Australia now has our own Saint - Mother Mary McKillop

There is a very pleasing event that has taken place today in Rome that has been edifying to not only the Roman Catholics in Australia, but Roman Catholics right around the world.

What I am referring to is the Canonisation of Mother Mary McKillop as Australia's first ever fully certified Saint.

Yes, Australia has welcomed the nation's first saint, Saint Mary of the Cross McKillop, with cheers, tears of joy and enthusiastic applause.

St Mary was declared at about 7.45 (AEDT) during a canonisation ceremony at the Vatican in Rome led by Pope Benedict XVI.

Up to 8000 Australians, wearing yellow or teal coloured scarves, watched from the square of St Peter's, the centre of Roman Catholicism. Across Australia, many thousands more watched the live broadcast.

The Pope named each candidate in turn, ending with the declaration that their names be inscribed "in the canon (list) of the saints and establish that throughout the church they be honoured devoutly among all the saints."

"It was lovely I'm so glad I was here," Dianna Georges told AAP at Mary MacKillop Place where 2000 people had roared their approval and erupted with cheers and applause following the formal canonisation.

The mother of three from Croydon, in Sydney's inner west, was cradling her three-week-old baby Elyssa Anne Mary, named after Mother Mary.

"Hopefully, Mary MacKillop will keep her safe and protect her throughout her life."

Following the canonisation, dozens poured into the chapel to pray at St Mary's tomb.

Father Graeme Malone, priest to Mary MacKillop Place, said he was deeply stirred by the moment.

"It was a great privilege to witness it," he told AAP.

The ceremony was broadcast live on television and the internet and at various sites around Australia where thousands had gathered, including her birthplace of Melbourne and the rural town of Penola in South Australia where her religious journey began.

In Penola, there were cheers and tears among town residents.

"I have come because it is history in the making; this will never happen again you know: Australia's first saint," Coral Butcher said.

More than 15,000 people travelled to Mary MacKillop Place on Sunday, the mother house of the Sisters.

In Sydney, Acting Secretary General of the Sisters of St Joseph, Sister Monica Cavanagh thanked St Mary's many admirers for the enthusiasm they have showed for the order's founder.

"We are overwhelmed with the response," she said.

St Mary, a founder of the order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart who died in 1909, was canonised along with five others blesseds from Spain, Poland, Canada and Italy.

About 50,000 people were gathered at St Peter's to hear the Pope conduct the rite during a two hour mass.

The Pope began with a formal greeting to the church universal before calling on the congregation to reflect on their lives.

The crowd was silent as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Archbishop Angelo Amato, formally asked the Pope to proceed with the canonisations.

Archbishop Amaoto told of St Mary's early years during a short a biography, which he made for each candidate.

St Mary was born in Melbourne on January 15, 1842, the first child of Scottish immigrants Flora and Alexander.

Her childhood was humble and she grew up knowing what it was like to be poor.

She went on to found the order with Father Julian Woods to help educate and care for poor children in rural areas.

However, her journey was not easy.

St Mary's path to sainthood has taken 85 years, the church recognition of two healing miracles, the personal attentions of Popes, years of research, countless prayers and patience.

The title means she will be recognised around the world as a person close to God.

Australian clergy in Rome for the canonisation included Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell, Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby, and Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey.

However, this has not only provided a splendid opportunity for the nations of Catholics right around the world to celebrate something that is gratifying and edifying to their religion, but it has also given the many Australian public figures that had attended the event the opportunity to travel and spend lavishly at the expense of the taxpayers.

What a grandiose type of holiday they must all have had while the average Aussie battles to pay the bills and pay off the mortgage?

Oh for the privileges and advantages of power even though there is nothing at all mentioned in the word of God relative to this particular type of circus, and that's what it is a circus.

This event has nothing whatsoever to do with being a Christian, or indeed salvation, but instead has everything to do with making sure that we as a nation are rife for the time that the Antichrist gains total and complete control of the Revised Roman Empire - the EU - just as he is doing at the moment.

The Bible makes very clear that a man cannot inherit the Kingdom of God unless they are thoroughly Born Again in the spirit and that good works alone will not achieve that objective, meaning that by whatever works or miracles Mary McKillop allegedly achieved Sainthood they really count for nothing or very little unless she had been Born Again.

Of those circumstances, I cannot be certain though as she yet may not really be a saint in the eyes of God unless she had been Born Again.

Also, there is no doubting that anyone can achieve Sainthood if they are prepared to repent of their sins and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their saviour and deliverer.

Therefore, as there are literally millions and millions of Born Again Christians alive here on the planet, even as l write this piece; in that respect there is nothing that is out of the ordinary about Mary McKillop except for the probability of her being a good women who lived a selfless life and went out of her way to help those that were less fortunate than herself.

In closing, the Canonization of a particular individual is simply nothing more than a recently invented add on to the Roman Catholic Church and was more than likely invented in quite recent times probably within the last few hundred years and has been put there purely for ecstatic purposes only.

The biased attitude towards Israel by some that are calling themselves Christian.

When l see the amount of biased reporting that is being put on the Internet by others who have the audacity to call themselves Christian, against Palestine in favour of Israel, there are times that l feel terribly embarrassed to be a Born Again Christian.

In the eyes of the aforementioned it almost seems as if the Jews are able to commit no wrong whatsoever, when this is simply not the case.

There seems to be some misguided view whereby there are some that have latched onto, and are holding onto, a a misguided view that the Jews are Gods chosen people when there is nowhere in the Holy Scriptures that says this is the case.

Rather, the word of God says that there is no difference whatsoever between the Jew and the Gentile.

Certainly, Jerusalem was the birthplace of the Saviour of mankind and for that reason is called the beautiful land in the Bible.

Still, that does not excuse the genocide that has been committed over the past few decades by Israel against the Palestinians by their illegally occupying and building on their land, and the obvious biased attitude that l am seeing relative to Israel.

That statement does not even bring into account the amount of sheer carnage that Israel has inflicted onto unarmed Palestinian citizens with their unbridled butchery.

Here is another of those reports that l have happened to come across while surfing the Internet, which has clearly been designed to show the Palestinians in the worst possible light.

There is no doubting that the article has been twisted and warped as a lame excuse to favour Israel against the Palestinians as the author never ever has the occasion to mention anything about Israel at all that would appear to be inflammatory or derogatory at all.

On the contrary, this reporter, who shall remain nameless, could quite easily be accused of definitely being one sided and biased on the side of Israel.

One may ask is this how the Lord would view someone who favours one race or nationality over another.

Racism or bigotry is the term that readily comes to mind.

World's press falls for a Palestinian set up
This morning the world's press showed what looked like an Israeli driver driving at and hitting a Palestinian youth. But look more closely - the boy was running towards the car hurling stones, and there were at least four people filming the incident with video cameras - on both sides of the street! It was all staged! The driver couldn't avoid the accident.

The car was turning left and you could hear its horn blowing to warn the boys to get out of the street. It was all a set up and once again, the world's press falls for it.

As journalists, we know that you do not get this sort of film coverage by chance - it was carefully orchestrated, and the people behind this made very sure of getting the film. We could see no fewer than three people filming, and there had to be a fourth who filmed the clip that was shown on the news.

As usual, Israel is portrayed as the big baddy and the poor Palestinians as their helpless victims.

Who were the people doing the filming? No one asks that. Why were they there?

If you were driving along, turning left and suddenly youths ran out into the street hurling rocks at your front windscreen, would you be able to avoid hitting them? Your instinct would be to get away as fast as possible before a rock came through and hit you! There was no time for that driver to think. His instinct would not be to stop, because he was under attack.

We are so ashamed of modern journalists and the media in general. Why do they never ask the right questions?

The Druids are now being recognized as being a religion, has the world gone stark raving mad?

Has the world gone mad? That seems to be the case with the world seemingly going from one from one insanity to another with the latest news that the Druids have now been recognized as being an official religion.

Where has the age of reason gone, washed down the drain it would seem with all of the latest rubbish our media and newspapers are being flooded with nowadays, and now this latest news.

Nonetheless, I would not have expected anything to be any different in light of the fact of the Antichrist being on the rise and rise.

See the other articles that l have written on this blog relative to the appointment of Herman Van Rompuy being appointed as the first ever full time president of the European Union Council of Ministers.

During the course of his lifetime the late and great Barry R Smith spoke of the last religion on the earth before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ as being Satanism.

As we are now on the verge of seeing a World Religion being established just as has been prophesied in the book of the Revelation, Chapter 17, the Whore of Babylon.

It would therefore come as no real surprise that the next metamorphous in the end times would be these insidious and Satanic Druids being recognized as being a religion.

Effectively means that the world is heading in exactly the direction that Barry said it would be with regards to the end of time.

There is still time to come to a place of repentance before it is too late do so now as your eternal salvation may depend upon it by going to the How to be Saved section at the bottom of the page.

Druids as an official religion? Stones of Praise here we come
By Melanie Phillips

Will someone please tell me this is all a joke. Until now, Druids have been regarded indulgently as a curious remnant of Britain’s ancient past, a bunch of eccentrics who annually dress up in strange robes at Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice. However, according to the Charity Commission, they are to be recognised as a religion and, as a result, afforded charitable status, with the tax exemptions and other advantages that follow. After a four-year campaign, the Commission says it accepts that the Druids worship nature and that they also believe in the spirits of places such as mountains and rivers, as well as in ‘divine guides’. A curious remnant of Britain's ancient past or new age religion? A druid marks the solstice at Stonehenge. This, apparently, makes them qualify as a religion. Can it be long before the BBC transmits Stones Of Praise, or solemnly invites listeners to Radio 4’s Thought For The Day to genuflect to a tree? Some might shrug this off. After all, the Druids don’t do any harm to anyone. What skin is it off anyone else’s nose how they are categorised?

Cult

Well, it actually matters rather a lot. Elevating them to the same status as Christianity is but the latest example of how the bedrock creed of this country is being undermined. More than that, it is an attack upon the very concept of religion itself. This is because Druidry is simply not a religion. Now, it’s true that religion is notoriously difficult to define. But true religions surely rest on an established structure of traditions, beliefs, literature and laws. Above all, they share a belief in a supernatural deity (or more than one) that governs the universe. By these standards, Druidry is surely not a religion but a cult — a group defined merely by ritual practices but which stands outside mainstream religion. Nor does it seem to conform to the definition of a religion according to charity law.

When Radio 4’s Sunday Programme suggested yesterday morning to Phil Ryder, chairman of the Druid Network, that the legal definition of religion included a ‘significant belief in a supreme being or entity’, he saw no contradiction. Druids, he said cheerfully, might venerate many gods, inanimate objects or nature. How very inclusive of them! But the key point is surely that none of these beliefs involves a ‘supreme’ being that exists beyond the Earth and the universe. On the contrary, Druids worship what is in or on the earth itself. When asked further how Druidry benefited the public interest — the key test for charitable status — Mr Ryder burbled that its ethical framework consisted of forming ‘honourable and sustainable relationships’ with everything in the world, including animals, people and nature. But there are many who subscribe to no belief system at all and who would say they, too, want to live in harmony with the earth and everything in it. Are they, therefore, also to be regarded as religious folk and given charitable status? Maybe Prince Charles, who famously talks to his plants, could register himself on that basis as the founder of a new religion? Duchy Devotions, anyone? If the Druids qualify as a religion, can other cults such as the Scientologists be far behind? Can it be long, indeed, before the wise and learned theologians of the Charity Commission similarly grant charitable status to sorcery, witchcraft or even the Jedi — the fictional Star Wars ‘religion’ which the 2001 census recorded as having no fewer than 390,127 adherents in England and Wales. The whole thing is beyond absurd. But it is also malevolent. For it is all of a piece with the agenda by the oh-so politically correct Charity Commission to promote the fanatical religious creed of the Left — the worship of equality. The Commission was primed by Labour for this attempt to restructure society back in 2006, when charity law was redrawn to redefine ‘public benefit’ as helping the poor. This put the independent schools in the front line of attack, since education was no longer itself considered a benefit — as it had been since time immemorial — but only insofar as it furthered the ideology of
‘equality’.

Extraordinary

Thus, we have arrived at the extraordinary situation where some of these schools, which have delivered such inestimable benefit to the nation, face the loss of their charitable status, which is to be given instead to people who dance naked around stones and worship the sun. But the new respectability of paganism cannot be laid entirely at the Charity Commission’s door. For in recent years, pagan practices have been rapidly multiplying, with an explosion of the occult: witchcraft, parapsychology, séances, telepathy and mind-bending cults. Astonishingly, around 100 members of the Armed Forces now classify themselves as pagans, and a further 30 as witches. There are thought to be about 500 pagan police officers. A Pagan Police Association has even been set up to represent officers who ‘worship nature and believe in many gods’. They have been given the right to take days off to perform rituals, such as leaving food out for the dead, dressing up as ghosts and casting spells, or celebrating the sun god with ‘unabashed sexuality and promiscuity’. Britain’s prison authorities are equally hospitable to the occult: under instructions issued to every prison governor, pagan ‘priests’ are allowed to use wine and wands during ceremonies in jails. Inmates practising paganism are allowed a hoodless robe, incense and a piece of religious jewellery among their personal possessions. Political correctness gone mad or what? As one disgusted police officer exploded: ‘What has it come to when a cop gets time off so he can sit about making spells or dance around the place drinking honey beer with a wand in his hand?’
Barking
How on earth has our supposedly rational society come to subscribe to so much totally barking mumbo-jumbo? In part, it developed from the New Age embrace of Eastern beliefs in the inter-connectedness of everything in the universe. The defining characteristic of such faiths is a spirituality which is concerned with the self rather than the world beyond the individual. These beliefs were, therefore, tailor-made for the ‘me society’ which turned against Biblical constraints on behaviour in the interests of others. They were subsequently given rocket fuel by environmentalism, at the core of which lies the pagan worship of ‘Mother Earth’. And they were then legitimised by the doctrines of equality of outcomes and human rights — which, far from protecting the rights of truly religious people, aim to force Biblical morality and belief out of British and European public life altogether. This is because human rights and equality of outcomes are held to be universal values. That means they invariably trump specific religious beliefs to impose instead equal status for all creeds. But if all creeds, however absurd, have equal meaning then every belief is equally meaningless. And without the Judeo-Christian heritage there would be no morality and no true human rights. There is nothing remotely enlightened about paganism. It was historically tied up with both communism and fascism, precisely because it is a negation of reason and the bedrock values behind Western progress. The result is that, under the secular onslaught of human rights, our society is reverting to a pre-modern era of anti-human superstition and irrationality. From human rights, you might say, to pagan rites in one seamless progression. Anyone who thinks radical egalitarianism is progressive has got this very wrong. We are hurtling backwards in time to a more primitive age.

The 33 rescued Chilean miners give witness to God.

Good news for a change!

Thank God the Chilean miners are now safe and sound.

But did you notice the writing on their shirts as the emerged from the capsule that brought them to the surface?

See the picture above. What was it?

Here is a report on the rescue and the writing on each man's shirt:
Chilean Miners Give Witness to God
Teresa Neumann

Each miner emerged from the rescue capsule wearing a shirt that said "Thank you Lord" on the front. On the back of their shirts were the words, "To Him be the glory and honor," from Psalm 95:4, and on one sleeve was the name "Jesus."

(Chile)—CBN News reports that the majority of the miners rescued from a Chilean mine have given evidence of deep spirituality and faith in God.

They have all agreed, the report notes, that it was their faith that kept them safe and sound during those 69 days in the depths of the earth.

According to the report each miner emerged from the rescue capsule wearing a shirt that said "Thank you Lord" on the front. On the back of their shirts were the words, "To Him be the glory and honor," from Psalm 95:4, and on one sleeve was the name "Jesus."

Mario Sepúlveda, the second worker who came out of the capsule, said: "God and the devil were fighting over me and God won. I always knew they would get me out. I always had faith in the professionals here in Chile and in the Great Creator."

The fourth miner to surface, Carlos Mamani, knelt down as soon as he came out of the capsule and pointed to Heaven, giving thanks to God, as did Omar Reygadas, who also held a Bible in his hands and wore a helmet with the phrase "God Lives" written on it.

Another report notes that while still trapped in the mine, 19-year-old Jimmy Sanchez had written a letter that was sent up to the surface saying, "There are actually 34 of us, because God has never left us down here."

The newly appointed EU president may be starting to show signs of delusional grandeur -- but are those signs warranted?

'When I am on holiday, am I still not the president of Europe?'

“When Barack Obama goes on vacation, is he not the president of the United States? When Nicolas Sarkozy goes on vacation, is he no longer the president of France?,” said the spokesman of our very own EU president.

Herman Van Rompuy is under fire for using his motorcade as a taxi service to run his family from Brussels to Paris (and back again) to get a flight to and from their sun drenched summer holiday in August.

Apparently his security services decided that it would be simply too dangerous for Mr Van Rompuy to travel a few miles to Gare Du Midi to take a high-speed train to the Charles De Gaulle airport.

Instead, the president, his wife, his children, their spouses and his two grandchildren, a party of 10, were taken in a US presidential style motorcade (were there outriders I wonder?) all 162 or so miles to Paris. When they returned, it was the Caribbean I think, the limos and close protection teams were on hand to whisk them back again – round trips of 650 miles.

It is Mr Van Rompuy’s “don’t you know who I am” moment.

In this mindset, haiku Herman, while unelected, is at least as important as French or US presidents who were chosen by voters. His office (it seems out of character for the man himself) is showing severe symptoms of delusions of grandeur combined with the easy sense of entitlement that is so characteristic of the droit d’eurocrat.

Never mind that Mr Van Rompuy, dubbed “Mr Nobody” by Helmut Schmidt, could walk unrecognised on the streets of Brussels, let alone other European capitals. Or, that one of his aides regularly writes to newspapers in green ink complaining that Mr Van Rompuy’s correct title is the President of the Council, and that he is not, repeat NOT an EU president such as heads of state like Obama or Sarkozy.

Never mind that his use of cars for a family trip would flagrantly break the rules in any other EU institution. Or, that real heads of state and government, such as David Cameron, regularly use the high-speed rail connections that are so close to Mr Van Rompuy’s Sint-Genesius-Rode home.

Never mind, that he is paid €298,494 a year, more, funnily enough, than either President Obama or Sarkozy. Mr Van Rompuy is so important, he is so very, very worth the fuss.
I am told that his cabinet are horrified that this shockingly “superficial” story has come out of the corridors into the open.

They just don’t get it do they?

There seems to be quite definite cracks beginning to appear in the outside shell of Herman Van Rompuy, and all is not as it appears to be.

If that is the case then one may ask, does this man really have delusions of grandeur as the article above has suggested, or is there a lot more to this timid looking ex Belgium Prime Minister than what meets the eye?

After the confirmation of the Lisbon Treaty, there was a time not too long ago that the world waited with eager anticipation for the day that we would finally learn who was going to be the first ever full time president of the EU.

When the results were finally revealed and we learnt that Van Rompuy had secured the position the average European was less than impressed, and rightly so.

After all, this was not what they had hoped for in a president but as for me l knew that this man may not have been what he had appeared to be and that there may have been a whole lot more to Van Rompuy than what initially met the eye.

In fact, after having listened to the teachings of the late and great Barry R Smith who had said that the Antichrist would be the full time president of the EU my suspicions were immediately raised just as soon as l had laid eyes on Van Rompuy.

If he is as l think he may be, then there maybe some reason why there are now signs beginning to show that he may yet be the Antichrist by the manner in which he is behaving?

If l am ever able to prove this to be a fact by his confirmation of the treaty of Daniel that he is the Prince of the Covenant, then l will be one of the first ones to make that fact publically known on the Internet by writing an article and placing it onto this BlogSpot.

There may be a time coming very shortly when the world shall know the correct identity of the Antichrist?

The EUs Big Five and Egypt to hold Middle East peace talks in Brussels.

Brussels - Foreign ministers from France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain, along with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, are set to discuss the Middle East peace process with their Egyptian counterpart in Brussels, diplomats said Thursday.

The meeting takes place as Israeli-Palestinian talks remain in limbo, after Israel's 10-month moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements expired at the end of last month.

"It is very important to hear from the Egyptian colleague's own voice what is the best path for the negotiations," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on the fringe of a NATO meeting.

Talks are set to take place over dinner, on the eve of Friday's Friends of Democratic Pakistan meeting that Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit was due to attend.

Frattini said the group would also hear from French and Spanish colleagues Bernard Kouchner and Miguel Angel Moratinos over their weekend visit to Jerusalem, during which they were bluntly told by their Israeli counterpart that the EU should solve its own problems before intervening in the conflict.

Italy's top diplomat said that that demonstrated the need for EU countries to stop competing for the leadership of different mediation efforts.

"In the Middle East peace process, Europe should have the High Representative for foreign policy (Ashton), not a multiplication of various initiatives," Frattini said.

The Italian foreign minister had himself toyed with the idea of leading a selected group of European colleagues to visit Gaza, but has since given up on the idea. End of Quote

Prophetically speaking, one day with the Lord is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day, the Antichrist shall confirm a seven year treaty with many for one week, or seven years.

Daniel Chapter 9, Verse 27
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

There are many scholars that have said that for the Antichrist to confirm a seven year treaty in the Middle East he would simply rubber stamp what others have already worked out.

Therefore, technically speaking he would not actually be involved in working out the finer details.

There are then others that are saying that the EU presidency is the power base for the Antichrist, an analogy that l am in agreement with.

If that were the case then the newly appointed president of the EU Council of Ministers, Herman Van Rompuy, could quite easily fit into that category; but we shall just have to wait and see?

Therefore, it did not really come as a surprise that when the American president, Barak Obama, had organized a summit in the US to try and bring the respective parties together in a Middle East peace deal that it was doomed to failure even before it even began.

Simply put, l could never see the treaty of Daniel Chapter 9 Verse 27 ever being rubber stamped by an American president.

If that had ever happened and Barak Obama would have confirmed a Middle East peace treaty then would all be doomed to eternal Hellfire because the word of God would have been made untrue.

On the other hand, now that the concept of a talks over Middle East peace has moved over to Brussels, the economic capital of the EU, the whole idea of peace in the Middle East begins to take on a new meaning, and a can be seen in a different light.

There may now be a real possibility of some sort of a peace deal being worked out and if there is then there are no doubts at all that it would be confirmed by the newly appointed president of the EU, that is, Van Rompuy, thereby making him the Antichrist as he is the president of the EU Council of Ministers concurrently.

For whatever reason, there is not a great deal of the peace talks being moved over to Europe being mentioned on the Internet at the moment, so all that we are able to do is to wait and see if there is even going to be a treaty as a result of these latest moves, and if there is one we shall then have to wait and see who it is going to be rubber stamped by if that is to happen at all in the short term future?

The newly appointed EU President Herman Van Rompuy, a Saint in his native Belgium?

l have decided to reproduce the attached article specifically for the mannerisms that the newly appointed EU President Herman Van Rompuy has described himself as possessing in order that those that read it may find any agreement, or otherwise disagreement, with the comments that l have made relative to the article in question.

For beginners, there is nothing at all that is at all startling about this article except for the fact that Herman Van Rompuy himself has mentioned that he considers himself to be a saint in his native Belgium.

Now that may sound like quite an innocent sort of a statement, when it is taken in the contrast with the Bible Prophecies there maybe some quite serious consequences relative to it, even though it sounds naive enough.

That either sounds to me like he thinks a great deal of himself or he honestly does consider himself to be a saint or a God like type of figure alive, and walking here on the earth?

If that were the case then there may be a possibility of him being either the False Prophet or the Antichrist, with the former being the more likelihood of the two suggested scenarios.

l make this statement mostly because he has described himself in a manner that seems to indicate that he has been somewhat downtrodden all of his life or that he is as meek as a lamb just as the prophecies of Revelation Chapter 13 said would be the case relative to the False Prophet.

If that is the case then we could then more than likely consider his side kick as being the EU Commission President, Jose Manuel Barrasso as being the Antichrist?

Although l still get the distinct impression that there is some form of power play that is being acted out between the two aforementioned figures and either one of these two could yet still prove to be the Antichrist, only time will tell which way that is going to work out even if either one of the two names mentioned above are as l suggested they may be?

After having read the article what do the readers of these comments think of that evaluation?

Quote: At Europe’s Helm, a Steady Hand With Little Pomp

WHEN a visit to the United Nations was cancelled abruptly last month, the European Union’s new president, Herman Van Rompuy, headed instead for somewhere he says he feels really at home: Affligem Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in the countryside here, founded in 1062.
Mr. Van Rompuy spent a day in a simple room, attending services and eating in a cavernous hall where monks listen to readings from a library of 70,000 books. And he also likes the beer, one of Belgium’s most famous, now brewed under license from the monks.

At 62, Mr. Van Rompuy (pronounced ROM-poi) is suddenly a prominent man, the head of the council of 27 government leaders who make up the real spine of the European Union. It is a task requiring subtlety, manipulation and the ability to cajole everyone from big countries and small — with combustible personalities like President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and more stolid sorts like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, none of them with small egos — to agree on agendas and policies.

He got good marks for handling the leaders during Europe’s existential crisis this year over Greek debt and the crash of the euro. “If the euro zone had fallen apart,” he said in a long interview in his office here, “it would have been the end of the European Union.”

A Roman Catholic, Mr. Van Rompuy often seems to be fighting to conquer the sin of pride — in his manner, his dress (he favors brown) and his lack of affectation. But it is a struggle he sometimes loses. He is a man who feels inferior, it can be said, to few, and he is convinced that the modest and back-room fashion in which he is guiding Europe — and quietly expanding his influence — is the only possible way to do it.

Asked if he saw himself as “maître d’ ” to the heads of government, Mr. Van Rompuy bristles. He has been called a “gray mouse” too, he said, and “a damp rag” by one British legislator. “All my career it’s been like that. But there are those who know better and have another opinion.”

Then he laughs a little and says: “I’m a saint in Belgium these days!”

Those who wanted a major charismatic figure to speak for Europe — Tony Blair openly campaigned for the job — were making a grave error, Mr. Van Rompuy said.

“Trying to be the first man in Europe and no one else around you would be a real catastrophe,” he said. “If you want to be the president of Europe with a high profile, you immediately come into conflict with other European institutions and member states. There are nuances, of course, depending on your ego, but there is only one way to do it: with a mixture of leadership and giving others the way to play their role.”

He said: “I call myself a facilitator.” Then he said: “You cannot govern Europe against the member states.”

MR. VAN ROMPUY, an economist and former center-right prime minister of Belgium, is more or less the antithesis of the modern politician, about as far from Mr. Blair or Mr. Sarkozy as possible. He has been married for 33 years to a biologist, and he has four children and two grandsons.

Bookish and unassuming, he writes haikus, utters no sound bites, spins little and seems happy to discuss how he lost his faith in God at 12, as he prepared for communion, and then suddenly regained it in his mid-20s. “I fell in love, and it is a lifelong love story,” he said.

“I regularly ask myself what happened,” he said. “But faith is not a question of rational arguments.”

He is a classic European Christian Democrat, who keeps his religion out of politics but believes in ethics and social justice. He was even, he admits, a rabid republican as a teenager, wanting to dump the Belgian monarchy, but he had a strong relationship with King Baudouin I and now with King Albert II, “so I left my republican ideas a long time ago.”

Most strikingly, he insists he never wanted most of the top jobs he has held, presenting his rise as a series of unfortunate but unavoidable political accidents. When he was pressed to become the president of the European Council, he had led Belgium for less than a year and was virtually unknown abroad.

But since he left the post of prime minister, Belgium has lurched from crisis to crisis, still without a stable government. And he has impressed many with his handling of the euro crisis, his managing of deep French-German differences and his ability to extend his influence in a manner that has sometimes threatened the European Commission and its president, José Manuel Barroso.

Mr. Van Rompuy stands out because he seems to have a modest but coherent strategy for the European Union. Without revitalizing its economy, he argues, Europe cannot afford its cherished way of life, and national leaders must take collective responsibility for the larger economy, and not just their own. He has played an important role in efforts to toughen rules governing the euro, so that national economies are more tightly monitored and wayward nations face sanctions.

“His overall approach is one of solid intellectual analysis and modesty about what he can achieve,” said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a research institute. “He has analysed where Europe is and where it needs to go. He doesn’t always get his way, but he is respected by many heads of government.” End of Quote

"RAPTURE! PROPHECY OR HERESY"

is a book by Colonel H. Speed Wilson (Daring Publisher). Since 1989, he has offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who can prove scripturally that the Saints are taken OUT OF THE WORLD.

The following is taken from the back cover of the book. "The Rapture theology has been one of the most controversial topics among Christians since the early 1800s to the present. The most commonly addressed questions in the popular books, pamphlets and sermons is WHEN will the Rapture occur? WILL the Rapture be pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, or post-tribulation? And...WILL it be a secret and silent removal of Christians or a glorious return of JESUS?

As an astute Bible Scholar, Speed Wilson now raises a question in his thought-provoking book he feels is the most important and even critical question of all, IS THERE REALLY TO BE A RAPTURE?

Topics in Speed's book include Rapture Support Arguments, Origin of Rapture, What May Happen, What We Must Do, Consequences of the Rapture Doctrine, and, finally, Your $10,000 Challenge!

Speed is offering this $10,000 reward to anyone who can, after reading his book, reference any scriptures that clearly state that the Saints (Holy Ones, Righteous, Church, Body, Bride, Wheat...etc.) Are taken out of the world! Details as to how to receive this reward are presented in the book. The publisher, Daring Books, will give a $1,000 reward to the bookstore that sells the book to the person who qualifies for the $10,000 reward!"

This book has been updated in June 2010, and is now called "RAPTURE - A DANGEROUS DECEPTION" - 261 PAGE PAPERBACK - available at Amazon.com and other places.

The Third Horsemen of the Apocalypse - the Black Horse

Cost of saving river basin revealed
By Gabrielle Dunlevy
The cost of saving the Murray-Darling Basin has been laid out for the first time - $3 billion in water buybacks, and the loss of $805 million in agricultural production a year and at least 800 jobs.

Farmers are outraged, predicting a wide scale walkout from rural Australia if the water cutbacks go ahead.

They warn the economic modelling in the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's (MDBA) guide is way off, and the true cost in both production and jobs will be much higher than predicted.

The MDBA, the independent body working out how to restore balance to the food bowl, released a guide to its controversial plan on Friday in Canberra.

While farmers and conservationists agree the amount of water currently taken out of the river system for human use is unsustainable, they are divided on how to solve the problem.

The clawback of 27 to 37 per cent of water amounts to an additional 3000 to 4000 gigalitres of surface water annually.

It could have gone as high as 7700 gigalitres, but MDBA chairman Mike Taylor said the social and economic costs would have been "beyond management".

The authority predicts the cuts would reduce irrigated production by 1.1 per cent in the long term, with a loss of about 800 full-time jobs.

But Mr Taylor admitted more work was needed to better predict the economic and social effects.

"We do not think those economic models are satisfactory for dealing with what localised impacts are likely to be," he told reporters in Canberra.

"They are likely to be quite significantly higher than the sorts of numbers that come out of those general equilibrium models."

National Irrigators Council chief Danny O'Brien said the guide spelt "disaster" to Australian agriculture.

"To say that you can take out 30 per cent of the main input to irrigated agriculture in the basin and cost just 800 jobs or one per cent (of production) does not pass the laugh test," he said.

"That is a joke. The authority needs to go back to the drawing board and do more work on the social and economic modelling because it simply doesn't stack up."

The modelling underpinning the guide was not released on Friday, but is expected to come out by the month's end.

But models by the NSW Irrigators Council show it would cost 17,000 jobs in NSW alone, with a $2.4 billion annual loss to the economy.

The National Farmers Federation says the fate of the plan ultimately is in the hands of federal Water Minister Tony Burke, who must now engage with the producers of 40 per cent of the nation's food.

Spokesman Laurie Arthur said the government, with its new focus on regional Australia, would have to reconcile that with the new plan.

"A lot of people will conclude that they won't be able to go forward, so there's a real anomaly between investing in our rural communities and pulling the wealth out of them," he said.

The regions expected to suffer the worst economic impact are Murrumbidgee in the southern basin, and Moonie and Gwydir in the northern basin.

The federal government has committed to buying back the water needed to meet the target, which could cost more than $3 billion.

The authority estimates the gap, based on water purchased by state and commonwealth governments to June 30, at 2295 to 3295 gigalitres.

They could also invest in capital works to recover the water.

The plan in its current form would send a long-term average flow of up to 7700 gigalitres through the Murray mouth compared with the 5100 gigalitres expected now.

The mouth would be open between 90 and 92 per cent of the time, compared with 64 per cent under current arrangements.

Declining populations of water birds would stabilise, river red gums would be healthier, as would native fish such as the Murray cod.

The Australian Conservation Foundation's Dr Arlene Harriss-Buchan would prefer the upper end of the range, 4000 gigalitres, targeted.

"A re-allocation of 3000 gigalitres, there would be only a low probability of meeting all of our environmental targets and objectives all of the time," she said
.
"It's also premised on looking at a future climate scenario which is in the wetter range of likelihood."

The proposed basin plan will be released later in 2010 or early in 2011, the guide says, with consultation before and after. End of Quote

What is the overall plan?
FOOD CONTROLLED BY THE ANTICHRIST
There was one stage that the spokesperson for the NWO, Henry Kissinger, had said that if you control energy you control nations and if you control food you control individuals.

The nation's energy has been sold overseas so that is gone forever, and we are being controlled from overseas for our energy requirements, meaning that they are able to charge us whatever they like for the essential services such as gas, water and electricity, as they are now doing.

So what's next that needs to be brought under total subversion so that the nation and its individuals could be totally controlled from the cradle to the grave.

The answer to that is relatively simple, the food, or the food supplies.

That is what the Murray River Basin plan recently unveiled by the Federal Government is all about - controlling the food so that the planners behind the World Government can control individuals.

What will be the result of this plan?
All of what l have mentioned forehand will be handed over to the Antichrist and that plan together with his microchip implant will mean that he will have total control over the entirety of mankind.

After all when our food is being supplied from the EU and he controls the EU he effectively controls the nation.

THE BLACK HORSE
Revelation Chapter 6 and Verses 5 to 6
And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand." "And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and [see] thou hurt not the oil and the wine".
The Third Seal: A Black Horse - Rampant inflation - a common aftermath of war - Famine is suggested by John's words, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine."

After the large war mentioned in Revelation Chapter 6, Verse 3 - the red horse - the Antichrist takes control of the food and dishes it out to those that he wishes to live at the same time denying it to those that he wishes to perish, more than likely the Christians?

This could be a message of hard times for all of mankind. "black" symbolizes:
woe
mourning
terrible times
famine, physical or spiritual
evil
opposite of goodness
everything that opposes God

There will not be a rapture until the seven years of tribulation have passed so Christian Saints will be saved IN the famine and not FROM the famine. Noah was saved IN the flood, not FROM the flood. God can rain manna from heaven if necessary. I believe God will set up places of refuge where believers can run, so they can have physical and spiritual food.

God will not forsake the righteous.

Bernanke Tells the Truth: The United States is on the Brink of Financial Disaster

Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered a speech before the the Annual Meeting of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council in Providence, Rhode Island. In the speech, he warned about the current state of the government finances. His conclusion, the situation is dire and "unsustainable".

It is remarkable that mainstream media has given this speech no coverage. I repeat, the central banker of the United States says in his own words:
Let me return to the issue of longer-term fiscal sustainability. As I have discussed, projections by the CBO and others show future budget deficits and debts rising indefinitely, and at increasing rates. To be sure, projections are to some degree only hypothetical exercises. Almost by definition, unsustainable trajectories of deficits and debts will never actually transpire, because creditors would never be willing to lend to a country in which the fiscal debt relative to the national income is rising without limit. Herbert Stein, a wise economist, once said, "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."9 One way or the other, fiscal adjustments sufficient to stabilize the federal budget will certainly occur at some point. The only real question is whether these adjustments will take place through a careful and deliberative process that weighs priorities and gives people plenty of time to adjust to changes in government programs or tax policies, or whether the needed fiscal adjustments will be a rapid and painful response to a looming or actual fiscal crisis.

This is as close as you are ever going to see a central banker admit that his country's financial situation is so dire that it could breakup at any time.

Here's more from Bernanke's remarkable speech:
The recent deep recession and the subsequent slow recovery have created severe budgetary pressures not only for many households and businesses, but for governments as well. Indeed, in the United States, governments at all levels are grappling not only with the near-term effects of economic weakness, but also with the longer-run pressures that will be generated by the need to provide health care and retirement security to an aging population. There is no way around it--meeting these challenges will require policymakers and the public to make some very difficult decisions and to accept some sacrifices. But history makes clear that countries that continually spend beyond their means suffer slower growth in incomes and living standards and are prone to greater economic and financial instability.

Now, get this, he warns that it is not only the Federal government that has financial problems, but also states and local governments:
Although state and local governments face significant fiscal challenges, my primary focus today will be the federal budget situation and its economic implications.

Does Bernanke see the tsunami hitting or what?

Then, he put things in historical perspective:
The budgetary position of the federal government has deteriorated substantially during the past two fiscal years, with the budget deficit averaging 9-1/2 percent of national income during that time. For comparison, the deficit averaged 2 percent of national income for the fiscal years 2005 to 2007, prior to the onset of the recession and financial crisis. The recent deterioration was largely the result of a sharp decline in tax revenues brought about by the recession and the subsequent slow recovery, as well as by increases in federal spending needed to alleviate the recession and stabilize the financial system. As a result of these deficits, the accumulated federal debt measured relative to national income has increased to a level not seen since the aftermath of World War II.

Then, he explains the deterioration and the problems it will create for the entire economy:
For now, the budget deficit has stabilized and, so long as the economy and financial markets continue to recover, it should narrow relative to national income over the next few years. Economic conditions provide little scope for reducing deficits significantly further over the next year or two; indeed, premature fiscal tightening could put the recovery at risk. Over the medium- and long-term, however, the story is quite different. If current policy settings are maintained, and under reasonable assumptions about economic growth, the federal budget will be on an unsustainable path in coming years, with the ratio of federal debt held by the public to national income rising at an increasing pace.2 Moreover, as the national debt grows, so will the associated interest payments, which in turn will lead to further increases in projected deficits. Expectations of large and increasing deficits in the future could inhibit current household and business spending--for example, by reducing confidence in the longer-term prospects for the economy or by increasing uncertainty about future tax burdens and government spending--and thus restrain the recovery. Concerns about the government's long-run fiscal position may also constrain the flexibility of fiscal policy to respond to current economic conditions.

Then, he tells us how powerful the negative trends are and how the aging population and Obamacare are going to make things worse:
Our fiscal challenges are especially daunting because they are mostly the product of powerful underlying trends, not short-term or temporary factors. Two of the most important driving forces are the aging of the U.S. population, the pace of which will intensify over the next couple of decades as the baby-boom generation retires, and rapidly rising health-care costs. As the health-care needs of the aging population increase, federal health-care programs are on track to be by far the biggest single source of fiscal imbalances over the longer term. Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the ratio of federal spending for health-care programs (principally Medicare and Medicaid) to national income will double over the next 25 years, and continue to rise significantly further after that...he aging of the U.S. population will also strain Social Security, as the number of workers paying taxes into the system rises more slowly than the number of people receiving benefits. This year, there are about five individuals between the ages of 20 and 64 for each person aged 65 and older. By 2030, when most of the baby boomers will have retired, this ratio is projected to decline to around 3, and it may subsequently fall yet further as life expectancies continue to increase. Overall, the projected fiscal pressures associated with Social Security are considerably smaller than the pressures associated with federal health programs, but they still present a significant challenge to policymakers.

Then he goes back to warn that the financial mess also exists at the state and local level:

The same underlying trends affecting federal finances will also put substantial pressures on state and local budgets, as organizations like yours have helped to highlight. In Rhode Island, as in other states, the retirement of state employees, together with continuing increases in health-care costs, will cause public pension and retiree health-care obligations to become increasingly difficult to meet. Estimates of unfunded pension liabilities for the states as whole span a wide range, but some researchers put the figure as high as $2 trillion at the end of 2009.5 Estimates of states' liabilities for retiree health benefits are even more uncertain because of the difficulty of projecting medical costs decades into the future. However, one recent estimate suggests that state governments have a collective liability of almost $600 billion for retiree health benefits. These health benefits have usually been handled on a pay-as-you-go basis and therefore could impose a substantial fiscal burden in coming years as large numbers of state workers retire.

Bernanke then breaks the news that the problem is global:
It may be scant comfort, but the United States is not alone in facing fiscal challenges. The global recession has dealt a blow to the fiscal positions of most other advanced economies, and, as in the United States, their expenditures for public health care and pensions are expected to rise substantially in the coming decades as their populations age. Indeed, the population of the United States overall is younger than those of a number of European countries as well as Japan.

Bernanke then re-emphasises, the damage this will do to the overall economy:
Failing to address our unsustainable fiscal situation exposes our country to serious economic costs and risks. In the short run, as I have noted, concerns and uncertainty about exploding future deficits could make households, businesses, and investors more cautious about spending, capital investment, and hiring. In the longer term, a rising level of government debt relative to national income is likely to put upward pressure on interest rates and thus inhibit capital formation, productivity, and economic growth. Larger government deficits increase our reliance on foreign lenders, all else being equal, implying that the share of U.S. national income devoted to paying interest to foreign investors will increase over time. Income paid to foreign investors is not available for domestic consumption or investment. And an increasingly large cost of servicing a growing national debt means that the adjustments, when they come, could be sharp and disruptive. For example, large tax increases that might be imposed to cover the rising interest on the debt would slow potential growth by reducing incentives to work, save, hire, and invest.

He then states that we do not know how much time is left before all hell breaks loose:
It would be difficult to identify a specific threshold at which federal debt begins to pose more substantial costs and risks to the nation's economy. Perhaps no bright line exists; the costs and risks may grow more or less continuously as the federal debt rises. What we do know, however, is that the threat to our economy is real and growing, which should be sufficient reason for fiscal policymakers to put in place a credible plan for bringing deficits down to sustainable levels over the medium term.

From there,Bernanke goes into a bit of wishful thinking by identifying ways Congress can rein in spending and make the tax system more efficient. Good luck with all of that.

The real important part of Bernanke's speech is the first half where he warns of the financial crisis just ahead

Global Cooling and the New World Order

By James Delingpole Politics Last updated: September 26th, 2010 - from The Daily Telegraph, London.

Bilderberg. Whether you believe it’s part of a sinister conspiracy which will lead inexorably to one world government or whether you think it’s just an innocent high-level talking shop, there’s one thing that can’t be denied: it knows which way the wind is blowing.

At its June meeting in Sitges, Spain (unreported and held in camera, as is Bilderberg’s way), some of the world’s most powerful CEOs rubbed shoulders with notable academics and leading politicians.

They included: the chairman of Fiat, the Irish Attorney General Paul Gallagher, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, Henry Kissinger, Bill Gates, Dick Perle, the Queen of the Netherlands, the editor of the Economist…. Definitely not Z-list, in other words.

Which is what makes one particular item on the group’s discussion agenda so tremendously significant. See if you can spot the one I mean:

The 58th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Sitges, Spain 3 – 6 June 2010. The Conference will deal mainly with Financial Reform, Security, Cyber Technology, Energy, Pakistan, Afghanistan, World Food Problem, Global Cooling, Social Networking, Medical Science, EU-US relations.

Yep, that’s right. Global Cooling.

Which means one of two things.

Either it was a printing error.

Or the global elite is perfectly well aware that global cooling represents a far more serious and imminent threat to the world than global warming, but is so far unwilling to admit it except behind closed doors.

Let me explain briefly why this is a bombshell waiting to explode.

Almost every government in the Western world from the USA to Britain to all the other EU states to Australia and New Zealand is currently committed to a policy of “decarbonisation.” This in turn is justified to (increasingly sceptical) electorates on the grounds that man-made CO2 is a prime driver of dangerous global warming and must therefore be reduced drastically, at no matter what social, economic and environmental cost. In the Eighties and Nineties, the global elite had a nice run of hot weather to support their (scientifically dubious) claims. But now they don’t. Winters are getting colder. Fuel bills are rising (in the name of combating climate change, natch). The wheels are starting to come off the AGW bandwagon. Ordinary people, resisting two decades of concerted brainwashing, are starting to notice.

All this, of course, spells big trouble for the global power elite. As well as leading to food shortages (as, for example, it becomes harder to grow wheat in northerly latitudes; adding, of course, to such already-present disasters as biofuels and the rejection of GM), global cooling is going to find electorates increasingly angry that they have been sold a pup.

Our fuel bills have risen inexorably; our countryside, our views and our property values have been ravaged by hideous wind farms; our holidays have been made more expensive; our cost of living has been driven up by green taxes; our freedoms have been curtailed in any number of pettily irritating ways from what kind of light bulbs we are permitted to use to how we dispose of our rubbish. And to what end? If man-made global warming was really happening and really a problem we might possibly have carried on putting up with all these constraints on our liberty and assaults on our income. But if it turns out to have been a myth……

Well then, all bets are off.

The next few years are going to be very interesting. Watch the global power elite squirming to reposition itself as it slowly distances itself from Anthropogenic Global Warming (”Who? Us? No. We never thought of it as more than a quaint theory…”), and tries to find new ways of justifying green taxation and control. (Ocean acidification; biodiversity; et al). You’ll notice sly shifts in policy spin. In Britain, for example, Chris “Chicken Little” Huhne’s suicidal “dash for wind” will be re-invented as a vital step towards “energy security.” There will be less talk of “combatting climate change” and more talk of “mitigation”. You’ll hear enviro-Nazis like Obama’s Science Czar John Holdren avoid reference to “global warming” like the plague, preferring the more reliably vague phrase “global climate disruption.”
And you know what the worst thing is? If we allow them to, they’re going to get away with it.

Our duty as free citizens over the next few years is to make sure that they don’t.

Al Gore, George Soros, Bill Gates, Carol Browner, John Holdren, Barack Obama, David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Tim Yeo, Michael Mann, Ted Turner, Robert Redford, Phil Jones, Chris Huhne, John Howard (yes really, he was supposed to be a conservative, but he was the man who kicked off Australia’s ETS), Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Yvo de Boer, Rajendra Pachauri….The list of the guilty goes on and on. Each in his own way – and whether through ignorance, naivety idealism or cynicism, it really doesn’t matter for the result has been the same – has done his bit to push the greatest con-trick in the history of science, forcing on global consumers the biggest bill in the history taxation, using “global warming” as an excuse to extend the reach of government further than it has ever gone before.

It is time we put a stop to this. In the US, the Tea Party movement is showing us the way. We need to punish these dodgy politicians at the ballot box. We need to ensure that those scientists guilty of malfeasance are, at the very least thrown out of the jobs which we taxpayers have been funding these last decades. We need to ensure that corporatist profiteers are no longer able to benefit from the distortion and corruption of the markets which result from green regulation.

We need a “Global Warming” Nuremberg.

Is the newly appointed president of the EU Council handing his authority over to the EU Commission as per the prophecies of Revelation Chapter 13?

Herman Van Rompuy announces a new 'reverse majority rule' to get around the national veto.

What is the legal basis of this latest power grab?
Herman Van Rompuy, the President of Europe, wants a new mechanism to enforce sanctions against member states which borrow too much. Fair enough, you might say: of the 27 member states, only three currently meet the EU’s debt and deficit rules.

What’s alarming is the mechanism Mr Van Rompuy intends to use:Whenever possible, decision-making rules on sanctions should be more automatic and based on a reverse majority rule, implying a Commission proposal is adopted unless rejected by the Council.

The reverse majority rule?

I’m one of those few sad souls who has waded through the entire text of the European Constitution Lisbon Treaty, and I can’t remember any such procedure.

I have spent two days asking around in Brussels, and no one there knows what it is, either.

So here is an innovation which would substantially shift power from the national capitals to the Commission, and which concerns an issue of major importance (levying fines), but which seems to have no legal basis.

I know that a number of Eurocrats read this blog, and occasionally post remarks under amusing noms de plume. Perhaps one of them can enlighten me? On the basis of what article is President Van Rompuy arrogating these new powers? Is the EU – yet again – making up the rules as it goes along? End of Quote

In the dual EU presidency of Jose Manuel Barrasso and the newly elected EU president of the Council of Ministers, Herman Van Rompuy, the world may have seen the coming together of the Antichrist and the False Prophet.

That being said, l had found it quite difficult to determine who was who relative to the aforementioned Satanic duo?

However if we read the above quotation quite carefully and then refer to the Holy Scriptures themselves we may be able to find a glue to the answer to that question.

The chapter that l am referring to is Revelation Chapter 13.
In that Chapter we are told of the two beasts mentioned above; however, it is not the first beast that has drawn my attention to the article above but the second beast, and in particular the part in the chapter that says even though the second beast does not seek authority for himself he hands his authority over the first beast.

To my way of thinking that sounds exactly like what Van Rompuy is doing relative to the EU Commission (or Barrasso) as he appears to be handing more and more power over to Barrasso.

There are now going to be some that are going to say that l am jumping at shadows relative to the above conjecture, but we still need to remember that what we are dealing with here is not the European Constitution Lisbon Treaty, but the Lisbon Treaty.

As that is the case it still needs to be remembered that Barrasso was the Prime Minister of Portugal before he became the 11th EU Commission President -- and that Lisbon is a very much a part of Portugal.

Therefore what that effectively means is EU Constitution Lisbon Treaty should have more correctly been named the Barrasso Treaty.

Instead of handing the preponderance of power over to the newly appointed Council President the power for the complete running of the EU has been handed over to Barrasso; thereby seemingly making him the first beast of Revelation Chapter 13.

Yet we still need to remember that the second beast is more dangerous and deadly than the first beast.

Of course there maybe some that are reading this that are going to say that the opposite is applicable and that all of the power for the running of the EU is going over to Van Rompuy; or yet still, they may have other ideas relative to the suggestions that l have made above? If that is the case l would like to hear of them with their ideas.

Revelation Chapter 13 and Verses 11 to 18 referring to the second beast - the False Prophet.
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

‘Palestine new UN member in 2011 if talks succeed’

By Jordana Horn
In his address to the UN General Assembly Thursday, US President Barack Obama called for a continuation of the settlement freeze and expressed the hope that by next year, current Israeli-Palestinian negotiations will have resulted in “an independent, sovereign state of Palestine.

“We believe that the moratorium should be extended. We also believe that talks should press on until completed,” Obama said, adding later that “now is the time for this opportunity to be seized, so that it does not slip away.”

Deeming the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “as old as this institution,” Obama told the General Assembly that both Israel and the Palestinians must espouse “genuine reconciliation” rather than resorting to familiar tropes of intransigence.

“This time, we should draw upon the teachings of tolerance that lie at the heart of three great religions that see Jerusalem’s soil as sacred,” Obama continued. “This time, we should reach for what’s best within ourselves.

“If we do, when we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations – an independent, sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel,” Obama said to applause from the General Assembly.

Obama also affirmed the United States’ support for Israel.

“Those who long to see an independent Palestine must also stop trying to tear down Israel,” Obama said. “After thousands of years, Jews and Arabs are not strangers in a strange land. After 60 years in the community of nations, Israel’s existence must not be a subject for debate.

“Israel is a sovereign state, and the historic homeland of the Jewish people,” the American president continued. “It should be clear to all that efforts to chip away at Israel’s legitimacy will only be met by the unshakeable opposition of the United States.

“And efforts to threaten or kill Israelis will do nothing to help the Palestinian people,” he added. “The slaughter of innocent Israelis is not resistance – it’s injustice.”
Obama made a special point of praising Mahmoud Abbas’s leadership.

“And make no mistake: The courage of a man like President Abbas, who stands up for his people in front of the world under very difficult circumstances, is far greater than those who fire rockets at innocent women and children,” he said.

Characterizing the current era as “no ordinary time for our people,” Obama said he has “had no greater focus as president than rescuing our economy from potential catastrophe.”

He also alluded to America’s “refocused” fight against al- Qaida, and gradual withdrawal from the conflict in Iraq.

“As we pursue the world’s most dangerous extremists, we’re also denying them the world’s most dangerous weapons, and pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” Obama said.

The president made clear that Iran will suffer consequences should it continue to violate the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.

“The United States and the international community seek a resolution to our differences with Iran, and the door remains open to diplomacy should Iran choose to walk through it,” Obama said. “But the Iranian government must demonstrate a clear and credible commitment and confirm to the world the peaceful intent of its nuclear program.”

The Israeli delegation was not in the hall to hear Obama’s speech, as it was the first day of Succot and it is Israeli government policy not to work or travel on Jewish holidays. Contrary to his initial plans, President Shimon Peres intended to stay in New York at least until Friday, sources told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.

The absence of the Israeli delegation, however, was apparently not immediately understood by the secular public. The New York Times reported that “in an odd turn, the Israeli delegation did not appear to be in the hall of the General Assembly to hear [Obama’s] words. Thursday is a Jewish religious holiday – Succot – and it was possible that the Israeli envoys were honoring it.”

Heaven or Hell?

When deciding whether Hell exists, don't listen to people who make up their beliefs based on what they think God should do, or people that twist scripture to disprove Hell, when scripture so clearly warns us of it. The warnings of eternal punishment were repeatedly spoken of by the Old Testament prophets, by Moses, by Jesus, by the Disciples, all throughout scripture, and by the prophets today. God has given us clear warning of Hell and nobody can claim ignorance!

Philip Stott: Global Warming: the Death of a Grand Narrative

Grand narratives - those overarching, dominant systems of socio-political thought so beloved of post-modernists - come and go. Some, such as major religions, can persist, through shape-shifting, for millennia; others last for centuries, while most survive for mere decades.

The death of a grand narrative is often protracted and largely unnoticed, until, one day, its metalanguage, its corpus of words of magic, its ‘points de capiton’, to use the phrase proposed by the Freudian psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan (1901 – 1981), which for so long have kept people sub-consciously in its thrall, eventually lose all of their power and meaning, and prove no longer relevant to the lives of the majority. Such is the fate of mainstream Christianity in Britain today. For other grand narratives, by contrast, the collapse may be unexpectedly swift and dramatic, as with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The work of the ‘mauerspechte’ can thus take centuries, but it may also be accomplished within days or months.

Such is the current fate of global warming, the grand narrative that human greed and profligacy are changing the world’s climate apocalyptically, a sin that can only be appeased through public confession and self-sacrifice to the Goddess, Gaia. Since the farcical conclusion of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference last December, it has been fascinating, as an independent academic, to witness the classical collapse of this grand narrative, as if social and philosophical theories are being played out before our gaze. From Australia to the US, both the public and politicians are rowing back from the dangerous weir of trying to constrain economic growth in the name of achieving a utopian, low-carbon economy. The pursuit of carbon footprints is proving a ‘yomp’ too far.

Of course, the metalanguage of global warming continues to be employed by certain politicians, including the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, by some of the media, including parts of the BBC, and by green activists, but one can already sense the power of its ‘points de capiton’ draining away daily. ‘Sustainability’ is becoming an increasingly unsustainable concept. Indeed, newspapers like The Times, which rather belatedly jumped onto the global warming bandwagon, have had to resort to reheating old stories of fossil-fuel funding and other wearied tropes, even putting these bizarrely on the front page in a pathetic bid to revive flagging interest. More characteristically, however, there are now an increasing number of days when none of global warming’s words of power even feature in the press or over the airwaves, and, when they do, they are often employed mechanically, without thought, conviction, or meaning.

Meanwhile, as ever, protean capitalism remains piously pragmatic, employing the old language where it can glean money thereby, as with wind farms and food miles, while already adjusting to whatever might come next. Slowly, but inexorably, a new set of metalanguages is arising, relating to food security, energy security, human genetic choices, but above all to adaptation and to flexibility in the face of normal change.

To understand a little of what is happening to the global warming grand narrative, we should turn to psychological theory, to what is generally known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This was first developed by the humanistic psychologist, Abraham Maslow, in his 1943 paper, A Theory of Human Motiviation, and fully expounded later in his 1954 book, Motivation and Personality.

Basically, Maslow proposes a hierarchy of five levels of basic human needs. Beyond these needs, higher levels of need exist. These include needs for understanding, aesthetic appreciation, and purely spiritual needs. In the levels of the five basic needs, the person does not feel the second need until the demands of the first have been satisfied, nor the third until the second has been satisfied, and so on. His hierarchic theory is often represented as a pyramid, with the larger, lower levels representing the lower needs, and the upper point representing the need for self-actualization.

A recent ‘Newsletter’ (‘Only one crisis at a time’, July 23, 2010) from the Scientific Alliance cogently analyses the present situation in Maslowian terms:

“We can also see this partly as another dimension of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. As our basic needs are fulfilled and life gets more secure, so we place more emphasis on higher tiers. This rationalises our increasingly rights-based culture and the rise and entrenchment of environmentalism in everyday life. Subsistence farmers or poor labourers have more pressing needs to fulfil. But the obverse of this is that, as short-term, pressing threats are lifted, we have time to focus on longer-term or less urgent ones.

By this reckoning, there would need to be some fairly significant changes for the present obsession with climate catastrophism to be replaced. The economic crisis has already played some part: it is virtually impossible to deliver radical and expensive policies at a time when painful cuts are being made in spending on basics such as welfare and education. A hypothetical contact with an alien civilization could at some stage again shift our focus.

But there is another crisis which is almost upon us. The chances are that energy insecurity will hit us in the next few years. Ignoring the Peak Oil arguments for now, there is a looming gap in electricity generating capacity as ageing coal- and nuclear- powered stations are decommissioned and at least part of the slack is unrealistically expected to be taken up by a large expansion of renewable power generation.”

It appears that, the higher we move up the Maslow pyramid, the greater is our need for theoretical, manufactured, future ‘catastrophes’. ‘Global warming’ thus comprised the classic ‘need’ of the ‘loads-of-money’ generation. But, we are now plunging back to reality, so that we no longer require this particular ‘catastrophe’ for our psychological fulfilment. Of course, new ‘catastrophes’ will surely arise to replace it, and they are already doing so, in the guise of food and energy security, and genetic choices, among many others.

Likewise, climate will continue to change, as it has always done. We must only hope that we have not undermined our ability to adapt to these changes, as and when they arise, and that science has not been too damaged by the Lysenkoistic grand narrative of global warming.

By contrast, I predict that global warming will now suffer a lingering death, as with so many other grand narratives that have gone before it, although there will always be a rump of adepts speaking in its tongues and propounding the faith, especially, I suspect, in the UK and its universities.

Emeritus Professor Philip Stott of the University of London is on the Academic Advisory Council of The Global Warming Policy Foundation.

Who Is Watching You? Nine Industries That Know Your Every Move

Don't kid yourself. Real privacy no longer exists in this country.

We've long had government organizations collecting data that paints a pretty clear picture of what we do with our time. The Tax Office knows everything about what you earn and any major transactions you make. It can access every bit of information it needs to determine how much money you should be sending on April 15.

The most important gatherer of personal information in the country are the Federal Police. They keeps a database of over 20 million fingerprints, which can be accessed by other law enforcement agencies. It also has an extensive database of DNA, the most specific marker of personal identity. The agencies ability to collect information expanded following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It now tracks a large portion of mail, cell phone traffic and Internet activity of people it deems suspicious.

Thanks to advances in technology, however, there are also now numerous private enterprises that track and record your every move. Although they don't usually give out this information, there are often worrisome leaks and security breaches where they inadvertently release sensitive information about their customers. Taken together, these industries have data on where you are, who you are communicating with, how you are earning your money, how you are spending that money, as well as the hobbies and interests you are pursuing.

We examined a large number of organizations to find the most intrusive firms and industries. Here they are, ranked by the number of people they track:

1) Credit Rating Agencies
With each firm having files on over 200 million people, the three credit bureaus -- Equifax (EFX), Experian (EXPGY), and TransUnion -- know not only your credit history, but also have the data to project your credit future. The companies collect a history of all credit use by an individual, including payment of bills, mortgages, and credit cards. The agencies also track the frequency with which a person applies for credit. That information is used to determine a person's credit risk through a credit score. These scores are produced using secret algorithms, ensuring that the bureaus know much more about you than you know about them.

2) Cell Phone Service Providers
As cell phone popularity has increased and technology has evolved, cell phone companies have come to possess a wealth of information about their customers. Covering over 90% of the Australian population, cell phone providers can tell who you call, when you call, how often you call certain people and what you say in your text messages. With GPS, they also now know where you are whenever you have your phone. As smartphones become the equivalent of miniature computers, cellular companies can also track personal behavior, such as use of multimedia and wireless e-commerce transactions.

3) Social Media Companies
In its ascent to Internet superpower, social enterprise Facebook has amassed an enormous amount of user information. Who your friends are, what you like, and what photos you are in are all information that the company has access to. That, however, is not the full extent of it. Facebook also tracks which profiles you view, who you communicate with most often, companies and causes you support, your personal calendar, and a great deal of personal information about your friends and family. Perhaps most surprising, Facebook can access much of the information you may have deleted, including photos and status updates, from their servers.

4) Credit Card Companies
There are currently 100 million credit cards owned by Australian consumers. In an economy dominated by credit, the amount of power held by credit card companies, such as Visa (V), MasterCard (MA) and American Express (AE), should not be surprising. They know their customers' credit scores, credit histories, what they buy, when they buy, and when they are likely to default on their payments. The interest rates charged for credit fluctuates based on their analysis of individuals' ability to pay back the debts they incur. Some of the information kept by credit card companies can help consumers, however. Algorithms that study buying patterns, for instance, are used to detect fraud.

5) Search Engines
Every search you perform on Google (GOOG) goes into the Internet giant's database, which it uses to keep a profile of your habits and interests. The search engine also keeps track of which links you click on during your search and which advertisers you visit. Google uses your interest profile and search history to place targeted ads in your browser. Perhaps most disturbingly, Google uses its Gmail service to monitor the content of your email in order to place targeted advertising in your email account. Google also keeps records of account and credit card information for everyone who uses their "Checkout" service, tracks which videos people watch on YouTube, where people are planning to visit, and what they plan to do there. Google's location-based map systems also allow the search company to know where people are in real time through the use of smartphones and other GPS-enabled devices.

6) Retail Chains
Kmart (WMT) uses data-mining services to collect and store information for all its customers in a central location. This allows it to determine the purchasing behavior of people who shop in its stores or on its website. It also optimizes inventory distribution by determining which products people are most likely to buy in the future. In August, Kmart began installing Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) in their underwear and jeans, which lets them track items and customers around the store. This means they are able to determine how much time someone who buys a specific pair of pants spends in each aisle. Kmart plans to use this data to reorganize displays and further control inventory. The retail giant also sell this information to thousands of other businesses, who use consumer profiles for advertising and demographic research.

7) Casinos
Casinos like the Wynn Resorts (WYNN) are increasingly using "loyalty cards" to monitor the behavior of their patrons. The Wynn "red" cards are used in place of tokens, and allow the casino to keep track of which machines and tables each gambler visits on a regular basis, the path they take during their visits (using RFID chips), and even how often and how much they are willing to lose before giving up. When a slot machine in Wynn detects a gambler is close to his breaking point, it will issue a small payout in order to keep him spending money.

8) Banks
Large banks, such as the National Australia Bank, the Commonwealth Bank and Westpac, have access to customer account information, which includes savings, employer payroll deposits, and the time and date of ATM and teller visits. They track transfers made by account holders to third parties. A bank also knows your income, your salary, and your balance, moment-by-moment. Perhaps among the most confidential data a bank keeps is how often people move money in and out of accounts. Banks know how much you save each month, and often exactly how those savings are invested. Banks use this information to assess the risk of giving you a mortgage or loan, and they are legally allowed to use data-mining companies to check your website activity.

9) Life Insurance Companies
About 18 million households currently have life insurance. In order to apply for life insurance, applicants generally must disclose their health history. This includes incidence of heart disease, height, weight, smoking habits, and often includes full records from your doctors. Perhaps more invasive, life insurers seek disclosure of hospitalization for mental illness, use of illegal drugs, and whether or not you have had to file for bankruptcy. Insurance companies use a national prescription database to determine whether or not you have ever been prescribed medication. And certain high-risk professions and hobbies usually have to be disclosed.