9/11 third tower mystery 'solved'

Isaiah 30:19-25 O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left. And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, "Be gone!" Then He will give you rain for the seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be rich and plenteous; on that day your livestock will graze in a roomy pasture. Also the oxen and the donkeys which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. On every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be streams running with water on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. BBC NEWS [PSB operated by BBC Trust] - By Mike Rudin, BBC, Conspiracy Files - July 4, 2008 The final mystery of 9/11 will soon be solved, according to US experts [Experts? how do we know?] investigating the collapse of the third tower at the World Trade Center. The 47-storey third tower, known as Tower Seven, collapsed seven hours after the twin towers. Investigators are expected to say ordinary fires on several different floors caused the collapse. Conspiracy theorists [Notice how immediately the BBC paints a picture that these are only "conspiracy theroists", in other words, friut-cakes -- but when you read further they actually are professionals who look at these things for a living] have argued that the third tower was brought down in a controlled demolition. Unlike the twin towers, Tower Seven was not hit by a plane. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, based near Washington DC, is expected to conclude in its long-awaited report this month that ordinary fires caused the building to collapse. That would make it the first and only steel skyscraper in the world to collapse because of fire. The National Institute of Standards and Technology's lead investigator, Dr Shyam Sunder, spoke to BBC Two's "The Conspiracy Files": "Our working hypothesis now actually suggests that it was normal building fires that were growing and spreading throughout the multiple floors that may have caused the ultimate collapse of the buildings." 'Smoking gun' However, a group of architects, engineers and scientists say the official explanation that fires caused the collapse is impossible. Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth argue there must have been a controlled demolition. The founder of the group, Richard Gage, says the collapse of the third tower is an obvious example of a controlled demolition using explosives. "Building Seven is the smoking gun of 9/11… A sixth grader can look at this building falling at virtually freefall speed, symmetrically and smoothly, and see that it is not a natural process. "Buildings that fall in natural processes fall to the path of least resistance", says Gage, "they don't go straight down through themselves." Conspiracy theories There are a number of facts that have encouraged conspiracy theories about Tower Seven. * Although its collapse potentially made architectural history, all of the thousands of tonnes of steel from the skyscraper were taken away to be melted down. * The third tower was occupied by the Secret Service, the CIA, the Department of Defence and the Office of Emergency Management, which would co-ordinate any response to a disaster or a terrorist attack. * The destruction of the third tower was never mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report. The first official inquiry into Tower Seven by the Federal Emergency Management Agency was unable to be definitive about what caused its collapse. * In May 2002 FEMA concluded that the building collapsed because intense fires had burned for hours, fed by thousands of gallons of diesel stored in the building. But it said this had "only a low probability of occurrence" and more work was needed. But now nearly seven years after 9/11 the definitive official explanation of what happened to Tower Seven is finally about to be published in America. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has spent more than two years investigating Tower Seven but lead investigator Dr Shyam Sunder rejects criticism that it has been slow. "We've been at this for a little over two years and doing a two or two and a half year investigation is not at all unusual. That's the same kind of time frame that takes place when we do aeroplane crash investigations, it takes a few years." With no steel from Tower 7 to study, investigators have instead made four extremely complex computer models worked out to the finest detail. They're confident their approach can now provide the answers. Dr Sunder says the investigation is moving as fast as possible. "It's a very complex problem. It requires a level of fidelity in the modelling and rigour in the analysis that has never been done before." Other skyscrapers haven't fully collapsed before because of fire. But NIST argues that what happened on 9/11 was unique. Steel structure weakened It says Tower Seven had an unusual design, built over an electricity substation and a subway; there were many fires that burnt for hours; and crucially, fire fighters could not fight the fires in Tower 7, because they didn't have enough water and focused on saving lives. Investigators have focused on the east side where the long floor spans were under most stress. They think fires burnt long enough to weaken and break many of the connections that held the steel structure together. Most susceptible were the thinner floor beams which required less fireproofing, and the connections between the beams and the columns. As they heated up the connections failed and the beams sagged and failed, investigators say. The collapse of the first of the Twin Towers does not seem to have caused any serious damage to Tower Seven, but the second collapse of the 1,368ft (417m) North Tower threw debris at Tower Seven, just 350ft (106m) away. Tower Seven came down at 5.21pm. Until now most of the photographs have been of the three sides of the building that did not show much obvious physical damage. Now new photos of the south side of the building, which crucially faced the North Tower, show that whole side damaged and engulfed in smoke. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7485331.stm Ed Note. If you think WT7 was brought down by fire see these videos: This one by CNN has a cop warning that the building is about to come down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwjmqkjwnvQ
Here is another short video concerning the WT7 collapse and controlled demolitions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-c-6qkbxd0
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Is Judgment falling on the anti-Christian, anti-Israeli Press?

Ed Note: A collection of article regarding the industry wide downturn in circulation and ad revenue for Newspapers. There has been a decline occurring for some time due to an aging subscriber base as well as technological changes such as the Internet having had an effect on the industry. However, these concerns are considered within projected circulation numbers and even in some cases certain news organizations such as The New York Times have gained circulation due to growing online subscriptions. But this recent downtrend has caught nearly everyone off guard forcing newsgroups to re-evaluate projected circulation numbers (from which ad revenue is based) and has led to sudden layoffs, staff reductions and even talks of certain publications shutting down their presses for good. Certainly the terrible economy is playing a part in all of this, but I can’t help but wonder if a press that has been so anti-Israel in the face of any rational reasoning and anti-Christian as well is now facing some well deserved judgment from the One whom avenges His people. LA Times to cut 250 jobs, including 150 news jobs ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Ryan Nakashima - July 2, 2008 LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Times plans to cut 250 positions, including 150 jobs in the print and online news departments, amid a continuing industrywide slump in ad sales, the paper's editor said Wednesday. The decline in advertising, fueled by a weak real estate market, has boosted the copy-to-ads ratio above the industry target of 50-50, giving readers more stories than they can digest, while the paper competes for attention with the Internet and TV, editor Russ Stanton said. - - - The move followed an announcement last week that the paper's parent, Tribune Co., is exploring the sale of its headquarters in Chicago and the building in downtown Los Angeles that houses the Times. A half-dozen major newspapers announced layoffs last week totaling about 900 jobs. Also Wednesday, Journal Sentinel Inc. said it would cut about 10 percent of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's 1,300 full-time employees, and Media General Inc. said it would lay off 21 newsroom employees at The Tampa Tribune by early fall as part of a one-fifth cut in its news staff. - - - - http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080702/la_times_cuts.html?.v=1 Tampa Tribune plans to cut one-fifth of newsroom ASSOCIATED PRESS - July 2, 2008 TAMPA, Fla. - The Tampa Tribune plans to lay off 11 newsroom employees this week and another 10 by early fall as part of a one-fifth cut in the news staff. Along with the 29 people who took voluntary buyouts and tendered resignations, the job losses announced Tuesday will leave the Tribune with a news staff of about 200, the paper said Wednesday. The cuts, part of a corporate reduction announced in May, are the latest sign of how the newspaper industry is being hurt by a weakened economy and the emergence of the Internet as an alternative medium for advertising. - - - - http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D91LSILO1&show_article=1 FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Most Doctors Aren’t Using Electronic Health Records

NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Steve Lohr - June 19, 2008 A government-sponsored survey of the use of computerized patient records by doctors points to two seemingly contradictory conclusions, and a health care system at odds with itself. The report, published online on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that doctors who use electronic health records say overwhelmingly that such records have helped improve the quality and timeliness of care. Yet fewer than one in five of the nation’s doctors has started using such records. Bringing patient records into the computer age, experts say, is crucial to improving care, reducing errors and containing costs in the American health care system. The slow adoption of the technology is mainly economic. Most doctors in private practice, especially those in small practices, lack the financial incentive to invest in computerized records. The national survey found that electronic records were used in less than 9 percent of small offices with one to three doctors, where nearly half of the country’s doctors practice medicine. - - - - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/technology/19patient.html?ex=1371614400&en=ff467606eb24767e&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Even the Leaders Think the Homosexual Activist Movement in Canada is Going Too Far

LIFESITENEWS.com - By Thaddeus M. Baklinski - May 12, 2008 TORONTO -- EGALE (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere) Canada, the homosexual activist group that has consistently worked to silence opposition to homosexual activity, has sent a letter to the president and CEO of Canada Post, asking them to censor the mail. The letter, from current executive director of EGALE Canada, Helen Kennedy, asked for a meeting with Canada Post to discuss the use of the mail by record companies and bookstores to distribute music that EGALE says may promote hatred based on a person's sexual orientation. But Gilles Marchildon, the executive director of EGALE from 2003 to 2006, says EGALE has gone too far, especially in asking Canada Post to censor material. In a surprising about face, Marchildon said, "Regarding offensive lyrics by certain artists, I'm glad EGALE has raised the issue because it never hurts to underline the existence of homophobia. But I'm personally not comfortable with inviting government agencies to play a censorship role." "The danger, of course, is that once you advocate in favour of curbing freedom of expression, where does it stop and who's going to decide where the line gets drawn?" he asks. "Let us recall history. When governments have played the role of censor they've usually done it at the expense of the LGBT community and of its artistic and/or sexual freedom." The obvious double standard being pushed by the EGALE executive director seems to be wearing away the groups credibility, even within its own ranks. Marchildon said Egale has failed to explain its position in inviting Canada Post to censor. "In fact," he said, "EGALE is failing to explain much of anything to its members." In 2004, Egale discussed launching a campaign to shut down LifeSiteNews.com through harassment lawsuits aimed at bankrupting the news service, which received threatening emails from homosexual activists including those from EGALE list-serve members accusing LifeSiteNews.com of hate propaganda and some suggesting criminal prosecution under Canada's new hate crime law. Derek Rogusky, Vice President of Family Policy and Community Impact for Focus on the Family Canada said, "The reality is that gay activists want to wipe out any dissenting opinion. It is ironic that those demanding tolerance are not offering tolerance as well." See related LifeSiteNews.com article: Canadian Homosexual Activists on EGALE List-Serve Discuss How to Shut Down LifeSite http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08051208.html?CFID=2327540&CFTOKEN=5ffb05bb45984ac-DF57FC28-0F25-1491-F07E17BC61EAA50A FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

'Demonic' grunts, barks confront prayer warriors

Film reveals vitriol, hatred directed at pro-life activists WORLDNETDAILY - January 24, 2008 A new video posted by the Catholic-based Gloria TV has documented the "demonic" behavior of pro-abortion activists who grunt, bark and shriek in the faces of pro-life prayer warriors in Vienna. With jaws slack, eyes glazed, tongues hanging out and fingers arched, the abortion activists are in the pay of prominent Vienna abortionist Christian Fiala, according to the video report, which describes the individuals as "a paid attack troop" set in motion to "harass and humiliate the pro-lifers." The video, available on the Gloria TV website, shows animalistic behavior, with growling, name-calling, barking, groaning, screaming and uncontrolled laughing and giggling sounds. Father Markus Doppelbauer, who contributes to the editing of the website, told WND that abortion remains a flashpoint topic in Austria. "Part of the socialist strategy is to systematically denigrate the pro-lifers," he said. "The socialists love to accuse them in public statements of 'psycho-terror' and other atrocities." Especially picked out as targets are members of Human Life International, which employs street workers to stand on public ground in front of abortion businesses in Vienna and Graz. Some pray quietly and others propose to help mothers-to-be arriving at the abortion businesses, the report said. He said the new video documents the "demonic screaming and satanic behavior" of the "attack troop." - - - - http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59840 FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

U.S. Military honchos 'suppress' chaplain's Baptist services

Was told being 'born again' has 'no place' in Army life WORLDNETDAILY - By Bob Unruh - May 16, 2008 An investigation is being sought by a Christian church organization in the United States after the U.S. Army deliberately shut down a service one of its sponsored chaplains was running for U.S. military service personnel at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in Iraq. The complaint by Associated Gospel Churches, a fellowship of Independent Fundamental Christian churches, has been forwarded to the Army by U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., seeking an Army Inspector General investigation. Rev. G. William Baugham, the chairman of the AGC's commission on chaplains, told WND that the circumstances are particularly egregious since it appears it was a representative from another Christian denomination that closed down the service that had been operated at FOB Loyalty by Chaplain Stuart Kazarovich, who has been endorsed by the AGC. The services held by Kazarovich were shut down for five weeks, from July 8-Aug. 12, 2007, the organization's report on the situation confirmed. "Because this information is now in the public domain, the AGC acknowledges that the Fundamental Baptist service led by Chaplain Stuart Kazarovich, an AGC endorsed chaplain, appears to have been suppressed because it was offensive to the brigade chaplain," Baugham told WND in a prepared statement. - - - WND also has reported on the battle waged by Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, who actually was separated from the military for his decision to pray "in Jesus' name." - - - - http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=64495 FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Court scolds city for 'hostility' toward church

Federal judge finds fault with planners seeking to zone out house of worship WORLDNETDAILY - May 16, 2008 A federal court has taken the unusual step of criticizing San Diego for its "outright hostility" toward a Rancho Bernardo church and its failure to consider "relevant federal law." The dispute arose when Grace Church of North County approached officials with a plan to lease space in the same complex where a pair of religious institutions earlier operated. It was too much for city officials. First, the Rancho Bernardo community planning board tried to deny Grace Church a 10-year permit for the property. A San Diego city officer, however, approved a 7-year permit, compelling the board to appeal. Though community planners knew Grace Church needed 10 years to complete a long-term relocation plan, they whittled the permit down to five years, and made it non-renewable. "These things have a tendency to become quasi-permanent," warned a former planning board chair, "that's why we're kind of opposed." City officials and neighboring businessmen argued that a church would "change the complexion" of the area, that it would "send the wrong message to the business community" and that potential building occupants may not want "to be next to a church." The U.S. District Court of Southern California, however, sided with the church, and took exception to the planning board's behavior. The court cited the 2000 Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which essentially requires governments to allow churches to operate within reason, to overrule the city's denial of the 10-year permit. Furthermore, the court stated that Grace Church had faced "decision-making that is seemingly arbitrary and pretextual." The church also had been subjected to "ignorance regarding the requirements of controlling federal law" and even "outright hostility." In southern California's high-priced land market, such disputes are not uncommon. In 2003, an Oceanside city planner suggested a ban on churches in industrial zones. In 2002, El Cajon refused Foothills Christian Fellowship a place in the Towne Center mall until a lawsuit convinced the city to relent. The Alliance Defense Fund, a coalition of Christian attorneys who work to preserve religious liberty, represented Grace Church in the dispute. - - - - http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=64496 FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Religion Joins Custody Cases, to Judges’ Unease

NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Neela Banerjee - February 13, 2008 MADISON, Ala. - On a January night nine years ago, Laura Snider was saved. A 27-year-old single mother at the time, Mrs. Snider felt she had ruined her life through a disastrous marriage and divorce. But in her kitchen that night, after reading pamphlets and Bible passages that her boss had pointed her to, she realized she was a sinner, she said, she prayed for forgiveness, and put her trust in Christ. Four years later, the conservative brand of Christianity Mrs. Snider embraced became the source of a bitter, continuing custody battle over her only child, Libby Mashburn. Across the country, child-custody disputes in which religion is the flash point are increasing, part of a broader rise in custody conflicts over the last 30 years, lawyers, judges and mediators say. “There has definitely been an increase in conflict over religious issues,” said Ronald William Nelson, a Kansas family lawyer who is chairman of the custody committee of the American Bar Association’s family law section. “Part of that is there has been an increase of conflicts between parents across the board, and with parents looking for reasons to justify their own actions.” Another factor, he said, is the rise of intermarriage and greater willingness by Americans to convert. Nobody keeps track of who wins in these religious disputes, but lawyers say that judges are just as likely to rule in favor of the more religiously engaged parent as the other way around. That is because, for constitutional reasons, judges are reluctant to base their rulings primarily on the religious preferences of parents. Judges do not want to take on custody disputes rooted in religion, said lawyers like Gaetano Ferro, who until recently served as president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Mr. Ferro said, “How will a judge say in any rational fashion that Islam is better than Buddhism, Catholicism better than Judaism, or Methodism better than Pentecostalism?” As a result, more and more states have tried to keep custody disputes out of court by mandating mediation. But the effect has been piecemeal, and religious disputes have proven to be among the most difficult to resolve, lawyers said. From the age of 1 month, Mrs. Snider’s daughter had lived with her, and later Mrs. Snider’s new husband, Brian Snider, with occasional visits to her biological father. But in 2003, when Libby was 6, an Alabama court gave primary custody to her father, William Mashburn, after he and Mrs. Snider’s own family argued that the strict religious upbringing Libby received at her mother’s home, which involved modest dress, teachings about sin and salvation, and limited exposure to popular culture, was damaging her. “We were easy targets because we were made to look like cultists,” Mrs. Snider, 36, said. “I think whether anyone admits it or not, almost all of the ruling had to do with religion. Nothing I had done was called into question except that.” Generally, custody disputes are resolved outside the courtroom, lawyers said. Such cases have increased, however, because a generation ago, mothers almost always got custody and were responsible for nearly all aspects of children’s upbringing. But now, both parents are usually involved in raising children after divorce, and that can lead to dispute. Data regarding custody cases are not uniform, according to the National Center for State Courts, but for 10 states for which it has data from 2002, all show an increase in custody cases coming to trial. Conflicts sometimes arise when an interfaith marriage dissolves or when one parent converts to a different religion after divorce. In Oregon, a dispute between James Boldt and his former wife, Lia, was recently decided by the State Supreme Court. Mr. Boldt, the custodial parent, converted to Judaism after the divorce and sought to have their son, now 12, convert, and be circumcised. The court ruled that custodial parents could generally decide if a child should be circumcised. But given the son’s age, it ordered the lower court to ascertain his wishes. If they conflict with his father’s, the court may have to reconsider the custody arrangement, the court ruled. Tensions can emerge when one parent takes a turn toward fundamentalism. In 2006, the United States Supreme Court let stand a decision by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania that permitted Stanley Shepp to tell his 14-year-old daughter about polygamy. Mr. Shepp and his former wife, Tracey Roberts, were Mormons living in York, Pa., when they married. But Mr. Shepp espoused polygamy as a tenet of their faith. Ms. Roberts contends that Mr. Shepp spoke to one of her daughters from a previous marriage about marrying him, which he denies. She left Mr. Shepp and has primary custody of their daughter. He was excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for his polygamist views and is now part of a Mormon fundamentalist movement in Utah. Mr. Shepp petitioned for better-defined custody rights for his daughter, but Ms. Roberts objected because he had exposed the child to polygamist Mormon communities. The court upheld Mr. Shepp’s right to teach his daughter about polygamy, saying it could not find evidence that such teaching harmed her physical or mental health. Judges risk violating the separation of church and state if they try to choose the faith a child should be raised in, legal experts said. But in situations like Libby Mashburn’s, judgments about parenting can become entwined with religion. In upholding the rulings of lower courts to grant primary custody to Mr. Mashburn, the Supreme Court of Alabama said the Sniders’s involvement in missionary work took Libby away from her extended family in Alabama. The Sniders are quietly, unapologetically fundamentalist. They believe that American culture, even conservative denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention, has drifted perilously far from biblical teachings. They attend a large Independent Baptist church in Madison, where the music, the sanctuary and the congregants are unadorned and old-fashioned. Women wear skirts as a sign of modesty. They do not swim in mixed company. They eschew rock music and nearly all popular culture. They do not drink, smoke or swear. The Sniders have raised Libby, now 11, in that tradition. But it has put them at odds with Mr. Mashburn and Mrs. Snider’s family. Mr. Mashburn and his lawyer declined to comment . Mrs. Snider said she understood that Libby might wear pants at her father’s home or go to the movies. But she insisted that Mr. Mashburn not swear or drink in front of Libby or expose her to inappropriate movies and music, which, she said, he has repeatedly done. The Sniders have repeatedly appealed to win back primary custody. They are awaiting yet another decision from a hearing in November. At the last hearing, Libby, who spends about 40 percent of her time with the Sniders, testified against Mr. Mashburn. “I’m more of my mom’s religion, and my dad sometimes talks bad about my mom,” she said. “He called it a cult, and it’s definitely not a cult. It kind of makes me mad sometimes. Maybe he thinks her religion may be bad for me, but I think mainly he doesn’t like my mom and is using that as an excuse.” Some states like California and Connecticut have taken innovative steps to get parents to resolve custody issues outside court. In Connecticut, for example, those seeking a court order have to meet with a family-relations specialist in an effort to negotiate. If that fails, they attend a daylong session to settle their differences before a panel that includes a lawyer and a mental health professional. Even after a case goes to court, little may be resolved. Aaron Petty of Minneapolis and Gineen Gove of Black River Falls, Wis., had their daughter, Basyl, 17 years ago. The couple split up when Basyl was 4. Soon afterward, Ms. Gove married, and she and her husband converted to Old Order Amish. As Mr. Petty saw his daughter over the years, he became concerned, he said, when Basyl was about 11 and he learned that the Goves would not let her go to school past eighth grade, a common decision among the Amish. Mr. Petty petitioned for primary custody so that Basyl might continue her education. “This case wasn’t about religion for me,” he said. “It was about her education.” He won the case when Basyl was 14, but she disappeared. Mr. Petty said he suspected Basyl was living within the Amish community. The Goves declined to talk about the case. “I wanted to offer my daughter options for her future, in case she grew up and didn’t remain Amish,” Mr. Petty said in a phone interview. “At 12, 13, 14, making lasting drastic decisions based on faith isn’t an appropriate time.” Mr. Petty’s voice caught as he continued. “Was that case worth fighting? In hindsight, no. I haven’t seen my daughter in two-and-a-half years.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/us/13custody.html?ex=1360645200&en=2fa24bb09d77ef8e&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

'Gays' shut down discussion of faith

Psychiatrists pull symposium on 'The Religious Dimension' WORLDNETDAILY - By Bob Unruh - May 2, 2008 A discussion on religion, homosexuality and therapy that had been scheduled during the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in Washington has been shut down following an attack by a "gay" publication on some of the people planning to participate. The symposium called "Homosexuality and Therapy: The Religion Dimension," had been in the plans for months at the APA convention in Washington, and was to feature advocates for homosexuality including New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson of the Episcopal church and was to be moderated by Harvard psychiatrist John Peteet. Others scheduled to be on the podium included Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton, who has studied related issues intensively, and Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. But the event, scheduled Monday, has been yanked from the schedule, according to the APA, because of the "misinformation and rhetoric" that was circulating about the issue. Peter LaBarbera, of Americans for Truth, said the reaction to a plan to talk "shows the intellectual shallowness of the gay side." "They're afraid of a debate," he said, noting it wouldn't be correct to "paint Warren Throckmorton as the religious right." "The gay activists don't want to admit ex-gays exist, when they clearly do," he said. The attack was launched by the Gay City News publication, which on April 24 denigrated Throckmorton as "a psychologist without state board certification and an advocate for 'sexual identity therapy','' and quoted opponents calling him a "spin doctor of the ex-gay myth." The article quoted those warning of the symposium's "potential harm." The APA statement on the cancellation said the organizer "decided to withdraw because a key participant who would have brought balance to the discussion had withdrawn. In addition, misinformation and rhetoric surrounding this event had risen to a level that would hinder the kind of open dialogue and interaction that was originally anticipated." - - - - http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=63198 FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

The Moses Code Deception

SPIRITUAL RESEARCH NETWORK - By Christopher Lawson - Revised and Update March 10, 2008 On the weekend of April 5-6, 2008, there will be a new movie released called The Moses Code. Musician, author and speaker James Twyman, who is the creator and purportedly the gifted "receiver" of The Moses Code, claims that he has been given "the key" to unlock "The Moses Code". He claims that The Moses Code is "...the most powerful manifestation tool in the history of the world." [www.themosescode.com; Interview transcript from Leading Edge, Untiy Radio, Feb 11, 2008] The Moses Code movie is presented this way:

The film focuses on the power of "Soul Manifestation," drawing upon your own innate spiritual connection to produce miracles everywhere you go. Many other films and books have focused on using the Law of Attraction to "get" the things we believe we need, eg. houses, cars or other goods. The Moses Code takes the next much more important step-how do we use this law to "give" from our soul, automatically attracting spiritual blessings into our lives. [ http://www.themosescode.com/index.php?p=Movie ]

UNLOCKING 'THE MOSES CODE' Along with a number of other incredible claims made on The Moses Code website, the basic idea behind The Moses Code is that humans can now, "for the first time in 3,500 years" - "insert a comma" into the divine Name of God [I AM THAT I AM (Exodus 3:14)] and see "miracles manifest". Now, in the 21st century, WE can begin to say an unbiblical version of God's Name - " I AM THAT , I AM ", and get what we want - so the story goes. The claim is being made by James Twyman that this is "the key" to "unlocking" the long lost "Moses "Code". Twyman also claims that in utilizing this "technique" one can "manifest divine miracles" - and that humans can have whatever they desire. AN OCCULT PERVERSION Here's the problem though. The Moses Code is based on a blatant occult perversion of the biblical Name that God ascribed to Himself. A basic straightforward reading of the biblical text will reveal what God's intention was when He revealed His Name to Moses. Exodus 3:13-15 clearly states:

13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? 14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. 15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. [Note: The above self-designation of God is also rendered as I AM WHO I AM. Emphasis and underlining added for emphasis]

James Twyman and The Moses Code movie and book actually change 'The Name' of God to "I AM THAT , I AM" and then utilize it as a self- affirmation to "manifest miracles". They say that the insertion of a comma is "the key" to unlock the "Code" and then God can "manifest power" through humans. But Twyman's God is not the biblical God. If Twyman's God was the biblical God, Twyman would never in a million years take the liberty to pervert 'The Name' of God into an occult technique. We say ocult technique because that is what it is. Only now it has been sprayed with biblical terminology. Much like the book and movie 'The Secret', this new "Code" claims to bring about 'The Law of Attraction'. The 'Law of Attraction' is nothing more than occultism repackaged for the masses. The idea behind the occult is to tap into so-called "unseen universal energies". How do we know? Multitudinous volumes of occult literature is jam packed with the "Law of Attraction' principles. (See also Word Faith, Positive Confession, Witchcraft, Prosperity Gospel, etc.) Just for the record, The Moses Code movie Featured Speakers list is comprised of a number of extremely well known and powerful psychic mediums, channelers, New Age intuitives, etc. We issue a strong warning here against all forms of occultism as the God of the bible Himself thoroughly condems it in every form. (For a vast listing of Scriptural warnings and condemnations of occultism see the following links: Sorcery, Necromancy, Spiritism (necromancy and sorcery), Astrology, Familiar Spirits, Witchcraft, Divination, etc. SELF-AFFIRMATIONS, DIVINE-NESS, AND ANTICHRIST Through the use of modern technology, people around the world are being trained through movies, books, audio messages, study centers, websites, etc. to claim "I AM - ness" [self-divinity], to claim to be God, or gods, or part of God, etc. (See pantheism, pan-en-theism, polytheism, occultism, New Age-ism, etc.) These so-called "methods" and "self-affirmations" of "divine-ness" and "I AM THAT, I AM" - ness are simply small prototypes of what will one day happen when The Coming World Leader, 'the Man of Sin' whom the bible calls Antichrist, sits "in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God". When Antichrist does that people will hail him as a god. This is the genius of Satan. Remember the sober warning of Paul the Apostle"

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

THE MOSES CODE'S GLOBAL NEW AGE PEACE VIGIL Lastly, The Moses Code video and movie are being used as teaching tools in conjunction with a worldwide New Age peace vigil. At over 1000 locations around the globe, "Moses Code" groupies will be attempting to "shift planetary consciousness". So that our readers can see clearly that we are not misrepresenting the announcement and claim of The Moses Code, the following statement can be found on the The Moses Code homepage:

It's time for the next stage! The director of The Secret, Drew Heriot, presents...The Moses Code! Executive Producer Drew Heriot and Director James Twyman announce a film that will change the world. Join millions of people from every corner of the globe in activating a 3500 year old technology that has been banned since the time of Moses. Then on April 6th, we will activate the Code and focus it on the Middle East. For the first time a major spiritual film is being combined with a worldwide prayer vigil focused on shifting the planetary consciousness. There will be over 1000 gatherings that weekend, and you could help sponsor one in your town. Please join us for an experience that will change the world. [Bold emphasis in original; underlining added for our emphasis]

A WARNING FROM GOD HIMSELF One may ask, "Well what happens if I do "The Moses Code" and something r e a l l y d o e s h a p p e n ?" The answer to that can be found a bit further on in the book of Exodus, in chapter thirteen. We quote the following verses at length in order to clearly show the context in which the warning is given, and also to show that demonic "miracles" can and do happen when false prophets deceive people 'under the guise' of the true 'Name' of God. In the words of Yahweh Himself, the One Who claimed to be "I AM THAT I AM" (More correctly rendered "I AM WHO I AM", Exodus 3:14)

1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, 2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; 3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. 5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. 6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; 7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; 8 Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: 9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 11 And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.

We don't stone false teachers and false prophets today, but we are commanded in Scripture to warn people about their deceptions! - - - - - NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE MOSES CODE DECEPTION? If you would like to find out more about the spiritually deceptive nature of The Moses Code technique, you can visit our New SRN Podcast page and listen to my new audio messages we have recorded. - - - -

See Original Article for Emphasis http://www.spiritual-research-network.com/themosescode.html

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

The Moses Code - Taking the Next Step Toward a World Wide Awakening

LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS RESEARCH PROJECT - Coming From The Lighthouse Newsletter - March 4, 2008 On April 5th, The Moses Code film will be released in a "unique synchronized worldwide opening" 1, just a few weeks after this week's release of the book with the same title. The book and film will most likely become best sellers with expected promotion by Oprah Winfrey and others of influence. The book/film is following the release of last year's The Secret, which has remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for over 59 weeks. The Secret, also a book/film, was highly promoted by Oprah and carries a similar-type message. In essence, both projects focus on humanity being divine and having the ability to alter our personal lives and ultimately alter the world in which we live through hidden mysteries that the projects supposedly reveal. The publisher of The Moses Code details the theme of the project:

Is it possible that nearly 3,500 years ago, Moses was given the secret for attracting everything you've ever desired? The Moses Code was first used to create some of the greatest miracles in the history of the world, but then it was hidden away, and only the highest initiates were allowed to practice it. In this book, James F. Twyman reveals the Code for the first time, showing how it can be used to create miracles in your life . . . and in the world. By practicing the principles presented within these pages, you'll discover how you can integrate the most powerful manifestation tool in the history of the world into your own life.

The Moses Code is a kind of sequel or next step to The Secret that focused on the Law of Attraction, which, if practiced faithfully, promises to help one obtain his or her hopes and dreams. The Secret tells readers and viewers how this is possible: "You are God in a physical body ... You are all power ... You are all intelligence ... You are the creator"( p. 164). Incidentally, the author of The Secret, Rhonda Byrne, thanks a group of spirit guides called Abraham for "their inspirational teachings" (p. xv). Now, The Moses Code takes followers further along the metaphysical road:

You may have been told that this Law is all about "getting" the things you want--things that you think will make your life more satisfying. But what if that's just the first step, and cracking the Moses Code depends more on what you're willing to "give" rather than "get." That would mean that you have the power to create miracles in your life right now! It would also mean that you have the ability, even the responsibility, to use that power for more than just attracting money, a better car, or the perfect relationship. You're here to use the power of Divinity itself to create a world based on the laws of compassion and peace. That's the task that lies before us.

In a YouTube trailer preview of The Moses Code, viewers are instructed to say to themselves I AM statements to help affirm their own divinity and power. In one segment, a man says, "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the light [life]." Lighthouse Trails spoke with a Moses Code staff member on March 3rd and was told that the film "was re-edited in a significant way" which led "to re-edit the trailer as well." The new trailer (which can be seen on the Moses Code website) is much different than the original one. Dropping from over 5 minutes to 1:41 minutes, the new trailer omits the I AM statements as well as any mention of some of the New Agers who are involved with the project (such as Neale Donald Walsch). In fact, the new trailer focuses mostly on the Old Testament Moses and could lead some to believe this is a Christian film about the patriarch, Moses. However, as can be seen on the Moses Code website, there is a who's who of the New Age involved with this effort. In The Secret, many New Age "teachers" were part of the project including Neale Donald Walsch, Michael Beckwith, Jack Canfield, and John Gray (Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus). The Moses Code project has a far more extensive line up of New Age presenters including Neale Donald Walsch, Andrew Harvey, Cheryl Richardson, James van Praagh, Debbie Ford, Michael Beckwith, and a number of others who are dedicated to the New Age vision for the world. The Moses Code trailer explains that on April 6th, hundreds of thousands of people are going to have the opportunity to come together in small groups around the world to "radiate this peace and use this technology [the Moses Code] focusing on the Middle East." On the Moses Code website it explains why this is being done: "It is clear to most people by now that when large groups of people gather together for a single, focused reason, miracles happen." Those who have studied New Age philosophy know that New Agers believe that when a critical mass (said to be based on a physics law) comes together in meditation, the rest of humanity will be drawn in (through a kind of spiritual magnetization), and in this oneness, the earth will be healed. The prerequisite for this to happen is a global, mass meditation by people who believe they are divine and co-creators in the universe. The Moses Code says that mysticism is the avenue through which we enter a "frequency" that draws us into a sacred space called God, and this frequency can be entered by turning to the I AM field which "helps initiate and enhance sacred experiences.... the potential is promising, particularly with regard to assisting the I AM THAT I AM breathing exercises ... developed for the Moses Code." In an interview with Moses Code author James Twyman, Twyman says that this process was originally called the Maharishi Effect which began with Transcendental Meditation practitioners. It appears that with the mass success of The Secret, a new threshold had been crossed with the public's acceptance of metaphysical practices and philosophies. What the Moses Code is designed for is to take this acceptance to a new level. The people behind these projects know that they have a narrow window of opportunity to saturate Western society before people become bored or skeptical. Everywhere one looks these days one finds people turning to the mystical and supernatural for the answers to their problems. One prominent Rabbi, who writes on current social conditions, has written that 40% of middle aged men and 33% of middle aged women suffer from various degrees of depression. 2 What better appeal would seem attractive to these millions of people than being able to change their circumstances in a quick and timely fashion. This is what books like The Secret and The Moses Code are offering, and the biblical gospel is seen by these millions as outdated and irrelevant. Our job as Christians is to proclaim the opposite, and in so doing preserve the only message that offers eternal life through Jesus Christ to those who receive Him by faith. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. I Timothy 4:1 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. I Corinthians 1: 18 Database of news and research on The Secret More Information: Interview with The Moses Code author James Twyman See Link for further info and many links http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletter030408.htm FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Cyclone Nargis and the Country who's name we cannot even agree on

Article Title: Compilation of recent reports - see individual articles Ed. Note: For a fairly decent review of the country and the dispute behind the name see the Wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma Weeks After Cyclone in Myanmar, Even Farmers Wait for Food NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - May 26, 2008 PYAPON, Myanmar — The roads of the ravaged Irrawaddy Delta are lined these days with people hoping to be fed. After lifetimes living off the land, poor farmers have abandoned their ruined rice paddies, setting up makeshift bamboo shelters, waiting for carloads of Burmese civilians who have taken it on themselves to feed those who lost everything to Cyclone Nargis. Few of those who wait say they have received anything from the government, other than threats. “They said if we don’t break our huts and disappear, they will shoot us,” one man in the village of Thee Kone said over the weekend before a police jeep approached. “But as you can see, it’s raining now. We are pleading to the police to give us one more day and we will be gone far, far from the road, as they wish.” A red sign on a stake along one road read: “Don’t throw food on the roads. It ruins the people’s good habits.” On Sunday, donors from more than 50 countries and international agencies meeting in Yangon promised they would deliver more than $150 million in aid to help the country recover from the May 3 storm, The Associated Press reported, but only if they could get access to hard-hit areas like the delta. It remained unclear if Myanmar’s rulers were willing to meet that demand. At the donor conference, Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, Myanmar’s prime minister, said that international aid was welcome, “provided that there are no strings attached,” according to news agencies that were allowed to send reporters to the meeting. The conference also made clear a gap remained between the views of the government and the donors on what Myanmar needed most urgently. The government, which insists that the emergency phase of the disaster is over, showed a video suggesting the country had enough rice, and that what it needed instead was billions of dollars for long-term reconstruction. Some analysts fear that the focus on rebuilding is a ploy. “I believe they just want to use it for their ordinary activity, put it into their accounts and use it to buy weapons or houses or whatever they would like to do,” Josef Silverstein, an expert on Myanmar with Rutgers University, said in a recent interview. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said he believed that short-term help was a priority, with hundreds of thousands left homeless and aid reaching only a fraction of those who needed it. “The needs remain acute,” Mr. Ban said Sunday, “from clean water and sanitation to shelter, medical supplies and food.” The breadth of those needs was evident during a trip on Friday and Saturday to the delta, the area most devastated by the storm, which left at least 134,000 people dead or missing. It also ruined rice fields and destroyed stocks of rice in flooding that followed. Villagers in the region, which previously provided much of the rice for the country of 48 million, now squat along miles of roads, holding out bowls to the occasional passing cars bringing food and other supplies. Children keep a vigil, rushing to the vehicles for handouts, sometimes thrusting their arms inside the cars’ windows. - - - A 51-year-old woman who gave her name as San said she recently received potatoes and a small amount of beans from the government but had no stove for cooking them. Some people have been given government-issued tents, but the tents can accommodate only a small fraction of those left homeless. In the village of Thee Kone near Pyapon, a major town in the delta, victims said that the village had received four tents that house 20 people each. Any family lucky enough to find tent space had received 16 cups of rice in the past week, a little more than two cups a day. - - - Those and other makeshift dwellings that have popped up on the roadsides are barely sufficient to shield people from the searing morning sun or the monsoon rains that sweep in to drench the area most afternoons. Many of those who moved to the roadsides are the poorest of Burmese farmers, those who rent rice paddies from landlords. Before the storm, they traveled with their buffaloes, ducks and pigs from field to field, living in huts beside their paddies. - - - Still, the government continues to make it difficult for those wishing to offer private charity. Police officers armed with rifles stopped cars at checkpoints on Friday and Saturday. Foreigners without government permits to enter the disaster zone were turned back after their passports were copied. Those Burmese who were allowed to pass through were given a warning: Any donation, a yellow handout notice said, must be distributed through village leaders allied with the government. In Pyapon, a commercial hub renowned for its “hpaya” grass mats, people maintained a semblance of traditional Burmese hospitality despite the disaster. When outside visitors asked for directions at dusk, a man offered them food and lodging at his home. Pyapon, a trading center for rice, dried fish and fish paste, is the hometown of many rich Burmese tradesmen. But in this town, too, tales of horror were told, over evening tea. “Dead bodies floating down the Pyapon River are no longer strangers to us,” said Daw Khin Kyi, a resident. “Some of these bodies still wear gold necklaces and bracelets, so some people went out to collect them in the first few days. But now, after many days, nobody goes near. Fish are nibbling at the bodies.” Ma Ye Ye Tan, a 17-year-old from a hamlet down the river, survived the cyclone. She had arrived at the home of a Pyapon relative several days after the cyclone with virtually nothing on, shivering in monsoon rain. Now, she said, she did want to go back to her village, which is filled with death. She is not sure what happened to her parents. “After the cyclone came and went, we continued to hear people shouting in the darkness, but when village men went to search for them, they could find no one,” she said. “We think they are ghosts shouting. I am afraid of ghosts.” Seth Mydans contributed reporting from Bangkok. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/world/asia/26myanmar.html?ex=1369540800&en=32b51540cf958992&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink Aid trickles into Burma, but toll 'could reach 1 million if disease set in' THE TIMES of LONDON [News Corporation/Murdoch] - Report by AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - May 11, 2008 RANGOON - Relief deliveries into cyclone-hit Burma increased today but aid groups said supplies fell far short of the enormous need and that foreign experts were still barred from the country. A cargo plane chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) carrying 35 tonnes of aid was one of the latest to arrive. The ICRC said the medical supplies on board were sufficient to treat some 250 trauma patients and provide three months of basic health care for 10,000 people. The plane was also carrying sanitation equipment, including a mobile water-treatment plant to provide drinking water for 10,000 people, it said. But other aid groups warned of a growing catastrophe. “It’s really crucial that people get access to clean water sources and sanitation to avoid unnecessary deaths and suffering,” Sarah Ireland, Oxfam regional chief, said. She said the death toll from the May 3 cyclone could go up to 100,000, a figure also suggested by other aid groups. “There are all the factors for a public health catastrophe which could multiply that death toll by up to 15 times,” she said. Cyclone Nargis, which smashed into the rice-growing Irrawaddy Delta region in the country’s south on May 3, left 60,000 people dead or missing, according to an official toll. The junta, deeply suspicious of the outside world, has refused to let in foreign experts who specialise in getting aid to disaster victims, and said that only the government would be allowed to distribute emergency supplies. “Some opening-up on the part of the (Myanmar) authorities is allowing us to get these materials to their destination,” said Stephan Goetghebuer, director of operations of medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres. “But it’s no more than a drip-feed, really, given a serious response is more than required. We still need more back-up aid and personnel ready to leave,” he added. - - - The international community has spoken out in increasingly concerned tones over Yangon’s apparent sluggishness or suspicion when it comes to taking up offers of overseas and even non-governmental aid. Both President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, spoke on Saturday of their dismay at Myanmar’s stance, with each having pressed the United Nations Security Council to intervene. The UN has itself said that a week after Cyclone Nargis hit, only one-quarter of the victims have received any help at all, and it has called the relief effort“a race against time." http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3911696.ece Bodies Flow Into Hard-Hit Area of Myanmar NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - May 11, 2008 THANAP PIN SATE, Myanmar - The bodies come and go with the tides. They wash up onto the riverbanks or float grotesquely downstream, almost always face down. They are all but ignored by the living. In the southern reaches of the Irrawaddy Delta, where the only access to hundreds of small villages is by boat, the remains of the victims of the May 3 cyclone that swept across Myanmar are rotting in the sun. “These people are strangers,” said Kyaw Swe, a clothing merchant who said he expected the tides to take away the six bloated bodies lying on the muddy banks near his collapsed home. “They come from upstream.” Villagers here say it is not their responsibility to handle the dead. But the government presence is barely felt in the serpentine network of canals outside Bogale and Phyarpon, devastated towns in the delta, one of the areas hardest hit by the storm. “When we first saw the bodies floating past, we were sad and afraid,” said Aung Win, a 45-year-old rice farmer, who seemed to have survived because his house is made of hardwood. “Now we just say, here comes another body.” In the less devastated areas, the military junta was focused on a constitutional referendum on Saturday intended to cement its power after a campaign of intimidation, even as it continued to restrict foreign aid shipments. Relief experts say the aid being distributed is a fraction of what is needed to help as many as 1.5 million people facing starvation and disease. The military appeared to be diverting some resources from cyclone victims to the referendum. One resident of Yangon, speaking by phone, said refugees who had sought shelter in schoolhouses were forced out so the buildings could be used as polling places. But here in the series of canals outside Bogale, many people interviewed Saturday during an eight-hour boat trip used the same word to describe how many bodies they saw in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone: “countless.” The trip began in Phyarpon, one of the delta’s major cities, and continued southwest through canals large and small, with stops at half a dozen villages. But in a delta so vast, crisscrossed by tiny waterways, it is very difficult to assess the overall scale of death and destruction. The official government death toll from the cyclone is about 23,000, but by some accounts, it could reach 100,000 if aid does not reach survivors soon. As the boat wended its way through canals, it passed at least 24 bodies, most of them along the banks, tangled with the fallen foliage. One body was positioned reaching out toward the shore. Nearby, the bodies of an adult and a child clung to each other, floating in the middle of a canal as riverboats passed by. Even more pervasive are the giant corpses of water buffaloes bobbing in the water. Because the dead have not been gathered in one place, calculating a precise number of deaths caused by the cyclone could ultimately prove impossible. In villages here, stunned survivors say the missing are presumed dead. With no roads connecting them to larger towns and cities, these villages have always been isolated. Now villagers say they feel abandoned. In Gwe Choung, 13 miles from Bogale, a reporter visiting Saturday was the first outsider to set foot in the village since the storm hit. “We have no seed, no cows and no buffaloes,” said Mawin Lat, 34, a villager. “We only have food for the next few days.” Fish are plentiful in the canals, but villagers refuse to eat them because they fear the bodies still floating have contaminated the water, she said. Of the 200 people in the village, 96 died. In other villages visited Saturday, the death tolls ranged from 3 to 20. Hundreds of houses were destroyed, detritus from the storm hung from trees and dozens of fishing boats were ruined. Many boats were swept by the winds and waves during the storm onto embankments or into rice paddies. In the worst-hit areas, only the dirt foundations of houses remain. On one mound of mud where a house once stood, a dog waited patiently with no people in sight. There is so much worry about measles outbreaks that the government has begun vaccinating children in some of the Irrawaddy townships and also in temporary shelters in other parts of the region, the World Health Organization reported Saturday. Closer to Yangon, the main city, formerly known as Rangoon, the water is receding, the rebuilding is accelerating and the cemeteries are dry enough to dig graves. After a tumultuous week, the rituals of death returned to the small village of Ta Nyn Kone. The thin but rigid body of 6-year-old Pauk Gyi was lowered into the ground, wrapped in a bamboo mat and red fabric. Pauk Gyi died after a high fever that his neighbors, who buried him, thought was caused by typhoid. He was laid to rest next to his brother, Kyaw Zin Htat, who drowned in flood waters on Friday. The parents, stricken by their double loss, stayed at home during the burial. “They are anguished,” said U Shwe Nyne, a neighbor who helped bury the boys. “The mother is hysterical.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/world/asia/11scene.html?ex=1368244800&en=be47f3b1020eb22e&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Eagle's Nest pastor sued by ex-member

Article Title: Eagle's Nest pastor sued by ex-member Source: SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS [Hearst Corporation] - By Abe Levy - May 22, 2008 Link: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/TopStories/stories/MYSA.052208.1B.EaglesNest.37bcf1d.html A former member of Eagle's Nest Christian Fellowship filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the church and its pastor, Rick Godwin, claiming he was defamed in front of the congregation when he tried to expose how Godwin was spending church money. Larry Nail, a businessman from Boerne who belonged to the church for 11 years, says Godwin wrongly accused him of bribery in a speech responding to San Antonio Express-News articles that, based on church documents, raised questions about Godwin's use of church funds for expensive chartered planes and lodging, luxury gifts and personal items. In the suit, filed in Bexar County District Court, Nail wants his donations to the church returned, plus legal costs and damages. The suit didn't specify an amount. Nail is among dozens of church members who've left the independent congregation since the fall, dissatisfied with Godwin's spending and what they consider the church's inadequate accountability. Godwin and other church leaders believe the issue has been addressed. The suit comes three days before the church will conduct a “dry run” dedication of its new North Side building on Marshall Road near U.S. 281. The official dedication is set for the weekend of May 31. Complicating matters for the church has been a stream of complaints by homeowners bordering the new property who claim the church hasn't responded to their concerns about lighting, noise and other matters. At issue in Nail's lawsuit is a statement by Godwin during a Nov. 24 service. Nail says Godwin claimed he offered bribes to three staff members to discuss the pastor's spending publicly with the newspaper, which Nail denies. Nail declined to comment Wednesday. The suit claims Godwin used “a classic bully pulpit” to accuse Nail of the crime of bribery and other wrongdoing as a means of shifting the attention away from the spending questions Godwin was facing. “This psychological and spiritual abuse by Godwin toward Nail demonstrated the depths to which Godwin would sink to deflect attention from his extreme misuse of his position and of the trust placed in him by Nail and others,” the suit said. Contacted about the suit Wednesday, the church's attorney, J.D. Pauerstein, declined to comment until he could discuss the matter with church leaders. A message left with a church official wasn't returned. The spending Nail refers to in the suit involved a fund set aside for outreach and missions. After the newspaper reports, Godwin told the congregation he paid back all personal expenses and launched a new tax compliance audit, among other corrective measures. He hasn't made public when or which reimbursements were made. Nail founded a mentoring ministry for boys with absent fathers called Brave Heart at the church and was a friend of Godwin and his wife, Cindy, the church's co-pastor. Nail said in the suit that church staffers were afraid of losing their jobs if they confronted church leaders about Godwin's questionable expenses. He said he offered to help them financially if they were fired and followed biblical instruction by taking the spending concerns to Godwin first and then to two elders, who were unwilling to confront Godwin. According to the lawsuit, Nail said Godwin told him: “I'm not going to let someone eating a bologna sandwich (referring to church staff and lower-level employees) tell me how to spend money around here.” Godwin also asserted that, as the chief executive of the church, he deserved perks, Nail says in the suit. After the falling-out between Nail and Godwin, the pastor told the congregation in November: “These are despicable acts of behavior by desperate people who will go to any measure including slander, intimidation and, if you can believe it, bribery. Our staff was insulted and outraged by Larry's behavior. It goes beyond Christian comprehension.” Nail's attorney is Gary L. Richardson of Tulsa, Okla., who also represents two former Oral Roberts University professors whose lawsuit against the private Christian school has drawn national attention for its claim of financial and spiritual abuse by the school's leaders. “The conduct we believe will show that there was some wrongdoing by the pastor,” Richardson said by phone. “There were things said about Larry publicly that we believe the evidence would show are not true.” Asked whether the court has jurisdiction in such a church dispute, he said the case “has nothing to do with freedom of religion.” David Anderson, a University of Texas School of Law professor specializing in defamation cases, said that sometimes, church leaders claim their statements and actions are protected by constitutional guarantees of religious freedom when the matter is clearly theological in nature. “If the resolution of the lawsuit requires the resolution of some theological question, only then is there any problem of the courts taking jurisdiction in the matter,” he said. However, Anderson said, noting he has not read Nail's lawsuit, the use of the term “bribery” is entirely secular and could result in the suit being litigated. Anderson added that churches could also argue “group privilege” as a defense, meaning that the pastor's statement — despite its potential to defame — was made in good faith and as part of internal issues the church needed to discuss for its benefit. Saturday, the 24-year-old church will hold its first services in the new building — 172,000 square feet of space on 68 acres of land and estimated to cost $36 million. Its official dedication the next weekend will mark its name change to Summit Christian Center. On June 7, Cornerstone Church pastor John Hagee is scheduled to speak. The church's existing buildings on nearly 9 acres at Bitters Road and U.S. 281 are under contract and were listed for $4.5 million, according to the Realtor's Web site. The new building has concert lighting and sound, a food court, and an 1,800-light Venetian-style carousel from the former Central Park Mall. Godwin and his wife have executive offices on one wing with a private elevator and garage. The building will seat 2,500 people initially with the capacity to double later, making it equal to the largest sanctuaries in the city, including Hagee's church. Godwin has said he plans to rent the facility for concerts and other community events to produce a new revenue source for the church. It is situated in a rapidly growing area of high-priced homes, retail development and a new high school named for Lady Bird Johnson. Construction began in October 2006 and so did complaints from neighboring homeowners in Sendero Ranch, which borders the church property to the north. The outdoor lighting and noise from the large air conditioners have been the subject of several meetings and correspondence between homeowners and church leaders. The homeowners say they're frustrated that Godwin has not responded directly and sent representatives instead. “I would have thought that a benevolent establishment such as a church would work with homeowners,” said Gina Weikel, whose backyard borders the property. “I would have thought that they would like to provide a harmonious relationship and garner new members to the congregation. My beliefs were wrong.” In a letter to the homeowners, the church said it is committed to being good neighbors but that it satisfied all legal requirements in constructing the church. The land, zoned commercially, lies just outside the city limit, where there are fewer development rules. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/TopStories/stories/MYSA.052208.1B.EaglesNest.37bcf1d.html FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

The History Before History, Part I

Article Title: The History Before History, Part I Source: THE EPOCH TIMES - By Leonardo Vintiñi - October 9, 2007 Link: http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-10-9/60546.html It was a hot night so a man decided to take a walk along the beach. Soon after setting out, he felt a soft crunch under his foot. He stopped to inspect the soles of his shoes in the moonlight, and scraped off the remains of the unfortunate creature he had squashed. Unconcerned, he continued his stroll, unaware that the footprint had immortalized the end of that tiny life. After all, what's so strange about stepping on a trilobite? Approximately 320 million years ago, a species of small lobed creatures began to populate Earth's seas. These relatives of sea arachnids-similar to lobsters and crabs-once flourished but became completely extinct 280 million years ago. We are talking, of course, about the trilobite. The human being, as it is currently accepted by the majority of scientists, appeared as a species no more than 2 or 3 million years ago. And the history of man such as he is known today does not exceed 10,000 years. With these dates in mind, we can conclude that the story of the human stepping on a trilobite belongs to the category of science fiction. A human being could never have squashed a creature that became extinct millions of years ago, and even less so a person with shoes-an unequivocal indication of civilization. This is evidence which defies history-an impossible fossil. In June of 1968, amateur fossil collector William J. Meister found a rock 2 inches thick in Antelope Spring, Utah. With a blow of his hammer, he exposed the fossil of a human footprint. But this footprint had a special feature-a squashed trilobite. It wasn't long before the news spread across the world, and several investigators made their way to Antelope Spring, finding more marks made by modern-style footwear in a geological stratum corresponding to extremely remote ages. What strange joke is seemingly being played on history? Other Prior Discoveries In 1852 a giant rock mass in Dorchester, Massachusetts, was dynamited. After the explosion, workers found a curious metallic artifact among the debris, which was broken in two. Upon joining the two pieces together, they revealed a vessel in the shape of a bell with a base of 6.5 inches and height of 4.5 inches. Later they discovered that the vessel was made from a silver alloy. Curiously, this artifact, seemingly constructed with a high level of technology, appears to have been trapped in the rock while it was forming several millions years ago-when humans did not even exist. Discoveries of this kind are not few. In fact, because of their ability to call in to question modern understandings of humankind's origins, archeological sites have at times hidden various problematic objects. Eight years before the discovery of the Dorchester vase, a perfect iron nail was found in a 24-inch slab of rock in a quarry in Kingoodie, Scotland. The point of this nail was sticking out of the rock, while an inch of it, including the head, was sealed inside. It is estimated that such a rock would have formed roughly 60 million years ago. In the1880s, a Colorado rancher extracted pieces of carbon from a mineral vein 300 feet below the surface. Later at his house, as he was breaking up the extracted pieces, he found a strange-looking iron thimble. News of the discovery known as the "Thimble of Eve" spread quickly, but due to its state of corrosion and people's over-handling, it disintegrated. It is known that thimbles have been used by humans as far back as thousands of years ago. However, a curious detail in this case is that the carbon in which the thimble was found formed 70 million years ago, between the Cretaceous and Tertiary eras. According to modern understanding, the ancestors of human beings at this time were not even monkeys, but a different kind of small mammal, with protruding eyes, swinging between tree branches. The "Cube of Salzburg" is another challenge to history. It was revealed to the public when in 1885 an Austrian iron smelter broke apart pieces of carbon and uncovered a cube-shaped iron artifact. "The edges of this strange object were already perfectly straight and defined; four of the sides were planes, while the two remaining sides, situated in front of each other, were convex. Halfway up was a deep slot," wrote René Noorbergen, a specialist in these types of cases. Chemical analysis later determined that the object did not contain any chrome, nickel, or cobalt, but instead was composed of a kind of forged iron. This composition seemed to rule out the hypothesis that the "cube" was a meteorite, as some had suggested. Another archeological treasure hidden in a carbon deposit was found in 1891 by S.W. Culp, a woman from Illinois. While she was extracting the black material, she accidentally broke a fragment, and a very thin gold chain was knocked loose. It had been lodged inside a bow-shaped cavity in the carbon. Another case, published in 1831 by the American Journal of Science, deals with a block of marble extracted from a depth of about 60 feet, which was later cut into pieces. The marble, believed to have formed millions of years ago, revealed precise cuts 2 inches by 0.5 inch-the shapes of the very similar modern letters "u" and "i." The regularity of the symbols gave the impression of having been engraved by human hands. A similar case was brought to light in 2002 in China's Guizhou Province, where a broken rock was found to have, at first glance, perfect Chinese characters of inexplicable origin, considering that the rock dated back to 200 million years ago! This relic is known as "The Stone of Hidden Words." Contemporary Fossils In 1976, a spoon that was first unearthed in 1937 inside a chunk of Pennsylvania soft coal was brought to public attention. To rule out that such findings could be interpreted as a random occurrence, consider the 1967 discovery inside a Colorado silver mine: human bones alongside a 10-inch copper-pointed arrow. According to general estimates, the mineral deposit in which these were discovered is millions of years older than the human race. While genetics and biology present us with new studies each day intending to validate the common origin of all species, new fossils continue to appear-more signs of a highly advanced distant past. Over time, these findings contribute to an understanding that human origins are far more remote than what is widely believed. Perhaps the most controversial fossil in recent years was the one discovered by a geologist from the University of Jadaypur in Calcutta, India. A 1,100-million-year-old, reddish colored rock found in Madhya Pradesh, Chorhat, astonished scientists. It presents zigzag marks similar to those made by a worm. The oldest known fossils of this kind are from Namibia and China, and the marks are understood to be from multicellular organisms, which made their appearance in the course of evolution approximately 600 million years ago. If the finding in India is properly interpreted, it would call for a serious reconsideration of the basis of evolution, giving a giant jump (400 or 500 million years) between this fossil and those found in Namibia and China. "If you see centimeter-scale organisms and then don't see them for 400 million years, you have a lot to explain," remarks Harvard University paleontologist Andrew Knoll. After new marks were found in similar rocks, many incredulous scientists were forced to analyze the age of the rocks again. But these specimens (zirconium crystals) continued to point to the impossible, making the issue "even more exciting and more improbable," according to paleontologist Adolph Seilacher from Yale University. Seilacher believes that, according to what is commonly accepted, it is impossible for these fossilized traces to be from animals. However, he adds: "At the same time, I must accept the evidence. I have not found, nor heard from another person, another explanation. Is there any non-biological explanation for these marks?" The study appears in the October 2, 1998 issue of Science. In fact, there exist many fossils that challenge our modern understanding of history. An impression of a perfect human hand (with fingernail marks) was discovered in 110-million-year-old limestone in Glen Rose, Texas; a 100-million year-old petrified finger (fossil identified as DM93-083), which had its bone structure revealed through radiography, was found on Axel Heiberg Island in Canada; there is the well-known discovery of giant human footprints beside those of a dinosaur in Rìo Paluxy, Texas; and there are many more. The apparent soundness of our current theories is shaken each time an "impossible fossil" comes to light. http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-10-9/60546.html FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.