In the news:

More strange, unusual quakes in unusual places:

Greentown quake creates buzz statewide

3.8 magnitude earthquake hits north central Indiana

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 3.8 magnitude earthquake centered 5 miles southeast of Greentown, Ind., at 7:55:21 a.m. today. The agency had initially reported the quake as a 4.2 magnitude. It occurred about 3 miles below the ground, the geological survey reported.

And how many times have we seen a similar quote to the one below?

The epicenter is "highly irregular, extremely rare, unprecedented,” John Steinmetz, director of the Indiana Geological Survey at Indiana University, told the Star Press at Muncie.

Those words ring like a mantra. We have seen similar quotes consistently over the last year or so in diverse places in north and central America.

Also in the news:

More lies and distortions: a sign of the times

When Cooling Becomes Warming

Were the stakes not so serious, the continuing efforts of global warming apologists to explain every climate condition using their pet theory would be comical. Unfortunately, and despite the death of cap and trade, the climate change crowd has already been very successful in undercutting the use of cheap, plentiful and economically beneficial fossil fuels in the United States.

This is why such news is important to a prophecy watcher. Just a LITTLE reading and research into the issue reveals that it is so incredibly obvious that C02 emitted (by humans use of energy) has nothing to do with the global weather - it leads a thinking person to ponder just what IS the real agenda of such propagandists.

Even worse, the Obama administration will begin to clamp down even harder on the use of fossil fuels in 2011, in the midst of an economic crisis when America can least afford such largesse. In this context, the claim by global warming alarmists that record cold temperatures and massive snowstorms somehow confirm their beliefs demands refutation.

Its actually all about global redistribution of wealth - well, that and enormous profits to be made on "green technology", which has thus far been an unmitigated disaster (see "Spain" and its devotion to such technology and the subsequent results) - and global warming seemed like a good scheme to accomplish this effort. But now, just as we read in the book "1984", where the re-education camps mandated a belief that 2+2=5, we now similarly are fed the lie that "cooling=warming".

The Orwellian aspects of this fraud are astonishing. Yet some folks continue to believe it in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It is also despite the overwhelming evidence of fraud involved, as revealed by "climategate" and the leaked emails proving that fraud was integral to the myth of so-called "Global Climate Change", previously "Global Warming".

The truth is very very elusive these days.

More lies and distortions, as pointed out by the American Thinker:

Week's worth of stories censored by NY Times, Wash. Post

The following stories -- in the span of a week -- were widely disseminated. But none made it into the news pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post. It's all too familiar pattern that points to a biased pro-Paletinian, anti-Israel agenda in their news coverage.

Let's take a look at what these two major newspapers did not seem fit to print:

Dec. 24--Palestinian Authority TV ClaimsJesus was a Palestinian, Denies his Jewish Ancestry

Dec. 25--Abbas aims for "Judenrein" Palestinian state -- No room for a single Israeli.

Dec. 25--Hamas Ultimatum: Israel has Two Options -- Death or Leaving Palestinian Lands.

Dec. 28--Abbas Cracks Down on Main Political Rival, Mohammed Dahlan

Dec. 28--Hamas Reported Torturing, Killing Israel-bound Africans in Sinai

Dec. 29--Fatah Bans Abbas Rival from Party Meetings

Dec. 30--Journalist Who Aired Dissension in Abbas' Party Gets Five-Day Detention

Dec. 30--Poll: Solid Majorities of Palestinians Oppose Two-State Solution Along Clinton Parameters


So why did the Times and the Post engage in such conspicuous self-censorship? Because their editors and reporters are determined to paint Israel as the main obstacle to the peace process, while hiding the darker, anti-peace aspects of the Palestinian side -- both Hamas in Gaza and Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party in the West Bank.

Above all, Abbas's rule has to be prettied up because the papers' news sections are heavily invested in painting him as a bona fide peace partner. So corruption, repression, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel incitement, glorification of terrorist killers, denial of historic Jewish ties to Jerusalem and Hebron, and other problematic patterns of Abbas's rule must be carefully hidden from Post and Times readers.

What makes such silence -- such self-censorship -- even more egregious and blatantly obvious is that these are two newspapers that do not hesitate to expose repression under Putin in Russia, corruption under Karzai in Afghanistan, and Mubarak's autocracy in Egypt. Yet, Abbas's rule in the West Bank fits exactly the same patterns -- but fails to make the news pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Bottom line: the Palestinian side is treated with kid gloves; Israel with the gloves off.

More lies and distortions. A sign of the times no doubt.