I'm seriously sad & disgusted at the lack of reverence and respect for our glorious God and Savior Jesus Christ, that you can read about in the..... NEWS FOR TODAY:Jesus' name ruled 'unconstitutional'
Judge says prayers to Christ 'do violence to America's pluralistic, inclusive values'
A board of county commissioners in North Carolina is asking the Supreme Court for help: Its members don't believe they should have to forbid volunteers from mentioning the name of Jesus in prayers offered before their meetings.
But the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are standing by their victory in a U.S. circuit court decision that states even "a solitary reference to Jesus Christ" in invocations before the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners' meetings could do "violence to the pluralistic and inclusive values that are a defining feature of American public life."
Furthermore, wrote Judge James Harvie Wilkinson III in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals majority opinion, legislative invocations offered in Jesus' name are inherently "sectarian" and thus should be censored lest they make some attendees feel "uncomfortable, unwelcome and unwilling to participate in … public affairs."
But the board disagrees, and with the help of the Alliance Defense Fund is asking the Supreme Court to trump Wilkinson's ruling.
"America's founders opened public meetings with prayer; this county simply wants to allow its citizens to do the same," said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman in a statement. "We trust the U.S. Supreme Court will want to review this case because of the long history in America of offering prayers before public meetings. Public officials shouldn't be coerced into censoring the prayers of those invited to offer them just because secularist groups don't like people praying according to their own conscience."
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Calif. University Introduces First U.S. Multi-Faith School of Theology
SUMMARY:
Claremont Lincoln University, a graduate school in California, is the first in the United States to bring together Christians, Jews and Muslims in the same classrooms to educate the future leaders of churches, synagogues and mosques.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/july-dec11/religioused_10-25.html
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TESTING THE FAITHChristian church teams up with high priestess of Isis
Famous denomination welcoming paganism with guided meditations
High priestess Loreon Vigne of Isis Oasis |
A Protestant church in California is coming under fire from some Christians over its upcoming conference featuring "guided meditations" by a high priestess of the pagan fertility goddess Isis.
The fifth annual "Faith and Feminism Conference" taking place Nov. 11–13 is being hosted by the Ebenezer Lutheran Church in San Francisco, which bills itself as "herchurch."
Among the scheduled participants is Loreon Vigne, high priestess of Isis Oasis – a temple, retreat and animal sanctuary Vigne founded in 1978 in Geyserville, Calif.
"I personally see Isis as Mother Nature," Vigne told WND, "and that she encompasses everything with her wings. She's a winged goddess. She encompasses any other goddess from any culture."
Vigne, who plans to bring several other priestesses to the conference, will conduct prayers, songs and meditation.
"Guided meditation is where the audience closes their eyes and you take them on a little journey," she explained. "I've taken people to their past lives in Egypt, as [that culture] had all the secrets. They're the ones that knew. Their main concept is to know thyself, know thy heart, know thy soul and know thy purpose."
A depiction of the Egyptian goddess Isis and her son Horus |
She says the belief system is based on the ancient Egyptian concept of balance, with 42 laws that are actually 42 ideals.
"It's kind of like a Ten Commandments, but all done in a positive concept," she said. "'I shalt not kill,' [is rendered as] 'I honor all lives as sacred.'"
Besides honoring the goddess, the staff of Isis Oasis also provides massage therapy along with tarot and astrology readings, according to its website.
But the San Francisco event blending non-existent, heathen deities with the Christian faith is leaving some outraged.
"You can't make this stuff up!" exclaimed Dan Skogen of Marion, Iowa, who describes himself as a Lutheran fed up with the "constant mockery of God's word" by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, or ELCA, which boasts some 4.2 million members in 10,000 congregations.
"God tells us in Exodus 20:3 'You shall have no other gods before me.' Yet this ELCA church brings followers of other gods in to speak and teach at their conference!"
Skogen said the ELCA leadership "accepts and promotes the thought that salvation is secured even for people who do not have faith in Christ."
Zechariah 12:3, 9:
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
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-Missygirl*
# posted by Missygirl : 8:58 AM
PositiveID, the company that manufactures the VeriChip RFID tag, has announced a deal to provide the Israeli Defense Force with the chip. The VeriChip, which is primarily marketed as a device for retrieving medical records using the VeriMed package, also has a number of other useful applications. PositiveID's VeriPay system, where the chip is used like a credit card to authorize financial transactions, is already employed by the Baja Beach Club in Spain. A few years ago, VeriChip Corporation revealed they were in talks with the US Administration to implant the 1.4 million service personnel with a VeriChip, replacing the metal 'dog tags' currently worn by the troops. The secular news article reported at the time that the "device is usually implanted above the triceps area of an individual’s right arm, but can also by implanted in the hand if scanned at the proper frequency". Other articles have confirmed that the VeriChip is indeed often implanted in the hand rather than behind the shoulder blade. Now it seems the IDF is interested in acquiring the technology.
"The Company's integration partner intends to provide the microchips to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the State of Israel's military force. Marc Poulshock, PositiveID's Vice President of Business Development, said, "We believe there are many important applications for the VeriChip and our associated intellectual property including next-generation identification and bio-sensing capabilities. Our partner is looking to help healthcare organizations, militaries including the IDF, and governments with their disaster preparedness and emergency response needs."
The IDF have not said what they will use the technology for, but with the recent release of Gilad Shalit, perhaps preventing further kidnappings of its soldiers by Palestinian terrorists might form part of their reasoning for that.
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Delray Beach, FL (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - PositiveID Corporation ("PositiveID" or "Company") (OTCBB:PSID), a developer of medical technologies for diabetes management, clinical diagnostics and bio-threat detection, announced today that it has received an order for its VeriChip™ microchip to be used for disaster preparedness and emergency management in Israel by an integration partner.
The VeriChip radio frequency identification (RFID) microchip was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2004 for patient identification. The VeriChip can also be used to assist in the management of emergency situations and disaster recovery in conjunction with a customized camera capable of receiving both RFID scanned data and GPS data wirelessly, and a Web-enabled database for gathering and storing information and images captured during emergency response operations.
The Company's integration partner intends to provide the microchips to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the State of Israel's military force.
Marc Poulshock, PositiveID's Vice President of Business Development, said, "We believe there are many important applications for the VeriChip and our associated intellectual property including next-generation identification and bio-sensing capabilities. Our partner is looking to help healthcare organizations, militaries including the IDF, and governments with their disaster preparedness and emergency response needs."•
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(May our Lord God help us people, looks like this is the mark of the beast and it's headed our way! )
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Obama Pulls Terror Training Manuals Referencing Islam
The US has pulled terrorism manuals referencing Islam following complaints from terror-linked advocacy groups.
By Gavriel Queenann
First Publish: 10/24/2011, 8:56 PM
James Cole
US Department of Justice
Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole confirmed on Wednesday the Obama administration was recalling all training materials used by the law enforcement and national security communities, in order to eliminate all references to Islam.
“I recently directed all components of the Department of Justice to re-evaluate their training efforts in a range of areas, from community outreach to national security,” Cole told a panel at the George Washington University law school.
The move comes after complaints from Muslim advocacy organizations, including the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was identified as Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas front group in the 2004 Holy Land Foundation terror fundraising trial.
CAIR founders Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad were originally officers of the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), described by former FBI analyst and US Treasury Department intelligence official Mathew Lewitt as, "intimately tied to the most senior Hamas leadership."
Both Ahmad and Awad participated in a meeting held in Philadelphia on October 3, 1993, that involved senior leaders of Hamas, the Holy Land Foundation (which was designated in 1995 by Executive Order, and later convicted in court, as an organization that had raised millions of dollars for Hamas) , and the IAP.
According to electronic surveillance of the meeting subitted as evidence in the Holy Land trial by the FBI, "the participants went to great length and spent much effort hiding their association with the Islamic Resistance Movement [Hamas].... Participants at the meeting discussed forming a 'political organization and public relations body,' "whose Islamic hue is not very conspicuous."
In a Wednesday Los Angeles Times op-ed, Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) president Salam al-Marayati threatened the FBI with a total cutoff of cooperation between American Muslims and law enforcement if the agency failed to revise its law enforcement training material.
Maintaining the training materials in their current state “will undermine the relationship between law enforcement and the Muslim American community,” al-Marayati wrote.
Ties between CAIR and MPAC, both of whom have been guests of honor at numerous Federal events and symposiums, and Obama administration dinners, are well documented. Both organizations are members of the American Muslim Political Coordination Council, which seek to coordinate political advocacy efforts. •
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Foreign buyers scooping up U.S. homes
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Hey, wealthy foreigners! Want to live in the U.S.? Buy a home here.
International purchases of American homes are ramping up, and a new Senate bill designed to boost the ailing real-estate market would encourage globe-trotting investors to buy even more.
The bill, co-sponsored by Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Mike Lee (R.-Utah) would grant a U.S. visa to international investors who agree to spend at least $500,000 on residential real estate here!
If passed, the legislation could add to a surge in homebuying by international purchasers over the past year or two that's already given some local U.S. markets a welcome boost.
Growing international interest
Foreigners spent $82 billion buying up U.S. homes in the 12 months ended in March, up 24% from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). That represents 8% of total U.S. sales.
In places like South Florida, international buyers already account for a whopping 25% of the market. California, Texas and Arizona also attract many foreign buyers, as do Hawaii and New York.
South Florida condo sales have been surprisingly strong, said Brad Hunter, chief economist for Metrostudy, a housing analytics company. "And the majority of those sales are to South Americans and Canadians," he said. •
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Teenage girl in coma after she's burned alive by friends in 'satanic ritual'
An 18-year-old South African woman was in a coma Monday after being doused in petrol and burned alive by friends in a Johannesburg park, in what police suspect was a satanic ritual.
The attack took place in Johannesburg
Kirsty Theologo suffered burns over three quarters of her body, damaging her lungs and throat, when she was set alight in a park in southern Johannesburg, her sister Samantha told The Star newspaper.
A 16-year-old girl tried to put out the flames by rolling Theologo in the sand, burning herself in the process, the paper said. She was also hospitalised.
Samantha Theologo claimed the group ran away, telling South African media that her sister and the other girl had to walk two kilometres for help.
“I wasn’t home, but my mom told me she found my sister in the bathroom washing her face," she was quoted as saying. “My mom said it was horrific.”
The Star cited a medical source as saying the girls were driven to hospital by their pastor. •
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Vatican calls for global authority on economy, raps “idolatry of the market”
(Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican October 23, 2011/Giampiero Sposito)
The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.
“Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. “The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence,” it said.
It condemned what it called “the idolatry of the market” as well as a “neo-liberal thinking” that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems. “In fact, the crisis has revealed behaviours like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale,” it said, adding that world economics needed an “ethic of solidarity” among rich and poor nations.
“If no solutions are found to the various forms of injustice, the negative effects that will follow on the social, political and economic level will be destined to create a climate of growing hostility and even violence, and ultimately undermine the very foundations of democratic institutions, even the ones considered most solid,” it said.
It called for the establishment of “a supranational authority” with worldwide scope and “universal jurisdiction” to guide economic policies and decisions.
Asked at a news conference if the document could become a manifesto for the movement of the “indignant ones”, who have criticised global economic policies, Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department, said: “The people on Wall Street need to sit down and go through a process of discernment and see whether their role managing the finances of the world is actually serving the interests of humanity and the common good. “We are calling for all these bodies and organisations to sit down and do a little bit of re-thinking.” •
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Turkey quake kills at least 279, hundreds missing
ERCIS, Turkey (Reuters) - Rescuers searched the rubble of collapsed buildings Monday for survivors and victims of a major earthquake that killed at least 279 people and injured more than 1,300 in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.
Rescue and relief efforts focused on the city of Van and the town of Ercis, 100 km (60 miles) to the north, but hundreds were also feared dead in remote villages of mud-brick houses after Sunday's 7.2 magnitude quake, Turkey's strongest in a decade.
Desperate survivors cried for help beneath heaps of smashed concrete and twisted metal, some using mobile phones to tell friends they were alive, as earth-moving machines and troops raced against time in Van and Ercis.
Thousands of people made homeless by the quake were forced to spend a second night outdoors in the hilly, windswept Van region, enduring near-freezing temperatures. Families huddled round open fires that glowed in the dark. Some stayed in tents put up on soccer pitches, living on handouts from aid agencies.
The U.N. disaster agency said almost 1,000 buildings had collapsed, many of them poorly built. A Red Crescent spokesman said the agency was preparing to provide refuge for as many as 40,000 people, though it was so far impossible to tell how many would need shelter.
Some residents of Van and outlying villages complained of a lack of government assistance, despite the dispatch of troops, mobile kitchens and up to 13,000 tents.
"We have to fit 37 people in one tent," said Giyasettin Celen, a 29-year-old who lost three family members in Dogonu Koyu, a village beside Lake Van where he said 15 people died.
"Our lost ones were carried like animals, on top of each other, in a transport van. Our main source of income here is livestock breeding, but we don't have anywhere to keep them. We will have to sell them now," he said.
Throughout the day, rescue workers pulled people out alive.
"Be patient, be patient," rescuers in Ercis told a whimpering boy pinned under a concrete slab with the lifeless hand of an adult, a wedding ring on one finger, visible just in front of his face.
A Reuters photographer saw a woman and her daughter being freed from beneath a concrete slab in the wreckage of a six-storey building.
"I'm here, I'm here," the woman, named Fidan, cried out hoarsely. Talking to her regularly while working for more than two hours to find a way through, rescuers cut through the slab, first sighting the daughter's foot, before freeing them.
CRANES SHIFT RUBBLE
In Van, an ancient city of one million on a lake ringed by snow-capped mountains, cranes shifted rubble from a collapsed six-storey apartment block where 70 people were feared trapped.
One woman, standing beside a wrecked four-storey building, told a rescue worker she had spoken to her friend on her mobile phone six hours after the quake trapped her in the wreckage.
"She's my friend and she called me to say that she's alive and she's stuck in the rubble near the stairs of the building," said her friend, a fellow teacher. "She told me she was wearing red pajamas," she said, standing with distraught relatives begging the rescue workers to hurry.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan flew to Van to assess the scale of the disaster. It is a quake-prone area that is a hotbed of activity for Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
Erdogan said he feared for the fate of villages with houses made of mud brick, saying: "Almost all buildings in such villages are destroyed."
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said the death toll had reached 279, with 1,300 injured, and more were unaccounted for.
The quake brought fresh torment to impoverished southeast Turkey, where PKK militants fighting a decades-long insurgency killed 24 Turkish troops south of Van last week.
The area it struck, near the border with Iran, is remote and mountainous, with long distances between villages and people who live off stock-raising, arable farming and trading.
The hardest-hit town was Ercis, a town of 100,000, where 55 buildings crumpled, including a student dormitory.
At one collapsed four-storey building, firemen from the major southeastern city of Diyarbakir were trying to reach four missing children. Aid workers carried two large black bags, one apparently containing a child's body, to an ambulance. An old woman wrapped in a headscarf walked alongside sobbing.
A distressed man paced back and forth before running toward the rescue workers on top of the rubble. "That's my nephew's house," he sobbed as workers tried to hold him back.
ARMY BATTALIONS
The Red Crescent has delivered 5,000 tents to Ercis alone and a tent city has been set up at Ercis stadium. But residents said tents were being given only to relatives of police and soldiers, a possible source of tension if confirmed.
"The villages have not received any help yet. Instead of making a show, politicians should be visiting them. The Turkish military says they sent soldiers, where are they?" said a municipality official in Van who did not want to be named.
Ibrahim Baydar, a 40-year-old tradesman from Van, accused the government in Ankara of holding back aid. "All the nylon tents are in the black market now. We cannot find any. People are queuing for them. No tents were given to us whatsoever."
Rescue efforts were hampered by power outages after the quake toppled electricity lines to towns and villages.
More than 200 aftershocks have jolted the region since the quake, lasting around 25 seconds, struck at 1041 GMT Sunday.
"I just felt the whole earth moving and I was petrified. It went on for ages. And the noise, you could hear this loud, loud noise," said Hakan Demirtas, 32, a builder who was working on a construction site in Van at the time.
"My house is ruined," he said, sitting on a low wall after spending the night in the open. "I am still afraid, I'm in shock. I have no future, there is nothing I can do."
The Red Crescent said about 100 experts had reached the earthquake zone to coordinate rescue and relief operations. Sniffer dogs had joined the quest for survivors.
Major geological fault lines cross Turkey, where small tremors occur almost daily. Two large quakes in 1999 killed more than 20,000 people in the northwest.
The quake had no impact on Turkish financial markets when they opened Monday.
In Van, construction worker Sulhattin Secen, 27, said he had at first mistaken the rumble of the quake for a car crash.
"Then the ground beneath me started moving up and down as if I was standing in water. May God help us. It's like life has stopped. What are people going to do?" •
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Jerusalem Police Stand Down from Terror Alert
Helicopters, ground forces and medics are on high alert after intelligence officials warn of an imminent attack in Jerusalem.
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu First Publish: 10/24/2011, 3:06 PM
Helicopters patrolling Jerusalem
Israel news photo: Flash 90
Israel's Jerusalem District Police commander announced the city had returned to normal security levels after being on high alert on Monday. The General Security Services, however, are continuing their to pursue intelligence related to the matter.
Earlier Monday, helicopters, ground forces and medics are on high alert after intelligence officials warned of an imminent terrorist attack in Jerusalem.
A large number of police were deployed at entrances to the capital as helicopters over overhead. The warning focused on the neighborhood of Romema, located near the Central Bus Station at the western entrance to Jerusalem.
Pictures of the suspected terrorist were distributed, and police searched areas of the Belz Yeshiva.
Security forces and volunteers responded to the security alert of a terrorist attack on the heels of last week’s release of 477 terrorists and security prisoners in exchange for the return of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.
Nearly 600 more prisoners and terrorists will be released in two months in the second stage of the arrangement.
Since the release, terrorists have staged at least three stabbing attacks, one of them seriously wounding a teenage boy in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot on the Sabbath.
An Arab terrorist earlier this year killed one tourist and wounded approximately 20 others in a bomb attack at the Jerusalem Convention Center, located on a street parallel to the bus station. •
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May God help us and come quickly. In Your Name I pray, Precious Jesus! -Missygirl*
# posted by Missygirl : 10:29 AM
Emergency Alert System Nationwide Test
FEMA Plans First-Ever Nationwide
Emergency Alert System Test:
On November 9, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will conduct the first-ever nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) at 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), a test that will last for approximately three minutes.
The EAS is a system designed to transmit emergency alerts and warnings to the public at the national, state, and local levels.
EAS participants broadcast alerts and warnings regarding severe weather, child abductions and other types of emergencies. EAS alerts are transmitted over radio and television broadcast stations, cable television and other media services.
Although local and state components of the EAS are tested on a weekly and monthly basis, there has never been a nationwide test or a national activation of the system.
Unlike the monthly tests, the national test will occur almost simultaneously on almost all TV and radio stations.
The purpose of the test is to assess the reliability and effectiveness of the system as a way to alert the public during nationwide emergencies.
Although the EAS test will be initiated by FEMA, the FCC is telling local governments they can use the test as an opportunity to work with local broadcasters and cable providers to educate appropriate government officials and staff about the EAS, such as how it works and when it should be activated.
Finally, the FCC is asking local government officials to help inform residents in advance of the test, so that they will know what to expect. •####################################################
Man gets 27 for killing infant during video game
SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for killing his infant son because he bothered him during his video game.
Nineteen-year-old Andrew Keith Johnston pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder in the October 2010 death of his 1-month-old son William.
Assistant District Attorney Mike Randles said Johnston gave a written statement saying he became irritated when the infant was crying in his bassinet, interfering with Johnston's playing of video games, The Shelbyville Times-Gazette reports. The boy suffered a brain hemorrhage and died of his injuries at a hospital a week later. An autopsy report said he died of "non-accidental trauma."
The prosecutor says Johnston said he squeezed the boy hard and shook him. •
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New international organization to bring world religions under one roof
Saudi Arabia has financed the founding of a new international organization in Vienna designed to bring the world's religions together. The organization hopes to prevent conflict through interfaith dialogue.
The foreign ministers of Austria, Saudi Arabia and Spain signed the founding treaty of a new international organization designed to foster dialogue between the world's major religions on Thursday.
"The thesis is valid that world peace cannot exist without peace between the world's major religions," Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said during the signing ceremony in Vienna.
The King Abdullah Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, initiated and financed largely by Saudi money, is set to have its seat in Vienna. Plans envision an organization with a governing body composed of 12 representatives from the world's five largest religions.
The governing body is set to be staffed by two Muslims (Sunni and Shiite), three Christians (Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox), a Buddhist, a Hindu and a Jew. The organization will also have a consulting body with 100 representatives from the five world religions plus other faiths as well as academics and members of civil society.
Saudi initiative
Austria's Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said that the organization's structures are designed to ensure that none of the represented religions dominates the organization. The three founding states are also open to the membership of other countries, according to Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez Garcia-Herrera. 
Saudi Arabia largely initiated and financed the organization
Saudi King Abdullah initiated the idea for the center after visiting Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2007, the first Saudi monarch to do so. Shortly thereafter, King Abdullah stated that Christians and Muslims should offer a common message of peace to humanity.
Abdullah then initiated an interfaith dialogue in Mecca in 2008 followed by a second meeting in Madrid with Jewish representation. A third meeting took place in Vienna's Hofburg in 2009, where the concept of the organization was agreed upon.
The Initiative of Liberal Muslims protested Thursday's signing ceremony in Vienna, saying that the center was an attempt by Saudi Arabia to spread a conservative form of Islam.
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Chrislam Starts To Spread In America
Pastors that are really wolves in sheep’s clothing You knew this day was going to come, when the liberal “love gospel” preachers who, desiring to fill their seats and bank accounts, would find a way to merge apostate christianity with the Devil’s religion of Islam. That day is here.
Quote of the Day: “Before we “shake your hand” in responding to your letter, we ask forgiveness of the All-Merciful One and of the Muslim community around the world.”
– Rick Warren in a speech to Muslims. •
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Goodnight -Missygirl*
# posted by Missygirl : 7:31 AM
NEWS FOR TODAY:
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil
{ Isaiah 5:20a}
Controversial Therapy for Pre-Teen Transgender Patient Raises Questions
By Perry Chiaramonte
11 yr Old Boy Given Drugs, So He Can Pick His Own Gender A lesbian couple in California who say their 11-year-old son Tommy who wants to be a girl named Tammy are giving their child hormone blockers that delay the onset of puberty -- so that he can have more time that he can have more time to decide if he wants to change his gender.
The couple’s supporters say the Hormone Blocking Therapy has only minor side effects and is appropriate for a child who is unsure of his gender. "This is definitely a changing landscape for transgender youth," said Joel Baum, director of education and training for Gender Spectrum, a California-based non-profit group. "This is about giving kids and their families the opportunity to make the right decision."
But critics of the treatment say 11-year-olds are not old enough to make life-altering decisions about changing their gender, and parents should not be encouraging them. They say it’s too soon to tell what the side effects of the treatments may be, and they say Tommy’s parents, Pauline Moreno and Debra Lobel, are irresponsible for seeking them and allowing them to be administered.
"This is child abuse. It's like performing liposuction on an anorexic child," said Dr. Paul McHugh, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University.
"It is a disorder of the mind. Not a disorder of the body. Dealing with it in this way is not dealing with the problem that truly exists.
“We shouldn't be mucking around with nature. We can’t assume what the outcome will be," McHugh said.
Dr. Manny Alvarez, senior managing health editor of FoxNews.com, said the hormone blockers also may pose a medical risk. "I think that it’s highly inappropriate to be interfering with natural hormonal growth patterns,” Alvarez said. “There are significant potential problems necessary for growth and development.
"Potential long-term effects can include other abnormalities of hormones, vascular complications and even potential cancer. I think that if this child – as he finishes his puberty and teenage years – decides to undergo a transgender procedure – then there are proper channels to do so.
“But to do it at the age of 11 -- to me -- could be potentially dangerous to the health of this child," he said.
Tommy's parents, Moreno and Lobel, say they support their child and feel this is the best way for him to find an answer to a question he’s been asking all his life. They say Tommy – whom they now call Tammy – began taking GnRH inhibitors over the summer so that he will remain a prepubescent boy until he turns 14 or 15. They say they want to give him more time to explore the female gender identity that he associates with.
Thomas began saying he was a girl when he was 3 years old, his parents said in an interview with the Daily Mail. He was learning sign language due to a speech impediment, and one of the first things he told his mothers was, “I am a girl.” They say they thought he was confused or mistaken, and signed back, 'No. No. Thomas is a boy."
But Thomas insisted, they said. He shook his head “no” and repeated what he had signed.
They said Thomas threatened to mutilate his genitals when he was 7, and psychiatrists diagnosed a gender identity disorder.
One year later, he began transitioning to Tammy.
After much deliberation with family and therapists, the child began taking hormone blockers a few months ago. The medication, which must be changed once a year, was implanted in the boy’s upper left arm.
Tommy will continue this treatment until he turns 14 or 15, at which point he will be taken off the blockers and pursue the gender he feels is the right one. He will then either start his puberty cycle as a boy – or begin making the full transition to a girl.
"There's an increase of children who are telling their parents that they are a different gender. We're trying to understand why there's an increase," said Diane Ehrensaft, a developmental and clinical psychologist and author of the book, "Gender-Born. Gender-Made," who says the trend may be due to a more open society.
But while chemicals are giving children like Tommy more time to decide which side of the fence they belong on, some critics say that some children who question their identity at a very young age might change their mind when they start adolescence.
"Most transgender patients will say that they knew at 6 years old. But what we don't know is how many others had those thoughts and feelings that went away once they hit puberty," said Dr. Jeffrey Spiegel, a professor at Boston University and a plastic surgeon who specializes in facial feminization operations for transgender men.
"While it may be a good therapy for those who've committed to transgender, it may not be good for those who might have changed their mind once they hit puberty and beyond."
Walt Heyer, whose book "Paper Genders" details his own experience transitioning from a man to a woman and back again, agreed. "The blockers should NOT be introduced to a child," Heyer said. "If they are going to make a transition, they should wait to do so when they reach 18 to 20 years old. When you start the therapy at that age you are not dealing with the fact that the mind is not fully developed."
Heyer also cited a Dutch study that said 61 percent of individuals who desire a gender change are found to have secondary psychiatric disorders, such as depression or dissociative disorder, which he suffered from.
Other critics asked whether Tommy’s same-sex parents may be unknowingly influencing his questions about his gender.
“Undue influence on the child simply has to be ruled out,” said psychiatrist Keith Ablow, a Fox News contributor. “It's the psychologically correct thing to do, the ethical thing to do and the moral thing to do."
"Obviously, when two females adopt a male child, then assert that the child is not actually male, but is, instead, actually a female -- like both of them. Everyone in the family should be psychologically evaluated in a comprehensive way before a step like gender reassignment is considered,” said Ablow. •
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SKorean team claims to have cloned coyotes
AP – 4 hrs ago
Yonhap, Shin Young-keun - Disgraced South Korean stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk, right, and Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Moon-su hold a coyote, which is claimed to be cloned, during a donation ceremony
SEOUL,
South Korea (AP) — A South Korean team led by disgraced stem cell scientist
Hwang Woo-suk is claiming to have cloned coyotes for the first time.
The Sooam Biotech Research Foundation said Monday that eight coyotes were born in June as part of its efforts to clone various species of animals in cooperation with South Korea's Gyeonggi Province.
The province says it will raise the coyotes but will later donate them to zoos at home and abroad.
Hwang scandalized the international scientific community in 2005 when his breakthrough human cloning research involving embryonic stem cells was found to have been faked.
Hwang and his former colleagues also created the world's first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005, and that achievement was independently confirmed. •
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*Bless you, fellow believers! Stay strong in Jesus. He could be here for His bride at any time! -Missygirl*
# posted by Missygirl : 3:32 PM
NEWS FOR YOU: Saudis underwrite organization to bring world’s religions under one roof
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is financing a new organization designed to bring all the world’s religions together.
“The organization hopes to prevent conflict through interfaith dialogue,” writes Spencer Kimball for the German news site Deutsche Welle. ”The foreign ministers of Austria, Saudi Arabia and Spain signed the founding treaty of a new international organization designed to foster dialogue between the world’s major religions on Thursday.”
“The thesis is valid that world peace cannot exist without peace between the world’s major religions,” Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said during the signing ceremony in Vienna, according to Deutsche Welle:
The King Abdullah Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, initiated and financed largely by Saudi money, is set to have its seat in Vienna. Plans envision an organization with a governing body composed of 12 representatives from the world’s five largest religions.
The governing body is set to be staffed by two Muslims (Sunni and Shiite), three Christians (Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox), a Buddhist, a Hindu and a Jew. The organization will also have a consulting body with 100 representatives from the five world religions plus other faiths as well as academics and members of civil society.
Austria’s Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said that the organization’s structures are designed to ensure that none of the represented religions dominates the organization. The three founding states are also open to the membership of other countries, according to Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez Garcia-Herrera.
Saudi King Abdullah initiated the idea for the center after visiting Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2007, the first Saudi monarch to do so. Shortly thereafter, King Abdullah stated that Christians and Muslims should offer a common message of peace to humanity.
Abdullah then initiated an interfaith dialogue in Mecca in 2008 followed by a second meeting in Madrid with Jewish representation. A third meeting took place in Vienna’s Hofburg in 2009, where the concept of the organization was agreed upon.
The Initiative of Liberal Muslims protested Thursday’s signing ceremony in Vienna, saying that the center was an attempt by Saudi Arabia to spread a conservative form of Islam.
The idea is not new. In 2003, the Christian Broadcasting Network reported on a UN-sponsored summit of the world’s religions.
“A one world government and a one world religion — it may just sound like fiction from the popular Left Behind novel series,” reported Wendy Griffith for CBN News. “But some Christians say this scenario may be closer than most people think. Earlier this fall in Geneva, hundreds of spiritual and religious leaders met for a peace summit. And although all the major faiths were there, including some who claim to represent Christianity, it was clear that Jesus was not invited.”
To say that many Christians do not welcome the notion of a one-world religion would be an incredible understatement. Just in recent weeks, longtime TV prophecy preacher Jack Van Impe ended decades of broadcasting on the Trinity Broadcasting Network — charging that popular author and pastor Rick Warren has been too cozy with Muslims. Van Impe charged that the intent is a merger of Islam and Christianity — Chrislam. Warren scoffs at the notion, saying that he supports a Christian-Muslim dialogue — and that Christians are required to love all Muslims and win them to Jesus.
In 1997 another conference raised alarms.
“Nearly 200 delegates wrapped up a week-long interfaith meeting at Stanford on Friday, predicting they had given birth to a movement as well as a spiritual institution: the United Religions,” reported the California newspaper San Jose Mercury’s religion and ethics writer Richard Scheinin. “The ‘spiritual United Nations,’ as some have referred to it, would be a world assembly for humanity’s myriad spiritual traditions. The international ‘summit conference’ brought together delegates from every continent to inaugurate formal efforts to figure out the organization’s structure and mission and launch a charter-writing process. After several years of talking, the initiative’s planners had finally gotten down to business.
“‘You are deputized!’ the Rev. William E. Swing, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California, told delegates as they prepared to go home. ‘Tell the people that there is a United Religions, and that somewhere in the world, it is beginning to happen: that the religions are going to have an oasis where they can talk about peace.’”
So, will it happen this time? •
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US on High Alert, Conducts Drill in Israel and Saudi Arabia
The US holds a large-scale aerial exercise in Israel and Saudi Arabia; a navy fleet sails to the region in preparation for terror attacks
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
First Publish: 10/16/2011, 1:19 PM
C-5 transport plane
Israel news photo: Willard E. Grande II Wikimedia Commons
The United States is conducting a week-long large-scale aerial exercise in Israel and Saudi Arabia as a navy fleet sails to the Mediterranean in preparation for any surprise flare-ups in the Middle East as Israel and frees 1,027 terrorists and security prisoners in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.
Intelligence officials have said that terrorist groups, particularly Hizbullah and those based in Gaza, will try to stage attacks on American and Israel targets in the Middle East while the exchange takes place.
“The U.S. Transportation Command and its Air Forces Transportation will be testing its ability to provide a rapid strategic airlift response to major crises and contingencies,” according to DebkaReport.
The American, Saudi and Israel armies are on high alert following last week’s American accusations that Iran plotted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.
The United States also reportedly is sending the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. It provides combat support for ground troops and can plant mines on coasts of Middle East countries.
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Big US airlift drill starts Monday. Fresh Hamas demands for Gilad Shalit DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 16, 2011, 10:10 AM (GMT+02:00)
22nd US Airlift Squadron C-5 transport
The United States launches a large-scale exercise over the Middle East deploying 41 giant transports of the 22nds Airlift Squadron Monday Oct. 17, the day before the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is scheduled to be released by Hamas. The US Transportation Command and its Air Forces Transportation will be testing its ability to provide a rapid strategic airlift response to major crises and contingencies.
Tuesday morning, when the Israel and Hamas prisoner exchange is due to be executed, the giant US transports will drill landings in Israel and Saudi Arabia. The aircraft will be packed with command and control elements and fighting units with full equipment.
debkafile's military sources report that during this critical week, the exercise ending Friday, Oct. 21 will keep an American air fleet in Middle East skies ready to land at any moment for any contingency. The Israeli, Egyptian and Saudi armies are on a high state of preparedness.
In parallel, The USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier is on its way from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. Last Tuesday Oct. 11, as the US officials accused the Iranian government of directing a plot to assassination the Saudi ambassador to Washington, the Stennis was nearing the Red Sea.
Aboard was the Chief of US Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert who was assigned to the operation in this arena shortly after taking up his appointment.
The missions of the Stennis Battle Group, consisting of an additional seven warships, most of them destroyers and frigates, as well as Air Wing CVW-9, are to provide ground troops with combat support and strike land and sea targets. It is also able to sow mines over large areas around coastal regions and on the high sea.
Sunday, Oct. 16, US intelligence sources warned that the operation for the Israeli soldier's recovery from Hamas captivity (paid for by 1,027 jailed Palestinian terrorists) could touch off a spate of terrorist attacks in the region, most likely aimed at US embassies and Israel targets in and outside the country.
A senior US source noted that Iran, Hizballah and Syria might try and disrupt the exchange while it is in progress.
Tehran was furious with Washington for fingering Gholam Shakouri as one of the masterminds of the foiled assassination attempt. Shakouri is Deputy Chief of the Revolutionary Guards' Al Qods Brigades.
Iran, Syria and Hizballah all, furthermore, own an interest in thwarting the transfer of Hamas' political headquarters from Damascus to Cairo which was assured in a secret provision of the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas that was brokered by the US and Egypt.
Oct. 12, the day after the Shalit deal came to light, debkafile's military sources first drew attention to the danger of the three allies activating their undercover agents in the Gaza Strip to stymie the exchange.
On Oct. 14, the same warning was issued by the German spy agency's director Erns Uhrlau.
Sunday, circles in the IDF and Israel Defense Ministry voiced concern about the difficulties still to be overcome before Tuesday arrives. And indeed, that morning, Cairo sources reported hitches in finalizing the transfer arrangements which the prime minister's emissary David Maidan is managing for the Israeli side in Cairo. Those sources reported that Hamas representatives had raised fresh demands over and above the provisions of the prisoner swap accord they signed last week. They sought now to add more Palestinian female prisoners to the 27 agreed; they also wanted to delay the deportation of 40 hard-core terrorists to host countries and demanded that they stay in Egypt before their transfer.
Western sources report that Hamas hast yet to ask any foreign country to receive them. •
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Hamas will snatch more Israelis until all 8,000 Palestinian terrorists freed DEBKAfile Special Report October 12, 2011, 5:40 PM (GMT+02:00)
Khaled Meshaal still on the warpath
Tuesday night, Oct. 10, the Israeli cabinet by a majority of 26 approved the accord with Hamas for the release of Gilead Shalit. Three ministers opposed the deal – Avigdor Lieberman and Uzzi Landau of the Israel Beteinu party and Moshe Yaalon of Likud.
The Israeli soldier will gain his freedom – probably next week – after he was hidden by Hamas in the Gaza Strip for more than five years. Israel will hand over 1,027 Palestinian terrorists, cutting short the life sentences of 280 mass murderers responsible for hundreds of Israeli deaths. Among them are Israeli Arabs and East Jerusalem residents convicted on charges of terrorismn as concessions made by Israel to clinch the deal. Of the 110 allowed to return to the West Bank and Jerusalem, 55 are members of Hamas.
All Israel's security chiefs, from Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, the Shin Bet Director Yoram Cohen and Mossad head Tamir Pardo, approved the exchange, which requires Israel to pay the highest price every to secure the release of one soldier. It means that hundreds of arch-terrorists, high-profile activists, will be turned loose, although most face deportation overseas, some to Turkey, or to the Gaza Strip.
None is immune from punishment should they repeat their crimes, the Shin Bet Director promised. However, Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal, who signed the exchange deal, vowed to continue efforts to kidnap Israeli soldiers to obtain the release of more prisoners. The Shalit abduction was not the last, he said: "We got 1,027 out of jail and we'll recover the remaining 8,000 too."
He was strongly echoed by radical Palestinian leaders in the Gaza Strip as they prepared a heroes' welcome for the homecoming terrorists.
The full list is due to be published Sunday, Oct. 16 on the Internet. Israelis wishing to appeal against the releases, such as the bereaved families of terrorist victims, will have 48 hours to do so. But Netanyahu's acceptance of the deal is widely popular and unlikely to be challenged.
Aviva and Noam Shalit, parents of the kidnapped soldier, are finally folding their tent opposite the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem after a year and two months of occupancy and five years of ceaseless campaigning across the world. They swore they would not go home and return to their lives until they could take Gilad with them.
The Egyptian media in hailing the prisoner exchange highlighted the praise Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu heaped on their government and security services for their key role in brokering the deal.
According to an unconfirmed report, the American-Israeli citizen Ilan Grapel held in Egypt on charges of spying and incitement to burn government buildings is included in the prisoner package in return for the release of more than 80 Egyptians in Israeli jails, most of them security offendors. •
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Get your peanut butter -- before prices soar
By James O'Toole October 14, 2011: 3:58 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Brace yourselves, peanut butter lovers -- prices are set to spike following one of the worst peanut harvest seasons growers have seen in years.
Prices for a ton of runner peanuts, commonly used to make peanut butter, hit nearly $1,200 this week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up from just $450 per ton a year ago.
It won't be long before consumers see this price increase reflected on store shelves.
Kraft (KFT, Fortune 500) will raise prices for its Planters brand peanut butter by 40% starting Oct. 31, while ConAgra (CAG, Fortune 500) expects increases of more than 20% for its Peter Pan brand.
A spokesperson for Unilever (UL), which makes Skippy, would say only that it's watching the situation "very closely."
Representatives for J.M. Smucker (SJM, Fortune 500), which makes Jif, did not respond to a request for comment, though the Associated Press reported that Jif's wholesale prices are set to rise 30% in November.
What's to blame for this sticky situation? The intense heat and drought that hit the southern U.S. this year, said John Beasley, a professor of crop physiology and management at the University of Georgia.
"It was just unmerciful, and we had a lot of problems setting the crop," he said. "I literally walked some fields that had zero yield."
In addition, Beasley said, high prices last year for other crops, such as cotton, corn and soy beans, led farmers who might otherwise have grown peanuts to focus their efforts elsewhere.
Overall, U.S. peanut production will hit 3.6 billion pounds this year, down 13% from last year, according to a Department of Agriculture report released this week.
Americans spend almost $800 million a year on peanut butter and consume more than six pounds of peanut products each year, according to The National Peanut Board, a farmer-funded research group.
Sales may not be so smooth during the looming price crunch. In any case, though, a shift in peanut butter consumption shouldn't make a huge difference to the nutritional quality of most Americans' diets, said Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor at New York University.
"For the average person in America," she said, "it would be a good idea to eat less of almost everything." 
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Heavy rains hammer Central America; 36 dead
AP – Fri, Oct 14, 2011
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Heavy rains generated by a low-pressure system hammered
Central America for a third day Friday, putting officials on alert in countries where mudslides and
swollen rivers have already killed 36 people.
At least 21 people have been killed in Guatemala and thousands of others were evacuated or saw their homes destroyed by the incessant downpours.
In El Salvador, rivers have overflowed their banks, destroying villages and prompting an evacuation of about 4,000 people from their homes, the country's disaster management office said in a statement Friday.
In Honduras, six people have been killed in floods and the roads connecting the nation to Guatemala have been destroyed. Other communities have been left isolated by the floods. In Nicaragua, four people have died this week.
The system is expected to hover over the region for the next couple of days, generating more rainfall, said the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Irwin was weakening and drifting away from Mexico in the Pacific, three days after Hurricane Jova slammed into the same coast, killing six people.
Irwin's maximum sustained winds as of Friday afternoon were near 45 mph (75 kph), and the storm could begin weakening on Saturday, the hurricane center said.
Irwin was centered about 165 miles (265 kilometers) west of Manzanillo, Mexico, and moving south-southeast at about 2 mph (4 kph). •
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Bless you, fellow believers! Stay strong in Jesus.
He could be here for His bride at any time! -Missygirl*
# posted by Missygirl : 6:22 PM
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