Sunday, July 24, 2011

In the news...

Watching Jordan has been interesting because they have a relatively stable government and one has to wonder if the radical uprising will occur there as it has in the rest of the Middle East:

U.S. Warns Jordan's king: Arab Revolt is on your doorstep

Jordan's King Abdullah II was warned in Washington this week that he had better start introducing political reforms without delay because a revolt against his throne was knocking at his door from neighboring Syria, DEBKAfile's Washington sources report.

The king was handed intelligence updates at the State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council, informing him that the threat to destabilize the kingdom did not emanate from a deliberate plot by the Assad regime or the Syrian opposition. It came from the potential spillover of the tumult rocking Syria and two sources in particular:.

One: Many Syrian opposition factions had tribal and familial connections in Jordan from which they have been drawing much of their funding and arms. The Jordanian branches of these tribes are asking themselves if an uprising can be organized against Bashar Assad in Syria, why not against the Jordanian king?

US officials warned Abdullah that the Jordanian groups helping their brethren rise up in Syria are getting organized for armed revolt against him too and have begun collecting arms and explosives.

Two: The Muslim Brotherhood is on the ascendant in the Arab world after partially hijacking the revolts in Syria and Egypt. The Brotherhood has worldwide Islamic religious and political pretensions. The Syrian chapter senses it is on the brink of success, thanks partly to assistance from the Jordanian branch. So, they say, why not help our Jordanian brothers just as they helped us?


And to conclude:

DEBKAfile's sources say that Washington officials who spoke with King Abdullah were worried by the slowness of his responses and actions: One senior American official remarked: "By the time King Abdullah moves, the Arab Revolt will be upon him in the cities, and it will be too late to institute political reforms."


This evolving situation is worth watching very closely.

Iran blames US, Israel for killing of scientist

A senior Iranian official on Sunday blamed the United States and Israel for the assassination of an Iranian scientist, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Darioush Rezaie, 35, a university lecturer with a physics doctorate, was shot dead by a motorcyclist in Tehran on Saturday. The student news agency ISNA quoted an unnamed police official as saying Rezaie was a nuclear scientist but Deputy Interior Minister Safarali Baratlou said this was not certain.

There has been no claim of responsibility for Rezaie's killing. Several nuclear scientists have been assassinated in Iran in the last few years. One scientist was killed and another wounded in Tehran in November.


Mainstream media admits 'Palestine' is not impoverished

Over the past few years evidence has been trickling out that perhaps the Palestinians are not really all that impoverished, and only continue to receive so much foreign aid in order to paint Israel as an oppressor.

The evidence has built to the point that the mainstream media - the vehicle through which Israel is so often criticized - can no longer ignore it.

In a blog post titled "Palestine - 'Occupation Incorporated,'" Sky News correspondent Tim Marshall reveals that the Palestinian-controlled territories are "awash with money."

Marshall writes of the "smart restaurants, sparkling new hotels, and the scale of building work" that regularly greets him when he visits Ramallah or Jericho


And we also see two excellent commentaries provided by American Thinker:

The Palestinians Are Bluffing

The Palestinian Authority has been agitating to become a U.N. member-state for two years. It appears they have secured the support of a majority of other member-states in the General Assembly to achieve U.N. recognition as a state. But they will not become members of the organization because the U.S. intends to veto their request in the UNSC


Personally, I'm not so confident that the U.S. will veto this request, and the U.S. vote would be huge - in either direction.

First of all, Abbas has made it perfectly clear that it isn't an independent sovereign state per se that interests the Palestinians. Instead, they intend to use their U.N. statehood status as an instrument to gore Israel internationally:

Palestine's admission to the United Nations would pave the way for the internationalization of the conflict as a legal matter, not only a political one. It would also pave the way for us to pursue claims against Israel at the United Nations, human rights treaty bodies and the International Court of Justice.

Meanwhile, here's Pinhas Inbari's thesis:

What the Palestinians really envisage after September is to exploit a UN endorsement of statehood to legitimize an escalation of the conflict... After the Palestinians have the 1967 borders recognized so as to negate the results of the Six Day War, they intend to seek recognition of the 1947 partition lines.


This article is definitely worth reading. Below may be the most significant point - one that must always be remembered:

Benny Morris sums up all of the above, and then he continues:

Arafat and Abbas rejected the offered compromises because they do not want a two-state solution, they want all of Palestine.
Once the Palestinians get their West Bank-Gaza state, they will use it as a springboard for their second-stage assault, political and military, on Israel-and they will no doubt lodge claims "at the United Nations, human rights treaty bodies, and the International Court of Justice" as part of that assaul
t.

But the major basis of political and moral assault on Israel will be the Palestinian demand for a "Right of Return"-and its international acceptance and implementation-of the 1948 refugees, who now number, them and their descendants, 5-6 million souls.


Also see:

Israel's War of the Words

Almost everyone agrees about Israel's military superiority over its adversaries. After all, it has won all the conventional wars, as well as the non-conventional ones -- Hamas's fantastic victory declarations in 2009, amidst the ruins of Gaza City, notwithstanding. But there is another war, an ongoing war, in which Israel suffers nothing but defeat after defeat. And in the long term this war might be even more important than the military wars, the economic wars, and the political wars.

That is the War of the Words.


This is another article that is really worth reading. I'll cut to the bottom line:

These points show Israel's willingness to make major concessions for peace with its neighbors.

They also show something else.

Had Israel been the aggressor in 1967 then its control of the West Bank and Gaza would indeed have been against international law. But as the victim of aggression its position is quite different, for according to the Charters of the League of Nations and subsequently of the United Nations -- which govern such situations -- the legal status of territories captured in self-defense can only be determined by peace treaties between the warring parties. When the Arabs uttered their three Nos, therefore, Israel would have been perfectly justified, legally, in annexing those territories.

So not only has there never been a sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, but to date the Palestinians have rejected every proposed treaty which would create such a state.

In the absence of such a treaty, again, there quite literally is nothing to "occupy."

28 comments:

DrNofog said...

The Flat Earth Myth Again

I wanted to bump this up so everyone will catch this right away, since the other thread is getting very long and old.

I did a teaching on this several yrs ago in our church, as most Christians have no idea how effective Satan has been in propagating this unfounded myth to slander and label Christians as anti-science, knuckle-dragging, snake-handling morons!

Mrs. C said... "...For example for centuries it was a common belief that the Earth was flat..."

Not picking on you Mrs.C, just showing how pervasive and well accepted as "fact" this myth is today, even amongst Christians!!

FACT:

No one before the 1830s believed that medieval people thought that the earth was flat.

This is an error that the Historical Society of Britain some years back listed as number one in its short compendium of the ten most common historical illusions.

With extraordinary few exceptions, no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the earth was flat. A round earth appears at least as early as the sixth century BC with Pythagoras, who was followed by Aristotle, Euclid, and Aristarchus, among others in observing that the earth was a sphere. There were a few dissenters--Leukippos and Demokritos for example--but on through the time of Eratosthenes (3 c. BC)(Eratosthenes's measurement of the earth's circumference was 250,000 states, which is very close to the modern figure.), followed by Crates(2 c. BC), and Ptolemy (first c. AD), the sphericity of the earth was accepted by all educated Greeks and Romans.
Con't. Pt2

DrNofog said...

pt2
Historians of science have been proving this point for at least 70 years without making notable headway against the error. Schoolchildren in the US, Europe, and Japan are taught the same old nonsense. How and why did this nonsense emerge?

The idea was established, almost contemporaneously, by a Frenchman and an American. One was Antoine-Jean Letronne (1787-1848), an academic of strong antireligious prejudices who cleverly sought to misrepresent the church fathers and their medieval successors as believing in a flat earth, in his "On the Cosmographical Ideas of the Church Fathers" (1834).

The American was Washington Irving, who loved to write historical fiction under the guise of history. [e.g. his history of Christopher Columbus (1828)]...

How did the false accounts of Letronne and Irving begin to be served up in schools as the solemn truth as early as the 1860s?

This vast web of falsehood was invented and propagated by the influential historian John Draper (1811-1882) and many prestigious followers, such as Andrew Dickson White (1832-1918), the president of Cornell University, who made sure that the false account was perpetrated in texts, and encyclopedias down to the present day.

And the reason for promoting this lie, is to defend Darwinism. It is part of the general lie that science (good) and religion (bad) are in eternal, unresolvable conflict. The flat-earth lie was ammunition against the creationists. The argument was simple and powerful, if not elegant: "Look how stupid these Christians are. They are always getting in the way of science and progress. These people who deny evolution today are exactly the same sort of people as those idiots who for at least 1500 years denied that the earth was round. How stupid can you get?"

Scott said...

That is VERY interesting DrNo - I had no idea this was the case. Wow. Thanks for that.

Paula said...

Also, the church was siding with the accepted science of the day when Galileo was put on trial. It was science and the church against him, not science against religion. The churches today still make the same error by siding with the prevailing scientific views instead of going with the evidence. This charge of religion against science is another pervasive lie.

PS: Mom should be coming home today!

Anonymous said...

Paula, So glad to hear your mom is doing well!
Doc-you are a very interesting purveyor of knowledge. I bet you read a lot and always have. Reading makes ya smart, reading the Bible makes ya wise! Well, at least if you apply it!
Scott-once again my hero rep Allen West, is saying some common sense things. I think I like him because he is a plain talker and a straight shooter. The us is trying to sell our tanks to Egypt and he says no way as long as the muslim brotherhood is around because he doesn't want them to be used against Israel. I will try to get a link for that. Be blessed everyone! ally

Anonymous said...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/allen-west-slams-planned-u-s-tank-sale-to-egypt-cites-muslim-brotherhood-risks-to-israel/
here it is! ally

DrNofog said...

Thanx Scott, I was worried about starting the blog off-topic [Ok, not really...], but I thot it's important that every Christian should be wise to this lie!

But I really did want to comment about something that was on-topic... Hmmmmm?!?
...or as Colonel O'Neil [Richard Dean Anderson (SG1), AKA McGuyver] was wont to say:

"Wait, wait, hollllllld on... ...nope, I got nothin'!"
[Bwaaaahaaahaa! I crack myself up!]
:-D

Anonymous said...

You crack me up too! It took me a while to realize your humor can be very dry! And very funny.
Here is a link to a cbn interview with rep west that is worth watching. Sorry guys, i just can't help it. I've been so bummed out about america for quite a time now and frankly had given up hope! But here is a man who loves Jesus, is a mighty warrior and is actually fighting to stand up for good and God! And I can't even vote for him. He is not from my state. I wish he was! ally
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2011/March/Allen-West-Resurrecting-the-American-Spirit/

Mrs. C said...

Hi Dr. No :)
Excellent, excellent information! Thank you so much :)
God Bless !

Caver said...

Now wait just a cotton picking minute here.

Dr No...

Are you telling me Christopher Columbo didn't make this discovery when he bounced off Newton's North Pole and whizzed past the Conquistadors hitting Mexico before Galliao spotted him ricocheting back into Spain?

Anonymous said...

Hi ally, read the article and agree with most of Allen West. Although, it looks like the ship is still going down, and it's time to move to higher parts of the boat. We really could have used someone like him in the WH many years ago. I'm not a political person and have voted each time around, but as of right now, I don't think I will be voting next time around. I know, I'll probably get some heat for this, but feel the whole thing is rigged, and the higher ups some how get who ever they want in to fulfill their agenda, ie: obummer and the BC thing. Besides, sharia law is crouching at America's door.

Hey DrNo, your way over my head, but I can take a peak out over the plains and with the naked eye can tell that the world is round.


-Jec

Anonymous said...

GOLD IS GETTING DANGEROUSLY HIGH
IN E TRADING TONITE....SILVER STILL
NOT CONFIRMING THE NEW HIGH IN GOLD.

HERE IS THE LATEST ON THE DEBT TALKS:

http://news.yahoo.com/gop-democrats-ready-rival-emergency-debt-plans-224034524.html

I AM NOT SURE IF THERE WILL BE A DEAL
SOON, BUT NONETHELESS, THESE MARKETS ARE WAY TOO HIGH FOR
ANY KIND OF PROBLEM(S) TO OCCUR.

PLEASE BE SAFE AND SELL YOUR GOLD,
SILVER AND STOCKS NOW....
AND STAY IN CASH !!!!

STEPHEN >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

DrNofog said...

Caver,
Actually, contrary to Washington Irving's tall tale that there was opposition to Columbus' voyage from flat-earthers, which also found its way into textbooks as fact, the real issue was was not the shape of the earth, but the circumference and hence the distances involved.

Columbus had wrongly calculated the circumference of the Earth as 25,255 km at most, a little more than 1/2 the true circumference of about 40,000 km. The king's experts believed that the route would be longer than Columbus argued, and they initially refused Columbus the money. No ship in the 15th century could carry enough food and water for voyages of the real distance, had not America been smack in between.

Why they eventually relented is anybody's guess, other than the Grace and Fore-ordination of God to provide a "Petra" [America] for Christians to flee to, and become "another nation bringing forth the fruit thereof...
;)

Anonymous said...

Scott-http://aslwww.cr.usgs.gov/Seismic_Data/heli2.shtml
can you look at this please if you are still up?
click on the siesmic data page.
I would like to talk to you somehow. I wish i had a car. i would drive down. maybe i can get someone to drive me. or i can make an email address just for this. Big things are getting ready to happen. I don't want to push people's comfort zones. We all need to be very prayed up and prepared! Thanks and love-ally

Anonymous said...

Caver, Doc, someone please be awake!

Caver said...

Ally, I looked and at first glance it looks like the world is shaking itself apart. Problem is, I don't know either the scale or precisely what it means. MrsC says this was posted on RR several years ago and everybody got real excited but when it got researched it turned out to be not much.

I just flat don't know.

Anonymous said...

Ally, I've looked at this before recently from someone who said that there is more activity than usual. What he was saying is that even though most of the activity was in the 2-4 magnitude, he was showing how the increase was phenomenal. -Jec

Scott said...

Ally- I just got on but am very interested in ling - will take a look - many thanks!

Anonymous said...

I'm in a bit of a dilemma here and hopefully someone here can help with advise. This is so off topic and perhaps not the best place for it here. But here goes. There is so much to this but I will try and condense it all in a tweet like fashion. A daughter found me going on 7 years ago. The relationship fell apart after about 3 years because of religion and her being agnostic and me sharing some truth with her. She tried to separate me from expressing my religious views. I find it impossible to do because in my world, Jesus is everything to me. She had a baby 3 years ago, in which she has never introduced this little boy to me. After fathers day she said, "I would have wished you a hfd but oh well, wished we had a better relationship". This past weekend it has bugged me so bad, I finally said some things. I told her I realized her boys birthday was 2 weeks ago and said that it's sad that she has let this go on for so long, as the ball has always been in her court. I told her I could have bought some em for him. Told her she has not done anything to change this with all the hurt she caused and not introducing her boy to me. She's saying I would fall in love with him and I'm sure I would. I told her she has let this go on for way too long and has put a wedge in my ability to talk with her and told her I can't see our relationship going any further than a texting buddy. Now she is saying I have not done anything to correct it either, and all I had to do is drop the religious stuff, and then she said I "HOLD THE KEY".

Guys, I am so sorry for the drama, but I could not sleep much last night. Thanks in advance for your input. This whole thing is crazy because the relationship at the beginning got off to a bad start with words thrown around by my daughter, like "borderline personality disorder". This has been way too long for a tweet (lol), sorry guys. Thanks again. -Jec

WVBORN56 said...

This verse came to mind JEC, "In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths"

Just try to show the love of Christ.

I will commit your situation to the Lord in prayer.

James said...

JEC:

Not knowing the history here it will be hard to give you specifics.

In a situation where you are dealing with emotion, the only thing you can do is stick to the facts. Again very hard to do here because it is your daughter.

In your post you say she found you 7 years ago so you both are trying to pick back up and start over. Knowing this, I think you would be better off one on one with someone who could really understand the whole scenario.

How do you do that? if you would send me an email at

semaj4000@yahoo.com

I would be happy to forward your email to Scott and others on this blog. Together and in love we can help/pray you through this.

The one thing you have to remember, and I think the most important thing, is to see the situation through Christ's eyes.

On our own we know so little about love but in Christ, love & forgiveness not only reigns, it's truth is everlasting and at the end of the reconciliation that's truly where you want to be.

I'll lift both you and your daughter up today. God bless you JEC.

Anonymous said...

Good Morning JEC~

I wish I could be there right now to give a nice (((Big Hug))). The despair and confusion that must be running through both of your worlds has to be so great.

Before I posted this, I offered this situation up in prayer. The message that I seem to be getting right now is about unconditional love as the hub of what must take place as you sort this out. So I looked as to what I can provide to help you as you both sort this out.

I don't know the extent of your relationship with your daughter over time. Seems there may be a wonderful blessing by having her even being remotely a part of your life.

She mentions that you hold the key...I feel as though she may be seeking guidance and looking at you to see just what you may know about this God you speak so highly of :) Almost like a child who peeks in and out on things they are unsure of.

That is OK. Be the example for her. Keep your relationship with God number #1. Love her unconditionally but still have your hedge of protection around you as you walk through life. Show her your world. Almost a confidence of sorts that you just can't break your agreement with God but you love her so much and you hope she will continue to grow and learn with you daily in your new found walk together. The past is over. What shall you two build upon today? :) Christ's love for his children.

Below are some other links to Josh McDowell ministries. We hear him a lot up here on our Moody Bible stations. The first one is a recent article. The others are some PowerPoint or pdf's he uses through Campus Crusade to help reach the kids of today.

The love language they are speaking is so much different than what we spoke back in the day. The first step is to love, learn, discern and find God's will through it all. I will be praying for you both.

God Bless!!

GG

God's Unconditional Love

http://www.blessedcause.org/Encourage/Unconditional%20PF.htm

Josh McDowell

http://www.christianpost.com/news/internet-the-greatest-threat-to-christians-apologist-josh-mcdowell-says-52382/

http://joshmcdowellmedia.org/JoshTalks/BRTTF_7As_Dottie.pdf

http://www.josh.org/site/c.ddKDIMNtEqG/b.4546845/k.2D08/7_As_to_Building_Relationships_That_Transform.htm

http://www.josh.org/site/c.ddKDIMNtEqG/b.4546839/k.2F9E/Teaching_Truth_in_Todays_Youth_Culture.htm

Caver said...

Sis JEC....first and foremost, prayers from the Caver house are going to be there.

I wish I had the answers, but I don't. Not specifics but I will be praying that the Holy Spirit intervene and provide a way....a way not only for your renewed relationship with both your daughter and grandchild, but a way for your daughter to come to know her Savior.

Anonymous said...

Hi JEC! Wow, you may not know this but you are about too! There are several of us on here who love our children intensely, but because of our love for Jesus, our children either shun us or hate us :( It is so hard to deal with the intense pain this brings. I can't see either of my daughters or my three grandsons and it just crushes me! I was very close with my grandsons as both of my daughters have mental illnesses and I in all intent and practices raised 2 of my grandsons for many years because their mother was incapable. So I do understand! All you can do is to pray for them and stand firm. Jesus told us that it would be like this. That we might have to leave our fathers, mothers or children sometimes to walk with him. I have faith in my saviour! My grandmother prayed and stood for me and she died before her prayers came to fruitition! But she never wavered in her faith! And here I am today.
On the practical side, you could send gifts, a card and a picture of yourself, maybe include a stamped self addressed envelope and ask her to send you pictures of the celebration. Or do it by email. Frequently its easier to write, carefully choosing words than to speak. Know that Jesus is with you and we are too in prayer and spirit!
Satan just loves to attack us through the people we love the most. I can assure you that I will be praying and standing with you and so will the other moms here who are really going through it too!
I would try to move in love and not lecture or coerce her in any way. You can ask her if she has needs you can pray about or let her know you pray daily for her safety and happiness and you hope in time that you will be able to have a relationship.
Jesus has good and special things waiting for us up ahead where we will be rewarded for our trials and tribulations and all will be restored unto us! No more tears, he will wipe every tear away and we will remember our pain no more!
We love you so much!
Heavenly Father, I lift up JEC to you and her family also. I ask to restore what the canker worm has destroyed. I ask restoration for all families that come here. satan, I come against you in the authority of the name of Jesus and covered in the blood. You have no right to touch these families and you must leave now, in the name of Jesus. Go and dont come back! Your hold has been terminated, right here right now! Praise you Jesus and thank you for your life and blood. Amen ally

Anonymous said...

sorry i said her instead of him-typing fast! Also i learned a few things about the quakes/harmonics stuff. (it is hard to find a seismologist at 2 a.m. guys)much like a note is played on a guitar or piano after striking the note, the vibration of the string continues to move causing sound to travel. this movement and the resulting sound waves are what we hear. so with the earth also. the vibrations continue. the earth is humming. But its not so good and we should be expecting some monster quakes in the next week or two and its not going to slow down.
even the stones cry out! ally

Caver said...

JEC, so sorry. I missed part of your post and called you a Sis. Many apologies but prayers from the Caver household are still with the three of you.

Scott said...

Jec

I probably don't know enough to weigh in - but I would suggest you and her getting together for a simple lunch - with no agenda in mind - just to reconnect. Sometimes it takes something small like that to "reset" things. I would also have an agreement that nothing from the past would be discussed - just a simple meeting to say hello and express some love. It may do wonders.

Sometimes after a 'stalemate' like this, what is really needed is to just break the deadlock with something really simple and non-threatening.

Meanwhile, you are in my prayers brother :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, you guys! Reading all the replies brought tears to my eyes. What a loving bunch and spirit filled you all are. I literally could write a book about this situation. I have wrote volumes to her in letters as my emotions ran high on a roller coaster at the time she found me. I was shocked when she found me the day after she turned 23. And now according to her, total blindness is creeping in.

When time permits, I think I will email James (above)with more details of it all and any updates instead of putting it here in this forum.

In the end, I am hoping she will come to Christ before the Rapture, and if not, then minutes afterward along with her entire family who I have ministered to for those first 3 years with truth. Thanks again and you will have to email James and ask for this update when it eventually comes in for those who want to follow along and when time permits in getting around to it. Thank you all for your prayers. -Jec