Thursday, December 20, 2012

God Has Always Warned of Coming Judgments



God has always given men warning of coming judgments. Those who had faith in His message for their time, and who acted out their faith in obedience to His commandments, escaped the judgments that fell upon the disobedient and unbelieving.

The word came to Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before Me.” Noah obeyed and was saved. The message came to Lot, “Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city” (Genesis 7:1; 19:14). Lot placed himself under the guardianship of the heavenly messengers and was saved. So Christ’s disciples were given warning of the destruction of Jerusalem. Those who watched for the sign of the coming ruin, and fled from the city, escaped the destruction. So now we are given warning of Christ’s second coming and of the destruction to fall upon the world. Those who heed the warning will be saved.

The Desire of Ages, p.634.

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EU lets Catholic Church off its billion-euro tax bill

MICHAEL DAY

MILAN

WEDNESDAY 19 DECEMBER 2012


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Europe's Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, previously suggested that the Church would have to cough up missing payments - however, it has now been deemed 'absolutely impossible'. EPA



The Vatican has received a generous early Christmas present from European Union chiefs with the announcement that illegal tax exemption from 2006 to 2011, which saved the Catholic Church billions of euros, will not have to be paid back.

Europe’s Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, said two years ago that the Vatican’s exemption from Italian property tax, or ICI, payments, on thousands of buildings, including 4,714 hospitals and clinics, breached EU competition law. He suggested that the Church would have to cough up the missing payments.

But now the European Commission has said that the Italian government had demonstrated that clawing back the missed payments “would be absolutely impossible” given how hard it would be to decide which properties in that period were being used exclusively for commercial purposes.

This year the Italian government introduced a revised form of property tax, IMU, which the Commission is satisfied will allow tax breaks only for purely non-commercial buildings. As a result of the IMU, the Church’s tax bill will increase – but not by as much as some of its critics would like.



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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Churches to hold joint Christmas service

Posted on December 19, 2012, Wednesday



RELIGIOUS GATHERING: Ambrose (second right) and Ting (right) hold up the banner for the event after the press conference. Also seen are Methodist Kuching West District lay leader Chiew Ching Kwong (far left) and Methodist Kuching West District superintendent Chin Sai Hin.

KUCHING: The Association of Churches in Sarawak (ACS) will hold its annual Joint Christmas Service tomorrow (Dec20) at the Christian Ecumenical Worship Centre starting 7.30pm.

The Methodist Church Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference is hosting this year’s service themed ‘Jesus Christ The Saviour of All Nations’.

“If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer. But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Saviour,” ACS secretary-general Head Elder Ambrose Linang told a press conference yesterday.

“That is what Christmas is all about and that was the greatest gift the world had ever known. We encourage all Christians to come and pack the hall here at the Christian Ecumenical Centre. Together we share the joy of celebrating Christmas.”

Ambrose said among those who will lead the service are Archbishop of the Anglican Province of South East Asia the Most Reverend Datuk Bolly Lapok — who is ACS chairman, and Roman Catholic Church Archbishop the Most Reverend Datuk John Ha, who is deputy chairman.

He added that all Christian elected representatives and ministers, both state and federal, have been invited and many are expected to attend.

Meanwhile, organising chairman William Ting said the service’s programme will reflect the diversity of cultures.

“For instance, the worship dance in the service shall portray the different colours of nationalities. The choir shall present repertoires and carols from different countries. ACS representatives will also recite scriptures in different languages such as English, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese, Iban and Biatah.

“Methodist Church Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference president Reverend Datuk Su Chii Ann will present a sermon. Other programmes for the service include brass band performance by Boys’ Brigade of Trinity Methodist Church and choir performance by the youths of Chin Daw Methodist Church. One of the highlights for the night is the combined choir with nearly 100 members from all ACS member churches, who will present two songs,” he said.

Ting added that all programmes will be conducted in English and translated into Mandarin.

For further information, contact Ting (019-8164385) or Lawrence (016-8880813).

Other ACS member churches are the Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church, Methodist Church Sarawak Iban Annual Conference, Seventh Day Adventist Church, Salvation Army, Sarawak Baptist Church and SIB Church.

Source: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/12/19/churches-to-hold-joint-christmas-service/#ixzz2FXm3i0nc

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Vatican works to stop Sunday shopping in Italy


By By Alessandro Speciale| Religion News Service, Updated: Wednesday, December 19, 2:00 PM


VATICAN CITY — The Roman Catholic Church, trade unions and small business associations have joined forces in a bid to save Sundays.

In a bid to spur economic growth, outgoing Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti backed a new law that allows shops to stay open on the Sabbath.

But Sunday traditions are strong in the European nation, and the change provoked strong resistance from religious and secular groups.

Last month, an Italian shop owners association and the country’s Catholic bishops’ conference launched a campaign to “free up Sundays.” They aim to gather the 50,000 signatures needed to try to repeal the liberalizing shop law.

Confesercenti, the shop owners association, fears that mom-and-pop stores — the backbone of the Italian retail sector — will be squeezed by large retailers and American-style malls.

The issue extends beyond Italy. In Brussels, dozens of religious groups — including the Catholic Church — unions and business associations from 27 countries have formed the European Sunday Alliance” to lobby the European Union to keep Sunday as a continentwide day of rest, at least in principle.

Johanna Touzel, the alliance’s spokeswoman, said that setting Sunday aside is not necessarily a religious issue, and not discriminatory towards Jews and Muslims. “We need one day when everyone can rest — this is the origin of Shabbat. And in fact, even Muslim organizations support us.”

For the Catholic Church, keeping Sundays free from shopping and work concerns is of larger consequence than the economy.

The Rev. Marco Scattolon of Camposampiero, Italy, became an instant celebrity when he labeled Sunday shopping a sin and called on his parishioners to do penance for it. Sundays, he told the Corriere del Veneto newspaper, are important “not just in the religious sense.” ‘’They are one of the few occasions left for families to be together.”

Bishop Antonio Mattiazzo of Padua sided with Scattolon while other bishops publicly signed the Confesercenti campaign.

“The broad consensus in opposing Sunday openings shows that having a common weekly day for rest is something that benefits everyone, not just believers,” says Luca Diotallevi, a Catholic sociologist who advises Italy’s bishops on social issues. “Sunday has not just a social value but a theological one too: Man needs to have a holy day.”

Others go even further in arguing for work-free Sundays.

Mimmo Muolo, a journalist for Italy’s official Catholic newspaper Avvenire, in his recent book, “Le feste scippate” (”The Stolen Holidays”), argues that “the 24/7 retail cycle has reintroduced a system of slaves and masters.” He said that employees who have no choice but to work on Sundays — and thus have no time for family and other social activities — are “Sunday slaves.”

At least in Italy, there are signs that few businesses have taken advantage of the reform.

Before the usual Christmas shopping rush kicked in, it was difficult to find many open shops on Sundays outside the tourist areas of the city centers.

“It is pointless because people don’t have enough money to spend,” says Anna Lucentini, 35, a saleswoman on one of Rome’s busiest commercial streets.

She says that the only result of the Sunday-opening reform is that employees will have to work more at their bosses’ request. “In Italy, those who still have a job are afraid to lose it and so let themselves be exploited without complaining.”


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The Watchman and His Message


1 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:

3 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;

4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.

5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.

6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.

7 So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

8 When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

9 Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

10 Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?

11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

Ezekiel 33:1-11.
King James Version (KJV)
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Panel faults security failures in Benghazi attacks


A high-level panel faults the State Department for systematic security failures, which left the U.S. mission in Libya ill-equipped to deal with the attacks.




A man brandishes his weapon at the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, the night it came under attack by Islamist militants. (AFP/Getty Images / September 11, 2012)


Related photos »









GOP senators criticize Susan Rice after meeting on Benghazi attack


Fog of politics on Benghazi



By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times

December 18, 2012, 11:03 p.m.



WASHINGTON — The State Department was guilty of "systematic failures" in security that made the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Libya possible, a high-level investigative panel concluded in an unflinching examination made public late Tuesday.

The panel faulted the department for ignoring requests from U.S. diplomats in Tripoli for security assistance and for relying on ill-prepared local militias and inadequate equipment to protect the mission in Benghazi. It found that two key bureaus failed to properly coordinate their security planning, and it pointed to a failure in leadership by officials at several levels.

"Systematic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department resulted in a … security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place," the report says.

The attacks by dozens of Islamist militants killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans and set off a broad reexamination of how the U.S. government protects its thousands of diplomats in dangerous parts of the world. The incident has also become the focus of a months-long battle between the Obama administration and Republican critics, who contend officials have sought to cover up their lapses.

United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice was among those caught up in the political fray, eventually withdrawing her name from consideration as secretary of State after fierce criticism of her comments on television talk shows regarding the Benghazi attacks.

According to the report, which is likely to represent the government's lasting judgment on the attacks, the assault was the calculated effort of militants and not a "spontaneous" reaction of an outraged crowd, the first explanation offered by U.S. officials.

Yet the five-member independent panel said that, despite the lapses, no officials had failed to carry out their duties in a way that required disciplinary action.

It also determined that there had been "no immediate, specific intelligence" on the threat against the mission.

The report prepared for lawmakers includes classified sections.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a letter to congressional committees that she has accepted "every one" of the Accountability Review Board's 29 recommendations, several of which remain classified.

She praised the board, saying that it had offered "a clear-eyed look at serious, systematic challenges that we have already begun to fix."

To begin remedying the problems, officials are planning to reallocate $1.3 billion that was to be spent in Iraq to add hundreds of Marine guards and diplomatic security personnel, and to bolster security infrastructure in dangerous locations.

The board, which was convened in September, was led by retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael G. Mullen. The two will meet Wednesday in closed session with the Senate and House foreign affairs committees to discuss the findings.

On Thursday, the committees will convene again in public session to discuss the report with Clinton's deputies, William J. Burns and Thomas Nides. Clinton had agreed to appear before the committees Thursday, but asked to be excused last weekend after suffering a mild concussion in a fall. She has told the committees she would answer their questions in January.

The report criticizes officials for waiting to react to specific threats rather than anticipating the dangers that U.S. officials could face in a deteriorating security environment.

More than a year after the end of the end of a revolution that brought down Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, the nation is still overrun by rival armed groups and lacks a central authority that can guarantee security for foreign missions, as it is required to do under international agreements.

Accountability Review Boards are set up under federal law to examine failures and assign blame. This one found shortcomings in the bureaucratic system, in personnel and equipment.

The report details how the Libyan militias that were supposed to protect the compound were not capable of carrying out the assignment. It deems the mission's fire-safety equipment and physical protections inadequate, and adds that the security arrangements were weakened by the relative inexperience and rapid turnover of personnel, despite their courage.

It also cites "diminished institutional knowledge, continuity and mission capacity."

The report says the mission security shortcomings were made clear by Stevens' trip to Benghazi. Stevens, one of the most respected U.S. diplomats in the region, believed that he faced no special threat in his visit to Benghazi, even though the general level of risk had been on the rise for much of the year.

And the security officials assigned to protect him were not even aware of the specifics of his plans to travel outside the compound during his visit, the panel said.

The investigative panel found that although officials in the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli had sought more security staffing in Benghazi, they had generally not done enough to try to improve security at the lightly protected Benghazi mission.

It said their faith in a local militia and contract security personnel was "misplaced," noting that some militia members had stopped accompanying the mission vehicles to protest their salary and hours.

Among State Department personnel, "there appeared to be very real confusion over who, ultimately, was responsible and empowered to make decisions based on both policy and security considerations," the report says.

The report says certain senior officials in the State Department's Diplomatic Security and Near East Affairs bureaus, whom it didn't identify, "demonstrated a lack of proactive leadership and management ability" in their responses. "However, the board did not find a reasonable cause to determine that any individual employee breached his or her duty," it adds.

The report calls for a strengthening of security and for the department to "urgently review the proper balance between acceptable risk and expected outcomes in high risk, high threat areas."

paul.richter@latimes.com


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InFocus Video, Full program / December 14



InFocus official news service of the South Pacific Division Seventh-day Adventist Church.
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U.N. Presents Grim Prognosis on the World Economy


By RICK GLADSTONE
Published: December 18, 2012


World economic growth has weakened substantially this year and faces the confluence of a triple threat — the so-called fiscal cliff in the United States, the European debt crisis and a sharp slowdown inChina, the United Nations said in a report released on Tuesday. The worst case, the report said, could be a new global recession that mires many countries in a cycle of austerity and unemployment for years.


The report’s main author, Robert Vos, director of the Development Policy and Analysis Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said it could take until at least 2017 just to recoup the jobs lost in the United States and Europe since the 2008-9 recession.

He forecast world growth for 2013 at 2.4 percent, “a significant downgrade” from the United Nations’ midyear forecast of 3.1 percent. He said the 2012 growth rate was 2.2 percent, versus the midyear forecast of 2.5 percent.

“I’m afraid this time around we’re not very optimistic about how things are moving,” Mr. Vos said at a news conference at United Nations headquarters.

“A worsening of the euro area crisis, the ‘fiscal cliff’ in the United States and a hard landing in China could cause a new global recession,” Mr. Vos said in the report, “World Economic Situation and Prospects 2013.” He said the forecast growth was “far from sufficient to overcome the continued jobs crisis that many countries are still facing.”

The report’s proposals to avoid that outcome — more government programs that focus on job growth, fiscal coordination and aid to developing countries — are not likely to be widely embraced by policy makers in the United States and Europe, where the preoccupation is on budget cuts and spending discipline. Still, the report provides one of the most complete assessments of the world’s economic trends and reflects what United Nations experts view as the most pressing areas of concern.

Shamshad Akhtar, assistant secretary general for economic development, who introduced Mr. Vos’s report, began by reciting a list of maladies, including record unemployment in Europe, a decline in global trade, volatility in the flows of capital and low food stocks in many poorer countries that have made prices in those countries unpredictable.

While she and Mr. Vos acknowledged the news reports on progress in the debt-reduction negotiations between the White House and Congressional Republicans to avoid dire automatic tax increases and spending cuts that would take effect in January, what has been called the fiscal cliff, they erred on the side of assuming the worst. Both said the shock of those drastic fiscal changes would further weaken economies elsewhere.

“Even if we don’t get to the fiscal cliff, what’s on the table now is not too far from what would happen if the United States goes over the cliff,” Mr. Vos said. “That is reason for some concern.”

He criticized the focus in developed countries on austerity, calling it “detrimental to their own economic recovery,” and said cuts “should not come at the expense of the development efforts of the poorest nations.”

During the economic crisis four years ago, China helped to cushion the impact with huge doses of stimulus spending, but there is no single savior this time. If China’s growth rate of 7.5 percent this year slows to 5 percent or less, Mr. Vos said, “that would have major global ramifications.”

He said growth rates in 2012 fell sharply almost everywhere except Africa, where economies grew in the 5 percent to 6 percent range, helped by strength in oil-exporting countries, spending on basic infrastructure improvements and expanding ties with Asian economies.

But he said Africa remains plagued by armed conflicts and many other challenges, and the strong growth will not hasten the end of the continent’s poverty.



A version of this article appeared in print on December 19, 2012, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: U.N. Presents Grim Prognosis on the World Economy.



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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Roubini Says Fed Inflation Targeting Out the Window

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Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Nouriel Roubini, co-founder of Roubini Global Economics LLC, talks about Federal Reserve monetary policy, the outlook for the global economy and the U.S. budget negotiations. He speaks with Tom Keene, Sara Eisen and Scarlet Fu on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance." (Source: Bloomberg)

Source
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The Fiscal Cliff Is A Diversion: The Derivatives Tsunami & the Dollar Bubble



Monday, 17. December 2012


Revolt & Revolution- What the US So Desperately Needs


The “fiscal cliff” is another hoax designed to shift the attention of policymakers, the media, and the attentive public, if any, from huge problems to small ones.

The fiscal cliff is automatic spending cuts and tax increases in order to reduce the deficit by an insignificant amount over ten years if Congress takes no action itself to cut spending and to raise taxes. In other words, the “fiscal cliff” is going to happen either way.

The problem from the standpoint of conventional economics with the fiscal cliff is that it amounts to a double-barrel dose of austerity delivered to a faltering and recessionary economy. Ever since John Maynard Keynes, most economists have understood that austerity is not the answer to recession or depression.

Regardless, the fiscal cliff is about small numbers compared to the Derivatives Tsunami or to bond market and dollar market bubbles.

The fiscal cliff requires that the federal government cut spending by $1.3 trillion over ten years. The Guardian reports that means the federal deficit has to be reduced about $109 billion per year or 3 percent of the current budget. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/27/fiscal-cliff-explained-spending-cuts-tax-hikes ) More simply, just divide $1.3 trillion by ten and it comes to $130 billion per year. This can be done by simply taking a three month vacation each year from Washington’s wars.

The Derivatives Tsunami and the bond and dollar bubbles are of a different magnitude.

Last June 5 in “Collapse At Hand” (http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/06/05/collapse-at-hand/ ) I pointed out that according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s fourth quarter report for 2011, about 95% of the $230 trillion in US derivative exposure was held by four US financial institutions: JP Morgan Chase Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, and Goldman Sachs.

Prior to financial deregulation, essentially the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and the non-regulation of derivatives–a joint achievement of the Clinton administration and the Republican Party–Chase, Bank of America, and Citibank were commercial banks that took depositors’ deposits and made loans to businesses and consumers and purchased Treasury bonds with any extra reserves.

With the repeal of Glass-Steagall these honest commercial banks became gambling casinos, like the investment bank, Goldman Sachs, betting not only their own money but also depositors money on uncovered bets on interest rates, currency exchange rates, mortgages, and prices of commodities and equities.

These bets soon exceeded many times not only US GDP but world GDP. Indeed, the gambling bets of JP Morgan Chase Bank alone are equal to world Gross Domestic Product.

According to the first quarter 2012 report from the Comptroller of the Currency, total derivative exposure of US banks has fallen insignificantly from the previous quarter to $227 trillion. The exposure of the 4 US banks accounts for almost of all of the exposure and is many multiples of their assets or of their risk capital.

The Derivatives Tsunami is the result of the handful of fools and corrupt public officials who deregulated the US financial system. Today merely four US banks have derivative exposure equal to 3.3 times world Gross Domestic Product. When I was a US Treasury official, such a possibility would have been considered beyond science fiction.

Hopefully, much of the derivative exposure somehow nets out so that the net exposure, while still larger than many countries’ GDPs, is not in the hundreds of trillions of dollars. Still, the situation is so worrying to the Federal Reserve that after announcing a third round of quantitative easing, that is, printing money to buy bonds–both US Treasuries and the banks’ bad assets–the Fed has just announced that it is doubling its QE 3 purchases.

In other words, the entire economic policy of the United States is dedicated to saving four banks that are too large to fail. The banks are too large to fail only because deregulation permitted financial concentration, as if the Anti-Trust Act did not exist.

The purpose of QE is to keep the prices of debt, which supports the banks’ bets, high. The Federal Reserve claims that the purpose of its massive monetization of debt is to help the economy with low interest rates and increased home sales. But the Fed’s policy is hurting the economy by depriving savers, especially the retired, of interest income, forcing them to draw down their savings. Real interest rates paid on CDs, money market funds, and bonds are lower than the rate of inflation.

Moreover, the money that the Fed is creating in order to bail out the four banks is making holders of dollars, both at home and abroad, nervous. If investors desert the dollar and its exchange value falls, the price of the financial instruments that the Fed’s purchases are supporting will also fall, and interest rates will rise. The only way the Fed could support the dollar would be to raise interest rates. In that event, bond holders would be wiped out, and the interest charges on the government’s debt would explode.

With such a catastrophe following the previous stock and real estate collapses, the remains of people’s wealth would be wiped out. Investors have been deserting equities for “safe” US Treasuries. This is why the Fed can keep bond prices so high that the real interest rate is negative.

The hyped threat of the fiscal cliff is immaterial compared to the threat of the derivatives overhang and the threat to the US dollar and bond market of the Federal Reserve’s commitment to save four US banks.

Once again, the media and its master, the US government, hide the real issues behind a fake one. The fiscal cliff has become the way for the Republicans to save the country from bankruptcy by destroying the social safety net put in place during the 1930s, supplemented by Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” in the mid-1960s.

Now that there are no jobs, now that real family incomes have been stagnant or declining for decades, and now that wealth and income have been concentrated in few hands is the time, Republicans say, to destroy the social safety net so that we don’t fall over the fiscal cliff.

In human history, such a policy usually produces revolt and revolution, which is what the US so desperately needs.

Perhaps our stupid and corrupt policymakers are doing us a favor after all.

# # # #



Paul Craig Roberts, Boiling Frogs Post contributing author, is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has been reporting on executive branch and cases of prosecutorial abuse for two decades. He has written or co-written eight books, contributed chapters to numerous books, and has published many articles in journals of scholarship. Mr. Roberts has testified before congressional committees on 30 occasions on issues of economic policy, and has been a critic of both Democratic and Republican administrations. You can visit his website here.

© PaulCraigRoberts.org


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Gay Vote Proved a Boon for Obama



Joshua Lott for The New York Times
A gay pride parade in Chicago in June. President Obama had more than a three-to-one edge among gay voters, exit polls found.


By MICAH COHEN
Published: November 15, 2012


While President Obama’s lopsided support among Latino and other minority voters has been a focus of postelection analysis, the overwhelming support he received from another growing demographic group — Americans who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual — has received much less attention.


Multimedia





But the backing Mr. Obama received from gay voters also has a claim on having been decisive. Mitt Romneyand Mr. Obama won roughly an equal share of votes among straight voters nationwide, exit polls showed. And, a study argues, Mr. Romney appears to have won a narrow victory among straight voters in the swing states of Ohio and Florida.

Mr. Obama’s more than three-to-one edge in exit polls among the 5 percent of voters who identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual was more than enough to give him the ultimate advantage, according to the study, by Gary J. Gates of the Williams Institute at the U.C.L.A. School of Law, in conjunction with Gallup. The results are consistent with earlier research on the number and political beliefs of gay voters.

Democrats have been winning big over Republicans among gay voters, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americansand Jews. Some of the groups are relatively small, but together they make up about one-third of the electorate, forcing Republicans to capture much of the remaining two-thirds to win elections. By comparison, white evangelical voters, who vote overwhelmingly for Republicans, make up about one-fourth of the electorate, and their numbers are not growing as rapidly.

As with Latinos and Asian-Americans, the number of voters who say they are gay appears to be growing. Only 1.9 percent of Americans over 65 call themselves gay, lesbian or bisexual, according to the Gallup survey, while 3.2 percent of those between 30 and 49, and 6.4 percent of those between 18 and 29 do.

“In the younger population, there is a much wider range in the geography and ethnicity of those who are identifying as L.G.B.T.,” Dr. Gates said, using a common term for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. That range now extends well beyond major cities and into multiple swing states.

As Republicans plan to reach out to Hispanics and Asian-Americans, another question is whether they would also help themselves by improving their standing among gay voters. Some analysts say Republicans should try to do so, in part to win over moderate straight voters, while others see any such effort as having more risk than upside.

Research by Patrick J. Egan, a professor of politics and public policy at New York University, suggests that gay voters may prove difficult to bring into the Republican tent. Many of them “aren’t swingable because they have liberal positions on a whole bunch of issues besides gay rights,” Dr. Egan said.

Exit polls showed that 76 percent of voters who identified as gay supported Mr. Obama last week, and that 22 percent supported Mr. Romney. Among straight people, each candidate received 49 percent of the vote.

If Republican candidates move to the center on gay rights, they might also risk losing support among cultural conservatives.

“I think it would be a mistake for the party to abandon its moral values,” said J. Hogan Gidley, the national communications director for Rick Santorum’s 2012 presidential run. Instead, Mr. Gidley said, the Republican Party’s low levels of support among gay voters can be outweighed by better messaging to other voters, particularly about same-sex marriage.

“We’ve lost the buzzword battle,” Mr. Gidley said, “that marriage is a ‘right.’ ”

Other Republican strategists, however, say that their party’s stances on social issues like marriage are alienating straight voters, too.

Public support for same-sex marriage and civil unions has climbed steadily since 2004. Recent polls show that support for same-sex marriage now outweighs opposition to it. Surveys by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life have shown that women andyounger people support same-sex marriage at substantially higher rates than do men and older voters.

“We have a very good message, a good plan,” said R. Clarke Cooper, the executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, a group that pushes for gay rights, referring to the Republican Party’s small-government agenda. “But it’s been drowned out by the cacophony and the noise that is perceived as anti-immigrant, or anti-L.G.B.T., or anti-women.”

While polls show that a large majority of Republicans oppose same-sex marriage, there are small signs of a shift in tone among Republican officeholders. When Mr. Obamaendorsed same-sex marriage in May, the response from Republican leaders was relatively muted.

Republicans in Congress “will tell me behind closed doors that this is the direction we need to go as a party,” Mr. Cooper said, “but publicly they’re not doing that.”

If the Republican Party does not make inroads among gay voters along with other minority groups, he said, the party risks going the way of the Whigs or becoming a regional party.

Mr. Romney’s loss, Mr. Cooper said, is a sign that broadening the party’s appeal is imperative. “There’s nothing fun about saying ‘I told you so,’ ” he added.


A version of this article appeared in print on November 16, 2012, on page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: Gay Support Buoyed Obama, as the Straight Vote Split
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Same-sex weddings usher in new era in Washington state


Originally published December 9, 2012 at 11:01 PM | Page modified December 10, 2012 at 7:12 PM


From the lobby of Seattle City Hall to private living rooms in Spokane and at churches, courtrooms and wineries in towns and cities in between, hundreds of gay and lesbian couples gathered Sunday to do what not long ago seemed impossible: get married.

By Brian M. Rosenthal and Erik Lacitis

Seattle Times staff reporters


BETTINA HANSEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES

First Baptist Church: Fourteen male and 11 female couples pledge their love during a group ceremony on Sunday, the first day same-sex couples could marry in Washington state. Hundreds of couples took advantage of the historic opportunity in a variety of settings.







Same-sex couples receive marriage license at midnight

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From the lobby of Seattle City Hall to private living rooms in Spokane and at churches, courtrooms and wineries in towns and cities in between, hundreds of gay and lesbian couples gathered Sunday to do what not long ago seemed impossible: get married.

The first to wed under Washington state's new same-sex-marriage law, they arrived by countless paths — from the Bellevue retirees who'd spent decades together to the Olympia college students who got engaged last month on election night.

A few hosted elaborate nuptials to widely proclaim their love. Many, given the brief time they had to prepare, joined in lively group weddings at Seattle City Hall and places of worship around the state.

And some, such as the Lynnwood couple whose relationship caused one of them to be discharged from the Navy, held small signing ceremonies to make legal the commitments they already considered unbreakable.

But on Sunday, the newlyweds agreed: This was history.

"I didn't realize how much I felt like a second-class citizen until today, when I'm not," Seattle technology worker Jay McCanta, 52, said,moments after marrying his partner of six years, Brad McCanta. "I never thought this day would come."

More than 1,000 same-sex couples have received marriage licenses in counties across Washington since the state's voter-approved marriage law took effect Thursday. Because of a three-day waiting period, Sunday marked the first day they could wed.

Many couples said they plan to marry later, especially during Gay Pride weekend in June.

Most ceremonies on Sunday, including group events that simultaneously united many couples, were in Seattle. Often, those sharing the spotlight had little in common other than the fact that last week, they were not allowed to marry, but on Sunday they could — and did.

The events in Seattle culminated with a reception at the Paramount Theatre attended by an estimated 2,000 people, and the wedding of the matriarchs of the Washington same-sex-marriage movement, Pete-e Petersen and Jane Abbott Lighty.

In Eastern Washington, where many voted against the same-sex-marriage law, the relatively few ceremonies were mostly smaller affairs like the one at the Pioneer Park aviary in Walla Walla. There, Kathleen Claymore and Shara Orcutt, the only couple in the county to marry, did so at the spot where they became engaged.

Also among Sunday's newlyweds were some from out of state, especially Oregon, who came to take advantage of the first same-sex-marriage law on the West Coast. In all, nine states, along with the District of Columbia, allow gay marriage or will soon.

Same-sex-marriage supporters said they hope Washington's move spurs other states to follow suit.

"Hey, rest of the country: Get on board. There's nothing but love and happiness happening here," Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn said amid the ceremonies at City Hall.

SEATTLE YACHT CLUB ON PORTAGE BAY

Same-sex-marriage day in Washington started with a coincidence.

For more than a year — long before gay marriage was even on the ballot — Monica Rozgay, 29, and Mary Davidson, 27, had planned to hold a commitment ceremony Dec. 8, 2012.

The Seattle couple still held that ceremony Saturday evening, an event at the Yacht Club with 170 guests who ate Dick's burgers, danced to pop music and honored two women in strapless white bridal gowns.

And then, at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, the couple did another ceremony to make it legal.

"It is my privilege and it is my honor to declare you legally married," officiant Annemarie Juhlian announced just after midnight to raucous applause.

CITY HALL IN DOWNTOWN SEATTLE

Even before Sunday, Jim Malatak and Rick Sturgill held a place in history as the first registered domestic partners in Washington state.

But a wedding, the Seattle couple said before getting married midday, is much more special.

"This is marriage," said Sturgill, 58, who said he proposed to Malatak, now 70, the night they met at a disco club 35 years ago.

"It was late and he was the last one on the dance floor," Sturgill said. "I was upstairs and I looked down and I watched him dance and I knew there was nobody else for me."

"Thirty-five years later, I said yes," Malatak said.

Also among the 142 couples married at City Hall were Danielle Yung, 32, and Robin Wyss, 34, who've been together for eight years, having met through an Internet dating site.

Yung, who is five months pregnant, works for the U.S. Department of Labor. Wyss is an organizer for the Service Employees International Union.

"Now our child will always know us as a married couple," Yung said.

As piano music drifted in the background, Yung told of growing up in Lincoln, Neb., "coming out when I was 14 and the sadness that I could never get married.

"It was completely inconceivable to me. But fast-forward and here we are."

Local judges officiated at the short ceremonies, which included the wedding of a Seattle Police Department detective and his partner, as well as writer and activist Dan Savage and his partner.

The newlyweds all exited City Hall to a rowdy crowd of supporters — an emotional outpouring that made Richard Sauer-Wooden break down.

"Thank you so much for being here, everybody," he yelled to the crowd after kissing his partner of 19 years, Liam Sauer-Wooden.

"Knowing that the public supports us means so much."

ABOARD THE MV SKANSONIA ON NORTH LAKE UNION

California teacher Ruth Myers and her partner were so excited about nearby Washington approving gay marriage that they eloped to be a part of it.

They decided only on Tuesday to come here, got their marriage license Thursday and were married Sunday afternoon aboard the Skansonia, which held a group wedding for four couples

"We can't wait to tell our kids one day that we eloped on the very first day of marriage in Washington," said Myers, 27, of Long Beach.

The newlyweds, who met four years ago through mutual friends, plan to have a larger ceremony in California next year.

LAKE UNION CAFE IN EASTLAKE

If it wasn't for Elizabeth Jacobs' lack of football knowledge, she might never have met the woman she married Sunday.

Jacobs, now 31 and a public-health consultant, met Erica Ware at a Super Bowl party in Atlanta nine years ago.

In the first quarter, Jacobs asked the group about the yellow line on the field marking how far the offensive team has to go to get a first down. How do officials get that thing on the field every play, she wondered.

The line, of course, is computer generated.

"Everybody laughed at me," Jacobs said. "But Erica took pity on me and explained it, and we talked the rest of the night. We've been inseparable ever since."

Jacobs, dressed in a black dress, and Ware, in a white shirt and gray vest, came alone to the ceremony at the Lake Union Cafe, as they moved to Seattle from Atlanta just three months ago and still don't have many friends here. Their witnesses were the eight couples getting married around them.

But the moment was still magical, they said.

SEATTLE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH ON FIRST HILL

Among some two dozen couples who were married at a group ceremony in the afternoon were two bearded and burly men from North Bend who became an overnight Internet sensation after a photograph of them went viral, showing them getting their marriage license Thursday wearing look-alike flannel shirts, parkas and duck-hunter caps.

Computer-programmer Randy Shepherd, 48, and Larry Duncan, 56, a retired psychiatric nurse, say that's their usual attire, though they did dress up in their best Western-style gear for the wedding: sports jackets, white shirts, vests with pocket watches, bolo ties and cowboy boots.

"There is lots of bloggers talking about it," said Duncan of the photo. "Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow. It makes your heart feel good."

The two met in Dallas 11 years ago and moved to North Bend four years later. Duncan had retired after having a minor stroke, and there were job opportunities here for Shepherd, who called Washington "more liberal, more gay friendly" than Texas.

"We have wonderful neighbors," said Shepherd. "They've been very supportive."

The two already wear wedding rings from a commitment ceremony in 2004. But this time it's official.

As he said that, Duncan teared up.

SHOTGUN CEREMONIES IN PIONEER SQUARE

At a storefront advertising itself as "Seattle's only 'Vegas' Style Wedding Chapel," two Lake City men were among those who took advantage of a week of free ceremonies for same-sex couples at the hall.

The couple, 39-year-old graphic designer Mark Smith and Todd Manoli, 36, who works in accounting at the same firm, joked that they were getting a quickie wedding after 18 years together.

"People think we're crazy. We're pretty much together 24/7," said Smith. "But having Todd around is great support. If I'm having a bad day, he's there to reassure things are fine."

Both sets of parents were there to support their sons.

Manoli, who had been teased about his sexuality in high school, once wondered how his dad would feel about his being gay. The news actually "was kind of a relief," said his father, Richard Manoli.

The two hadn't been getting along, and the dad feared it was because he'd been too strict. Both parents later went before the Renton School Board to ask that teachers not ignore the bullying of gay students.

"We love our son," Richard Manoli said.

PRIVATE HOME IN SHORELINE

For Loretta Graves and Ruth Barton, a quirky couple who have been together for 23 years, Sunday marked the culmination of a lifetime of fighting for gay rights.

The two met in 1990, at a planning meeting for a fundraiser to help children with AIDS.

"After the meeting, Loretta offered to walk me home," said Barton, now a 54-year-old theater manager for the Redmond Performing Arts Center. "We ended up sitting on my front porch and talking until sunup."

Graves fell in love with Barton's caring nature and Barton with Graves' sense of humor. They found understanding in each other and invented something they call "Hannimas" to honor their respective religious traditions — Barton is Jewish, Graves is Christian.

They held a commitment ceremony in 1991, but they never dreamed their union would become legal.

On Sunday, the same woman who officiated at the first ceremony came back 21 years later to make it so.

It was Hannimas. About 30 friends and family crammed into the living room of their one-story house for the occasion. And Barton's parents Skyped from Alabama while her brother Skyped in from Australia.

"They get the front-row seats," joked Graves, a 65-year-old former office administrator.

When the moment came, the couple renewed the vows they had made 21 years ago. Then the officiant turned to the crowd.

"By the power vested in me by the Universal Life Church — and by the state of Washington ... ," she said, "I now pronounce you lawfully, legally — and about damn time — married."

Brian M. Rosenthal: (206) 464-3195 or brosenthal@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @brianmrosenthal.


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Users should not be targeted in states that legalized pot: Obama


Related News

Washington state bar owner tells pot smokers to light up
Mon, Dec 10 2012
Dozens of same-sex couples wed in Washington state for first time
Sun, Dec 9 2012
Supreme Court takes up same-sex marriage for first time
Fri, Dec 7 2012
Marijuana goes legal in Washington state amid mixed messages
Fri, Dec 7 2012

Analysis & Opinion

Why the US didn’t prosecute HSBC
Less drug-money traffic at HSBC may mean more risk for other banks in U.S.

Related Topics

U.S. »
Politics »






By Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON | Fri Dec 14, 2012 3:02pm EST

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama says federal authorities should not target recreational marijuana use in two Western states that voted to make it legal, given limited government resources and growing public acceptance of the controlled substance.

Obama's first comments on the issue come weeks after Washington state and Colorado voters supported legalizing cannabis last month in ballot measures that stand in direct opposition of federal law.

"It does not make sense from a prioritization point of view for us to focus on recreational drug users in a state that has already said that under state law that's legal," he told ABC News in part of an interview released on Friday.

"At this point (in) Washington and Colorado, you've seen the voters speak on this issue. And, as it is, the federal government has a lot to do when it comes to criminal prosecutions," Obama said.

Marijuana remains an illegal drug under U.S. federal law, but Washington and Colorado on November 6 became the first states in the nation to make it legal for individuals to possess up to an ounce of marijuana for private use.

The Department of Justice has maintained that pot remains a federally controlled substance, and states have been looking for guidance from federal authorities on how they will handle the conflict with state laws.

Obama's comments do not mean that Justice Department officials have completed their review of the Colorado and Washington laws, a department spokeswoman said on Friday.

Asked whether Drug Enforcement Administration agents were arresting people for possessing pot in Colorado and Washington, spokeswoman Dawn Dearden said that the "DEA's focus has always been to disrupt and dismantle large-scale drug trafficking organization - not to arrest individual users."

Medical use of marijuana is legal in 18 U.S. states. But federal officials have still continued to crack down on some providers in those states.

DOJ TO RESPOND 'RELATIVELY QUICKLY'

Obama called the situation "a tough problem, because Congress has not yet changed the law." He told ABC that "what we're going to need to have is a conversation about" how to reconcile federal and state laws, and that he has asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to examine the issue.

Holder has said the Justice Department is still considering its options but will act "relatively soon," possibly with a month.

"I think we will come up with a policy that will be respective of federal law but also will make sure we are effective in our fight against crime that truly has an impact on the American people," he said after a speech in Boston on Tuesday. He is scheduled to speak later on Friday at an event in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Congress is also expected to weigh in soon. Senate Judiciary Committee Patrick Leahy has said he plans to hold a hearing soon after the next Congress convenes in January and called Obama's comments Friday "common sense."

"In a time of tight budget constraints, I want law enforcement to focus on violent crime," the Vermont Democrat said in a statement. "But now that we have a gap between federal and state laws on marijuana, we need more information and a wider discussion about where our priorities should be."

In a separate letter to the Office of National Drug Control Policy on Thursday, Leahy said lawmakers could reconcile that gap, but they need to know how the Obama administration plans to proceed. For example, Congress could amend the federal law to allow small amounts of marijuana in states where it is legal.

Several advocacy groups that back looser marijuana laws welcomed Obama's comments, even though it remains unclear how his administration will act.

Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance said he is still worried Holder will act before considering the views of lawmakers and others.

The president's comments are "definitely a tentative step forward," said Nadelmann, whose advocacy group backs U.S. drug policy reform. "It suggests that he's keeping his options open to be a little more forward on this."

Still, Obama told ABC that he would not go so far as to say pot should be legalized altogether. There are also concerns about drug use in children and violence, the father of two told ABC, according to its website.

Obama himself admitted to regularly smoking pot in high school in his 1995 memoir, "Dreams of My Father," but has expressed regret.

"I want to discourage drug use," he told ABC.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; additional reporting by David Ingram and Alina Selyukh in Washington and Scott Malone in Boston; Editing by Jackie Frank and David Brunnstrom)


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White House Gay Marriage Proposal: Matthew Phelps Pops Question To Ben Schock


Posted: 12/17/2012 3:23 pm EST | Updated: 12/17/2012 5:53 pm EST






An active duty U.S. Marine Corps captain made history over the weekend by becoming the first gay man to pop the question to his partner at the White House.

A photo of the romantic proposal, which was shared on Facebook by the American Military Partner Association, shows Matthew Phelps dropping to his knee before partner Ben Schock. The snapshot nabbed over 2,000 likes on the social networking site, as well as over 250 shares.

Check out the photo below, then scroll down to keep reading:




Phelps said he and Schock were "blown away by the amazing love and support we have received" after the photo went viral and was picked up by Towleroad, Gawkerand a number of other media sites.

"I wanted to propose to Ben at the White House because that's where we went for our first date, to the LGBT Pride Month Reception in June," Phelps told HuffPost Gay Voi ces in an email. "Although we had met a couple years prior at the 2010 Servicemembers Legal Defense Network annual dinner, we didn't actually start dating until we both made it back to Washington D.C. two years later."

He went on to note, "When we received an invitation from the Military Partners and Families Coalition to attend the White House holiday tour on Dec. 15, the coincidence that it would be the six-month anniversary of our first date -- and also to the White House -- was too big not to capitalize on."

Added Schock: "Matthew has made me the happiest I've ever been and I am so fortunate that I get to spend the rest of my life with him."

Earlier this year, a transgender man popped the question to his fiance at the White House.


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Monday, December 17, 2012

The Fiscal Cliff, The Federal Reserve Act and its Centennial


Changes looming on the Horizon


As I ponder upon the haggling under way between Congress and the White House regarding the Fiscal Cliff... It's a difference of Revenues vs Spending cuts...
I get a peculiar 'je ne sait quoi', a  strange feeling of deja vu. Soon it will be the one hundreth anniversary of the founding of the FEDERAL RESERVE; and since the love of money is the root of all evil... I wonder if this Fiscal Cliff debate will lead to a spontaneous adoption of questionable legislation similar to what lead to the founding of the Federal Reserve?
After all, if they can hastily pass transformational legislation during the lackadaisical holly-daze once? They can do it again. Twinkle, twinkle ...
On December 23, 1913, the Federal Reserve Act, also known as the Glass-Owen Bill, was passed. The Republican controlled Senate rammed the bill through when many members of the US Congress were home for the holiday. The President, Dr. Thomas Woodrow Wilson, signed it into law one hour after being passed by the Congress! Somebody very powerful really wanted this law passed. The Federal Reserve System is an independent central bank. Although the President of the United States appoints the chairman of the Fed, and this appointment is approved by the United States Senate, the decisions of the Fed do not have to be ratified by the President, or anyone else in the executive branch of the United States government. Buried in the legislation was the granting of total power over the monetary policies of all US banks. A very curious statement is found in the original 1913 law. SEC. 30. The right to amend, alter, or repeal this Act is hereby expressly reserved. Reserved expressly to whom, or what? No definition is provided. This is the entire Section 30 statement! 1

Government interventionists got their wish in 1913 with the Federal Reserve (and income tax amendment). Just in time, too, because the nation needed a new source of unlimited cash to finance both sides of WW1 and eventually our own entry to the war. After the war, with both sides owing us debt through the federal reserve backed banks, the center of finance moved from London to New York. 2



Resources
1 http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1095269452.php

The Bloody History of Communism





Chris Smith

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Economists see 2013 economic, job growth

Business News



Traders work in the S&P 500 options pit at the Chicago Board Options Exchang UPI/Brian Kersey
License photo


Published: Dec. 17, 2012 at 12:54 AM

..........

"The panelists expect modest growth in the economy in 2013 as a whole, which accelerates steadily as the year progresses," survey Chairwoman Nayantara Hensel, a National Defense University industry and business professor, said in a statement.

"The panelists also suggest some reduction in the U.S. 2013 federal budget deficit relative to the 2012 federal budget deficit," she said.

How about the Fort Hood Shooting?

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Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan


On Nov 5, 2009, Nidal Hasan opened fire at Ft. Hood in Killeen, Texas and killed 13; he has still to be sentenced.  Talk about 'kick the can down the road'?  Nidal Hasan's trial has lingered for so long and wallowed for three years: Now they are debating whether he can sport a beard?  Nidal Hasan's defense appealed and got a new judge  appointed to preside over the Court Martial on the grounds that the killer's religious rights were violated.

Meaningful Action?

Arsenio



Anathema


If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

1 Corinthians 16:22

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Sunday, December 16, 2012

High court reaffirms ban on Sunday shopping

Date 02.12.2009


Ruling in favor of the Catholic and Lutheran churches, Germany's highest court has found that the city of Berlin's ten shopping Sundays a year go against the constitutional protection of Sundays as a day of rest.




Sunday will no longer be an option for Christmas shoppers


Germany's Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that shops must close on Sundays, and that legislation in Berlin allowing for ten shopping Sundays was unconstitutional. Germany's Basic Law protects Sunday and public holidays as "days of rest from work and of spiritual improvement."

Berlin legislation passed in 2006 had allowed shops to remain open up to ten Sundays a year, including the four Sundays before Christmas. The Catholic and Lutheran churches had challenged the change and took the issue to the nation's highest court.

"Legal protection measures must recognized Sundays and public holidays as days of rest from work," said Hans-Juergen Papier, president of the Constitutional Court. "A mere economic interest in revenues and the basic desire of potential shoppers to buy does not justify allowing these shops to be open as an exception."

The protection of Sundays in Germany's Basic Law is a holdover from the Weimar Constitution of 1919 and can be found in Article 139.

The shopping Sundays already planned in Berlin for the Advent season this year will take place despite and the ruling will come into effect in 2010.

hf/AP/dpa/epd/KNA
Editor:



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Obama speaks at Connecticut vigil for shooting victims

U.S. President in Newtown, Conn., to console victims' families and thank first responders

 CBC News Posted: Dec 16, 2012 8:24 AM ET Last Updated: Dec 16, 2012 6:56 PM ET


 
Obama in Newtown LIVE

U.S. President Barack Obama is attending an interfaith vigil in Newtown, Connecticut tonight in memory of the 26 schoolchildren and teachers killed during a shooting massacre at an elementary school on Friday.

Read more

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Newtown, Connecticut Church Bomb Threat: St. Rose Of Lima Evacuated


www.huffingtonpost.com | Posted: 12/16/2012 1:14 pm EST | Updated: 12/16/2012 3:48 pm EST






















Tons of officials swarm St. Rose of Lima Church in Newtown Sunday following an anonymous threat that prompted an evacuation in the middle of a Mass. It was intended to honor the victims of Friday's shooting.


A church in Newtown, Conn. has been evacuated after reports of a bomb threat, according to the Associated Press.

UPDATE: Police gave the "all clear" sign at the church at around 1:15 p.m. Sunday, according to NBC News.

The evacuation occurred during noon mass Sunday, just two days after the town experienced a massacre that left 8 adults and 20 young children dead.

From Tim Shaffrey of the Associated Press:
NEWTOWN, Conn. -- Worshippers hurriedly left a church Sunday, saying they were told there was a bomb threat not far from the elementary school where 20 kids and six adults were massacred.

At least a dozen police in camouflage SWAT gear and carrying guns arrived at the St. Rose of Lima Church. An Associated Press photographer saw police leave carrying something in a red tarp.

There was no official report from police about the threat or evacuation.

Shooter Adam Lanza, his mother and eight of the child victims attended St. Rose of Lima. It is a Roman Catholic Church with an adjacent school, which Lanza attended briefly.

It's not clear if there actually was a threat or if, like many tragedies, whether it was a hoax or the result of a community on edge.

The church hosted overflow crowds at all three morning masses Sunday.


Source
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Do Adventists Hate Catholics?


Published: Sunday | December 16, 2012




Richard Ho Lung, Contributor

I did not understand that Roman Catholics are considered the Antichrist, the evil enemy of true Christianity, by the Seventh-day Adventists. I did not take it seriously that the Pope is considered by the Adventists as the Devil himself. I thought that all this was the idea of some fanatic few from the Adventists. Finally, I did not know that Adventists were taught to hate Catholics.

It grieves me, since Christian unity is such an important matter for our times in a world so fragmented by hatred and violence. But I also understand that it is part of the Adventist belief that all attempts at Christian unity are to be regarded with distrust, as an attempt to water down the scriptures. It was predicted that there would be an attempt to unite all religions, including pagan beliefs, in order to dilute and eventually destroy Christianity.

CHRISTIAN UNITY

I, for one, will continue to work for Christian unity; it is the only way to address the terrible destruction of morality in the West and in the world at large. There is a secular materialism which contrives to destroy the world, headed by extreme feminism, abortion, an exaggerated emphasis on sexual promiscuity, the disbelief in the soul and everlasting life, the rejection of ascetic spirituality, the never-ending variety of material pleasure, suicide, and euthanasia.

I admire Adventists for their strictness in living out the Word of God. I am comforted by their love of the Bible and moral principles that are according to the natural law of God. I love their singing and preaching, and their sense of respect in their dress and their language, and their sense of fellowship. I have enjoyed the company of Adventists at our monastery, though I've never been invited to their church.

Let me explain to my Adventist brethren three points that seem to be major issues. Roman Catholics do not worship Mary, the mother of Jesus. We honour her; she is the virgin mother of Jesus and, therefore, the mother of God. Though she is the mother of Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, she is not a goddess, she is not divine as Christ is. She is co-redemptrix in so far as she consented to be the mother of the Lord by her faith-filled 'fiat' as she encountered the angel Gabriel.

Mary has been chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus; therefore, she is the most blessed of all women. There is no other like her. In so far as she said yes to being Christ's mother, she agreed to the Redeemer's birth through her, and, in this sense, is considered co-redeemer. However, it is not the same as being Christ the Redeemer.

The second point is the fidelity of Roman Catholics to the Pope. Pope means 'pappa', not Father as in the sense of Abba. There is only one Father in heaven: God the Father. The Roman Catholic 'pappa' is equivalent to Peter, who made his profession of faith to Jesus: "You are Christ, the Son of the living God." Because of his great faith, Christ tells Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom." (Matthew 16:16-19) Therefore, a succession of Popes or 'pappas' have been appointed by the Church historically and sequentially to be chief shepherd.

Our Adventist brethren see in the Book of Revelation many indications of 666 pointing to the Roman Catholic Church and its leader. I am not able to agree on that point, though, honestly, I know of past historical errors or sins of the past leaders of the Catholic Church. Still, the system is true and good, as it is the only system in the world, whether secular or sacred, that has lasted more than 2,000 years, despite its ups and downs.

Even in the case of Peter, our first pappa, the Lord reprimanded him right after being appointed the first shepherd who would follow after Him. Christ announced that He would be crucified, and Peter rebuked Him, "God forbid! This shall never happen to you!" Jesus replied, "Get behind me, Satan, you are a hindrance to me!"

THE CHURCH WILL PREVAIL

The Church - its leaders and other members - is weak and sinful. Still, as a deposit of truth, the Catholic Church is systematic, traditional, and a great source of God's abundant works of mercy, spiritual, as well as corporal. Are there sins and weaknesses? Yes, there are, even as in the case of Peter. But it is founded by Christ, and it will prevail.

Just as you and I are sinners, but somehow by His love and mercy, He has appointed us to be special servants of His kingdom. Likewise, He has appointed the Roman Catholic shepherd, the Pope. All that we can do is to move forward in humility and a sense of astonishment at God's calling despite our sins.

As for the Sabbath being Saturday, that it is kept as the holy day is a beautiful matter, but other Christians worship the Lord on a Sunday because it is the day of His Resurrection. It doesn't seem to affect the essential nature of the Christian faith. It really ought not to divide us or cause us to hate and mistrust one another.

There is much to do in order to battle the Evil One today. Let us not battle and tear down each other. The world is in jeopardy; there is much darkness and sin. I believe that soon there will be the Second Coming of Christ.

Let us be attentive to the work at hand. The Word of God is more than we could ever agree on and fulfil in our allotted time on earth. Let us be one by the power of the Word, and prepare for the coming of the Lord.

Fr Richard Ho Lung is founder and superior general of the Missionaries of the Poor. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mopfathergeneral@missionariesofthepoor.org.


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