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A Modern Day Deborah — The Back Story
From World Net Daily (wnd.com)
CHRISTIAN BOOTED FROM NATIONAL CATHEDRAL SPEAKS OUT
Tells why she made trip from Tennessee to counter Muslim prayer service
It was supposed to be a shining moment for proponents of the interfaith movement.
The Islamic “jummah,” or Friday call to prayer, would be held on America’s grandest Christian stage – the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
It was a bold move that had never been tried. Leaders of the Episcopal cathedral said sending prayers up to Allah from a Christian church would show the world that two religions at odds with each other for centuries could “approach the same God” as one body of believers.
The stage was set. The prayer rugs were neatly arranged facing Mecca. The lights shone down on the imam for his opening remarks.
Not so fast.
Christine Weick, a 50-year-old Michigan woman with flowing blonde hair who lives out of her car, rose from the packed National Cathedral, the hall of halls in terms of religious prominence in America, and moved toward the front of the church.
She pointed to the cross hanging overhead.
To continue reading: http://www.wnd.com/2014/11/christian-booted-from-national-cathedral-speaks-out/#aAyuqRX3fSKa1847.99
The Islamization of the US: Shame on America!
From the ChristianPost.com
YHVH bless the courageous Christian woman protestor! Natan
National Cathedral Hosts Islamic Prayers; Lone Protester Interrupts Service
BY STEPHANIE SAMUEL , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
November 14, 2014|2:52 pm
(PHOTO: REUTERS/LARRY DOWNING)
The Washington National Cathedral and five Muslim groups hold the first celebration of Muslim Friday prayers, Jumaa, in the cathedral’s north transept in Washington, November 14, 2014.
Correction Appended
The Washington National Cathedral hosted it first Muslim prayer service Friday afternoon in an effort to promote interfaith prayer and improved global relations between Muslims and Christians.
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(Photo: NBC Washington screengrab)Unidentified woman protester at Washington National Cathedral disrupts first Muslim prayer service Friday afternoon and shouts, “We have built, and allowed you here in mosques across this country. Why can’t you worship in your mosque, and leave our chuches alone?” Nov. 14, 20`14.
“Jesus Christ died on that cross over there!” a woman said loudly, immediately after announcements at the beginning of the service were made. “He is the reason why we are to worship only him. Jesus Christ is our lord and savior!”
According to the NBC report, she continued, “We have built, and allowed you here in mosques across this country. Why can’t you worship in your mosque, and leave our chuches alone?”
The protester was then escorted out of the cathedral, News4’s Kristin Wright reported. She was removed without incident, but she continued her protest once she was taken to an adjoining space.
The Episcopal church set in Washington, D.C. altered its visitor tour schedule in order to host traditional Islamic Friday prayers called Jumu’ah. The service was led by South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, and held in the Cathedral’s north transept, an area considered “almost mosque-like” because of its arches and limited iconography.
(PHOTO: REUTERS/LARRY DOWNING)
Omar Abdul-Malik prays alone as the Washington National Cathedral and five Muslim groups hold the first celebration of Muslim Friday prayers, Jumaa, in the cathedral’s north transept in Washington, November 14, 2014.
Although this is not the first time the Cathedral has welcomed Muslims to join in on its interfaith services and events, it is the first time it has invited Muslims to lead their own prayers within its walls.
Rev. Canon Gina Gilland Campbell was scheduled to offer a welcome to start off the service.
According to the National Cathedral website,Campbell wanted to hold the historic service because she believes that “powerful things come out of praying together.”
The site further explains “Leaders believe offering Muslim prayers at the Christian cathedral shows more than hospitality. It demonstrates an appreciation of one another’s prayer traditions and is a powerful symbolic gesture toward a deeper relationship between the two Abrahamic traditions.”
(PHOTO: REUTERS/LARRY DOWNING)
Women pray as the Washington National Cathedral and five Muslim groups hold the first celebration of Muslim Friday prayers, Jumaa, in the cathedral’s north transept in Washington, November 14, 2014.
Not everyone supports the Cathedral’s gesture. American Family Association Director of Issue Analysis Bryan Fischer said the Muslim prayer service violates the Ten Commandments.
“The first one of the Ten Commandments is what, you—talking the nation of Israel, true for individuals but this was the Ten Commandments for a nation – you shall have no other Gods before me. Allah is another God,” He explained on his Focal Point podcast.
This is not the first time the National Cathedral has invited controversy with its services. In June the Cathedral invited openly transgendered Episcopal priest Rev. Cameron Partridge to preach from its pulpit in honor of LGBT pride month. Openly gay Episcopal Bishop Rev. Gene Robinson presided over the Sunday service. The Cathedral also hosts gay marriage ceremonies.
Planners hope Friday’s service will inspire Muslims around the world to be hospitable to Christians.
The service was scheduled to be livestreamed onto the Cathedral’s website so it is accessible to everyone.
Correction: Saturday, November 15, 2014:
An article on Friday, November 14, 2014, about a Muslim prayer held at the National Cathedral incorrectly described the Cathedral as a Catholic church. It is an Episcopal church.
Is this why BO bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia?
This is one of the best analysis of the US’s current economic condition in layman’s terms including the historical events that have brought us to this point that I have ever read. Natan
From http://www.internationalman.com/articles/timing-the-collapse-ron-paul-says-watch-the-petrodollar
Timing the Collapse: Ron Paul Says Watch the Petrodollar
by Nick Giambruno, Senior Editor
“The chaos that one day will ensue from our 35-year experiment with worldwide fiat money will require a return to money of real value. We will know that day is approaching when oil-producing countries demand gold, or its equivalent, for their oil rather than dollars or euros. The sooner the better.” (emphasis mine)
~ Ron Paul
What Ron Paul is referring to here is the petrodollar system. It’s one of the main pillars that’s been holding up the US dollar’s status as the world’s premier reserve currency since the breakdown of Bretton Woods.
Paul is essentially saying that, if we want to better understand the answer to the elusive question of “When will the fiat US dollar collapse?“, we have to watch the petrodollar system and the factors affecting it.
At the recent Casey Research Summit, I had the chance to speakextensively with Dr. Paul on this subject, and he told me that he stands by his assessment.
I believe this is critically important, because once the dollar loses this coveted status, the window of opportunity to take preventative action will definitively shut for Americans.
At that moment, I believe the US government will become sufficiently desperate and implement the destructive measures that governments throughout the world and throughout history have all taken (overt capital controls, wealth confiscations, people controls, price and wage controls, pension nationalizations, etc.)
But it’s not just the financial implications that need to be considered. The destruction of the dollar is going to wipe out the wealth of a lot people, and that will cause political and social consequences that will likely be worse than the financial consequences.
The three points to understand here are:
- You absolutely must be internationalized before the US dollar loses its status as the premier reserve currency. Internationalization is your ultimate insurance policy.
- The US dollar’s status as the premier reserve currency is tied to the petrodollar system.
- The sustainability of the petrodollar system is linked to Middle East geopolitics. Having lived and worked in the Middle East for a number of years, this is a topic I know a thing or two about.
From Bretton Woods to the Petrodollar
The dollar’s role as the world’s premier reserve currency was established in 1944 by the Allied powers in what was known as the Bretton Woods international monetary system.
Being victorious in WWII and possessing the overwhelmingly largest gold reserves in the world (around 20,000 tonnes) allowed the US to reconstruct the global monetary system with the dollar at its center.
Simply put, the Bretton Woods system was an arrangement whereby a country’s currency was tied to the US dollar through a fixed exchange rate, and the US dollar itself was tied to gold at a fixed exchange rate.
Countries accumulated dollars in their reserves to engage in international trade or to exchange them with the US government at the official rate for gold ($35 an ounce).
By the late 1960s, exuberant spending from welfare and warfare, combined with the Federal Reserve monetizing the deficits, drastically increased the number of dollars in circulation in relation to the gold backing it.
Naturally, this caused countries to accelerate their exchange of dollars for gold at the official price.
The result was a serious drain in the US gold supply (20,000 tonnes at the end of WWII to around 8,100 tonnes in 1971, a figure supposedly held constant to this day).
Nixon officially ended convertibility of the dollar for gold to halt the gold outflow, thus ending the Bretton Woods system, on August 15, 1971.
The US had defaulted on its promise to back the dollar with gold.
The central justification that the gold–backed dollar had provided as to why countries held the dollar in their reserves and used it as a medium of international trade was now gone.
With the dollar no longer convertible into gold, demand for dollars by foreign nations was sure to fall and with it, its purchasing power.
OPEC passed numerous resolutions after the end of Bretton Woods, stating the need to retain the real value of its earnings (including discussions about accepting gold for oil), which resulted in the cartel significantly increasing the nominal dollar price of oil in the wake of August 15, 1971.
If the dollar was to sustain its status as the world’s reserve currency, a new arrangement would have to be constructed to give foreign countries a compelling reason to hold and use dollars.
Nixon and Kissinger would end up succeeding in retaining the dollar’s premier status by bridging the gap between the failed Bretton Woods system and the emerging petrodollar system.
The Petrodollar System
Between the years of 1972 to 1974 the US government completed a series of agreements with Saudi Arabia to create the petrodollar system.
Saudi Arabia was chosen because of its vast petroleum reserves, its dominant influence in OPEC, and the (correct) perception that the Saudi royal family was corruptible.
In essence, the petrodollar system was an agreement that, in exchange for the US guaranteeing the survival of the House of Saud regime by providing a total commitment to its political and security support, Saudi Arabia would:
- Use its dominant influence in OPEC to ensure that all oil transactions would be conducted only in US dollars.
- Invest a large amount of its dollars from oil revenue in US Treasury securities and use the interest payments from those securities to pay US companies to modernize the infrastructure of Saudi Arabia.
- Guarantee the price of oil within limits acceptable to the US and act to prevent another oil embargo by other OPEC members.
The need to use dollars to transact in oil, the world’s most traded and most strategic commodity, provides a very compelling reason for foreign countries to keep dollars in their reserves.
For example, if Italy wants to buy oil from Kuwait, it would have to first purchase US dollars on the foreign exchange market to pay for the oil, thus creating an artificial market for US dollars that would not have otherwise naturally existed.
This demand is artificial, since the US dollar is just a middleman in a transaction that has nothing to do with a US product or service. It ultimately translates into increased purchasing power and a deeper, more liquid market for the US dollar and Treasuries.
Additionally, the US has the unique privilege of not having to use foreign currency but rather using its own currency, which it can print, to purchase its imports, including oil.
The benefits of the petrodollar system to the US dollar are indeed difficult to overstate.
What to Watch For
The geopolitical sands of the Middle East have been rapidly shifting.
The faltering strategic regional position of Saudi Arabia, the rise of Iran (which is notably not part of the petrodollar system), failed US interventions, and the emergence of the BRICS countries providing potential future alternative economic/security arrangements all affect the sustainability of the petrodollar system.
In particular, you should watch the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia, which has been deteriorating.
The Saudis are furious at what they perceive to be the US not holding up its part of the petrodollar deal. They believe that as part of the US commitment to keep the region safe for the monarchy, the US should have attacked their regional rivals, Syria and Iran, by now.
This would suggest that they may feel that they are no longer obliged to uphold their part of the deal, namely selling their oil only in US dollars.
The Saudis have even gone so far as to suggest a “major shift” is underway in their relations with the US. To date, though, they have yet to match actions to their words, which suggests it may just be a temper tantrum or a bluff. In any case, it is truly unprecedented language and merits further watching.
A turning point may really be reached when you start hearing US officials expounding on the need to transform the monarchy in Saudi Arabia into a “democracy.” But don’t count on that happening as long as their oil is flowing only for US dollars.
Conclusion
It was evident long before Nixon closed the gold window and ended the Bretton Woods system on August 15, 1971, that a paradigm shift in the global monetary system was inevitable.
Likewise today, a paradigm shift in the global monetary system also seems inevitable. By considering Ron Paul’s words, we will know when the dollar collapse is imminent.
“We will know that day is approaching when oil-producing countries demand gold, or its equivalent, for their oil rather than dollars or euros.”
There is no question that you want to be internationalized before that day arrives, which seems to be getting closer and closer. It is very possible that one day soon, Americans will wake up to a new reality, just as they did on August 15, 1971.
Your goal should be to remove as much political risk from as many aspects of your life as possible so that you are not caught flat-footed when the next August 15, 1971 moment arrives.
Be sure to get the free IM Communiqué to keep up with the latest news and actionable information on how to protect yourself from an economic collapse
He may be my president, but he doesn’t represent me!
The following op-ed piece gives some perspective on the less than friendly stance of President Obama and his administration toward the nation of Israel.
From the Jerusalem Post (10/30/14)
Yehudah Glick has spent the better part of the last 20 years championing the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Yehuda Glick. (photo credit:TAZPIT)
Yehudah Glick has spent the better part of the last 20 years championing the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – Judaism’s holiest site. On Wednesday night, the Palestinians sent a hit man to Jerusalem to kill him.
And today Glick lays in a coma at Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
Two people bear direct responsibility for this terrorist attack: the gunman, and Palestinian Authority President and PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas. The gunman shot Glick, and Abbas told him to shoot Glick.
Abbas routinely glorifies terrorist murder of Jews, and funds terrorism with the PA’s US- and European-funded budget.
But it isn’t often that he directly incites the murder of Jews.
Two weeks ago, Abbas did just that. Speaking to Fatah members, he referred to Jews who wish to pray at Judaism’s holiest site as “settlers.” He then told his audience that they must remain on the Temple Mount at all times to block Jews from entering.
“We must prevent them from entering [the Temple Mount] in any way…. They have no right to enter and desecrate [it]. We must confront them and defend our holy sites,” he said.
As Palestinian Media Watch reported Thursday, in the three days leading up to the assassination attempt on Glick, the PA’s television station broadcast Abbas’s call for attacks on Jews who seek to enter the Temple Mount 19 times.
While Abbas himself is responsible for the hit on Glick, he has had one major enabler – the Obama administration. Since Abbas first issued the order for Palestinians to attack Jews, there have been two terrorist attacks in Jerusalem. Both have claimed American citizens among their victims. Yet the Obama administration has refused to condemn Abbas’s call to murder Jews either before it led to the first terrorist attack or since Glick was shot Wednesday night.
Not only have the White House and the State Department refused to condemn Abbas for soliciting the murder of Jews. They have praised him and attacked Israel and its elected leader. In other words, they are not merely doing nothing, they are actively rewarding Abbas’s aggression, and so abetting it. (To continue reading http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Column-One-Being-safe-while-isolated-380359.)
U.S. Funnels Billions to Child-Killing at Home
From Newsmax.com
Tuesday, 28 Oct 2014 07:51 AM
By Matt Barber
Christians and Yazidis, by the thousands, are fleeing for their lives in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere as devout followers of the “prophet” Muhammad, aka the “Islamic State,” continue to brutally slaughter these “infidels” on the run, even torturing, dismembering and beheading children as their parents are forced to watch.
As the father of three, it’s unfathomable. I can’t even let my mind go there. What would I do — what would any of us do, to stop it? If you and I were in place of our Arab-Christian brothers and sisters, would we not give up our very lives so that our precious babes might live?
In a heartbeat.
Now this: It has come to light that, under the Obama administration, the U.S. government has been subsidizing, to the tune of billions, another sect of militant extremists who, likewise, are, with an equally religious zeal, torturing, dismembering and beheading children en masse. The only material difference is that, according to officials within the U.S. government, and as per formal U.S. policy, this second batch of terrorist monsters are somehow considered to be “freedom fighters.”
Multiple reports have come in proving conclusively that these fundamentalist fanatics are coaxing families away from relative safety with beguiling talk of freedom and a better life, and then abruptly turning on them like the godless sociopaths they are. It’s almost too horrific to describe, but I think I must.
These “freedom fighters” are then callously torturing to death terrified children in the very presence of their parents.
Reams of evidence reveal, for example, that these barbarians are, in many instances, brutally sawing off the arms and legs of innocent children as they writhe in excruciating pain, only to finish them off with an unceremonious beheading.
Perhaps the most sickening and unpardonable aspect of it all, however, is that, while reports have established that most members of Congress, governors and even state legislators have been alerted to the fact that the U.S. government is helping to both fund and facilitate these widespread crimes against humanity, only a minority of lawmakers are willing to lift a finger to stop it.
And so this U.S.-taxpayer-funded genocide continues unabated.
Even as our elected officials, Democrat and Republican alike, look the other way, the Obama administration continues to quietly funnel $540 million per year (that’s $1.5 million each day) of taxpayer dollars to arm and equip this murderous band of radicals. And so any notable distinction between the murdering Islamists in the Middle East and the American government’s child-murdering ally at home is, at most, somewhere between superficial and negligible.
Whereas ISIS, the fundamentalist Muslims in Iraq, behead innocents and, in so doing, consider themselves freedom fighters for Allah, America’s fundamentalist allies behead children and, in so doing, consider themselves freedom fighters for Aphrodite.
While the former don black masks, wave black flags and, even as I write, are driving their caravans to Baghdad, the latter don medical scrubs, wave the banner of “reproductive freedom” and, even as I write, are driving their Mercedes’ to your local Planned Parenthood.
Matt Barber is founder and editor-in chief of BarbWire.com. He is an author, columnist, cultural analyst and an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. Having retired as an undefeated heavyweight professional boxer, Matt has taken his fight from the ring to the culture war. (Follow Matt on Twitter: @jmattbarber.)
(http://www.newsmax.com/US/planned-parenthood-isis-islamic/2014/10/28/id/603496/)
On Labeling GMO Foods As Such
In Oregon on November’s ballot, voters will have the opportunity to pass a new law that requires food manufacturers to label their food as containing genetically modified organisms (GMO) if it indeed does. We support this measure, since we believe that people have the right to know what’s in their food and to make choices consistent with their values.
Those in opposition to this measure to label GMO foods are mounting a vigorous campaign against this measure. Below is a response to these naysayers from Azure Standard Farms of Dufur, Oregon. The folks at Azure Standard are both growers and purveyor of organic foods to the western U.S. for many years. Our family has been clients of Azure Standard for nearly 20 years.
Please read their statement to stay informed about the issues. The movement to label GMO foods is spreading and may come to your area. It’s good to be prepared ahead of time with the facts.
Oct. 22, 2014
The fight to label GMOs does not vary much from state-to-state. Citizen-based initiatives are established by people who genuinely care and want to know what they are eating and feeding to their families, while opponents – largely massive conglomerates – counter with a LOT of money and baseless statements that scare people into believing things that simply aren’t true.
The fight to label GMOs does not vary much from state-to-state. Citizen-based initiatives are established by people who genuinely care and want to know what they are eating and feeding to their families, while opponents – largely massive conglomerates – counter with a LOT of money and baseless statements that scare people into believing things that simply aren’t true.
Many such pamphlets are currently circulating in advance of the election, and we just can’t stand by and not address some of the points being made.
#1- Labeling GMOs will Raise Prices and Cost Taxpayers Money. Nonsense. Companies change their labels all the time for their own purposes and for regulatory reasons, and they don’t pass the cost onto consumers. It’s considered a cost of doing business. Think about a fairly recent addition to labels that didn’t arise out of citizen initiatives, rather was passed by congress to ensure there would be clearer understanding of ingredients in packaged foods: The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) of 2004. It affected pretty much every manufacturer of packaged foods containing the top 8 allergen ingredients (soy, wheat, nuts, milk, etc.), and there was no public outcry that the extra bit of ink on the label would cost everyone more money. Furthermore, there wasn’t even outcry about the substantial effort some companies go through to segregate ingredients if they desire to have no allergens in their products. If removing allergens from products is not a determining factor, then they simply let people know what ingredients they used to make the product. There’s no shame in that; it’s public service and good business practice to be open.
It must also be said that GMO labeling laws have been passed in 64 other countries without prices being affected, and, this is the real kicker, American companies shipping products internationally to those countries with such laws do label their products accordingly! Truly, the same box of processed food containing GMOs that is sold here without indicating labels is shipped overseas with appropriate labels. Same food, different levels of transparency. It’s not a money issue. The only ones it will cost will be the massive corporations because with increased awareness and transparency, more people will choose products without GMOs. Demand will drop and prices for GMO foods will too undoubtedly.
#2- It will Hurt Oregon Farmers. We are farmers here at Azure, and we don’t think so at all. It only stands to hurt huge corporate interests by providing people the knowledge of what they are eating and thereby reducing demand for GMO products. BUT, what that does is create a stronger niche and platform for small, medium and even large farmers that want to do right by people and the planet and produce GMO-free products. Listen, Oregon is known to be individualistic and not cow-tow to the will of corporations. It has a reputation around the globe for being clean and high quality. Think about our Pacific Rim trade partners who buy a tremendous amount from Oregon because they respect that standard and don’t want GMOs. Labeling GMOs won’t ban them, but it will encourage more farmers to choose GMO-free options to grow.
#3- The Measure is Poorly Written. This is said every time by every opponent of every measure ever put forth- GMO labeling or otherwise. Is this labeling measure all-inclusive? No, but that is not the point. It is a start. We have to start raising awareness, and that is initially accomplished by information being openly presented. Honestly, we would prefer that the whole of Oregon follow the path of Jackson County and go GMO-free, period! We’re not there yet, so starting by labeling packaged foods is the first step. Again, we’ll point to the FALCPA of 2004. It is also not all inclusive by a long shot, and follows similar lines to Measure 92 with regard to which groups are included in the requirements and which are not. It’s not the end-all be-all, but it’s a start that we fully support.
Truth be told, one of the reasons we feel this labeling measure is so important is because it starts and furthers the conversation about GMOs. We don’t believe in telling another what they should or shouldn’t eat. But, we do believe in providing information so that people can make educated and informed decisions. When people begin to see “contains genetically engineered ingredients”, it will cause them to ask “what are those?”, and that is the critical question that will take us to a global shift in awareness about GMOs. People still have the right and liberty to choose as they will, AND they have the right to KNOW what they are choosing.
As you are well aware at this point, the opponents to Measure 92 in Oregon have money on their side. That’s why you are being bombarded by them on television and in your own mailbox with all the “reasons” to not support it. But, let’s show them in this great state that money does not win elections- votes do. We encourage you to vote Yes on 92 and ramp up the GMO conversation versus sweep it under the rug, for your health and the health of your future generations!
