Category Archives: Current Events

Current trends and social commentary

Proof from an Insider of the Media Bias Against Israel

Posted on by
1

From http://honestreporting.com

Must Read: Matti Friedman on the Media’s Obsession with Israel

Matti Friedman, the former Jerusalem bureau reporter for the Associated Press, has made significant waves since publishing two articles in Tabletmagazine and The Atlantic where he exposed the anti-Israel media bias he saw for himself from the inside.

With permission, we are republishing a speech that he gave to the BICOM dinner in London on January 26. It is well worth the read.

One night several years ago, I came out of Bethlehem after a reporting assignment and crossed through the Israeli military checkpoint between that city and its neighbor, Jerusalem, where I live. With me were perhaps a dozen Palestinian men, mostly in their thirties – my age. No soldiers were visible at the entrance to the checkpoint, a precaution against suicide bombers. We saw only steel and concrete. I followed the other men through a metal detector into a stark corridor and followed instructions barked from a loudspeaker – Remove your belt! Lift up your shirt! The voice belonged to a soldier watching us on a closed-circuit camera. Exiting the checkpoint, adjusting my belt and clothing with the others, I felt like a being less than entirely human and understood, not for the first time, how a feeling like that would provoke someone to violence.

Consumers of news will recognize this scene as belonging to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, which keeps the 2.5 million Palestinians in that territory under military rule, and has since 1967. The facts of this situation aren’t much in question. This should be an issue of concern to Israelis, whose democracy, military, and society are corroded by the inequality in the West Bank. This, too, isn’t much in question.

The question we must ask, as observers of the world, is why this conflict has come over time to draw more attention than any other, and why it is presented as it is. How have the doings in a country that constitutes 0.01 percent of the world’s surface become the focus of angst, loathing, and condemnation more than any other? We must ask how Israelis and Palestinians have become the stylized symbol of conflict, of strong and weak, the parallel bars upon which the intellectual Olympians of the West perform their tricks – not Turks and Kurds, not Han Chinese and Tibetans, not British soldiers and Iraqi Muslims, not Iraqi Muslims and Iraqi Christians, not Saudi sheikhs and Saudi women, not Indians and Kashmiris, not drug cartel thugs and Mexican villagers.

 

Questioning why this is the case is in no way an attempt to evade or obscure reality, which is why I opened with the checkpoint leading from Bethlehem. On the contrary – anyone seeking a full understanding of reality can’t avoid this question. My experiences as a journalist provide part of the answer, and also raise pressing questions that go beyond the practice of journalism.

Matti Friedman

I have been writing from and about Israel for most of the past 20 years, since I moved there from Toronto at age 17. During the five and a half years I spent as part of the international press corps as a reporter for the American news agency The Associated Press, between 2006 and 2011, I gradually began to be aware of certain malfunctions in the coverage of the Israel story – recurring omissions, recurring inflations, decisions made according to considerations that were not journalistic but political, all in the context of a story staffed and reported more than any other international story on earth. When I worked in the AP’s Jerusalem (to continue reading http://honestreporting.com/must-read-matti-friedman-on-the-medias-obsession-with-israel/)

 

And people wonder why America is in the mess it’s in…

Posted on by
1

The following article is from http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/guess-what-percentage-of-american-children-live-in-a-home-with-a-traditional-family-structure

Guess What Percentage Of American Children Live In A Home With A Traditional Family Structure?…

By Michael Snyder, on January 13th, 2015
     

Family - Photo by Eric WardIt is hard to believe, but in America today only 46 percent of children live in a home that has both a mother and a father that are in their first marriage.  An additional 15 percent live in a home that has two parents where at least one of them has been remarried.  But that means that an all-time record high 39 percent of all U.S. kids are living in a home with either just a single parent or no parents at all.  These numbers were just released by Pew Research, and they are rather startling.  The “traditional family” that most of us took for granted growing up is dying.  More Americans than ever are delaying marriage, having children out of wedlock and rejecting the traditional family structure.  But is this good for our kids?  Is this good for the future of America?

The decay of the traditional family structure in the United States is something that has been going on for a very long time.  According to Pew Research, the percentage of American children living in a traditional family home has plummeted by 27 percent since 1960…

Less than half (46%) of U.S. kids younger than 18 years of age are living in a home with two married heterosexual parents in their first marriage. This is a marked change from 1960, when 73% of children fit this description, and 1980, when 61% did, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of recently-released American Community Survey (ACS) and Decennial Census data.

The primary reason for this change is the fact that attitudes toward sex, marriage and child rearing in this country have dramatically changed since then…

Americans are delaying marriage, and more may be foregoing the institution altogether. At the same time, the share of children born outside of marriage now stands at 41%, up from just 5% in 1960.

Once upon a time, marriage was held in high honor, our young people were taught to look forward to being parents, and there was something sacred about sex.

But these days sex has become a national sport and our young people are trained that marriage should be put off for as long as possible and that having kids is a burden.

As a result, single Americans now make up more than half the U.S. population for the first time ever, and approximately one out of every three childrenin the United States lives in a home without a father.

When sex becomes a sport, it is inevitable that many people start behaving like animals that are only concerned with their own personal pleasure.  This includes even some of the most “respectable” members of the community like doctors.  For example, check out what one doctor down in Florida has been charged with doing…

A Florida doctor has been accused of repeatedly drugging at least three female patients with cocaine and sedatives and sexually assaulting them.

Dr Daniel McBath, an osteopath from Dade City had his license restricted by the state last week for ‘egregious and predatory’ behavior involving three women.

In a normal society, something like that would be a national scandal.  But since we are bombarded with news stories like this every single day, it hardly made a blip on the news.

Meanwhile, the idea of having children has become greatly undesirable to large numbers of our young people.  Kids are considered by many to be financial burdens that destroy our “freedom” to have fun and enjoy our lives.

And this terrible attitude manifests itself in the way that many of our young people are treating their young children.

For instance, in one recent article I discussed a case down in Florida where a man and his wife stuffed themselves full of food at a Golden Corral while their four pound baby girl died from starvation in her car seat outside the restaurant.

In another extremely disturbing incident down in Florida, one father recently threw his five-year-old girl off a 60 foot bridge…

The father of a five-year-old girl who was thrown to her death off a 60-foot bridge in Tampa Bay has been charged with murder.

John Jonchuck Jr, 25, was arrested half an hour after a man was seen speeding towards a bridge and throwing a child 60ft into the water on Wednesday night.

Rescuers found Phoebe Jonchuk 40 minutes later but she could not be resuscitated.

Of course not all parents are like that.  Most are trying to do the best that they can.

But overall, our increasing rejection of the traditional family structure is putting a lot of financial strain on those that are raising children.  This is especially true of single mothers.  If you are a child and you do not live with two parents, you are far, far more likely to be living in poverty.   Just check out the following numbers which I originally shared in a previous article…

#1 The National Center for Children in Poverty says that 45 percent of all U.S. children belong to low income families.

#2 According to a Census Bureau report that was released just this week, 65 percent of all children in America are living in a home that receives some form of aid from the federal government…

“Almost two-thirds (65 percent) of children,” said the Census Bureau, “lived in households that participated in at least one or more of the following government aid programs: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Medicaid, and the National School Lunch Program.”

#3 According to a report recently released by UNICEF, almost one-third of all children in this country “live in households with an income below 60 percent of the national median income”.

#4 When it comes to child poverty, the United States ranks 36th out of the 41 “wealthy nations” that UNICEF looked at.

#5 An astounding 45 percent of all African-American children in America live in areas of “concentrated poverty”.

#6 40.9 percent of all children in the United States that are living with only one parent are living in poverty.

#7 These days, a lot of single mothers are really, really struggling to survive.  A decade ago, the number of women in America that had jobs outnumbered the number of women in America on food stamps by more than a 2 to 1 margin.  But now the number of women in America on food stamps actually exceedsthe total number of women that have jobs.

#8 It is hard to believe, but right now 49 million Americans are dealing with food insecurity.

#9 According to a report that was released last month by the National Center on Family Homelessness, the number of homeless children in the United States has reached a new all-time high of 2.5 million.

For much more, you can read the remainder of that article right here.

As you can see, our rejection of the traditional family structure is hurting the kids the most.

But what is causing Americans to increasingly turn their backs on the traditional family structure?

Reverend Franklin Graham thinks that he knows the answer…

Reverend Franklin Graham, son of world renowned evangelical preacher Billy Graham, said that America is increasingly embracing a “culture of death” that echoes what has occurred in Europe, and which stems from a “sinful, godless worldview that rejects Christ.”

A further problem in America, he added, is that “Christianity is constantly under siege from the halls of government and education, which seek to suppress any public expressions of faith.”

 

Americans need a spiritual revival to help get over themselves!

Posted on by
2

Metaphor For America: Starving 4 Pound Baby Dies In Car While Parents Eat At Golden Corral

By Michael Snyder, on December 31st, 2014

Golden Corral - Photo by Park92What should be done to parents that stuffed themselves full of food at a Golden Corral while their starving four pound baby girl died in their car outside?  This actually just happened down in Florida, and it is a crime that is shocking the entire nation.  Sadly, it is also a perfect metaphor for what is happening to the country as a whole.  We have become an exceedingly selfish and self-centered society that seems to care very little that we are literally destroying the future of America.  We are stealing trillions of dollars from future generations and destroying what was once the greatest economy in the history of the world just to make ourselves a little bit more comfortable in the present.  We stand by and do nothing while our politicians flush the U.S. Constitution down the toilet and construct a Big Brother police state all around us.  We have become a nation of “sheeple” and “zombies” that are so addicted to entertainment that we can’t even see how our society is rotting and decaying in thousands of different ways all around us.  So yes, the parents that starved their precious little baby girl to death are guilty and should be punished.  But what about the millions of Americans that are doing nothing while America slowly circles the toilet on the way to oblivion?

There are very few news stories that affect me deeply on an emotional level.  But when I read about the starvation of this precious little baby girl down in Florida, I was quite upset…

A baby girl named Betsey died, having being starved to death while strapped in her car seat as her parents ate a Florida Golden Corral restaurant.

The parents of the 22-day-old baby have been charged with first-degree murder, police said on Tuesday, accusing them of neglecting the suffering infant.

Ruby Stephens, 23, and Roy Stephens, 48, of Indiana, were visiting relatives in central Florida on December 23 when they called 911 after discovering the baby was unresponsive in their car, according to Lakeland Police.

Betsey Kee Stephens was declared dead at the hospital.

‘She suffered tremendously over the 22 days that she was alive,’ Mike Link, assistant chief of Lakeland Police, told a news conference.

He called photographs of the baby ‘absolutely horrible.’

How cold-hearted do you have to be in order to do such a thing?

How could anyone neglect such a precious baby girl like that?

Inside the Golden Corral, her parents had access to an endless buffet.  But they didn’t even bring Betsey inside with them.  She sat outside strapped in her car seat as she died from starvation.

But like I said, this is such a perfect metaphor for where we are as a nation.

We have become a selfish, greedy, gluttonous nation that doesn’t care about others and that always wants more for ourselves.

For example, in 1962 only 13 percent of all Americans were obese.  But today, 35.7 percent of all Americans are obese, and it is being projected that 42 percent of all Americans could be obese by the year 2030.

And of course it goes far beyond just being physically gluttonous.  Much worse is… (to continued reading http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/metaphor-for-america-starving-4-pound-baby-dies-in-car-while-parents-eat-at-golden-corral).

 

The Most Depressing Time of the Year in the Most Depressed Nation

Posted on by
2

The excellent article below from http://endoftheamericandream.com makes a strong case why America needs a spiritual revival that will bring them back to the Bible and to Yeshua, and why Americans need to start eating a healthy diet. I’ve highlighted the salient points of this article in red. Please read this article and pass it on.

Natan

From http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-most-depressing-time-of-the-year-in-the-most-depressed-nation-on-the-planet. To activate the links in this article, click on the  above link to go to the article’s website of origin.

The Most Depressing Time Of The Year In The Most Depressed Nation On The Planet

By Michael Snyder, on December 2nd, 2014
     

Christmas Street - Public DomainDid you know that the rate of suicide is highest during this time of the year and that 45 percent of all Americans dread the Christmas season?  We are constantly being told that Christmas is the happiest time of the year, but mental health professionals tell us that the exact opposite is true.  For large numbers of Americans, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is filled with stress, anxiety, loneliness and family squabbles.  And for most people, the reality of the holidays never even comes close to matching up with the glittering ideal portrayed in movies and on television.  As a result, depression tends to spike during the month of December.  And of course Americans are quite depressed most of the time anyway.  In fact, one out of every ten Americans is on an antidepressant as you read this article.  No other nation in the world even approaches that level.  So right now we are in the midst of the most depressing time of the year in the most depressed nation on the entire planet.  What is wrong with this picture?

A lot of people start to feel down this time of the year, and they don’t realize that there are millions of others that are going through the exact same thing.  The following excerpt from a Psychology Today article explains that this is something that happens every Christmas season…

We are told that Christmas, for Christians, should be the happiest time of year, an opportunity to be joyful and grateful with family, friends and colleagues. Yet, according to the National Institute of Health, Christmas is the time of year that people experience the highest incidence of depression. Hospitals and police forces report the highest incidences of suicide and attempted suicide. Psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals report a significant increase in patients complaining about depression. One North American survey reported that 45% of respondents dreaded the festive season.

So when we get depressed, what do we do?

Well, we do what we always do for depression.

We start popping pills.

Today, America is the most drugged up nation on the face of the Earth by a wide margin.  Just consider the following numbers…

–Americans account for about five percent of the global population, but we consume more than 50 percent of the pharmaceutical drugs.  At the moment, the number one selling pharmaceutical drug in America is called Thorazine.  It is used as a supplement to other antidepressant drugs.

–According to the New York Times, more than 30 million Americans are currently taking antidepressants.

–The number of people that are clinically diagnosed with depression is growing at a rate of 20 percent annually.

–The rate of antidepressant use among middle aged women is far higher than for the population as a whole.  It is hard to believe, but right now one out of every four women in their 40s and 50s is taking an antidepressant medication.

-The percentage of women taking antidepressants in the United States is significantly higher than in any other country in the world.

–Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than children in Europe are.

–If all of these antidepressants are helping, then why are more Americans killing themselves?  The suicide rate for Americans between the ages of 35 and 64 increased by nearly 30 percent between 1999 and 2010.  The number of Americans that die by suicide is now greater than the number of Americans that die as a result of car accidents every year.

Sadly, most Americans have absolutely no idea that the latest scientific studies indicate that many of these drugs could actually be quite dangerous.

For example, one recent study found that children that take antidepressants are more likely to attempt suicide…

High doses of brain-altering chemicals marketed as “anti-depressants” increase the likelihood of self-harm, rather than decreasing the risk, say Harvard health scientists in a study that analyzed data on 162,625 people.

Drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s) may raise the risk of suicidal behavior in children and young adults, according to the analysis. SSRI’s are the chemical substances which make up the antidepressants Prozac and Zoloft.

“Our findings offer clinicians an additional incentive to avoid initiating pharmacotherapy at high-therapeutic doses,” Harvard School of Public Health researchers said.

Another recent study found that pregnant mothers that take antidepressants are more likely to have babies with brain defects…

Almost one in five children born to mothers taking antidepressants during pregnancy have a brain defect – called a “Chiari type 1 malformation” – according to a groundbreaking study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The study, titled Rate of Chiari I Malformation in Children of Mothers with Depression with and without Prenatal SSRI Exposure, was published May 19 in the peer-reviewed journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

The researchers found that “children of depressed mothers treated with a group of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy were more likely to develop Chiari type 1 malformations than were children of mothers with no history of depression,” according to their press statement.

Perhaps popping pills is not the solution after all.

.If you are battling depression, one of the key things to do is to look at your diet.  What we eat and what we drink plays a massive role in how we feel and how our brain functions.  If you start eating better, your life will improve in a multitude of ways.

And certainly there are natural ways to battle depression.  If you want to learn more about this, Natural News has some great articles on the subject.

But more important than all of those things is the fact that most Americans today simply do not have anything to live for.

These days, most people just seem to be living for themselves.  They chase one form of entertainment after another, hoping that something will eventually fill the gaping holes that are constantly aching inside their hearts.  Many go to their graves never finding the fulfillment that they were desperately searching for all of their lives.

You have got to have something to live for that really matters.  That is something that I have found, and it has made all the difference.  No matter how broken your life is right now, the key is to never, ever, ever give up.  As long as you keep fighting, there is always hope that things can be turned around.

So don’t give in to depression this Christmas season.

Yes, this world is an incredibly messed up place.

Yes, things are going to get a lot worse in the years ahead.

But that doesn’t mean that the future has to be bleak for you.

The best chapters of your life could be right around the corner, so don’t you ever, ever give up.

 

Let’s give thanks…

Posted on by
Reply

give-thanks-psalm-86

 

A Modern Day Deborah — The Back Story

Posted on by
Reply

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

By LEO HOHMANN 

Christine Weick is approached be security at the National Cathedral in Washington Friday, Nov. 14, as she stands up to proclaim "Jesus is our Lord and Savior"

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!

Posted on by
1

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
Muslims hold prayer inside the Washington National Cathedral(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.

  • muslim prayer
    (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.

Muslims hold prayer inside the Washington National Cathedral(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.”

Muslims hold prayer inside the Washington National Cathedral(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.