Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Catholics hail an investing miracle Scott Rochfort

Scott Rochfort
October 14, 2010



Southern Cross Equities’ Charlie Aitken ... sold on Fortescue. Illustration: John Shakespeare


While Sydney's Anglicans have been bemoaning their recent poor investment choices, the Catholics have been out celebrating. Catholic Super on Tuesday night was among the 10 nominees for the SuperRatings fund of the year. The financial services group missed out on the top prize to CareSuper.

But the Melbourne-based Catholic Super still appears a lot chirpier than its competition following its recent merger with the National Catholic Superannuation Fund.
''After the turbulent times in investment markets over the last two years, it's a great relief that investment outcomes for 2009-10 are positive for all of our investment options,'' said the chief executive of Catholic Super, Frank Pegan, in a recent newsletter to his members.

Advertisement: Story continues below The Catholics have seen the value of their $3.7 billion of investments take a dent in the financial crisis. But not as badly as the industry benchmark. Nor as bad as the Sydney Anglicans, whose archbishop, Peter Jensen, warned at a meeting this week that his outfit was still having cash-flow problems.

''We have 'lazy assets'. We need them to get out of bed and start performing for us. Our major task in the next decade is to preserve the assets while growing the cash flow. And, humanly speaking, that is going to require prayerfulness, skill, wisdom, patience and self-control,'' Jensen told the Sydney Synod on Monday.

The Glebe Administration Board saw its assets more than halve in value to less than $300 million during the recent financial crisis.

It seems the Church of England in Sydney is in dire need of a Mary MacKillop-inspired miracle. Or even a Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury-brokered merger.

HOLY ORDERS

But it has not been all pestilence and red ink at the Protestant end of the financial sector. Uniting Church Super saw its Australian share fund rebound 13 per cent last financial year. ''The year ended 30 June 2010 has brought welcome relief from the turbulence of the investment markets in the previous two years,'' it said in its annual report.

Lutheran Super has had a soft year in its Australian share fund, after riding last year's rally to make a 36 per cent gain in 2009. However, the Lutherans are still down over the past three years.

Plans, meanwhile, are still afoot to resurrect the Seventh Day Adventist-founded ACF Investments, with the church having already agreed to provide a $4 million ''liquidity facility'' once a deed of company arrangement is executed.

The outfit has been in the hands of administrators PPB for two years.

In an interview on InFocus Church News in November 2008, the Adventist Church president Barry Oliver said: ''I guess particularly Rodney [Brady, the Adventist chief financial officer] and myself have spent a lot of time praying together, praying for our people, praying for those affected and talking about how the Church can respond in a situation such as this.'' ACF Investments, set up to fund the Adventist-affiliated Avondale College, suffered a $10 million hit from investing in three real estate funds managed by the Gordon Fell-founded Rubicon.

LOVE-IN

NAB is not waiting for a dollar parity party to bring its Sydney and Melbourne trading floors closer together. About 60 NAB traders converged on the State Theatre on Market Street yesterday for one of the biggest bonding sessions seen since the dollar was floated in the early 1980s.

Rather than catch up on the Russian Ballet's upcoming tour of The Nutcracker, which will play at the theatre, the NAB traders were treated to several David Brent (aka The Office)-sounding briefings aimed to boost morale. The presentations aimed to boost teamwork were accompanied by a presentation on ''how to work in a positive environment''.

Fortunately, the bank did allow its traders to bond the more traditional way by booking out the beer drinking-friendly Ventuno Pizzeria in Walsh Bay afterwards.

BULL'S ROAR

One of Fortescue Metal Group's most vocal cheerleaders, the Southern Cross Equities director Charlie Aitken, has made one of his boldest calls yet on the iron ore miner and has again appealed to the nationalistic tendencies of investors.

''This is a great Australian success story against huge odds [breaking an oligopoly] and in the face of tremendous investor and analyst scepticism,'' said Aitken about Fortescue in a note yesterday, where he was even more bullish than the Southern Cross analyst Fleur Grose.

Grose put a $8 a share 12-month price target on the stock, which closed at $6.30 yesterday, but Aitken said: ''And just to keep the dream alive for those of us who dare to dream, our 'all goes right' valuation for FMG as a 355 mtpa [million tonnes per annum] producer at a long-term iron ore price of $100 [per tonne] is $23 a share.''

Aitken, who in the note reminded his clients that Fortescue boss Andrew Forrest was one of his ''personal friends'', did not appear concerned by the miner needing to pay arguably one of the biggest break-fees in corporate history. A massive $US650 million ($658 million) premium to face value repurchase of its notes as part of a debt refinancing.

The concerns Aitken held for Australia several months ago - when the debate on the mining tax was in full swing - also appear to have abated. ''Go entrepreneurialism, go capitalism, go growth, go Australia,'' Aitken said in his latest note. In May, Aitken had expressed his grave fears for Australia.

''I am watching Australia being de-rated before my eyes. It's a disgrace, it is avoidable, but it's happening. It's like watching a bus crash, but a bus crash which I had a premonition of, yet, in which I am a passenger,'' he said.

ON THE RISE

Aitken's upbeat commentary was only matched by Fortescue, which released its annual report late yesterday. Fortescue disclosed its executive director, Russell Scrimshaw, had a tidy pay rise on July 1, befitting an executive working at a big miner. Aside from enjoying a $240,000 base pay rise to $950,000, Scrimshaw has also been allocated a $980,000 incentive payment this financial year. His base pay has tripled in the past three years. Shareholders are also being asked to award Scrimshaw a further 89,526 bonus shares at the upcoming annual meeting.

Got a tip? Use our online tips box or email srochfort@smh.com.au
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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The Governator - From Muscle Beach to His Quest for the White House,..


The Governator
From Muscle Beach to His Quest for the White House,
the Improbable Rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger
By Ian Halperin

Price: $25.99
On Sale: 10/12/2010
Formats: Hardcover
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From Muscle Beach to Hollywood superstar to The Governator—Ian Halperin, investigative journalist and # 1 New York Times bestselling author, reveals the untold story about the outsized and often outrageous Arnold Schwarzenegger. The former Austrian bodybuilding icon turned movie action hero turned governor of California is portrayed in all his larger-than-life glory in The Governator, an intimate biography that masterfully chronicles the twists and turns of Schwartzenegger’s amazing true-life Horatio Alger story.

Book Description

Who is the real Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Investigative journalist and number one New York Times bestselling author Ian Halperin reveals the true and untold story about this larger-than-life and often outrageous figure

From his childhood in Austria to his rise as a star of American conservative politics, the story of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s life reads like the script of a Hollywood B-movie penned by Horatio Alger. In this exclusive peek behind the curtain, award-winning scoop hunter Ian Halperin wades through the myths and rumors to discover the real Arnold behind the icon, a man defined by unbridled ambition and an unending quest for power.

Based on extensive research, undercover forays, and candid interviews with many of the Terminator’s close friends and peers, Halperin brings the myth to life with:
  • a riveting journey through Schwarzenegger’s past to explore his relationship with his abusive father and his feelings toward the Nazi party.

  • insights into the shadowy world of bodybuilding and Schwarzenegger’s early steroid use.

  • an investigation of Schwarzenegger’s reputation as a bully and a womanizer, including his alleged affairs and public accusations of sexual harassment—behavior that earned him the nickname “the Groper.”

  • an in-depth look at his long-standing fascination with the Kennedys and his remarkably seamless assimilation into his wife’s fabled family.

  • a detailed look into Maria’s startling weight loss.

  • an analysis of Schwarzenegger’s political career, revealing him to be a surprisingly effective and talented governor.

  • the behind-the-scenes machinations of the Kennedy family to influence Schwarzenegger’s political agenda.
  • And finally Halperin uncovers the never-before-told details of an incredible and audacious plan for Schwarzenegger to attempt to rewrite the Constitution and run for president of the United States.


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Author Extras
Ian Halperin Biography
Book Tour


ISBN: 9780061990045; ISBN10: 0061990043; Imprint: William Morrow ; On Sale: 10/12/2010; Format: Hardcover; Trimsize: 6 x 9; Pages: 352; $25.99; Ages: 18 and Up

Source

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First Trapped Chilean Miner Reaches Surface

Updated: 3 minutes ago

Michael Warren

AP SAN JOSE MINE, Chile (Oct. 12) -- Florencio Avalos, the first of 33 miners to be rescued, has surfaced after 69 days underground...

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Hollerin' for Votes






I've listened to several sound bytes where President Obama is hollering at the top of his lungs campaigning non-stop, begging for sympathy; Brother, can you spare a vote?

Among many things, Mr. Obama is heard yelling accusations at his political opponents the republicans (a text-book example of Hegelian Dialectics), and blaming them for his failure in MOVING FORWARD. It's all their fault! If this is how the president acts when it's only a mid-term election; when only Congress is affected during this election cycle: What will Obama do two years from now when he reaches the end of his term?

Arsenio.
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The Health Nazi says: No soda for You!




The Health Nazi says: No soda for You!

Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Mayer Bloomingdales) of New York City, said that the City's food stamp recipients should not be able to buy soda (pop, tonic) or carbonated beverages.


Here's an article on the story:.
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No Soda for You!

Jonathan H. Adler • October 7, 2010 9:07 am

The WSJ reports:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson have asked the federal government to bar New York City food-stamp recipients from using the benefit to buy sugary drinks, an effort to determine if the move would decrease obesity and diabetes problems.

The request, sent late Wednesday to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, could affect an estimated 1.7 million city residents who receive food stamps. As much as $135 million in federal nutrition benefits is used to buy sugar-sweetened drinks, the mayor’s office said. . .

Food-stamp users cannot use benefits to buy alcohol and cigarettes. The request asks that the USDA allow city officials to have two years to assess if sugary-drink purchases drop, as well as problems associated with diabetes and obesity, a mayoral spokeswoman said. The proposal would not affect the total benefits received, she said.

So is this an example of over-weening paternalism? Or is it a responsible limitation on government assistance?
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Corpus Juris Canonici

Book Two
Book two describes the "People of God". It shows the body of the Holy Roman Catholic Church This book is divided into three parts

  • The Christian faithful

  • The hierarchical constitution of the church

  • Institutions of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life.
The Christian faithful shows the obligations of the faithful in common, those of the lay and those of the sacred ministers or clerics with special consideration of the formation and enrolment of clerics and personal prelatures. Furthermore the associations of the Christian faithful especially their recognition as a juridic person are constituted, divided in public, private associations and those of the lay.

The hierarchical constitution of the church describes the composition, rights and obligations of the supreme authority of the church, generated of the Roman Pontiff, the college of bishops, the synod of bishops, the cardinal priests, the Roman curia and the legates. Furthermore the dioceses, their organisation with bishop curia and synod and their involvement in ecclesiastical provinces, particular councils and conferences of bishops are described

Adequate to the regulations of part two the hierarchical constitution of religious and secular institutes and societies of apostolic life is shown. A religious institute is a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public vows and lead a life of brothers or sisters in common. A secular institute is an institute of consecrated life in which the Christian faithful, living in the world, strive for the perfection of charity and seek to contribute to the sanctification of the world, especially from within. Societies of apostolic life do not use a vow.
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Read more
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Being a Disciple of Christ


25And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,

26If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

27And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.




Luke 14:25-27.
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420 banks demand 1-world currency


FROM JEROME CORSI'S RED ALERT

420 banks demand 1-world currency
International finance group seeks remedy to looming exchange wars

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Posted: October 10, 2010
12:06 am Eastern

© 2010

Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium online newsletter published by the current No. 1 best-selling author, WND staff writer and senior managing director of the Financial Services Group at Gilford Securities.

The Institute of International Finance, a group that represents 420 of the world's largest banks and finance houses, has issued yet another call for a one-world global currency, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.

"A core group of the world's leading economies need to come together and hammer out an understanding," Charles Dallara, the Institute of International Finance's managing director, told the Financial Times.

An IIF policy letter authored by Dallara and dated Oct. 4 made clear that global currency coordination was needed, in the group's view, to prevent a looming currency war.

"The narrowly focused unilateral and bilateral policy actions seen in recent months – including many proposed and actual measures on trade, currency intervention and monetary policy – have contributed to worsening underlying macroeconomic imbalances," Dallara wrote. "They have also led to growing protectionist pressures as countries scramble for export markets as a source of growth."

Dallard encouraged a return to the G-20 commitment to utilize International Monetary Fund special drawing rights to create an international one-world currency alternative to the U.S. dollar as a new standard of foreign-exchange reserves.

Likewise, a July United Nations report called for the replacement of the dollar as the standard for holding foreign-exchange reserves in international trade with a new one-world currency issued by the International Monetary Fund.

The 176-page report, titled "United Nations World Economic and Social Survey 2010," was issued at a high-level meeting of the U.N. Economic and Social Council and published in its entirety on the U.N. website.

For more information on demands for a global currency, read Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium, online intelligence news source by the WND staff writer, columnist and author of the New York Times No. 1 best-seller, "The Obama Nation."

Red Alert's author, who received a doctorate from Harvard in political science in 1972, is the author of the No. 1 New York Times best-sellers "The Obama Nation" and (with co-author John E. O'Neill) "Unfit for Command." He is also the author of several other books, including "America for Sale," "The Late Great U.S.A." and "Why Israel Can't Wait." In addition to serving as a senior staff reporter for WorldNetDaily, Corsi is a senior managing director in the financial-services group at Gilford Securities.

Source
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Saturday, October 09, 2010

Shipping Our Economy, Our Jobs And Our Prosperity To China


As the U.S. economy continues to implode, large American corporations are investing billions upon billions of dollars in China. But all of this investment comes at a price. Over the past several decades, hundreds of factories and manufacturing facilities that would have been constructed in the United States, along with millions of decent paying jobs, have ended up going to China instead where labor is so much cheaper. In the process, China has become a massive economic powerhouse, while once thriving manufacturing cities in the United States such as Detroit are now rusted-out corpses. In fact, China's economy has grown so rapidly that it is being projected that in 2010 China will replace Japan as the world's second-largest economy. Not only that, but China has already overtaken Germany and is now the biggest exporter of goods in the entire world. But none of this growth in communist China would have been possible without all of the globalism and free trade that U.S. politicians from both parties have been pushing on us for the last 40 years. When they were selling us on the benefits of "free trade" they didn't tell us that we would end up shipping our economy, our jobs and our prosperity over to China.

American consumers never seemed to be able to put two and two together. As we were busy running out and filling up our shopping carts with cheap plastic crap made in China, we didn't seem to realize that a "global economy" meant that we would be competing for jobs and wages with workers on the other side of the world.

So now the U.S. economy, with its high wages and repressive government regulations, is suffering while China's economy is thriving.

So just how much money are U.S. corporations pouring into China?

Well, according to the U.S.-China Business Council, U.S. corporations combined for $3.6 billion in direct foreign investment in China in 2009. That was substantially up from $2.9 billion in 2008.

As U.S. companies pour increasingly large amounts of money into China, the economies of the U.S. and China are becoming inextricably linked.

In fact, some of the biggest "American" success stories are now manufactured in China.

For example, have you purchased an Apple iPhone? Well, if you have, there is a really good chance that it was made in China. Of course what Apple doesn't tell you is that ten workers at the facility in China where the iPhone is manufactured have committed suicide in the past year by jumping off buildings at the factory. Perhaps they were depressed over their low pay - the workers at the factory work very long hours but make less than 300 hundred dollars a month.

How would you like to work for 300 dollars a month?

But things could be even worse.

Reuters recently described the ordeal of one Chinese worker who spends at least eight hours a day standing on an assembly line putting together locks for Honda cars....

"Each year is the same. It makes me sick in the stomach. There's no freshness to things anymore," he said of his job which pays around 30 yuan (US$5) per day.

How in the world can American workers be expected to compete with someone who makes 5 dollars a day?

But some Chinese workers toil in even more difficult conditions. According to the Toronto Star, employees at the Pingdingshan Cotton Textile Company work grueling two day shifts and yet only make 65 cents an hour.

These low wages have enabled big global corporations to make huge profits, and they have helped provide lots of low price products for American consumers, but in the process they are cannibalizing U.S. jobs, factories and businesses.

In fact, it is getting quite hard to find things that are made in the United States anymore. Even many of the "organic foods" that you are buying at organic food stores are now actually made in China.

As tens of millions of American workers sit at home collecting unemployment checks, U.S. companies are busy making plans to invest billions more in China.

According to Pacific Epoch, a China-focused research firm based in Shanghai, Pepsi "has committed $1 billion over the next four years to build 14 new beverage production plants, in a move that will almost double its production capacity in the country."

Couldn't we use a few of those beverage production plants in the United States?

But who wants to pay U.S. workers 12 dollars an hour when they can pay Chinese workers 2 dollars an hour?

But Pepsi is far from alone. Forbes recently detailed the massive investments that some of the major car companies are making in China....

General Motors and Volkswagen have invested billions in China, starting more than a decade ago. Ford is rushing to catch up by adding production capacity and expanding its dealer network in China. Ford and its joint-venture partner, Chang'an Ford Mazda Automobile, plan to start producing next-generation Ford Focus models at a new, $490 million plant in Chongqing in 2012.

Meanwhile, once thriving American manufacturing cities such as Detroit and Flint, Michigan are so dilapidated and run down that they literally look like war zones.

But it is not just U.S. companies that are investing in China. According to China's Ministry of Commerce, overall direct foreign investment in China rose 14 percent to approximately $39 billion in the first five months of 2010. Nearly half of that money was spent on building or expanding factories.

The implications of all this are staggering.

First of all, nobody can deny any longer that China has become a superpower. China now has one of the largest economies in the world, their military has been dramatically upgraded and modernized and they have developed a network of economic and diplomatic contacts around the globe that would have been unthinkable 20 or 30 years ago.

Meanwhile, the United States has an economy that is imploding, a reputation that has been deeply tarnished and a debt that is the largest in the history of the world.

In fact, China owns about a trillion dollars of U.S. government debt.

Yes, the United States is falling and China is rising.

So now that China's economy and manufacturing base has been built up so dramatically, what happens when someday the communist Chinese government decides that it doesn't want to be such great friends with the United States anymore?

If relations between the two nations really go south someday, could U.S. corporations suddenly lose the billions upon billions that they have poured into China?

Also, many Chinese military strategists believe that it is inevitable that there will be a war between the United States and China someday. So could China end up using all of the technology and manufacturing capacity that they have gained at our expense against us someday?

The truth is that all of the money and technology that we have poured into China could end up being one of the greatest national security blunders of all time.

China is not a democracy. The Communist Party runs China, and most of their leaders still believe in the ultimate worldwide triumph of communism.

So in the end the United States may look back and realize how incredibly stupid it was to build up communist China at the expense of our own economy.

But this is the world our leaders have built for us. A world where globalism and "free trade" force us to compete for jobs against sweatshop laborers around the globe.

The reality is that this "new world" is not very good at all for the American middle class. The economic realities of the 21st century are very cruel for Americans who are seeking to live a middle class lifestyle.

Gradually, everyone in the world is being pushed into two economic groups. The massive global corporations that dominate everyone and everything, and the worldwide mass of expendable labor that serves those global corporations.

It is this kind of "neo-feudalism" that we must avoid at all costs. If the American people would just wake up this trend towards increasing globalism could be reversed.

But will they wake up?
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Report condemns US funding of Taliban

Scandal

08/10 18:01 CET


The Taliban in Afghanistan are receiving money from the US government because recruitment of private security personnel is not being vetted enough.

A report by America’s Senate Armed Services Committee has revealed that some contractors are funnelling money to Afghan warlords.

The Chair of the committee, Carl Levin, said “failures to adequately vet, train and supervise armed security personnel have been wide spread.”

He added that “posed grave risks to US and coalition troops as well as Afghan civilians.”

The report found some contractors were linked to “murder, kidnapping, bribery and anti-coalition activities.”

Others gave money directly to the Taliban to buy weapons to use against US troops.

It recommended immediate steps be taken to improve the vetting of security personnel.

Source
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Gang goes on sick rampage, sodomizing teen with plunger and forcing another to burn lover with cigs



BY Rocco Parascandola, Joe Jackson and Corky Siemaszko
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Saturday, October 9th 2010, 4:00 AM


Florescu for News

The so-called Latin King Goonies used Osborne Place building as headquarters for their sick attacks.





Fueled by hate for homosexuals, a sick crew of Bronx gang members went on a wave of sadistic violence that included forcing a teen to burn his gay lover with cigarettes, cops said Friday.

The cowardly creeps then made the 17-year-old watch as they sodomized the tortured man with a miniature baseball bat.

The gang members, who call themselves the Latin King Goonies, also sodomized another 17-year-old with a toilet plunger before capping their reign of terror by beating up and robbing a fourth person. The last man attacked was the older brother of one of the earlier victims.

"These suspects employed terrible, wolf-pack odds of nine against one, odds which revealed them as predators whose crimes were as cowardly as they were despicable," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Seven hoods, ages from 16 to 23, have been rounded up. Cops are looking for at least two other members of the cruel crew, Kelly said.

Their leader was identified by sources as 23-year-old Ildefonso (Cheto) Mendez. They're charged with unlawful imprisonment, abduction, assault, robbery, menacing and sodomy - all as hate crimes.

The suspects, including one who was taken out of the 41st Precinct stationhouse on a stretcher and transported to a hospital because of a seizure, were waiting to be arraigned last night.

They were still passing blame to one another last night, said a law enforcement source.

"Nobody wants to take responsibility for the plunger," the source said. "One guy is lying through his teeth."

"This was not part of an initiation," Kelly said. "This was a reaction to the fact that they had engaged in homosexual activity."

The arrests came just days after two young men were busted for attacking a gay man in the bathroom of the Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the gay rights movement.

And with gay-bashing on the uptick - 44 attacks as of Monday compared with 41 at the same time last year - city leaders reacted with outrage.

"These attacks are appalling and are even more despicable because the victims were clearly targeted in acts of hate simply because they are gay," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said.

"Bronxites will not tolerate any form of bigotry in our borough," Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. said.

The torture took place in an abandoned Morris Heights building across the street from a public school. Area residents called it the Goonie House. Gang members threw parties and had sex there. As many as a dozen pit bulls guarded the place.

"They'd have meets there every Friday," said a 33-year-old woman too terrified to reveal her name. "They're running crazy from there - hurting people, taking stuff. Latin Kings don't let gay people in their nation."

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At Europe’s Helm, a Steady Hand With Little Pomp

Gael Turine for The New York Times
“I had a very important task in Belgium. I felt I was the only one capable of finding a solution. There are moments you’re irreplaceable and others you can die and be replaced the next day.” Herman Van Rompuy
By STEVEN ERLANGER and STEPHEN CASTLE
Published: October 8, 2010

WHEN a visit to the United Nations was canceled abruptly last month, the European Union’s new president, Herman Van Rompuy, headed instead for somewhere he says he feels really at home: Affligem Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in the countryside here, founded in 1062.

Mr. Van Rompuy spent a day in a simple room, attending services and eating in a cavernous hall where monks listen to readings from a library of 70,000 books. And he also likes the beer, one of Belgium’s most famous, now brewed under license from the monks.
...
A Roman Catholic, Mr. Van Rompuy often seems to be fighting to conquer the sin of pride — in his manner, his dress (he favors brown) and his lack of affectation. But it is a struggle he sometimes loses. He is a man who feels inferior, it can be said, to few, and he is convinced that the modest and back-room fashion in which he is guiding Europe — and quietly expanding his influence — is the only possible way to do it.
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Our Cities Too Big For Quality of Life


What kind of quality of life do mega-cities present to their citizens? What qualities do they bring to parents and children? How do they address the spirit of humanity at the personal level? From their inception, large sky-scraper-dominated and sprawling cities around the world represent the worst of humanity. Ayn Rand, in her bestselling book, Atlas Shrugged, praised sky-scrapers as humanity’s highest achievement......

by Frosty Wooldridge

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Primate's Speech at Glendale Adventist Medical Center

Published on Apr 21 2010 by Divan of the Diocese

On April 21, 2010, the Glendale Adventist Medical Center had organized a Service in Memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide. At 9:45 AM, His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church in North America delivered his message in the chapel of the hospital.

The Primate was joined by Rev. Archpriest Fr. Hovsep Hagopian and Rev. Fr. Khajag Shahbazyan. The members of the clergy also visited patients in the hospital offered prayers and spiritual support.

We kindly present to you the Primate's message in its entirety.

"Prayer is a man's spiritual breathing. Just as our physical body needs to breathe in order to live, so does our soul require prayer in order to remain healthy and live forever". (H.H. Karekin I)

Dear brothers and sisters, I have intentionally chosen these words from the writings of one of the distinguished church leaders, which clearly reflect the faith-life of Christian Armenians who have embraced Christianity as the God-given mission. Additionally, it is through the divine strength of prayer that allowed us not to instill in our hearts hatred towards those who have harmed us and perpetrated the Genocide of a nation. However, it is through the same prayer that we are led to honor the memory of our ancestors who have been massacred and experienced mass deportations from their ancestral lands and have been dispersed around the world.

"Prayer is our evaluation, by our life and deeds, of what God has given us". These words indicate that whatever God has given to us, namely life itself, we are obliged to guard and protect it.

As we lift up our hearts and prayers in this hospital, we acknowledge the dedication and good services of wonderful people, whose respect for the human life is most notable and remarkable. The outstanding services rendered to all members of the community is nothing else than the God pleasing act, which directly speaks against all levels of crime against humanity. The Adventist Church and the missionaries have witnessed the first Genocide of the twentieth century and raised their voice for justice. Historical truth cannot be distorted by people and time. Recognition of historical truth brings peace and comfort to the hearts of all nations.

To me personally, and to the priests and faithful of the Armenian Church, the prayer we offer in this hospital as we commemorate the 95th anniversary of the victims of the Genocide, is the most educational and inspiring initiative to send the members of the community a message of hope and love. Hospitals, as is the case of all important institutions, are called to serve the physical as well as the spiritual comfort of the people. As the patient who suffers the physical pain and is in dire need of soothing and care, so is the case with those who have been traumatized by the discomforting witnessing accounts of the survivors of the Genocide.

Year after year, the Glendale Adventist Hospital has commemorated the memory of the victims of the Genocide and has honored their memory with special prayers being offered together with the hospital administrative staff. This most respectful gesture sends out to all, a strong message that life needs to be protected and honored, cherished and nurtured as it has been commanded by God. God bless you all and grant you all the strength and wisdom to share your gift of love and dedication with the patients and their beloved ones, to establish peace and harmony in the life of the community.

Prayerfully,

Archbishop Hovnan Derderian
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Have mercy upon us, O LORD


Psalm 123


1Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.

2Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.

3Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.

4Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.
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Friday, October 08, 2010

GALEN HOLLEY: It’s a small world, even for Catholics and Adventists

Photo (Courtesy) http://nems360.com/view/full_story/5719492/article-Colts--Galen--vs--Saints--Chris--Who-will-win-the-Super-Bowl-?instance=secondary_stories_left_column


by Galen Holley/NEMS Daily Journal Nems360.Com
6 days ago

I get a lot of kidding about being Catholic. I even get some mean-spirited criticism. A year after I started working here one of my critics wrote in. To paraphrase, he said, “I detect, Mr. Holley, a strong, Roman Catholic emphasis on the religion page. You should know that most of your readers aren’t Catholic.”

I’m still scratching my head over that one. In the three years I’ve been here I can count the number of Catholic features I’ve done on one hand.

During my time here I’ve made a lot of friends among the ranks of Northeast Mississippi pastors. Ray Elsberry, the pastor at Tupelo Seventh-Day Adventist Church, is one of them. I liked Bro. Ray the moment I met him. He’s an old-fashioned country preacher, complete with walking cane and suspenders. He’s also a sincere, good-natured man who can laugh at himself.

One of these days I mean to ask Ray, given that Seventh-Day Adventists generally follow such healthy dietary guidelines, how, like me, he’s managed to become so rotund.

When I interview Ray he tends to start almost every sentence with, “Now, don’t take this the wrong way, Galen.” When he says that I know he’s about to lower the boom on the Catholic Church.

Ray will inevitably bring up how pope so-and-so, back in the 300’s, did something awful. I’ll say, “Well, OK,” and Ray and I will both end up laughing.

Perhaps Ray and I get along so well because we both belong to denominations that a lot of people around here think are weird.

When many people hear mention of Seventh-Day Adventists they think of David Koresh, the man whose insanity brought about his own death and those of dozens of his followers when the FBI raided their Texas compound in 1993.

As Ray explains it to me, the Branch Davidians, of which Koresh and his followers were members, are about as far removed from actual Seventh-Day Adventists as members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, many of whom are polygamists, are from actual LDS.

In both cases, the only connection between the groups dates back to a split that happened decades ago, and, in both cases, neither group today has anything to do with the other.

I don’t think Ray and the members of his church are weird. They hold some different beliefs than I do, but, when you stop and think about, most religious people hold some pretty weird beliefs.

Christianity in general makes some pretty outrageous claims. Most of its basic tenets are offensive to the rational mind.

In researching this story I discovered that the place where I attended graduate school, the roof under which I slept for a year, in cozy Takoma Park, Maryland, is the building that formerly housed the world headquarters of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. The denomination’s current headquarters is one Metro stop north, in Silver Spring.

I’m pretty sure, based on the mutual distrust between Adventists and Catholics, that my school had to buy the building through a third party.

I haven’t mentioned a word of this to Ray, so he’s probably reading it now for the first time. It’s a small world, isn’t it Ray, old buddy?

Contact Daily Journal religion editor Galen Holley at 678-1510 or galen.holley@djournal.com

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Castro’s daughter speaks at Southern Adventist


Friday, Oct. 8, 2010


By: Perla Trevizo
(Contact)

Staff photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free Press - October 07, 2010. Alina Fernandez, the daughter of Fidel Castro, speaks to students at Southern Adventist University about Cuba on Thursday. Fernandez, an outspoken critic of the Cuban communist regime, fled her home country in 1993 and now lives in Florida.


Alina Fernandez remembers a January morning in 1959 when Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck vanished from her television screen forever and were replaced by bearded men in military outfits.

It was the day Fidel Castro, whom she later learned was her father, took control of Cuba.

Fernandez, an outspoken critic of her father and the Cuban communist regime, spoke Thursday morning to more than 1,500 students at Southern Adventist University. The event was hosted by the Latin American Club.

When she gives speeches, she combines her personal story with her country’s history, hoping to further the understanding of Cubans, she said after her presentation.

“I don’t have a specific message,” she said in Spanish. “What I want is for an exchange. A lot of people don’t understand the influence Cuba has had; a lot of people don’t understand what Cubans have lived; a lot of people don’t understand why some unkempt people come in rafts trying to get into the United States.

“I want to defend my community,” added Fernandez, who currently has a radio show in Miami.

For Trevor Silva, a freshman majoring in history at Southern Adventist, Fernandez’s story was inspirational.

“It showed that people care once they leave [Cuba]. It shows the country is united,” he said after he had a friend take a photo of him with Fernandez.

In her presentation, which she gave in English, Fernandez joked about how her mother, Natalia, met Fidel Castro when both were married to other people.

She attributed Castro’s attraction for her mother to her curves, which resembled a Coca-Cola bottle, she told a chuckling group of students.

She wasn’t the first one in her family to escape from Cuba. In 1964, her stepfather and stepsister fled to the United States, becoming “worms” and “traitors,” as the Cuban regime called those who left the country.

“One of Cuba’s tragedies is that you become the enemy when you don’t think the way they think and they treat you like [an enemy],” she said.

As she grew older, she saw how her country changed, how families were being separated and she didn’t agree with it.

“Religion disappeared ... cultural life suffered a terrible hit,” she said.

In 1989, she publicly joined the political dissidents and four years later fled Cuba disguised as a Spanish tourist. She had to leave behind her daughter, 16 at the time, but after strong media and international pressure, her daughter was able to join her several weeks later, she said.

Fernandez said she is pleased to see that people care about Cuba because, when change comes, “we are going to need all the solidarity and help possible.”

And though she doesn’t doubt change is coming to her home country, she can’t say when.


ABOUT ALINA FERNANDEZ REVUELTA

* Born in Cuba in 1956

* Daughter of Natalia Revuelta and Fidel Castro, who took control of Cuba in 1959

* Fled Cuba in 1993

* Wrote an autobiography in 1998

* Currently lives in Florida with her daughter Alina, 33.
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The Infallibility of the Pope — Basic Facts About an Essential Dogma


by Catholicism.org April 25th, 2005

(Excerpt)

Infallibility: The Dogma

Before proceeding any further, let us read the definition of papal infallibility as it was promulgated at the First Vatican Council in 1870:

Faithfully adhering to the tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith … we teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is when in discharge of the office of pastor and teacher of all Christians, by virture of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regardging faith and morals to be held by the universal Church, by the divine assistance promised him in Blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed that His Church should be endowed for degining doctrine regarding faith and morals; and that, therefore, such definitions of the Roman Pontiffs are irreformable of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church.
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North Americans to participate in Synod of Bishops for Middle East

SYNOD-NAMERICAN Oct-8-2010 (340 words) xxxi

North Americans to participate in Synod of Bishops for Middle East

By Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Of the 185 voting members of the special Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, 12 are bishops who minister in the United States and Canada.

Like the synod membership as a whole, most of the North American participants are bishops of the Eastern Catholic churches: Melkite, Maronite, Chaldean, Syrian, Armenian or Coptic.

The full list of participants in the Oct. 10-24 synod was released at the Vatican Oct. 8 during a press briefing by Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops.

Pope Benedict XVI named Msgr. Robert L. Stern, general secretary of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, to be a voting member of the synod.

And three Latin-rite bishops from North America are participating: Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit, and Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto.

More North American participants are involved because of their ministry in Rome. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is a synod member, as are Cardinal John P. Foley, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, and Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature.

The other North American members of the synod are:

-- Syrian Bishop Yousif Habash of Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark, N.J.

-- Melkite Bishop Ibrahim M. Ibrahim of Saint-Sauveur of Montreal.

-- Melkite Bishop Cyrille S. Bustros of Newton, Mass.

-- Maronite Bishop Joseph Khoury of Saint-Maron of Montreal.

-- Maronite Bishop Robert J. Shaheen of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles.

-- Maronite Bishop Gregory J. Mansour of St. Maron of Brooklyn, N.Y.

-- Chaldean Bishop Sarhad Y. Jammo of St. Peter the Apostle of San Diego.

-- Chaldean Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim of St. Thomas the Apostle of Detroit.

-- Armenian Bishop Manuel Batakian of Our Lady of Nareg in New York.

Benedictine Father Mark Sheridan, a U.S. member of the International Association for Coptic Studies, was named an expert at the synod.

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Thursday, October 07, 2010

Did the JESUITS Play Their WILD CARD & the JOKE(R) is on us???...

“Obama’s Chicago mentor” is “Gregory Galluzzo – a ‘former’ Jesuit priest….” [Jesuit Temporal Coadjutor and featured writer for the Pope's American neo-fascist Executive Intelligence Review, Webster Tarpley, mentions Galluzzo in his book, Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biography.]

“Obama’s Chief Speechwriter, Jon Favreau, was Jesuit-trained.”

“Obama’s Senior Military and Foreign Policy Advisor, Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, was Jesuit-trained.”

“Obama’s Deputy Communications Director, Dan Pfeiffer, was Jesuit-trained.”

How many other Jesuit agents Mr. Obama has on his team we may never know, for as American historian J. Wayne Laurens writes: “They [the Jesuits] are not merely priests, or of one religious creed; they are merchants [Wall Street Bankers] … and editors, and men of any profession, having no outward badge by which to be recognized…. “

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Obama Places Jesuits in Position of Power (Updated)

Obama Places Jesuits in Position of Power

We should be very afraid because Jesuits have been behind some of the most awful events in history. Their aim is to destroy any country that is a Protestant nation and replace it with chaos in the expectation the Royal Catholic Church can eventually pick up the pieces. This destruction of Protestantism is even in their oath!!

I have to say I am surprised at the large number of them. And after researching this I am not so surprised that the country is being destroyed. Destruction of America is the goal of the Jesuits. Research it for yourself and weep or do something about it.

What? Do what?

First, educate yourself about their intentions. Start with Professor Walter J. Veith who has a video detailing just who they are, what they want and how they are doing it. And what they want to accomplish which is to send us back to a life reminiscient of 1500 era Europe. Rerum Novarum, anyone?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA1fHU8scLc

You’ll find more of these on youtube.

Secondly, become aware of who these people are and express yourself to the elected officials who slip them into positions of power. We gotta pay better attention to the agents of the enemy that keep getting slipped into the power structure.

Source

NOTE: This is an updated version of an article previously posted: (http://endrtimes.blogspot.com/search?q=Obama+Places+Jesuits+in+Position+of+Power+). The are problems with the links with the above mentioned article.

Arsenio.

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Wednesday, October 06, 2010

“Obama always carries a picture of Mary Help of Christians in his wallet”

:. NEWS
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13/8/2010 - Spain - “Obama always carries a picture of Mary Help of Christians in his wallet”


(ANS – Ronda) – During her visit to Casa Don Bosco in Ronda, Michelle Obama, wife of Barack, revealed that her husband, the President of the United States, “always carries a picture of Mary Help of Christians in his wallet”. On Saturday 7 August, Mrs Obama spent four hours in Ronda, admiring the monuments and enjoying the beautiful scenery: “Ronda is absolutely incredible”, she kept saying.

From early morning the city of Ronda was invaded by police and security personnel from the American Embassy and much of the historic part of the city was closed to traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian.

Although it had been planned to make the church of Santa Maria la Mayor the first stop, in order to send the journalists towards Tajo, the presidential party went first to Casa Don Bosco, a modernist building of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, noted for its marvellous gardens, and the home of the Salesian community in the city.

During her stay in the Salesian house, Michelle told the parish priest of Santa Maria, in charge of the Salesian community, that her husband, Barack Obama always carries with him a photograph with an image of Mary Help of Christians, to whom, those present reported, the first family of the United States has great devotion.

When the security services left, Mrs Obama and her daughter Sasha made their way on foot to the Church of Santa Maria la Mayor, and later visited the Palace of the Arabian King and the Mine. In the afternoon, after a break for lunch, the first lady of the United States also saw the monumental Plaza de Toros, the city bullring.

As on her arrival, the first lady smiled and waved as she took her leave of the citizens and tourists in Ronda, and went back to the summer residence of Beahavís. From there she set off on Sunday 8 August to meet the Spanish Royal Family in Mallorca.

Published 13/8/2010 .

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Activists Assess Progress Toward Millennium Development Goals



Poverty



Activists Assess Progress Toward Millennium Development Goals



From CNS, staff and other sources



A mid horn-blowing gridlock around the United Nations on Sept. 20, world leaders gathered to discuss progress or the lack thereof in achieving the Millennium Development Goals for cutting global poverty and combating hunger and disease by 2015. With five years to go, even keen supporters of the various M.D.G. initiatives acknowledged that the overall effort is behind schedule. Few donor nations have honored commitments to direct 0.7 percent of their gross national product toward the alleviation of global poverty.

A far smaller group assembled across the street at the U.N. Church Center to consider some of the same issues. Their opinions ranged from hopeful to bleak.

David Beckmann, a Lutheran minister and economist who is president of Bread for the World, was among the hopeful. He used the image of the exodus of the Israelites from their captivity in Egypt to describe a growing liberation from hunger throughout the world, of “God moving in our history.” He said reduction of hunger in nations as far flung as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Brazil and Ghana make “what happened at the Red Sea look like small potatoes.” Nevertheless, goals remain unachieved, and therefore Americans, he said, need to push their congressional representatives to fund U.S. antihunger initiatives and to make its foreign aid program more effective.

Katherine Marshall of World Faiths Development Dialogues, called reduced poverty “a reachable dream.” But, she said, gender inequality still hinders efforts to mitigate global poverty.

War likewise can be a major factor in locking people into poverty. But Arthur Keys, chief executive officer of International Relief and Development, said that successful development work could continue even in conflict zones. His own organization has assisted farmers in Afghanistan, improving both the viability of their agricultural economy and their communal resistance to the Taliban.

Thomas Pogee, director of the Global Justice Program at Yale University, complained that the donor response to world poverty has been “ridiculous,” given the magnitude of the problem. One in three people dies of poverty-related causes, he said, citing corruption in developing countries as one of many barriers to reducing poverty. Rich countries also do harm by protecting their own products through restrictions on imports from poor nations. And making matters worse, the poor are often not at the table when decisions that affect them are made.

Melinda St. Louis, director of Jubilee USA, offered some evidence that stubborn unwillingness to accept defeat can transform antipoverty efforts. She spoke of the way faith-based groups came together in the mid-1990s to press for debt forgiveness as a tool for reducing poverty. Because of this initiative, over a million children in Tanzania were able to attend school, and hundreds of new classrooms were built in Ghana. She and her co-workers had been told when they began their efforts that debt relief was impossible.

In the end, though, the advocates for debt forgiveness convinced world leaders to move ahead on debt justice, which, despite successes, remains an unfinished project. Twenty very poor countries were “left out of debt relief deals, and inappropriate lending and borrowing has continued,” she said. But if there is still unfinished business, and, as Professor Pogee says, “large forces are at work against the poor,” so, too, there are good forces working for them.
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Source: http://www.americamagazine.org/content/signs.cfm?signID=532
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P.S.

1Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

2Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

3But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

4That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Matthew 6:1-4.