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Dear Ron,
This newsletter is available online by
clicking here. The archived newsletter are also available by
clicking here.
The News In Review newsletter is a service
provided
by Understand The Times that
is a compilation of the news articles
previously posted
on our site . Understand The Times does not
endorse these events but rather is
showing the church the current events.
The
purpose of posting these articles is to warn the church of deception from a
Biblical perspective.
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May 22 - Icelandic volcano flings up ash, shuts airport
Article: Signs Of The Last Times
Comment from
Understand the Times:
Are we seeing the signs of what the Bible calls
the Great Tribulation? Of course, we are not setting dates. Christians
should never set dates regarding the End Times. However, it is correct
to see when the season changes and the signs are apparent, isn't it?
Iceland closed its main international airport and
canceled all domestic flights Sunday as a
powerful volcanic eruption sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam 12
miles (20 kilometers) into the air.
The eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano
was far larger than one a year ago at another Icelandic volcano that
upended travel plans for 10 million people around the world,
but scientists said it was unlikely to have the same widespread
effect.
University of Iceland geophysicist Magnus Tumi
Gudmundsson said this eruption, which began Saturday,
was Grimsvotn's largest eruption for 100
years. "(It was) much bigger and more intensive than
Eyjafjallajokull," the volcano whose April 2010 eruption shut down
airspace across Europe for five days, he said.
The ash plunged areas
near the volcano in southeast Iceland into darkness Sunday and
covered buildings, cars and fields in a thick layer of gray soot.
Civil protection workers urged residents to wear masks and
stay indoors.
Gudmundsson said
the new eruption was 10 times as powerful as
the one in 2004, which lasted for several days
and briefly disrupted international flights. Grimsvotn also exploded
in 1998, 1996 and 1993, eruptions that lasted between a day and
several weeks.
Read Full Article ....
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May 27 - Rick Warren Addresses Critics on Doctrine, Purpose Driven Life
Article: Emerging Church
John Piper, an influential Reformed
theologian, took the unusual step of interviewing famed pastor Rick
Warren and giving him a chance to address the
countless criticisms he has received since the publication of
The Purpose Driven Life.
The entire 98-minute talk was
centered on doctrine,
which Warren admitted he was rarely asked of in
interviews.
With some 30 million copies sold and
available in over 50 languages, The
Purpose Driven Life is the bestselling nonfiction book in
history. Instant fame, however, came with a slew of
naysayers. Critics have mainly hit at Warren's
doctrine as presented in his book.
But during the interview with Piper,
Warren revealed that the book was not intended
for nonbelievers. It was written as a workbook to accompany
Saddleback Church's 40 days of purpose - an annual spiritual growth
campaign. It was
only at the end of writing it that he realized a nonbeliever may
come across the book and read it. So he added
a few things about salvation.
Piper had drawn some flak last year
when he invited Warren to speak alongside some theological
heavyweights including R. Albert Mohler and R.C. Sproul. Some
supporters of Desiring God complained, arguing
that Warren was not on the same page with them theologically or
doctrinally. They felt he relied more on pragmatism than biblical
doctrine.
While Warren is not known for being a doctrinal preacher,
Piper noted that one reason for this "is his
intention to be theologically sound and practically helpful without
using doctrinal or theological terms in his public ministry."
"I would take
the doctrinal knowledge of any 500 Saddleback members and compare it
to any 500 members of any other
church and we'd beat them,"
he said.
Read Full Article....
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May 30 - Israel Minister: Strike on Iran Could Be Necessary
Article: Israel And The Last Days
An Israeli Cabinet
minister said the civilized world must take joint
action to avert the Iranian nuclear threat, including a
pre-emptive strike if necessary.
Moshe Yaalon - the
minister for strategic affairs - made the statement in an interview with
Russia's Interfax news agency released Monday ahead of a visit to
Moscow.
"We strongly hope that the entire civilized world will come to realize
what threat this regime is posing and take joint action to
avert the nuclear threat posed by Iran, even if it would be necessary to
conduct a pre-emptive strike," Yaalon was quoted by
Interfax as saying.
Yaalon wouldn't discuss
who might deal the strike, saying the entire
world, not just Israel, must be concerned about the danger posed by a
nuclear-armed Iran.
"An Iran possessing nuclear weapons would be a
threat to the entire civilized world," he was
reported as saying.
Yaalon's spokesman Ofer
Harel told The Associated Press later Monday that the minister was
repeating Israel's position that all options are
on the table and not calling for anybody to attack Iran.
Iran has insisted its
nuclear program is peaceful, but the U.S., Israel and many others
believe it is cover for developing
atomic weapons.
Read Full Article ....
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May 31 - Iran cleric: Killing Israeli children OK
Article: Israel And The Last Days
A senior Iranian cleric,
who is known as
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor, urged
followers to continue suicide attacks against Israelis, including
children.
Ayatollah Mohammad
Taghi Mesbah, considered one of the Islamic Republic's most radical
clerics, issued a religious edict on his website
whereby suicide attacks are not only legitimate but are a
must for every Muslim, a special paper by the Middle
East Media Research Institute shows.
The senior cleric was
responding to a question from a follower regarding the difference
between "martyr's death" and "suicide." The man, who wrote anonymously,
noted that "some people say that martyrdom operations are considered
suicide and that they are haram (forbidden) because they contradict
Islam."
"When protecting Islam, the
Muslim people depend on martyrdom operations. It not only is
allowed, but even is an obligation," Mesbah
wrote.
The follower
presented another question regarding Islam's position on harming
Israelis, wondering whether Hamas and Jihad actions against Israeli
civilians are forbidden. He also asked: "How about
the Israeli children killed in such attacks?"
The Iranian Ayatollah did not see fit to forbid
the killing of children, only noting that Israelis can be harmed unless
they openly express their objection to their government's position.
He added that even in such cases,
harming civilians is permissible if "they are used as human shield and
fighting the aggressors depends on attacking those civilians." Beyond
these insights, the cleric did not offer further instructions and failed
to censure the killing of children.
Notably, for the followers of Mesbah,
his words are considered as a binding
religious edict. On several occasions in the past, Iranian President
Ahmadinejad also spoke in favor of "martyrdom acts."
Read Full Article ....
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June 3 - 'Jesus: Prophet of Islam' - New Muslim Bus Ads to Debut in Australia
Artcle: Miscellaneous
If you ask the organization Mypeace in
Australia, Jesus wasn't God, but he was a
good prophet of Islam. That's just
one of the messages the group is set to debut on Australian buses in
September. And it's just one of the messages already plastered on billboards
around Sydney."Mypeace.com.au a
Muslim Organisation based in Sydney is launching a bold venture and the
first of its kind in its public awareness campaign by placing ads about
Islam on Sydney buses," the group's site explains. "Starting on September 27th
of May 2011, for four weeks, several buses in Sydney will start carrying
messages on the religion of Islam. Each ad will invite interested
individuals to call MyPeace's toll free number and
converse live with a Muslims to ask questions about Islam; request a free
copy of the Quran and Islamic literature."
But the ads are causing quite a stir.
One billboard claiming Jesus is a prophet of Islam has
already been vandalized, and now an Australian bishop is speaking out.
CNS News reports:
"In Australia with its Christian heritage
a billboard carrying the statement
'Jesus A prophet of Islam' is provocative and offensive to Christians,"
Julian Porteous, auxiliary bishop at the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney,
responded in an article.
Porteous said
religions should not "set
out to antagonize those with differing beliefs." "Dialogue between the
religions can only take place when it is founded in mutual respect. It
is not fostered by provocative statements."
Considering the tenants of the Christian
faith, and what Islam believes about Jesus, the
group's claims are not in line with Christianity's understanding of Jesus.
For example, as CNS points out, Islam
denies Christ's "divinity, crucifixion, and resurrection."
Still, in a video posted on Mypeace's
website, it claims that Islam is the
"religion of Jesus and Moses
Read Full Article ....
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May 25 - U.S. dollar could 'collapse': UN
Article: One World Government
The United Nations
warned on Wednesday of a possible
crisis of confidence in, and even a "collapse" of, the U.S. dollar if
its value against other currencies continued to decline.
In a mid-year review of the world economy, the UN
economic division said such a development,
stemming from the falling value of foreign dollar holdings,
would imperil the global financial system.
The report, an update of the UN "World Economic
Situation and Prospects 2011" report first issued in December, noted
that the dollar exchange rate against a basket of
other key currencies had reached its lowest level since the
1970s.
"As a result,
further (expected) losses of the book value of the vast foreign reserve
holdings could trigger a crisis of confidence in the reserve currency,
which would put the entire global financial system at risk,"
it said.
The 17-page report referred at another point
to the "still looming risk of a collapse of the
United States dollar." Rob Vos, a senior UN
economist involved with the report, said if
emerging markets "massively start selling off dollars, then you can have
this risk of a slide in the dollar.
UN economists have for some time queried
whether the dollar should continue to be the
world's sole reserve currency. Others have also
expressed concerns about U.S. finances.
A downgrade
would erode the status of the United States as the
world's most powerful economy and the dollar's role as the dominant
global currency.
Read Full Article ....
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June 1 - Obama Signs Proclamation Recognizing June as LGBT Pride Month
Article: Perlous Times
On Tuesday,
President Obama declared June as lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender (LGBT) month. Obama has issued
similar proclamations in prior years by issuing the proclamation
each year he has been in office. Obama wasn't the first president to
issue a proclamation recognizing the LGBT community. Former
President Bill Clinton issued the first one in June of 1999.
The proclamation
reads in part, "The story of
America's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community is the
story of our fathers and sons, our mothers and daughters, and our
friends and neighbors who continue the task of making our country a
more perfect Union. It is a story about the struggle to realize the
great American promise that all people can live with dignity and
fairness under the law."
According to a
recent study released in April of this year by Dr. Gary Gates and
The Williams Institute, an arm of the UCLA School of Law, "An
estimated 3.5 percent of adults in the United
States identify themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and an
estimated 0.3 percent of adults as transgender."
Obama also
mentioned his repeal of the "don ask, don't tell" policy by saying,
"With this repeal, gay and lesbian Americans
will be able to serve openly in our Armed Forces for he first time
in our Nation's history. Our national security will be
strengthened and the heroic contributions these Americans make to
our military, and have made throughout our history, will be fully
recognized."
Ashley Horne,
federal policy analyst for Focus on the family expressed the group's
frustration with the president's actions, saying,
"To the detriment of the family, President
Obama continues to affirm the homosexual lifestyle by issuing this
proclamation each year."
Horne went on to
say, "It's clear the president's
goal of wanting to affirm homosexuality
in our culture is a top priority for the administration. While we're
not surprised by his actions, we simply see it as another reminder
of his commitment to redefine marriage outside of one man and one
woman."
According to
recent Gallup polls, more than half (56
percent) of Americans say gay or lesbian relations is morally
acceptable and 40 percent believe being gay is "something a person
is born with." Support for
homosexuality has also hit a record high this year with 64 percent
of Americans saying gay or lesbian relations between consenting
adults should be legal.
Read Full Aritcle ....
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May 25 - Jet delay adds to China threat
Article: Wars And Rumors Of Wars
The threat
from Chinese advanced weapons, including new stealth fighters and
ballistic missiles, dominated concerns expressed by senior military
officers at a Senate hearing this week on the military impact of
delays and problems with the new fifth-generation F-35 jet.
Two senior officers in charge
of U.S. air power voiced increasing
worries that U.S. forces will not be prepared for a future conflict with
China, during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services
airland subcommittee on Tuesday.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Herbert J.
Carlisle, deputy chief of staff for operations, said China's rollout
earlier this year of a new J-20 stealth fighter,
which has made two or three test flights, is very
troubling, along with another joint Russian-Indian stealth jet. Both
aircraft could be sold to Iran and affect a future U.S. intervention
there against Tehran's nuclear program.
The three-star general's
comments echoed earlier comments by Navy Vice Adm. David J. Dorsett, a
senior intelligence official, who said of the J-20 in January that
"we have been pretty consistent in
underestimating the delivery of Chinese technology and weapons systems."
"All of those things are incredibly disturbing to us for the
future," Gen. Carlisle
said. "And again, we not only have to be
able to defeat those, we have to hold those targets at risk, and that's
where these fifth-generation aircraft come in."
Asked during the hearing what "keeps you up at night," Rear Adm.
David L. Philman, Navy director of warfare integration, said:
"Well, the China scenario is first and foremost, I believe, because
they seem to be more advanced and they have the capability out there
right now, and their ships at sea and their other anti-access
capabilities."
Read Full Aritcle ....
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May 26 - 32 Signs That The Entire World Is Being Transformed Into A Futuristic Big Brother Prison Grid
Article: One World Government
Do you want your children and grandchildren
to live in a futuristic "big brother"
control grid where everything they do is watched, recorded, tracked and
tightly controlled? Well, that is exactly where things are headed.
When you read the list below, each of the 32
signs may not seem to be all that significant individually. However,
when
they are all taken together, they paint a truly frightening picture....
#1 The days of the free
and open Internet are slowly coming to an end. Many nations around the
world have implemented strict Internet censorship and many other nations
are moving in that direction. With each passing year the level of
freedom on the Internet diminishes.
Regulation of the Internet has even become a primary topic of discussion
at G-8 meetings. According to The New York Times, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy is leading the charge for a more "civilized
Internet"....Leaders of the Group of 8 industrialized countries are set
to issue a provocative call for stronger Internet regulation, a cause
championed by the host of the meeting, President Nicolas Sarkozy of
France, but fiercely opposed by some Internet companies and free-speech
groups.Why are free speech groups strongly opposing what Sarkozy is
trying to do? It is because western governments want to kill liberty and
freedom on the Internet just like China is doing. The Internet has been
a great tool for waking people up and distributing information, and the
control freaks that want to run all of our lives do not like that one
bit.
#2 Internet censorship in
China, the largest nation on earth, is absolutely brutal. The Chinese
government blocks any websites that talk about such topics as the Dalai
Lama, the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters and Falun Gong.
Even web searches for the English word "freedom" are blocked.
#3 Starting next year, all
new cellphones will be required to contain a chip that will allow the
president to broadcast "emergency alerts" to the cellphones whenever the
president wants. Cellphone users will not be allowed to opt out of the
presidential messages. The following is how a CBS news report describes
the new system....
A new national alert system is set to begin in New York City that will
alert the public to emergencies via cell phones. It's called the
Personal Localized Alert Network or PLAN. Presidential and local
emergency messages as well as Amber Alerts would appear on cell phones
equipped with special chips and software.
#4 The U.K. has more
surveillance cameras per citizen than anywhere else in the world. In
fact, according to one estimate, there are 4.8 million video cameras
constantly watching every move citizens make.
#5 A "certified TSA
official" was brought in to oversee student searches at the Santa Fe
High School prom last weekend. Will this kind of thing soon be happening
at every high school in America?
#6 The U.S. Department of
Agriculture is spending huge amounts of money to install surveillance
cameras in the cafeterias of public schools so that government control
freaks can closely monitor what our children are eating. The following
is how a recent article posted on Infowars.com describes this new
program....
Billed as part of an effort to reduce obesity and improve eating habits,
small cameras are programmed to take snapshots of lunch trays before and
after each student eats. Each child is uniquely identifiable via a
barcode attached to the tray. The amount of calories and nutrients that
each child has consumed is then calculated via a database containing
7,500 different varieties of food.
#7 The EU is spending
hundreds of millions of euros on propaganda campaigns in an attempt to
convince the citizens of Europe that the EU is good for them.
#8 Today, FBI surveillance
teams regularly employ warrantless GPS tracking to monitor the movements
of peaceful activists - even if they are not suspected of ever
committing a crime. The Obama administration is fighting in court to
keep this practice legal.
#9 According to FBI
Director Robert Mueller, "homegrown terrorists" represent as big a
threat to American national security as al-Qaeda does.
#10 Federal VIPR teams are
establishing a series of "internal checkpoints" all across the United
States. The following is how a recent article by Paul Joseph Watson
described these VIPR team activities....
The TSA has announced its intention to expand the VIPR program to
include roadside inspections of commercial vehicles, setting up a
network of internal checkpoints and rolling out security procedures
already active in airports, bus terminals and subway stations to roads
and highways across the United States.
#11 Thousands of
"dysfunctional" families in the U.K. are being subjected to intensive
24-hour surveillance to make sure that their children attend school, go
to bed on time and eat proper meals.
#12 U.S. Senator Chuck
Schumer says that Amtrak should have a "no ride list" similar to the "no
fly list" used at U.S. airports. Before you can get on an airplane
today, your name is checked to make sure that it is not on any
international watch lists. So what do you have to do to get on an
international watch list? Nobody really knows.
#13 U.K. authorities are
now admitting that every phone call, text message, email and website
visit made by private citizens will be stored for one year and will be
available for monitoring by government agencies.
#14 The amount of cell
phone surveillance that goes on is absolutely staggering. For example,
one German politician named Malte Spitz recently went to court to force
Deutsche Telekom to reveal how often his cell phone was being tracked.
What he found out was absolutely amazing. It turns out that in just one
6 month period, Deutsche Telekom recorded the longitude and latitude
coordinates of his cell phone 35,000 times.
#15 DARPA has now
developed new video surveillance technology that many are warning will
bring about the end of public anonymity. The following is how the
ExtremeTech blog is describing this new technology....
To be in public is to be on camera, but most video footage is discarded,
as only so much can be sorted and analyzed -- until now. DARPA has
created a technology that can index and analyze video in real-time,
marking the end of anonymity in public places.
#16 In the U.K., it is now
illegal to photograph the police for any reason whatsoever.
#17 Police in the U.K.
have purchased software that will enable them to easily follow the
"digital footprints" of virtually anyone. The following is how one
recent news report in the U.K. described this new software....
The Metropolitan Police has bought Geotime, a security programme used by
the U.S. military which tracks suspects' movements and communications
and displays them on a three-dimensional graphic. The software
aggregates information gathered from social networking sites, GPS
devices like the iPhone, mobile phones, financial transactions and IP
network logs to build a detailed picture of an individual's movements.
#18 In Tacoma, Washington
a seventh grade student was recently questioned by the Secret Service
about a message that he posted on his Facebook page. Be very careful
about what you put up on Facebook or Twitter. The entire world can see
it.
#19 According to the ACLU,
state police in Michigan are using "extraction devices" to download data
from the cellphones of motorists that they pull over. This is taking
place even if those pulled over are not accused of doing anything
wrong. The following is how an article on CNET News describes the
capabilities of these "extraction devices"....
The devices, sold by a company called Cellebrite, can download text
messages, photos, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell
phones. The handheld machines have various interfaces to work with
different models and can even bypass security passwords and access some
information.
#20 Last year, one
shocking poll found that 51 percent of Americans agree with this
statement: "It is necessary to give up some civil liberties in order to
make the country safe from terrorism."
#21 The MPAA and RIAA have
submitted their master plan for enforcing copyright rights to the new
Office of Intellectual Property Enforcement and it includes installing
spyware on everyone's computers that would detect and delete any
infringing materials.
#22 The U.K.'s new
Internet law includes a "three strikes" rule that allows your entire
family to be cut off from the Internet if anyone who lives in your house
is accused of copyright infringement - without proof or evidence or
trial.
#23 Would you like to have
your face scanned and your ID recorded every time you attend a public
event? Don't laugh. The San Francisco Entertainment Commission is
actually proposing a new rule which "would require all venues with an
occupancy of over 100 people to record the faces of all patrons and
employees and scan their ID's for storage in a database which they must
hand over to law enforcement on request."
#24 Today, the U.S.
government and governments all over the industrialized world have become
so obsessed with reducing carbon emissions that now they even tell us
what kinds of light bulbs we are allowed to buy.
#25 The Obama
administration is developing a universal "Internet ID" program that
would watch, track, monitor and potentially control your activity on the
Internet. These "trusted identities" are being touted as a way to
increase safety and security on the Internet and as a way to eliminate
the need for dozens of different usernames and passwords.
#26 As I have written
about previously, the "Internet kill switch" is rapidly becoming one of
the favorite new tools of tyrannical governments all over the globe....
Once upon a time, the Internet was a bastion of liberty and freedom, but
now nation after nation is cracking down on it. In fact, legislation has
been introduced once again in Congress that would give the president of
the United States an "Internet kill switch" that he would be able to use
in the event of war or emergency. Of course there would be a whole lot
of wiggle room in determining what actually constitutes a true
"emergency". The members of Congress that are pushing this "Internet
kill switch" bill want the U.S. to become more like China in this
regard.
#27 A shocking document
released by Wikileaks proves that high level U.S. government officials
have been pushing for North American integration. According to the
document, some of the goals of this integration would be to turn North
America into an economic zone similar to the EU, to have one common
currency for the entire continent and to have one common "security
perimeter" for the entire continent.
#28 One of the most
liberty-killing pieces of legislation in recent years was the Patriot
Act. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Republicans and the vast
majority of Democrats will never vote against the renewal of the Patriot
Act because they don't want to look "soft" on terrorism.
#29 If you display the
wrong political message on your car, you may find law enforcement
officials cracking down on you. A 73-year-old Virginia resident was
recently kicked out of a national park for displaying a sticker
promoting "Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty" on his car. The following
is an excerpt from a recent Rutherford Institute report about this
incident....
The Rutherford Institute has come to the defense of a 73-year-old
Virginia resident who was allegedly ordered by a park ranger to remove
his car from a national military park in South Carolina because of
political messages attached to his vehicle. Jack Faw, whose ancestors
fought in the historic battle memorialized at Kings Mountain National
Military Park, contacted The Rutherford Institute after being told by a
park ranger that the decal promoting a political organization associated
with Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), which was displayed on the back window of
Faw's car, was not allowed in the park.
#30 Brutal crowd control
techniques are not just for major events anymore. Recently, riot police
in Illinois used tear gas, LRAD sound weapons and crowd suppression
tactics against a bunch of college students that were just blowing off
some steam at a year-end block party at Western Illinois University.
#31 The U.S. government is
gathering more information on all of us than ever before. According to a
recent article in the Baltimore Sun, every six hours the volume of
information that the NSA gathers is equivalent to the entire Library of
Congress. Nobody is anonymous anymore. The truth is that the U.S.
government, governments across the globe and major international
corporations have more information about you than you probably ever
dared to imagine.
#32 If you think things
are bad now, just wait until you see what global authorities have
planned for the future.
Read Full Aritcle ....
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May 26 - Google Wallet turns phones into credit cards
Article: Technology For Global Monetary System
On Thursday, at a press
event in New York, Google unveiled a
new mobile payments system called Google Wallet, which will let users
swipe their handsets the same way they swipe their credit cards.
Details are still coming in, but it appears Google Wallet will launch
first on the Sprint edition of the Nexus S 4G smartphone,
before eventually being rolled out to other
devices.
"At first, Google Wallet will support both
Citi MasterCard and a Google Prepaid Card, which you'll be able to fund
with almost any payment card," Google engineers Rob von Behren
and Jonathan Wall wrote on the Google blog. "From the outset,
you'll be able to tap your phone to pay
wherever MasterCard PayPass is accepted."
So what else does Google have in store? (Ahem.)
"Loyalty schemes and coupons will obviously play a big part in Google
Wallet," writes Bill Ray of the Register. Ray expects that
Google will keep electronic wallets "stuffed with
tokens and offers as well as payment applications"; he also believes
it's "likely that Google will take this opportunity to launch a payment
platform for use both offline and online."
"We're about to embark on a new
era of commerce where we bring online and offline together,"
Google exec Stephanie Tilenius said at the press event, according to
CNN. "We believe the shopping
experience has not yet been transformed by technology or by magical
experiences. Now, your phone can be your wallet -- you just tap, pay,
and save."
Read Full Aritcle ....
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May 24 - A New Global Financial System
Article: One World Government
The European Union is
set to issue a very special bond this week. It is special because it is
practically unprecedented. Just twice before has the EU borrowed
money with the promise that all member nations would be
responsible for paying it back.
If the eurobonds
become a permanent part of the European Union, the implications are
global. A United European bond market could save the eurozone's
struggling economies.
But that is not the biggest implication.
For the first time, the U.S. treasury
market will have a real and potentially lethal competitor, and the world
will finally have a true alternative to the dollar for reserve currency.
According to the Financial Times, the
first bond auction in January led to
"overwhelming demand" for the paper from investors around the world.
The second issuance in March was equally successful,
as investors in Asia and the Middle East snapped up the bonds. The
success of the eurobond sales contrasts sharply with the rising cost of
raising money in most European countries.
A European-wide debt crisis may be looming.
And that means a European-wide solution
is needed. But if investors start holding out for
eurobonds instead of buying bonds directly from individual nations,
it could become even more difficult for
troubled countries to borrow money. Weak countries could, in effect, be
crowded out of the debt market. Investors love the
eurobonds, said one banker quoted by the Irish Times. But if you
buy a eurobond, "why on earth would you buy Spain?" he asked. "The risk
is just too great."
If the current round of eurobond auctions
proceed as expected, or are expanded, this could
in time force troubled nations into giving up national budget
sovereignty in return for Germany backing the creation of a permanent
eurobond market. As analyst John Mauldin writes, it wouldn't end
with Germany controlling Greece's budget and in charge of collecting
Greece's taxes. If Europe goes down
that route, he says, it may be Greece today, but it will be Portugal
tomorrow. And which nation will be next after that?
American officials should be
watching closely.
On the global stage, U.S. treasuries are the
unrivaled debt marketplace in terms of volume and liquidity.
Consequently, the dollar is used as the world's reserve currency. But
America's hold on reserve status is precarious. It maintains it mostly
by default. China, Russia, Germany, Brazil and other nations
have publicly stated that
they want a new global reserve currency not linked to a
dollar that constantly devalues. The problem is that up
until possibly now, there just hasn't been a credible alternative. There
has been no other big market in which to park their money.
That may be about to change. A full-fledged European Union bond market
may be about to be born from Europe's economic crisis. If it is, the
dollar's days as reserve currency are about to end.
America is no longer a safe
place and the world may soon have an alternative place for all its
money. A new global financial system is about to emerge.
Read Full Aritcle ....
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May 30 - Many interconnected pieces of evidence support the Book of Mormon
Article: Miscellaneous
Comment from
Understand the Times:
It will be interesting to see the
facts that are supposed to be soon exposed to prove that Mormonism
and the history behind the story are true. UTT will be the first to
admit that the Mormon faith is true when the facts are presented
showing conclusively that Smith's stories were revelations from God.
So far, the best evidence that we
have heard when speaking with a Mormon is that they say they have
had "the burning in the bosom" when they asked if Mormonism was
true. A dose of hot sauce or eating too late in the evening will do
the same thing.
We need solid evidence. We need
to know what sources Joe Smith used to fabricate his wild ideas.
What connections did he have with the Masons? Why are Mormonism and
Masonic beliefs so similar? Where are the golden plates that he said
he used to transcribe the Book of Mormon? If Mormonism is truly the
truth, why does the Book of Mormon contradict the Bible? Could this
whole belief system be a plan of deception to dupe as many as
possible?
For the past few
weeks I've addressed the current limitations of New World
archaeology and the naïve claims of some critics regarding the
relationship between the Book of Mormon and archaeological
discoveries. I readily acknowledge (and have
done so repeatedly in this series) that there is no
overwhelming persuasive secular evidence that would convince
non-believers that the Book of Mormon is true
(I've shared some of my reasons why this is so in a past
installment). I also readily acknowledge that, thus far, I have not
addressed all of the archaeological "problems" that seem to conflict
with the belief in a historic Book of Mormon. For those who want
answers to all the questions, I can only say, "patience."
In the next installments, I plan to discuss some
of the fascinating ways in which the Book of Mormon correctly
converges with what we now know about the ancient cultures from
which it claims to have been written and derived. In other words,
I plan on discussing some of the
evidences that support the ancient historicity of the Book of
Mormon.
In past issues, I pointed out that
Joseph Smith got the details right regarding
ancient Arabia in a time when there was a lack of information or
out-right misconceptions about the land through which the Lehites
traveled. I showed that several Book of
Mormon names were very much at home in the ancient Near East, and
that Lehi's vision to flee Jerusalem (and the subsequent exodus)
fit ancient patterns that were unknown to scholars in Joseph's day.
Several of my articles showed that
the landscape - as described in
the Book of Mormon - accurately depicts the geography and climate of
the
lands
through which they would have traveled, and that contrary to
descriptions of the Arabian Peninsula in Joseph's day, there really
is an area on the Dhofar region that matches the Bountiful described
in Lehi's journey.
I showed that the story of Nephi's bow, the
construction of their ship, the Liahona, the slaying of Laban and
Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life, all have
fascinating ancient Old World parallels that closely match the
descriptions and contexts given in Book of Mormon.
I noted the discovery of an actual place known
as "NHM" - a striking parallel to the Book of
Mormon "Nahom" - that fits the Nephite scripture like a glove in
regards to location, era, resource as a burial spot, as well as it's
juxtaposition to an eastward turn in the Lehite's journey which, in
turn, lead to another amazing parallel to the location and
description of Bountiful. As
noted in the past few weeks, an inscription, text or icon of a place
name is a coveted find for an archaeologist who is attempting to
identify the designation of an ancient site.
The discovery of "NHM" is nearly as close as it gets. While critics
attempt to brush this find aside, it neatly fits the very type of
discovery upon which archaeologists rely for toponym (place name)
identification.
Read Full Aritcle ....
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We hope the Weekly News In Review has been a
blessing to you.
Sincerely, Roger Oakland
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