by Christians today in books and studies, but based on what evidence? This booklet will explore those years in the Bible record.

Peter preached openly and boldly on the day of Pentecost. He preached to the assembled multitudes about Jesus, about His death and His resurrection. This is recorded in Acts 2. When they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and cried out, ‘What shall we do?’ What an excellent opportunity to explain about a new day of worship to celebrate the resurrection of the Jesus they had crucified! Instead he told them they should be baptised.

Later, the Sadducees, being very disturbed that Peter and John were preaching that Jesus had been resurrected, had them arrested and put in prison overnight. In the morning, they asked them by what authority they preached this message. Again the two disciples spoke of the resurrection and made it clear that
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Iowa's Wet Summer May Have Helped Trigger Salmonella Outbreak

By Carly Porter, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer
Aug 21, 2010; 3:10 PM ET


Salmonella can infect eggs in two different ways. The bacterium can latch onto the actual eggshell when in contact with rodent droppings. Salmonella can also be ingested by the chicken after eating food contaminated with the infected rodent defecation. In this case, the inside of the egg can have salmonella.

A recall of 380 million eggs because of salmonella could be in part attributed to wet, humid weather across Iowa.

An increase in salmonella itself is not linked directly with weather and climate, but the rodent population responsible for spreading salmonella is influenced by changes in temperature, precipitation and season.

Very wet weather, humid conditions, and seasonal changes bringing cooler temperatures can drive rodents into chicken houses, which act as a port of shelter from the elements.

"In the fall, when the weather turns cold, mice move into buildings," said Darrell Trampel, Iowa State University Professor of Veterinary Diagnostics.

Wright County Eggs of Galt, Iowa, where the recalled eggs have been traced, is in a region that has been inundated by above-normal rainfall this summer.

AccuWeather.com meteorologists note that Galt, Iowa, is in an area inflicted by rainfall 200 to 300 percent above normal since June 1. This translates into approximately 8-12 inches of extra rainfall for Galt this summer.

Cities around Galt, including Waterloo, Des Moines and Marshalltown, have had over 20 inches of rain since June 1. The Midwest has endured above-normal temperatures and extreme humidity this summer.

Excess rainfall could have caused more rodents to enter the chicken coops in Iowa, which could mean more salmonella-infected droppings. The infected droppings could have contaminated the feed eaten by the chickens producing the eggs.

According to a Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences manual on food safety in the table egg industry, pest management is a critical control point for diminishing salmonella exposure in chickens.

"Rodents are the primary source of salmonella," said Trampel. "They bring it with them into the chicken houses."

The report said that rodents like mice and rats are among the leading causes of salmonella in chicken coops because their daily droppings can contain up to 230,000 salmonella bacteria.

When excreting, rodents often leave their droppings in feed troughs, on egg belts and in other areas where there is contamination of not only eggs, but the feed eaten by chickens.

This map shows that Galt, Iowa, (noted by the "X") is in an area inflicted by rainfall 200 to 300 percent above normal since June 1. Image courtesy of the National Weather Service (NWS).

Salmonella can infect eggs in two different ways. The bacterium can latch onto the actual eggshell when in contact with rodent droppings.

In the United States, eggs are washed and sanitized before going to stores.

Salmonella can also be ingested by the chicken after eating food contaminated with the infected rodent defecation. In this case, the inside of the egg can have salmonella.

The latest recall of nearly 400 million eggs occurred because of salmonella inside the egg.

While salmonella inflicting the outer portion of an egg is easy to be tested for and distinguished, internal salmonella is much more difficult to detect.

"There currently are no methods to see if salmonella has infected the egg internally without cracking it," said Dr. Stephanie Doores, Associate Professor of Food Science for Penn State.

Salmonella is the leading cause of food-borne illness in the United States.

Dr. Paul Patterson, of Penn State, specializes in egg production, quality and safety. He said that improper handling and cooking of eggs are the major factors in human salmonella infections.

"Proper cooking will destroy salmonella, it would not be an issue," he said.

Patterson said that the size of the recall was most likely a cautionary measure. He also said that he credited the Iowa company for taking action with its voluntary recall.

Content contributed by Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather.com Meteorologist.
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