Maitreya, the World Teacher For All Humanity?

I don't know what to think about this, definitely New Age stuff, but it is IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL for crying out loud! I feel like I'm in a strange sci-fi movie, running at fast forward these days. . . )

PRESS RELEASE

Share International Reveals Christmas Miracle

Last update: 1:03 p.m. EST Dec. 12, 2008

LOS ANGELES, Dec 12, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- For years the world has been filled with miracles of all kinds. In April 1995 Time magazine devoted an eight-page spread to its cover story on miracles and concluded: "People are hungry for signs."

Look now for the biggest miracle of all. In the very near future a large, bright star will appear in the sky visible to all throughout the world -- night and day.

Unbelievable? Fantasy? No, a simple fact. Around a week later, Maitreya, the World Teacher for all humanity, will begin his open emergence and -- though not yet using the name Maitreya -- will be interviewed on a major US television program.

In 1988, CNN and other media reported on Maitreya's miraculous appearance to 6,000 people in Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday, June 11. A week before the event, a remarkable sign occurred: "On Saturday 4 June a big, bright star was sighted, unusually brighter than ordinary stars," reported Kenya Times editor Job Mutungi.

For over 30 years, artist, author and lecturer Benjamin Creme has been preparing the way for the emergence of Maitreya and his group, the Masters of Wisdom. In May 1982, Creme revealed at a packed press conference in Los Angeles that Maitreya had been living in the Asian community of London since July 19, 1977.

Awaited by all faiths under different names, Maitreya is the Christ to Christians, the Imam Mahdi to Muslims, Krishna to Hindus, the Messiah to Jews, and Maitreya Buddha to Buddhists. He is the World Teacher for all, religious or not, an educator in the broadest sense.

As a modern man concerned with today's problems, Maitreya works behind the scenes of our changing world. The outpouring of his extraordinary energy has been the stimulus for dramatic developments on many fronts: the ending of the cold war; the break-up of the Soviet Union; the reunification of Germany; the ending of apartheid in South Africa; the growing power of the people's voice, leading to demands for freedom and justice; and the worldwide focus on preserving the environment.

Maitreya's message can be summarized as "share and save the world". He will seek to inspire humanity to see itself as one family, and to create world peace through sharing, economic justice and global cooperation.

With Maitreya and his group working openly in the world, humanity is assured not only of survival but of the creation of a brilliant new civilization.

http://www.share-international.org

Our 2009 Predictions By Roger Wiegand

(Note: I don't know this guy, and he may be just another person trying to outdo the other gloom-and-doom analysts out there. On the other hand, it may be a good idea to try to prepare for some real gut wrenching realities.)

"We think we now have enough data from both the fundamentals and technicals to make some serious forecasts and predictions for 2009. While 2008 was a nasty year when lots of things imploded, they are far from being repaired. Treasury Secretary Paulson told us this week there are no more surprises, which tells me we haven't even discovered but a small portion of this monster derivative mess. His ripping-off of the taxpayers to the tune of $700 billion is only a warm-up. However, the larger question for traders and investors is what could happen next and when.

In the following report we take the key global economic points and suggest the outcome for 2009." -Traderrog

The most important news for 2008 was the destruction of the big global banks' net worth and their badly wounded ability to conduct normal business and make market-moving loans. Ben & Hank's bailout only helped the bad-boy banks reliquify themselves to remain somewhat solvent and stay in business. They are doing nothing to extend credit to any business enhancing western or global economies. The 2009 result will be no significant banker lending, taking more bailout money and sweeping additional bad loans of all stripes under the banker's rug and hiding the rest in back rooms.

The largest surprise in our view was the massive disaster at insurance giant AIG. Despite numerous injections of bailout billions, AIG remains in very serious trouble hanging on by their proverbial fingernails. The 2009 result will be a surprise crash and failure of AIG frightening the world at large causing ripples of failures throughout western and Asian nations unable to conduct business without mandatory insurance policies. Most folks have no comprehension as to the monster fallout this will create. It is in our view literally immeasurable, and this is why Paulson handed them so much money.

Our new president is determined to hand out $860 Billion to One Trillion dollars in a Herculean effort to literally buy a new economic recovery. While some of his ideas are noble indeed the overall plan will have little effect and Great Depression II shall take hold in 2009 with crashing stock markets in May and September-October 2009. We think the worst of the worst hits in later September 2009.

During the spring of next year we see:

(1) A second larger wave of residential housing mortgage failures; (2) The first big wave of auto loan failures and repossessions; (3) Over $40 billion in credit card defaults, smashing the bank lenders; (4) The first wave of commercial mortgage failures and foreclosures on shopping malls, office buildings and other commercials; (5) And finally, the grand smashing finale of CDS Credit Default Swaps originated with No margin money or down payments! We heard today the total is 500 trillion! I cannot even fathom that number. These five converging train wrecks could take the Dow from a dead cat bounce of 10400-10800 back to 7250, or even 6600, or 5600.

Shares traders and investors have one more solid quarter, in our view to regain some stock market losses on the forthcoming Obama Trillion Dollar handouts. We think the rising share markets will help most all sectors gain some recovery and provide the illusion the bottoms are in and new bases found. The stark reality hits home after shares peak in April or early May taking an unprecedented selling high dive scaring the wits out of Americans and the watching world.

Even with these events and rising unemployment and social problems, economic observers and analysts could continue to plead the worst is over, the bottoms are in and a fine, new, shiny world of trading and investing in our bright economy lies just ahead for the fall of 2009. Then, in later September and early October, the New York, London, Tokyo and Asian markets take a monster crash. How low is low and how bad can it get? We think the Dow could end-up on November 1st, 2009 anywhere from 5,600 to a low of 3,000 or even 1,500. One guideline will be a falling overshoot of PE's on our largest, so-called international corporations posting lows of 4 to 7. Today, many of them are near 18. What does this tell us about the severity of our projections?

Unemployment nationally in the USA is now touching 16%. The officially posted number is somewhere near half of that. By the fall of 2009, American REAL UNEMPLOYMENT WILL BE NEAR THE ALLTIME 1930'S DEPRESSION HIGH OF 25% UNEMPLOYED. SADLY, THAT IS NOT THE WORST AS IT GETS MORE DIRE. WE PREDICT REAL, USA UNEMPLOYMENT REACHES 30-40%. IN THE RUST BELT STATES OF MICHIGAN AND OHIO, WHILE 40% IS NOT UNREALISTIC.

Several European nations have larger, more established social safety nets for the unemployed. In the USA, local, regional and national authorities are not nearly as prepared. The American federal government departments for food stamps and the job of providing welfare provisions will be overwhelmed. This will be a Katrina event for the hungry citizens of the United States. Urban areas will see skyrocketing crime and in parts of some cities, life could become totally uninhabitable.

The last report we've seen on those receiving food handouts and related welfare amounted to 11 million USA citizens with 700,000 children going hungry each day. We suspect the true amount of those needing food help will rise to 35,000,000 with an untold tragic number of them being little, defenseless children. Governments remain in denial and are not prepared for this national emergency whatsoever. As things worsen, food riots and others with violence aimed at the "haves' are common.

The number of bank failures over the next three years will be in the thousands. In addition, the US Dollar's valuation could break recent lows near 70.00 on the index, dropping to 46.00 by 2011 or 2012. Inflation or potentially hyperinflation is quite real as the Federal Reserve and US Treasury strain to print and circulate cash to prod our stalled economy. It is simply not working even with the dramatically lower interest rates of late. Benny Bernanke is out of rate cut running room.

Consumers are broke and going broker. Households of interrelated families are doubling and tripling up even with several employed members being under one roof. Basic costs of rent, mortgage payments, health care, food, utilities and taxes are too much to bear on stagnant and in some cases falling wages. In some areas of America, there are entire subdivisions of homes totally abandoned or existing with only a hand full of occupants. The millions thrown at lenders for new mortgages are not getting through to buyers, as there are fewer of them. We are witnessing system breakdown.

Municipalities and states are sinking into a spending, debt-ridden morass. It was reported today that 22 of 50 USA states are in serious budgetary trouble. California is one of those in terrible condition and Michigan is already technically broke as are many of her cities. Detroit will file bankruptcy in 2009 and there will many other surprises as well. There will be a cascade of bond defaults and the outcome will cap the ability of these cities, states and counties to borrow ever more.

The shining light through all of this is the faster we find the bottom the faster we can recover. Sadly, the recovery process will take years. Futures and commodities traders should continue to earn steady profits as the stock markets slide into oblivion for years. We see no recovery until 2015.

Roger Wiegand
Editor Trader Tracks Newsletter
& The Rog Blog at webeatthestreet.com

Eligibility case finds 'standing'?

New suit claims unique state law
enables citizens to demand proof

A new case challenging Barack Obama's natural-born citizenship and, therefore, constitutional eligibility to serve as president has the potential to clear a hurdle that caused several other similar cases' dismissal: the issue of "standing." . . .

. . . . Washington's secretary of state, Mr. Sam Reed, has opposed the lawsuit, brought by a group of 12 registered Washington voters with Pidgeon's representation, on several grounds, including the argument that the issue is moot now that Obama has been voted upon by the people.

Pidgeon argues, however, that even if Obama remains in office two years from now, the issue will not be moot.

"The Constitution's criteria for president are never moot," Pidgeon explained. "Article 2, Section 1 says 'eligible to the Office of President'; it doesn't say 'eligible for candidacy to the Office of President."

Therefore, Pidgeon argues, the Constitution's natural-born citizen clause specifically and expressly addresses the man sitting in the Oval Office, not just the main elected and waiting to get in.

"If, at any time during his tenure, a birth certificate actually surfaces showing [Obama] born in Kenya," Pidgeon said, "he is disqualified from the presidency at any time. And the constitutional crisis that is rising out of this – the longer he's in that office, the greater the problem becomes, because everything he does will be illegal." . . . . .

Click HERE for more.

Creating a nation of zombies

As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.

In Moscow, Igor Panarin's Forecasts Are All the Rage; America 'Disintegrates' in 2010
By ANDREW OSBORN

MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.

In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger."

Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.

But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.

A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.

"There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia." Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control. , , ,

. . . . In September 1998, he attended a conference in Linz, Austria, devoted to information warfare, the use of data to get an edge over a rival. It was there, in front of 400 fellow delegates, that he first presented his theory about the collapse of the U.S. in 2010.

"When I pushed the button on my computer and the map of the United States disintegrated, hundreds of people cried out in surprise," he remembers. He says most in the audience were skeptical. "They didn't believe me."

At the end of the presentation, he says many delegates asked him to autograph copies of the map showing a dismembered U.S.

He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysts, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

"It would be reasonable for Russia to lay claim to Alaska; it was part of the Russian Empire for a long time." A framed satellite image of the Bering Strait that separates Alaska from Russia like a thread hangs from his office wall. "It's not there for no reason," he says with a sly grin.

Interest in his forecast revived this fall when he published an article in Izvestia, one of Russia's biggest national dailies. In it, he reiterated his theory, called U.S. foreign debt "a pyramid scheme," and predicted China and Russia would usurp Washington's role as a global financial regulator.

Americans hope President-elect Barack Obama "can work miracles," he wrote. "But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles."

The article prompted a question about the White House's reaction to Prof. Panarin's forecast at a December news conference. "I'll have to decline to comment," spokeswoman Dana Perino said amid much laughter.

For Prof. Panarin, Ms. Perino's response was significant. "The way the answer was phrased was an indication that my views are being listened to very carefully," he says.

The professor says he's convinced that people are taking his theory more seriously. People like him have forecast similar cataclysms before, he says, and been right. He cites French political scientist Emmanuel Todd. Mr. Todd is famous for having rightly forecast the demise of the Soviet Union -- 15 years beforehand. "When he forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1976, people laughed at him," says Prof. Panarin.

Blackwater: Shadow Army

No comment . . .

2008 Was The Year Man-Made Global Warming Was Disproved

Looking back over my columns of the past 12 months, one of their major themes was neatly encapsulated by two recent items from The Daily Telegraph.

Polar bears will be fine after all Photo: AP

The first, on May 21, headed "Climate change threat to Alpine ski resorts" , reported that the entire Alpine "winter sports industry" could soon "grind to a halt for lack of snow". The second, on December 19, headed "The Alps have best snow conditions in a generation" , reported that this winter's Alpine snowfalls "look set to beat all records by New Year's Day".

Easily one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures politicians have ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace, the tide has turned in three significant respects.

First, all over the world, temperatures have been dropping in a way wholly unpredicted by all those computer models which have been used as the main drivers of the scare. Last winter, as temperatures plummeted, many parts of the world had snowfalls on a scale not seen for decades. This winter, with the whole of Canada and half the US under snow, looks likely to be even worse. After several years flatlining, global temperatures have dropped sharply enough to cancel out much of their net rise in the 20th century.

More Here

Jack Van Impe Has Bilderberg Source?

I have watched Jack Van Impe's weekly TV show on and off for a long time, and I am always interested in what he has to say. I was watching a recent show, and he mentioned that he had a source who attended the last Bilderberg meeting and that he had heard that one part of the plan was to microchip every person in the world in the next few years.

Interview With Texe Marrs

Here is a link to a file I have uploaded of an interview with Texe Marrs. Here is a brief bio:

Texe Marrs was assistant professor of aerospace studies, teaching American Defense Policy, strategic weapons systems, and related subjects at the University of Texas at Austin from 1977 to 1982. He has also taught international affairs, political science, and psychology for two other universities. A graduate Summa Cum Laude from Park College, Kansas City, Missouri, he earned his Master’s degree at North Carolina State University.

By the way, he is also labeled as a conspiracy theorist on Wikipedia.

Anyway, I think what he had to say here is very important to think about and research for yourself about the direction our nation seems to be headed into (if looked at through the conspiracist's viewpoint).

Link to Texe Marrs interview HERE . . . I would recommend that you "save" these type of files, and then listen.

Also, here are links to two books that are mentioned in the interview . . . Codex Magica and Mysterious Monuments

Again, I think people want this sort of information, or I wouldn't go to the trouble of doing this, and really wish that if you are not interested in this stuff, or just would rather not think about it, please request to be removed from my Blog Update emails. As recently as several months ago, I would have probably chuckled at most of this stuff if someone I knew where posting it . . .

On the other hand, if you know someone who might be interested, email me their email address, and I will add them to the list.

USA needs nuclear explosion to turn the world into dictatorship

(I am not posting this stuff to create fear, or thinking we should constantly be on the watch for terrible and dreadful things, which will paralyze . . . I think it (for me) is more to be a constant reminder that I need to be steeling my resolve, firming up for possibilities)



23.12.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru
Is the United States going to put dictatorship into effect under the guise of the anti-terrorist struggle? What may trigger another major transformation in 2009? The answer is obvious: another 9/11 in the USA.

Terrible and bloody events are in store for the world in the beginning of 2009. Most likely, the world will witness a reality show with a nuclear blast, which will be used as a reason for the US administration to change the world order again and leave the new Great Depression behind. There is every reason to believe that the Russian Federation may suffer as a result of this possible initiative too.

Joe Biden made a sensational statement on October 19, 2008. He said that Barack Obama would have to undergo an ordeal during the first six months of his stay in the White House. It will be the time of a very serious international crisis, when Obama would have to make tough and possibly unpopular decisions both in home and foreign politics.

Biden said that there were four or five scenarios for the development of the international crisis. Afghanistan, North Korea or the Russian Federation may become the source of one of them.

When Obama learned of Biden’s speech, he tried to explain everything with rhetorical exaggerations. However, Biden’s remarks gave food for thought, taking into consideration the fact that former secretary of state Madeleine Albright described his remarks as statement of fact.

Apparently, the political elite in the United States is certain that their nation would soon suffer another mammoth terrorist act. This assumption became the subject of Michel Chossudovsky’s article “A Second 9/11„: An Integral Part of US Military Doctrine.”

The independent analysts presented a selection of statements, which US top officials released during the recent several years. For example, Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Secretary, said at Yale April 7, 2008 that modern technologies let even a small terrorist group kill hundreds of thousands of people. Dick Cheney stated May 26, 2008: “Nobody can guarantee that we won’t be hit again.”

The general public has been prepared for a possible mega terrorist act with hundreds of thousands of victims. The expectation of another major terrorist attack, Chossudovsky wrote, became a part of the US military doctrine to justify possible preemptive strikes, i.e. aggression. The analyst also wrote that the US administration was aiming the efforts of the national security services at the liquidation of the consequences of the Massive Casualty Producing Event. Moreover, the US establishment believes that such an event may unite the Americans. Tommy Franks, the then CENTCOM commander voiced this idea in 2003. He particularly said that another event with many casualties in the USA would revive the support of wartime laws. Franks also said that such an event would mark the end of democracy in America. To put it in a nutshell, it would mark the beginning of the era of dictatorship.

The US administration planned Operation Northwoods in 1962, in which the US incursion into Cuba was supposed to be justified with a massive massacre of the Miami-based Cubans, as well as the explosion of a US warship in Guantanamo Bay. President Kennedy did not let the operation become a reality. The logic of Northwoods does not differ much from that of General Franks - a new mega terrorist act will justify the beginning of USA’s new aggression in the Middle East.

The Pentagon started to develop the plan of the new war in April 2006 – the third war after the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Stew Bykovsky, a well-known columnist, said in his interview in August 2007 that America needed another 9/11 because the country had forgotten who its enemy was.

Which weapon would make it possible to conduct a major terrorist attack with countless casualties and produce the effect of universal panic? A nuclear weapon would suit this goal best. It would not be a hardship to say that a nuclear explosion was conducted by Islamic terrorists who stole nukes from Russia in the beginning of the 1990s. A nuclear mushroom grows somewhere in the USA and the country launches another war and introduces dictatorship.

US ARMY READY IF THE DOWNTURN GETS OUT OF HAND

John Crudele
New York Post
Wednesday, December 24, 2008

ARE you afraid that the economic downturn could get out of hand? I mean, really out of hand?

Well, don't worry.

The US Army War College is on the case - ready to handle "unforeseen economic collapse" and the "rapid dissolution of public order in all or significant parts of the US."

And you thought we were just dealing with a recession!

In a report published Nov. 4 - just in time for the holiday season - the War College's Strategic Studies Institute posited a number of shocks that the country should be prepared for, including unrest caused by the economy's failure.

The report has a snappy title, "Known Unknowns: Unconventional 'Strategic Shocks' in Defense Strategy Development," and was written by Nathan Freier, a visiting professor at the college. The foreword was written by Col. John A. Kardos, director of the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute.

Freier lists a number of possible things we should worry about - because we probably don't have enough of our own - including run-of-the-mill terrorism and the fact that China and Russia could align against us politically and economically.

"Some of the most plausible defense-relevant strategic shocks remain low-probability events," Freier soft-pedals before going on to scare the hell out of us.

The War College says "widespread civil violence inside the US would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security."

Among things Freier wants us to worry about are "deliberate employment of weapons of mass destruction. . . unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency and catastrophic natural and human disasters."

Oh, and by the way, have a Merry Christmas!

Amero to become USA’s new currency when dollar collapses

I came across this story sort of by accident, and it's amazing to me that this story and others like it has been so successfully hidden. I have also saw comments, etc, around the net that this subject is kind of a hot potato, with intimidation against anyone who is trying to get this stuff out on mainstream, or even alternative media in the US. (There is a picture of the 20 Amero coin in the slideshow currently at the top of the blog.)
When the world rejects the USD, it's going to get ugly fast. Who knows when the transition will start . . . it may be in the very near future, it may be years from now. I'm thinking it will be much sooner than we can envision.
I know that this is the time of year that I do not want to think about such things, and you probably feel the same.


02.12.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru


Pictures of the new currency that will supposedly replace the US dollar have appeared on the Russian Internet. The United States is reportedly working on the new currency, the amero, which will be common for the USA, Mexico and Canada. The unstable financial situation in the world, the collapsing oil prices and the growing foreign debt of the United States may eventually crush the US dollar as the world’s major currency. Needless to say that the US authorities reject the rumors and promise to keep the dollar afloat.

Amero notes have no portraits of US presidents on them and resemble the Belarussian rubles. For example, there is an image of a deer depicted on a 50-amero note, whereas a picture of a pyramid of Mexican Indians can be seen on a 100-amero note.

The amero follows the model of the European Union and its euro. It brings up the idea that the new currency can be adopted by the USA, Canada and Mexico within the scope of the North American Union, which the Bush administration established in 2005 under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).

On April 6, 2005, the US Treasury announced the formation of the Financial Services Working Group to assist in the SPP’s ‘prosperity’ plans. According to its own press release, the US Treasury’s Financial Services Working Group said it “will play a critical role in the SPP.”

Conspiracy theorists contend that the governments of the United States, Canada, and Mexico are already taking steps to implement such a currency, as part of a "North American Union (NAU)" No current members of any country's government have officially stated a desire to create such a body, nor introduce a common currency.

The idea for a North American currency union was first proposed in 1999 by Canadian economist Herbert G. Grubel. A senior fellow of the conservative Fraser Institute think-tank, he published a book titled The Case for the Amero in September 1999, the year that the euro became a virtual currency. Another Canadian think-tank, the C.D. Howe Institute, advocates the creation of a shared currency between Canada and the United States .

After the report came out, center-left nationalist groups in Canada expressed their opposition to any currency union because they view it as an attempt by American businesses to gain access to Canada 's extensive natural resources while dismantling the nation's social services. The 100,000 member strong Council of Canadians, a progressive advocacy group, has declared one of its central issues to be the threat of "deep integration".

Dr. Robert Pastor, in a 2001 book, suggested a common currency should be a foundation of "macro economic cooperation" among the three NAFTA countries. However, the 2005 Independent Task Force on North America, which he chaired, did not recommend a common currency, nor does Pastor in the section for additional and dissenting views suggest a common currency should be a goal.

Iceland ‘Like Chernobyl’ as Meltdown Shows Anger Can Boil Over

By Ben Holland

Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- It was the week before Christmas in Reykjavik, and all through the town Eva Hauksdottir led a band of 60 whistle-blowing, pan-banging, shouting demonstrators.

“Pay your own debts,” they yelled as they visited one bank office after another in Iceland’s capital. “Don’t make the children pay.”

When she isn’t leading one of the almost daily acts of protest in this land devastated by the global financial meltdown, Hauksdottir sells good luck charms made from the claws of ptarmigans, a local bird, and voodoo dolls in the form of bankers. She says she expects to lose her home, worth less than when she bought it two years ago, after the amount she owes jumped more than 20 percent.

Unrest following the end of a five-year economic boom is overshadowing the holidays in a country of 320,000 near the Arctic Circle, where the folklore is filled with magic, trolls and elves. Expansion ended with the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market. The fallout in Iceland may presage civil disruptions elsewhere, as job losses multiply and credit bills come due. Few nations can count themselves safe, says Ian Bremmer, president of the New York-based Eurasia Group, which analyzes political risk for businesses.

“As people have their expectations changed radically, you can have protests come out of nowhere,” even in developed countries, Bremmer said.

‘Maybe Axes’

Riots in Greece this month, sparked by the police shooting of a teenager, became tinged with economic dissension. A group of Kuwaiti equity traders marched on the emir’s office in October to demand the closing of the stock exchange to stem losses. Even in U.S. cities, civil disorder is “conceivable” if unemployment rises above 10 percent from November’s 6.7 percent, Bremmer says.

Hauksdottir, the owner of a Reykjavik witchcraft shop, says over a cup of thyme and juniper tea that only civil disobedience can force banks to stop collecting debts that people can’t pay.

“We’ll use our voices, and then if we have to we’ll use our hands, and maybe axes,” Hauksdottir says.

At Reykjavik’s half-built concert hall, a symbol of the good times that juts from the harbor toward the North Pole, the visitor center is closed to visitors. The principal owner, Landsbanki Islands hf, failed in October. Marketing director Thorhallur Vilhjalmsson says he’s making ends meet on severance pay.

“Iceland right now is like Chernobyl after the blast,” Vilhjalmsson says. “It looks normal, but there’s radiation.”

Kicking Down Doors

The protests may escalate as bills come due and severance pay runs out for those who lost jobs at the three biggest lenders, including Landsbanki, the second-largest, says Stefan Palsson, a historian. He once led the Campaign Against Militarism, opposing NATO bases in the 1960s.

He said he’s surprised ordinary people are backing activists once considered “hooligans.” There was public outrage three years ago when environmentalists poured yogurt over aluminum representatives to protest a new plant.

“Now you have protesters kicking down doors at police stations, and respectable elderly people saying ‘Well, they’re young and full of enthusiasm, and anyway, they’re right!’” he said.

Inflation rose to 18.1 percent this month, and the International Monetary Fund predicts that Iceland’s economy will shrink 9.6 percent next year. The Washington-based global lender of last resort put together a rescue package for the country worth as much as $5.3 billion last month.

No-Debt Ethics

The decline in the krona and surge in prices are creating a triple whammy for borrowers whose home loans are typically linked to inflation or foreign currencies. Households owed more than double their disposable income at the end of 2006, almost twice the level in the U.S., according to the IMF.

Some Icelanders say the easy money of the past decade eroded the island’s traditions. A sheep farmer in the 1934 novel, “Independent People,” by Iceland’s only Nobel laureate, Halldor Laxness, preferred freedom from debt to any material comforts. His motto was: “I don’t owe anyone a penny.”

That philosophy may return, says Birgir Asgeirsson, 63, the priest at Reykjavik’s Hallgrimskirkja Lutheran church.

“I grew up learning that you work for what you get, but kids today just get what they want,” Asgeirsson says. “Now I can hear parents say ‘No, my little boy, it’s not that easy.’”

Gunnlaugur Gudmundsson is an astrologer and chief executive officer of a company that provides horoscope predictions for phone operators such as Vodafone Group Plc. Customer numbers have more than doubled since the crisis broke, he said.

“The classic question used to be, ‘I’m in love with this guy, will he marry me?’” he said at a table strewn with star- charts. “Now the questions are about jobs, and when the good times will return.”

Two-Year Contraction

The answer may be 2011, according to the IMF, which projects two years of economic contraction first.

That may take Iceland back to the income levels of five or 10 years ago, “and we weren’t badly off then,” said Hannes Holmstein Gissurarson, professor of politics at the University of Iceland and a central bank supervisory board member. Banks and politicians were victims of an “external shock,” and weren’t behaving much worse than their counterparts elsewhere, he said.

The difference was one of scale. As governments worldwide pumped money into stricken banks, Iceland couldn’t follow suit. By the end of last year, local banks had accumulated assets almost nine times the size of the country’s $12 billion economy, according to the IMF.

The lack of backup was a “systemic error no one thought of,” Gissurarson said.

‘Cocktail Party’

The Reykjavik concert hall was budgeted at 170 million pounds ($252 million), Vilhjalmsson says. That was more than 2 percent of gross domestic product -- equivalent to a $250 billion project in the U.S. Pointing to miniature models, Vilhjalmsson says the building’s glass shell was designed to refract the low Arctic sun in kaleidoscopic shades.

In midwinter in the world’s northernmost capital the sun appears for just four hours a day, leaving long evenings for Icelanders to figure out how their country got caught up in the global boom-and-bust. Vilhjalmsson has his own version.

“The West is having this great, long cocktail party,” Vilhjalmsson says. “And then, late in the evening, in comes this cute little dwarf, Iceland. And he gets drunk.”

Bush springs drug dealers, leaves border agents to rot

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Ramos-Compean supporter asks:
'Why is the president dug in so deep?'

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President George W. Bush today added a convicted methamphetamine dealer, a cocaine distributor and two marijuana suppliers to the list of drug operators he's pardoned while in office, bringing his total of drug suppliers who have been pardoned or had their sentences commuted to 36.

He's also pardoned more than a dozen thieves, seven embezzlers, an arsonist, several mail thieves, a man who violated the Neutrality Act and eight Thanksgiving turkeys, but there's been no clemency for U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were convicted of shooting at a fleeing drug smuggler.

Andy Ramirez, of Friends of the Border Patrol, long has been involved in the Ramos-Compean case, and said the questions just start piling up.

"First and foremost is the question that has to be asked, 'Why is the president dug in so deep' on Ramos and Compean?" Ramirez said. "Look at how many members of Congress have sent him letters, and have held hearings.

"You really have got to start to wonder … does this doper (in the Ramos-Compean case) lead to somebody really big?" he said.

Joe Loya, the father-in-law for Ramos, said he, his daughter and grandchildren were "devastated" by word that Ramos and Compean had been denied clemency on the latest list of presidential actions.

"We were praying for a miracle. We just don't understand where the connection is when drug smugglers are getting pardons and commuted sentences, yet two agents who are not criminals, who were just doing their jobs, are in isolation," he told WND by telephone as he traveled to visit his son-in-law in jail on Christmas Eve.

"George Bush could redeem himself," he continued. "Ninety-five percent of our support is coming from Republicans. He certainly has nothing to lose.

"He could make millions of people feel good about it, or he could make one person (prosecutor) Johnny Sutton," Loya said. "We hope he will do the right thing."

Bush today released a list of 19 more pardons or commutations. Included were a commutation of the life prison term for Reed Raymond Prior of Iowa, convicted of dealing methamphetamine. Pardons were handed out to William Alvis III of Ohio for cocaine distribution and Steve Doyle Cavender of Florida and Marie Elena Eppens of Washington for distributing marijuana.

Prior had admitted having methamphetamine with plans to distribute it, following three prior felony drug convictions. Bush has approved 10 commutations and about 200 pardons in his two terms, about half of those granted by Bill Clinton.

Ramos and Compean, meanwhile, are serving 11- and 12-year prison sentences, respectively, for shooting an illegal alien drug dealer while he smuggled nearly 750 pounds of marijuana across the border. They were convicted of assault, discharge of a weapon in the commission of a crime of violence and deprivation of civil rights.

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton's office gave the smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, full immunity from prosecution for agreeing to serve as the government's star witness and testify against the border agents. A ruling, from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals, affirmed all convictions except for tampering with an official proceeding, which it vacated and remanded for resentencing.

While Aldrete-Davila was waiting to testify against the agents, he also was involved in another drug smuggling case, but that information was withheld from jurors in the Ramos-Compean trial.

Eventually, the smuggler was sentenced for the second case, but his sentence was considerably shorter than that of the agents who tried to halt his activities in the earlier episode.

Ramos' attorney, David Botsworth, said a petition for writ of certiorari was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court and docketed on Dec. 11. The government has the right to file a response should it choose to do so by early January.

"It's obviously an astronomical uphill battle to get review in the Supreme Court," Botsworth said. "I think the issues are worthy of their consideration."

Chilling Qoutes Caught On Tape

Click to play some weird quotes from Dick Cheney, Walter Cronkite, Henry Kissinger, and others, as well as the news media telling us that Mercury is probably good for us after all, lol.

Interesting Interview With Ron Paul

Alex Jones and Ron Paul Discuss the Fed and Scare (Terrorism) Tactics of the Federal Reserve and US Treasury

Click HERE, then click "download file". Enjoy.

Obama Gives New Life to North American Union

Before even taking office, President-Elect Obama is giving new life to the North American Union. The plan to tear down trade barriers between the United States, Mexico and Canada will be done without the approval of Congress or the American people.

Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest

I hesitate to post this entry, as it is again getting into areas that I do not want to believe are likely, or even possible . . . but the key words in the preceding statement are "I do not WANT to believe". Besides, I do not pretend to know what to do if it does happen, whether to be a very compliant citizen, to insist on my "rights" as an American, or what. Is it really happening? Is there time to try to wake people up to the possibility, at the risk of seeming like a complete conspiracy theory nut? Probably not. But, we were told this by Joe Biden during the campaign:

"Mark my words," the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. . . .
. . . "I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. "And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."

Anyway, it is a long article, but here it is in its entirety:

“Purposeful domestic resistance” would require military to “rapidly determine the parameters defining the legitimate use of military force inside the United States.”

Steve Watson & Paul Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008

A recent report produced by the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Institute warns that the United States may experience massive civil unrest in the wake of a series of crises which it has termed “strategic shock.”

The report, titled Known Unknowns: Unconventional Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development, also suggests that the military may have to be used to quell domestic disorder.

“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” the report, authored by [Ret.] Lt. Col. Nathan Freir, reads.

“Deliberate employment of weapons of mass destruction or other catastrophic capabilities, unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters are all paths to disruptive domestic shock.” it continues.

“An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home…”

“Already predisposed to defer to the primacy of civilian authorities in instances of domestic security and divest all but the most extreme demands in areas like civil support and consequence management, DoD might be forced by circumstances to put its broad resources at the disposal of civil authorities to contain and reverse violent threats to domestic tranquility. Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States.” Lt. Col. Freir concludes.

See Pages 31-32 (PDF) for quoted sections.

Freir is a Senior Fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He joined the think tank in April 2008 after retiring from the U.S. Army after 20 years as a lieutenant colonel. In his role at CSIS he rubs shoulders with a whole host of globalist luminaries including Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft and Richard Armitage.

Echoing recent comments made by Pentagon advisors, along with other notable figures such as Colin Powell and Joe Biden, Freir also warns that the incoming Obama administration should prepare for a “first term crisis” that could act as a catalyst for such unrest.

“The current administration confronted a game-changing ’strategic shock’ inside its first eight months in office,” the report reads. “The next administration would be well-advised to expect the same during the course of its first term. Indeed, the odds are very high against any of the challenges routinely at the top of the traditional defense agenda triggering the next watershed inside DoD [Department of Defense].”

We have recently highlighted plans to station thousands more U.S. troops inside America for purposes of “domestic security” from September 2011, an expansion of Northcom’s militarization of the country in preparation for potential civil unrest following a total economic collapse or a mass terror attack.

“The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials,” reported the Washington Post last month.

In a September 8 Army Times article, Northcom announced that the first wave of the troop deployment, which was put in place on October 1st at Fort Stewart and at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, would be aimed at tackling “civil unrest and crowd control”.

After a controversy arose surrounding the admissions made in the Army Times article, Northcom retracted the claim but conceded that both lethal and non-lethal weaponry traditionally used in crowd control and riot situations would still be used in the field.

The increasing militarization of America is part of a long term agenda to abolish Constitutional rule and establish a “military form of government,” following a large scale terror attack or similar disaster, as Tommy Franks, the former commander of the military’s Central Command, alluded to in a November 2003 Cigar Aficionado piece.

Franks outlined the scenario by which martial law would be put in place, saying, “It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world – it may be in the United States of America – that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event. Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Two steps, very, very important.”

In the short term, the domestic deployment of troops is likely aimed at combating likely civil unrest that will ensue after a complete economic collapse followed by a devastating period of hyperinflation.

This warning was again echoed a few days ago in a leaked internal memo from Citibank.

“The world is not going back to normal after the magnitude of what they have done. When the dust settles this will either work, and the money they have pushed into the system will feed through into an inflation shock,” wrote Tom Fitzpatrick, Citibank’s chief technical strategist.

The memo predicts “depression, civil disorder and possibly wars” as a fallout from an economic collapse that many say is on the horizon.

Naturally, the claim that such troop deployments are merely to aid in disaster relief efforts is a thin veil aimed at distracting from the real goal. Should a real tragedy occur, volunteers and already existing civil aid organizations are fully capable of dealing with such events, as we witnessed on 9/11.

The military are primarily trained to kill people and break things, and their role during the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts was mainly focused on detaining people in sports stadiums, shooting alleged looters and seizing guns from wealthy home owners in the high and dry areas, while real recovery measures were left to volunteers and local state authorities.

The open admission that U.S. troops will be involved in law enforcement operations as well as potentially using non-lethal weapons against American citizens is a complete violation of the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, which substantially limit the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement unless under precise and extreme circumstances.

Section 1385 of the Posse Comitatus Act states, “Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

Under the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, signed by President Bush on October 17, 2006, the law was changed to state, “The President may employ the armed forces to restore public order in any State of the United States the President determines hinders the execution of laws or deprives people of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law or opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”

However, these changes were repealed in their entirety by HR 4986: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, reverting back to the original state of the Insurrection Act of 1807. Despite this repeal, President Bush attached a signing statement saying that he did not feel bound by the repeal. It remains to be seen whether President elect Obama will reverse Bush’s signing statement.

Obama's Labor pick has communist ties

Radical leaders hail Solis as 'outstanding,' 'terrific'

By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Rep. Hilda L. Solis

President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the Labor Department has close ties to U.S. communist and socialist organizations and has sent representatives to functions organized by national parties for both ideologies.

The pick of Rep. Hilda L. Solis, D-Calif., a Congressional Hispanic Caucus leader considered to be one of the most reliably pro-union voices in the House, was hailed as a victory by communist and socialist leaders.

An article this past weekend in the Communist Party USA's People's Weekly World Newspaper welcomed Solis and quoted known socialist leaders calling her a "great choice" and an "outstanding" selection with "a life-long commitment to working people."

Among other personalities, the Communist paper quoted former Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., a top economic adviser to Obama, calling Solis a "terrific leader who I know first-hand will work tirelessly on behalf of America's working families."

WND previously reported Bonior is listed as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA, an organization dedicated to transforming America into a socialist society. He was a frontrunner for the labor secretary post, but endorsed Solis after dropping out of the race.

Read whole article HERE.

Most Britons do not believe in the nativity, survey shows

By Ben Leach

One in five do not encourage their children to associate Christmas with the nativity Photo: PA

Young people were particularly doubtful about the nativity, with 78 per cent of 16-24-year-olds saying they were not convinced of its historical reliability.

Click HERE for whole article

Merry Christmas

Here's a couple of videos, one about the real reason Christmas is celebrated, another about a typical American family's Christmas tradition.

From our family to yours, we wish you a truly
Merry Christmas!.

Regeneration of cells - CBS Cutting Edge

Could humans get to the point of living forever?

$8.5 Trillion Stolen?

Alex Jones and Bob Chapman of the International Forcaster discuss what they see happening in the financial markets, specifically the banks, as theft of trillions of dollars, with the bankers moving the money and themselves offshore . . .

Armed officers raid home, hold mom, kids for 6 hours

(these type stories may be the most disturbing, to me, of all . . . while the type of people in this story are trying to live an independent life, they seem to be targeted as enemies of the state. Maybe there is more to the story, tax evasion, etc., some other reason why they were raided, I don't know. Maybe the authorities were afraid that these people were poisoning their friends? They sure have me fooled. Meanwhile, the FDA Stuns Scientists, Declares Mercury in Fish to be Safe for Infants, Children, Expectant Mothers. Maybe this raid story and the FDA story are unrelated, I hope so. Bad is Good; Wrong is Right; Poison is Safe, etc. Strange.)

Health department cops allege licensing issues over food co-op

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An Ohio family whose members have served their friends and neighbors with food cooperative services involving bulk and discount supplies has been targeted in a raid by armed law enforcement officers wearing black fatigues who forcibly rounded up the mom and 10 children and held them for six hours.

The raid prompted a complaint filed today on behalf of the family by the Center for Constitutional Law at the Buckeye Institute. It alleges authorities "made a haphazard unannounced entry into the property with guns drawn, as other officers surrounded the property, with guns drawn," then "confiscated the family's personal food supply, personal computers, and personal cell phones."

The complaint names the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the Lorain County General Health District and the state's attorney general. A spokeswoman at the Department of Agriculture said its officers were at the scene in an advisory role. A spokeswoman at the county health agency refused to comment except to explain it was a "licensing" issue regarding the family's Manna Storehouse.

An prosecutor assigned to handle the case declined to respond to WND requests for a comment.

It's not the first such case of authorities invading a home over issues involving the operations of food co-ops. WND reported several months ago when authorities in Pennsylvania demanded $4,000 in fines from a farmer who provided raw milk to friends and neighbors.

That case also was highlighted by a SWAT team-like raid on Mark Nolt's farm, when government agents confiscated tens of thousands of dollars worth of his products as well as pieces of machinery he used for his milk handling and sales.

John and Jacqueline Stowers, whose Ohio home was raided, explained their work in providing affordable, healthy foods to friends and neighbors in a video posted both on YouTube and on the Buckeye Institute's website.

The video also is embedded here:

In the video, Jacqueline Stowers describes how she first started ordering bulk health foods for her own family, and gradually other families asked if they, also, could gain access to the food sources.

Then, about a year ago, the family had a conversation with county officials about licensing. The family asked questions but heard nothing further until the armed raid Dec. 1.

"We had a sheriff's department group of about 11-12, I don't know, 13 men come into our home. It was violent, it was belligerent, they didn't identify themselves," she stated.

She and 10 children were forcibly herded into a room and held there for at least six hours, she said.

"In the meantime we had people with guns inside and outside," she said.

The Buckeye Institute's Maurice Thompson said he took legal action in Lorain County Court of Common Pleas because of alleged violations of the Stowers' constitutional rights.

"The use of these police state tactics on a peaceful family is simply unacceptable," said Buckeye Institute President David Hansen. "Officers rushed into the Stowers' home with guns drawn and held the family – including 10 young children – captive for six hours. This outrageous case of bureaucratic overreach must be addressed."

The Buckeye Institute argues the core issue – the right to buy food directly from local farmers, distribute locally-grown food to neighbors and pool resources to purchase food in bulk – are rights that do not require a license.

"The Stowers' constitutional rights were violated over grass-fed cattle, free-range chickens and pesticide-free produce," said Thompson, the institute's Center of Constitutional Law director. "Ohioans do not need a government permission slip to run a family farm and co-op, and should not be subjected to raids when they do not have one. This legal action will ensure the ODA understands and respects Ohioans' rights."

The institute said licensure law enforcement is one thing, raids are another.

"The Buckeye Institute seeks an injunction against similar future raids, and a declaration that such licensure laws are unconstitutional as applied the Stowers and individuals like them," the institute said. "There has never been a complaint filed against Manna Storehouse or the Stowers related to the quality or healthfulness of the food distributed through the co-op."

Online bloggers raged over the situation.

"Agents began rifling through all of the family's possessions, a task that lasted hours and resulted in a complete upheaval of every private area in the home. Many items were taken that were not listed on the search warrant. The family was not permitted a phone call, and they were not told what crime they were being charged with. They were not read their rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the family's personal stock of food for the coming year," said one.

The complaint notes Manna Storehouse deals with wheat, flour, sugar, grass-fed beef, lamb, turkey and eggs from free range chickens, mostly coming from local farmers. The raid was based on an affidavit from Ohio Department of Agriculture agent William Lesho that "makes numerous conclusory and unsubstantiated claims," the complaint said.

The complaint states:

• The affidavit does not indicate that the Stowers are dangerous.
  
  
• The affidavit does not indicate … exigent circumstances … that would warrant using force.
  
  
• The police knocked on the door, and Katie Stowers opened.
  
  
• Police shoved Katie to the side and immediately entered the residence without first announcing (1) that they are police; or (2) the purpose of the visit.
  
  
• During the raid, at least one, if not several police entered the home with guns drawn, and the Stowers home was surrounded by police who also had guns drawn.
  
  
• Once having obtained entry… the lead officer … with his gun drawn, swiftly and immediately moved to the upstairs of the home, where he found eight small children."
  
  
• The officer used physical force to get Jacqueline Stowers and her children down the stairs.
  
  
• The officers held the Stowers family captive in their living room for in excess of six hours.

The complaint raises issues of unlawful search and seizure, taking of private property, due process and unlawful application of police power.

Previous stories:

Farmer fined $4,000 for dealing raw milk

Feds launch 'Gestapo raid' over raw milk

Plan to call fruit juice 'drug' delayed

Feds eye control of vitamins, supplements – even water!

Food supplements targeted by trilateral deal

Civilians could be facing mandatory anthrax shots

China-made blood thinner killing Americans?

3 companies indicted for poisoned pet food

Is China trying to poison Americans and their pets?

Mutilated Christian girl, 10, forgives attackers

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

'They were out of their minds, they do not know the love of Jesus'

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By Chelsea Schilling

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Namrata Nayak (photo: Asia News)

Hindu extremists may have burned a 10-year-old Christian girl's face, inflicted shrapnel wounds on 40 percent of her body and forced her family to hide in a forest and flee to a refugee camp in Orissa, India, but her plight hasn't shaken her faith and thankfulness to God this season.

"Christmas is a time to thank the baby Jesus who saved me from the fire and saved my face which was disfigured and wounded," Namrata Nayak told Asia News.

Nayak's face was severely mutilated after Hindu extremists bombed the home where she was staying on Aug. 26. They broke into the house and burned it while Nayak and her siblings hid in a small bathroom. Before exiting the home, they left a bomb in a dresser, according to the report.

While the little girl surveyed the destruction, the bomb detonated and burned her face.

The explosion also lodged shrapnel into her face, hands and back.

Nayak's mother, Sudhamani, came running out of the forest where she was hiding.

"We saw everything burned, and feared that everyone had died in the flames," Sudhamani said. "Instead, thanks to God, everyone was safe. Only that my daughter had been wounded. But Jesus took care of her. We took her to the hospital in Berhampur, still unconscious and badly hurt."

Nayak spent 45 days recovering in the hospital. Despite all her troubles, she is cheerful and giving thanks to God for healing her.

"There is so much pain and suffering, and I don't know how long the special forces will protect us," she told Asia News. "But Christmas is a time of gratitude. I am afraid that my people will still be attacked, but this is our life. If God has saved me, he can save other Christians too."

The Hindu attackers have vowed to launch another widespread assault on Christians during Christmas. The violence began after Christians were blamed for the death of Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on Aug. 24. They continue to be persecuted even though Maoists openly admitted to murdering Saraswati.

Hindus have offered money, food and alcohol to anyone who murders Christians and destroys their homes – especially pastors. Thousands of homes and churches have been destroyed, and Christians have been forced to flee the violence. Many have been doused with kerosene and torched after refusing to renounce their Christian faith.

Nonetheless, Nayak urges India's Christians to forgive their Hindu attackers.

"[W]e forgive the Hindu radicals who attacked us, who burned our homes," she told Asia News. "They were out of their minds, they do not know the love of Jesus. For this reason, I now want to study so that when I am older I can tell everyone how much Jesus loves us. This is my future."

Nayak said her life plan is to share the message of God's love.

"The world has seen my face destroyed by the fire, now it must come to know my smile full of love and peace," she said. "I want to dedicate my life to spreading the Gospel."