Borneo, Indonesia and Malaysia

Credit Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
These true-color images of Indonesia were acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer in mid-May 2002. Fire season was not fully underway in the region, and skies over the large island of Borneo, with Malaysia at its northwest coast, are cloud-covered, but not hazy with air pollution. The horizontally situated island of java appears to be experiencing some haze at its western end, and a few scattered fires (red dots) were detected. These images were acquired on May 17 and 19, 2002.

Does Jesus Christ Really Understand?

Our fast-paced world is far removed from the dusty roads Jesus walked in first-century Palestine. Can He really understand our needs and sufferings? Can He empathize with our worries?
by Graemme Marshall
The Bible tells us Jesus can "sympathize with our weaknesses" and that He was tempted in every way, just as we are (Hebrews 4:15). Yet we know He was not crippled or handicapped. We know He did not live to old age. Nor was He forced into unemployment or retirement. He never had to make ends meet on a pension. He didn't go to war or face a veteran's life, nor was He a victim of modern-day pollution, road rage or disease.

How, then, can Jesus understand the difficulties and challenges we face?

Could a 33-year-old single male with "legions of angels" at His command (Matthew 26:53) understand a woman's needs? What of the trauma of a divorcée or someone facing bankruptcy, paying child support or eking out a living while drawing social security?

What of the myriad temptations and problems we face? Jesus didn't live in a society quite like ours—with satellite television, video games, movies and smart bombs. If we are to come with confidence to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), how can we be sure Jesus understands what we suffer? After all, He is the glorified Son of God—an immortal spirit being—while we are weak, fleshly humans. If Jesus never experienced the human frailties we experience, how can He understand our personal needs in His role of Intercessor with the Father? (Hebrews 7:25).

Paul's explanation that we are not alone in our trials can be comforting (1 Corinthians 10:13). If you attend a Christian fellowship, you find others going through similar experiences (2 Corinthians 1:3-6). This is strengthening. Yet each of us has his own pain, trial and anguish that we may think no one else can properly understand.

We may wonder whether God can feel our pain. Can God appreciate the depth of human despair? Peter wrote that Jesus suffered for us, leaving us an example (1 Peter 2:21). In what ways did Jesus lead the way? What confidence can we have that He understands the personal trauma of every one of His people? Read on to appreciate Jesus' unique trials and find comfort in them.

Weariness and limitations
Can Jesus understand the limitations of a human body? Isaiah was inspired to write that Christ's physical appearance didn't make Him especially attractive or desirable (Isaiah 53:2). He was apparently average looking, and at times His body got just plain tired. He rested at the well of Samaria because He was physically weary and thirsty (John 4:6-7).

Like any other human, He needed time to recuperate from the stress of heavy responsibility, for the weight of the world really was on His shoulders. After periods of hectic activity, He withdrew to areas of solitude to refresh Himself and recuperate (Mark 6:31).

Our unjust society
Can He understand life today? The plagues of government inefficiency and abuse, injustice and violent crime were just as much a part of His world as they are ours. His life was regulated by an oppressive system of at times foolish laws and regulations, just like ours.

Jesus knew the burden of oppressive taxation and the sting of racism. He lived in Judea under the occupation forces of the mighty Roman Empire, which treated the populace as subjugated peoples and harshly enforced its requirements. One of Rome's rules was that Jews could be commandeered anytime to carry a Roman soldier's equipment for a mile. Simon of Cyrene was grabbed out of the crowd and made to carry the wooden beam on which Jesus would be crucified. Jesus was too weakened by a scourging to carry it further Himself (Matthew 27:32).

Jesus encouraged His followers not only to comply with this rule, but to go above and beyond. By carrying a burden for two miles, they would carry the load for some other passerby and fulfill the Golden Rule of doing to others as you would have them do to you (Matthew 5:41; Luke 6:31).

Jesus also spoke of the hypocritical leadership of the religious authorities of His day: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do" (Matthew 23:2-3).

He was personally insulted: accused of being illegitimate, "born of fornication" (John 8:41).

Family conflict and people problems
Many of our problems concern relationships with members of our own family and close friends. We must try to get along with people we are near constantly—fellow workers, employees, neighbors and school officials—even though they sometimes oppose us at every turn. Jesus had to face similar difficulties. His own brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:5). He had gathered a group of novice disciples around Him who at times vexed Him with their vanity and visions of grandeur (Luke 9:46).

The established religious community criticized Him for His lack of formal education in the Scriptures (John 7:15). Because He hailed from the small town of Nazareth in Galilee, Jesus endured slurs. Even one of His future disciples, on hearing where Jesus had grown up, asked, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46).

In the hour of His greatest distress, His closest friends deserted Him. In the Garden of Gethsemane His disciples fled when they saw Jesus would be arrested, leaving Him alone to face the religious authorities and their soldiers. The next day many of His disciples were still too frightened to be publicly seen as He was beaten and executed. "But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things" (Luke 23:49).

What about other people relationships? Jesus wasn't married, so can He understand marriage problems? How can Jesus understand what it is like to live with an unconverted mate?

Actually, He can. He was symbolically married to the nation of Israel. She was a selfish, unfaithful spouse who caused Him a great deal of grief and unhappiness (Jeremiah 3:6-14). He is not only prepared to take her back, He will receive her once again—when she repents and wants to be a faithful bride.

Illness and pain
Can Jesus understand the physical and psychological pain of child abuse, rape, disease or physical infirmities?

Many people suffer from illness or accidents. Christ understands the depths of their suffering. The Gospels reveal that in His last hours as a human being He was falsely accused, mocked, reviled, sworn at, spat upon and slapped in the face. He suffered a brutal beating before His crucifixion, which in itself was an extremely painful and humiliating way to die.

Isaiah tells us of Jesus: ". . . There were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness" (Isaiah 52:14, New International Version). Apparently Jesus was barely recognizable as a human after the awful beating He suffered. As God in the flesh, did He want to live physically any less than we do? No. He didn't want to feel the agony of crucifixion and death. But, faithful to the plan of God, He obeyed because of the necessity of His dying on our behalf (Matthew 26:39, 42).

Grief and anguish
Have you ever been stolen from by your acquaintances, convicted without a hearing, suffered racial slurs, betrayed by a friend or had your money embezzled by a close associate? Jesus had all those things happen to Him.

But someone might say: "Well, Jesus never suffered the things I do." Perhaps the best response would be that what Jesus went through in 33 years of human existence the overwhelming majority of people have never duplicated. He experienced numerous attempts on His life, had a crown of thorns thrust down to gash into His scalp, was scourged and crucified and willingly gave His life to pay for the sins of others.

A few people have endured indignities on a similar level. Many were crucified in those years. None, though, lived without ever sinning. In this Jesus stands head and shoulders above everyone else: a real, flesh-and-blood, 33-year-old thoroughly masculine male who never sinned, not even once.

As Creator of all things, including humanity, God has through eons of time experienced depths of emotion about what humans do to other humans. This was even before Jesus became God in the flesh. In the same way, He was "grieved in His heart" before the flood (Genesis 6:6), so we can know that Jesus grieves about the state of our world.

If you can sympathize with some of these examples, then rest assured that you can know with certainty that you have a faithful High Priest who walked this physical life ahead of you. He knows what it means to suffer. He is fully qualified on your behalf to express the depth of your personal, private suffering to the Father.

Christ meant it when He told us in His Word: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).

Approach God boldly and confidently, knowing with every pain you suffer that Jesus is the High Priest who hears, knows and understands how you feel. GN

World News and Trends

An overview of conditions around the world.
by John Ross Schroeder and Jerold Aust

Nations around the world gang up on America

Late last year, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson labeled America as "the nation that fell to earth." In terms of dwindling domestic and international support, the war in Iraq has many parallels with Vietnam. In addition, what is currently occurring elsewhere on the international stage greatly augments the overall problem.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently traveled to Iran and concocted a pact with five countries bordering the Caspian Sea. This pact states that no other country should interfere militarily or politically in the affairs of this Caspian bloc of nations. Some observers understand this pact as a clear warning that the United States should not carry out any military action against Iran.

In turn, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been invited to Moscow for further talks. Only a short time ago the Iranian president was allowed to vent his anger against America from the UN headquarters in New York City. As U.S. News and World Reporteditor-in-chief Mortimer Zuckerman observed, "Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, came to America to stick his thumb in our eye and deliver a sanitized version of 'Death to America!' and 'The Holocaust Never Occurred'" (Oct. 8, 2007, emphasis added throughout).

Russian aid to Iran is nothing short of astonishing. For example, it is a massive supplier of arms to Tehran, including a $700 million air-defense system.

Naturally both Russia and Iran oppose the eastward expansion of NATO. Iran is counting on both Russia and China to oppose any future sanctions from the UN Security Council.

According to The Guardian (Oct. 12, 2007), a resurgent Sino-Russian political embrace is already well under way: "Moscow and Beijing are closer now than in the Communist period . . . They have frustrated Western hopes for sanctions or other tough action on disputes ranging from Burma and Darfur to Iran. They are blocking a solution on Kosovo." Tensions between Russia and America are clearly on the rise, alarmingly so.

Another diplomatic setback has been a cooling of the normally stable Anglo-American alliance. The new British prime minister, Gordon Brown, is no Tony Blair. Increasingly Britain is being sucked into Europe with more concessions of British sovereignty in the offing. Brown has agreed to the new EU treaty without giving the British people a referendum. Yet only an independent Britain can fully stand shoulder to shoulder with America as new and more deadly challenges to Western civilization present themselves.

In 1940 Winston Churchill warned that unless the English-speaking countries triumphed over Nazism, the world would "sink into a new dark age." How much more would this be the case if the West should fail in its war on terrorism? America and Britain eventually prevailed in two world wars in the last century. Yet our present century is not without its own civilizational showdowns. Recent trends showing America and Britain gradually being boxed into a corner should deeply concern us all.

Most do not understand the importance of the origins of the English-speaking peoples around the world. The historic and prophetic implications will yet prove to be enormous. To understand just how, request or download our free booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy. (Sources: The Guardian, The Times, Financial Times[all London],U.S. News and World Report.)



Newest Middle East peace proposal in jeopardy

According to a report from Jerusalem published in the International Herald Tribune, "Hamas has now sent hundreds of its fighters, most of them to Iran. . . Israel is watching as Hamas, in control of Gaza, is building an army there on the model of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon—constructing positions and fortifications." Some of their longer-range rockets are being held in reserve for future action against Israel.

Almost simultaneously, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (standing beside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas) called for a Palestinian state as an integral part of the solution to the overall conflict. She continues her periodic meetings with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The United States will host a Middle East conference in November designed to put the peace process back on track. It was reported by The Economist that "diplomacy has yet another fleeting chance."

But the realism of U.S. News and World Report editor-in-chief Mortimer Zuckerman must be taken seriously. He wrote, "A renewed push to find an Israeli-Palestinian solution faces some profound problems as the head of Iran reminded us last week [in his UN address]." Mr. Zuckerman pointed out that the Iranian president's purpose was "to undermine the legitimacy of the state of Israel." This farseeing editor reminded us about "the refusal of the Palestinians to this day to acknowledge the right of Israel to exist."

Yet the League of Nations in 1922 and the United Nations in 1948 supported a Jewish homeland. Winston Churchill stated that "the Jews are in Palestine by right, not sufferance."

Mr. Zuckerman noted the Palestinian use of religion to achieve their political purposes. He recalled that "it was Arafat who invoked the Islamic terms of jihad and shahada . . . It was Arafat who introduced children to radical Islamic thinking so that they could become terrorists and suicide bombers." He also observed that the Palestinians "wish to rule not just in the West Bank and Gaza, but in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa" ("Denial and Hope in the Mideast," Oct. 8, 2007).

Before the biblically prophesied peace finally comes to this troubled region, the future will prove far more crisis-prone than even the troublesome past. To truly comprehend both its historic and prophetic significance, request or download our free booklet The Middle East in Bible Prophecy. (Sources: The Times [London],USA Today, U.S. News and World Report, International Herald Tribune. )



American-Turkish relations on the edge

Turkey , a longtime U.S. ally, is on the point of hindering American plans and intentions in Iraq. A large-scale Turkish incursion into northern Iraq to thwart Kurdish rebels may be imminent. Clearly it would complicate Washington's plans in that strife-torn country.

At this crucial time of policy differences between the United States and Turkey, the Democratic Party-controlled House of Representatives tried to formally condemn the World War I-era massacre of Armenians by Turks as genocide. However valid the facts may be, the timing is highly inopportune. So President Bush has asked the House to think again. These are not the easiest days for American diplomacy.



Stark implications of Israeli strike against Syrian reactor

According to The New York Times, "Israel's air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea had used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel, according to American and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports" (Oct. 14, 2007).

A somewhat similar Israeli raid on Iraq took out the Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, putting a sudden halt to Iraqi nuclear efforts. Yet since the Syrian reactor apparently would have required some years to actually produce bomb-grade plutonium, this latest raid was seen by one senior Israeli official as intended to "re-establish the credibility of our deterrent power."

Some American officials saw it as a clear signal to Iran. Several months earlier another senior Israeli source had said, "We are the product of a Holocaust in Europe and we will do everything . . . to prevent another holocaust recurring in Israel. If the Americans do not act, then we will act" (The Sunday Times).

What is also highly disturbing is the desire for nuclear weapons in several Middle Eastern nations, a somewhat natural reaction given the current Iranian threat. The year 2006 was labeled "The year of the nuke" by Newsweekin terms of increased nuclear proliferation around the globe.

Most countries say they want to avoid a nuclear Armageddon. The late Ronald Reagan wrote in his diaries while still U.S. president that "we have to do all we can . . . to see that there is never a nuclear war" (quoted in Scientific American,October 2007). However, a few rogue countries and suicidal terrorist groups seem inclined to provoke the unthinkable. (Sources: The Sunday Times[London], The New York Times, Newsweek, Scientific American.)



Birth control pills for 11-year-olds?

Controversy and confusion surrounded the decision by King Middle School in Portland, Maine, to offer birth control pills to children as young as 11, without their parents' knowledge. Oral contraception and condoms have been available for years in Portland's high schools, but extending this policy to middle schools is seen by some as encouraging underage sexual activity.

This practice is also viewed as possibly covering up sexual and other forms of abuse in families. It also provides the potential for a pregnant 11-year-old child to be diagnosed and then to have an abortion without parental awareness or consent.

Some parents were ambivalent or even favored the school's independently operated clinic taking over this important aspect of child care. However, others are worried about the long-term health issues resulting from taking oral contraception at such an early age and the potential for future psychological difficulties when children and young teenagers become involved in sexual relationships or have abortions—all without parental knowledge or counsel.

On Oct. 19, the principal of King Middle School published a letter on the school's Web site explaining the rationale for the decision: "To prevent pregnancy the Health Center needs to have contraception as an option when a student admits being sexually active. Contraception would only be prescribed in rare cases after counseling about abstinence and postponing sexual behavior was not productive. Every effort is always made to encourage the student to join with her parents in making this decision."

This all appears to be treating the effects of a problem and not the root causes. Surrounded by a culture that no longer allows children to be children, is it possible that a child of 11 or a teenager of 14 or 15 would even recognize that she or he was being coerced into sexual activity?

Without a strong moral society or, failing that, strong family values in setting a right example of abstinence before commitment (commitment within a biblical marriage), how are children to learn what is right and what is wrong where sexuality is concerned?

For information on God's purpose for marriage and families, request or download our free booklet Marriage and Family: The Missing Dimension. (Sources: Detroit Free Press, The New York Times, King Middle School Web site.)



Staph infections proving more deadly than the AIDS virus

Both The Washington Post and the Associated Press (AP) recently highlighted the emergence of a drug-resistant staph germ that is greatly increasing fatalities. ThePost stated that "a dangerous germ that has been spreading around the country causes more life-threatening infections than public health authorities had thought and is killing more people in the United States each year than the AIDS virus."

According to the AP, "more than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph 'superbug,' the government reported in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ." These infections, in both mild and invasive forms, "affect 46 out of every 1,000 U.S. hospital and nursing home patients."

Most staph cases tend to be relatively mild skin infections, but invasive infections that enter the bloodstream can easily become deadly. Apparent overuse of antibiotics has severely limited the effectiveness of countermeasures. Hospital and nursing home patients, mostly senior citizens, are the main victims, but deadly staph infections also strike the very young.

ThePost further stated: "Studies have shown that hospitals could do more to improve standard hygiene to reduce the spread of the infections." The AP report concurred, suggesting that "the results underscore the need for better prevention measures curbing the overuse of antibiotics and improving hand-washing and other hygiene procedures among hospital workers." So biblical hygienic and cleanliness ordinances set forth in the Bible are up-to-date even in our modern world.

According to Bible prophecy, the four horsemen of the apocalypse will ride in ever-increasing intensity. The pale horse signifies disease epidemics. For further understanding, request or download our free booklets The Book of Revelation Unveiled and Are We Living in the Time of the End? (Sources: Associated Press, The Washington Post.)

What's Behind the Magnetic Pull of the Christmas Season?

Millions observe Christmas because it's a feel-good time with holiday music filling the air, brightly decorated trees, Santa Claus for the children and family togetherness. But does the Christmas season have a strong, commercially motivated magnetic pull that goes unnoticed by most?
by Jerold Aust

Justin and Dena were married shortly before Christmas. They had grown up in families that celebrated the Christmas holidays. This was a special time for them with thoughts of falling snow, a glowing fireplace, holiday songs and colorful gifts placed around the well-decorated tree. The winter holiday season was exciting and alluring, as it is to millions.

They badly wanted to invite their families for a sumptuous Christmas Day dinner and the traditional exchanging of gifts. Everything seemed to work out all right except they were short of money to pay for the obligatory gifts. So they went shopping armed with their credit cards.

As they shopped around from store to store, the atmosphere of the music, colorful gifts and inviting decorations lured them into spending much more than they could reasonably afford.

Then in late January, the bills started coming in. They had precious little money set aside to pay them. They struggled to keep enough food on the table, pay the house rent and make the car payment. They realized too late they had succumbed to all the Christmas advertising—ending up with a painful financial hangover.

Could this story also describe your circumstances?

Christmas is big business

Those Christmas bells chiming during the holiday season might be likened to cash registers ringing up millions of dollars in retail sales. Christmas is very big business and is thought to be great for the national economy. But has anyone thought to ask whether this type of wild spending is really in people's best interests, either now or, more importantly, for their long-term spiritual well-being?

Should we be buying gifts others frequently don't want or need with money we don't have? It's a logical question.

Yet people will defend observing Christmas by countering that it's a celebration honoring Jesus' birth. If that's true, why buy gifts for others and not Jesus Christ? Is Christendom behind the presumptive trappings of a pre-Christmas season or is it being promoted by secular businesses for their own gain?

Purdue University professor Richard Feinberg understands the commercial value of the Christmas shopping season. He found the retail forecast of the 2004 Christmas season to be at least 75 percent of yearly profits. He predicted that 2006 Christmas holiday shopping would total an incredible $450 billion or more in America. Barring an economic downturn, it could be even higher this year.

Ironically, Christmas is so popular that millions of atheists and people of other religions celebrate the holiday. Why don't people, those who claim to be Christians or otherwise, resist the commercial aspect of the season?

What's behind the magnetic pull of Christmas?

Clearly the Christmas season has a strong magnetic pull, but most people don't fully realize it or know how powerful it is. Every year a Christmas advertising onslaught tries to influence the public to spend, spend and spend some more.

Some sociologists and social critics research and analyze why groups unknowingly do what they do. We'll focus on two.

Noted American journalist and best-selling author Vance Packard wrote a number of thoughtful books about how business advertisers motivate and manipulate the public. His groundbreaking 1957 book The Hidden Persuaders explores the use of consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including what he calls depth psychology and subliminal tactics by advertisers to induce desire for products.

As Packard explains, his book is about "the large-scale efforts being made, often with impressive success, to channel . . . our thought processes by the use of insights gleaned from psychiatry and the social sciences. Typically these efforts take place beneath our level of awareness" (p. 3). Packard was ahead of his time in describing advertising methods still commonly used today.

His book continues: "The use of mass psychoanalysis to guide campaigns of persuasion has become the basis of a multimillion-dollar industry. Professional persuaders have seized upon it in their groping for more effective ways to sell us their wares—whether products, ideas, attitudes, candidates, goals, or states of mind . . .

"The sale to us of billions of dollars' worth of . . . products is being significantly affected, if not revolutionized, by this approach . . . Two thirds of America's hundred largest advertisers have geared campaigns to this depth approach by using strategies inspired by what marketers call ‘motivation analysis' . . .

"What the probers are looking for, of course, are the whys of our behavior, so that they can more effectively manipulate our habits and choices in their favor" (pp. 3-4).

Writing about a Chicago research firm that conducted psychoanalytically oriented studies for merchandisers, Packard states: "Motivation research . . . employs techniques designed to reach the unconscious or subconscious mind because preferences generally are determined by factors of which the individual is not conscious . . .

"Actually in the buying situation the consumer generally acts emotionally and compulsively, unconsciously reacting to the images and designs which in the subconscious are associated with the product" (pp. 7-8).

With far more technological advances than Packard could imagine in 1957, marketers and advertisers have a much greater capacity for influencing people to unthinkingly buy more and more during the Christmas season and at other times.

Manipulating our behavior

Dr. Robert Cialdini, a professor at Arizona State University, may be the most cited social psychologist in the world today. His book Influence: Science and Practice (1993) is a staple text in the academic world.

Cialdini writes: "It is odd that despite their current widespread use and looming future importance, most of us know very little about our automatic behavior patterns. Perhaps that is so precisely because of the mechanistic, unthinking manner in which they occur . . . They make us terribly vulnerable to anyone who does know how they work" (p. 9).

Do we imagine that today's advertising gurus don't know about human behavioral patterns?

Cialdini states: "Our automatic tapes usually develop from psychological principles or stereotypes we have learned to accept. Although they vary in their force, some of these principles possess a tremendous ability to direct human action. We have been subject to them from such an early point in our lives, and they have moved us about so pervasively then, that you and I rarely perceive their power. In the eyes of others, though, each such principle is a detectable and ready weapon, a weapon of automatic influence" (p. 10).

Observing Christmas because "everyone does it" is a trigger feature. Other triggers include the music, the lights, the decorations and the sentimental store displays, each of which can cause us to respond automatically—rendering us nearly helpless as we part with our money. But do we really honor God by uncontrolled spending during the Christmas season?

How should we honor Christ?

You can research the entire Bible and nowhere will you find Christ instructing His followers to remember His birthday. (However, He did teach them to remember His death through observing the annual Passover service—see Matthew 26:26-30 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.)

The Bible itself never mentions Christmas, nor does it instruct Christians to observe the holiday.

The reason becomes obvious when we understand the holiday's distinctly non-Christian origins. "Christmas has its origin in two ancient pagan festivals, the great Yule-feast of the Norsemen and the Roman Saturnalia. The Saturnalia involved the wildest debauchery. Naturally it came under heavy censure from the early Church and despite the fact that Jesus Christ and the saints gradually replaced pagan deities, it was long considered completely out of character with the Christian ideal.

"However, the festival was far too strongly entrenched in popular favour to be abolished, and the [Catholic] Church finally granted the necessary recognition, believing that if Christmas could not be suppressed it should be preserved in honour of the Christian God.

"It was only in the 4th century that 25 December was officially decreed to be the birthday of Christ, and it was another 500 years before the term Midwinter Feast was abandoned in favour of the word Christmas" (Man, Myth & Magic, 1983, Vol. 2, "Christmas," p. 480). Even secular history speaks the truth about the origins of Christmas.

God gave ancient Israel His annual Holy Days and festivals to observe (Leviticus 23). Though few realize it, they embody God's spiritual blueprints for the salvation of all humankind.

Jesus showed how people could act "righteously" without being truly righteous: "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:7-9). This clearly applies to much of modern Christianity.

Jesus Christ honors those who honor Him: "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor" (John 12:26; compare 1 Samuel 2:30).

The Father honors Christ's disciples with eternal life: "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life [eternal life], and may enter through the gates into the city [the New Jerusalem from heaven]" (Revelation 22:14).

If you still choose to observe Christmas apart from Christ and the Bible's injunctions, then know that vested commercial interests have already planned to use your deeply embedded associations with Christmas, working the trigger features already conditioned in you over many years.

Indeed there is a great magnetic pull during the Christmas season, but it has nothing to do with the real Jesus Christ. GN

... And Children Are From Pluto

If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, sometimes it seems children are from even farther out. What can parents do to improve interplanetary relations?
by Mike Bennett

A few years back a popular book said men and women can't communicate very well because men are from Mars and women are from Venus. It was an interesting concept that helped many people focus on the differences between men and women that affect how we relate to one another. The image of aliens from different planets was a powerful one, if too stereotypical. Still, anything we can do to help us understand each other is good.

Along the same lines, if men are from Mars and women are from Venus, sometimes it seems children are from Pluto—even harder to understand (consider the gross humor, the computerese, the strange music, etc.).

Sometimes kids seem too swayed by crass commercialism and materialism. (Marketers of products such as toys, clothing and music seem to know how to speak their language and push their buttons—but often they should be ashamed of themselves.) Other times young people seem to really see this world's problems and solutions more clearly than adults.

We can learn a lot from these creatures from Pluto. Jesus Christ took time for children, and even said we are to be like them. They are a gift, on loan from God. They really are out of this world!

But to learn from them, we must start by learning to communicate with them—learning their language.

I used to work for a company that published information about languages and technology. My shelves at work were filled with software to help people learn Spanish, Japanese, Swedish, Vietnamese—but nothing on Pluto.

The software contained audio, speech-recognition playback, full motion video, interactive sessions and games. There are many ideas about the best way to learn a language. But still the biggest factors are the desire of the student and the time spent listening and speaking. If you really want to understand these aliens from Pluto, you'll make progress.

Focused attention

Over the years, a lot has been written about rearing children. A few years back a good book was published titled How to Really Love Your Child by Dr. Ross Campbell. It stressed the importance of giving our children love through eye contact, physical contact and focused attention.

"What is focused attention?" Dr. Campbell wrote. "Focused attention is giving a child our full, undivided attention in such a way that he feels without doubt that he is completely loved. That he is valuable enough in his own right to warrant parents' undistracted watchfulness, appreciation, and uncompromising regard. In short, focused attention makes a child feel he is the most important person in the world in his parents' eyes" (1977, p. 55).

More than a century ago, the book Gentle Measures by Jacob Abbott recommended, "I think there can be no doubt that the most effectual way of securing the confidence and love of children, and of acquiring control over them, is by sympathizing with them in their childlike hopes and fears, and joys and sorrows—in their ideas, their fancies, and even in their caprices."

And more than 3,000 years ago Moses wrote: "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up" (Deuteronomy 6:6-7, New International Version).

Quality vs. quantity

Learning a language and communicating takes time. Years ago there was a big debate about spending quality time with kids versus quantity.

The debate seems to have died down, partly, I'm afraid, because parents are too busy and burned out to feel they can do either. But sometimes we have to make changes to allow both kinds of time.

Quality time is still important. When my children were younger, most nights I didn't get home from work till after 7 p.m., and they needed to be in bed by 9. The time was pretty packed with getting supper on the table, eating, cleaning up, sometimes playing a short game, getting ready for bed, brushing and flossing teeth, brushing hair, reading a story and a Bible story and praying.

It went by fast, and there wasn't always a lot of time for talking. But if I sat in front of the TV instead of reading to the girls, I think it would have widened the rift between the planets. As it was, some nights after the glass of water and tucking in came the deepest discussion of the day (much to my wife's chagrin as she knew they needed their sleep!).

Quantity time is important too. I know I need it. A couple of minutes on the phone doesn't cut it when I'm on a trip. One of the hardest times of my life was when I took a job five or six weeks before the rest of the family could join me. Maybe people from Venus and Pluto can survive that, but this Martian was at wits' end.

Planetary-alignment time

There's a lot more to rearing Plutonians than spending time, talking and listening. But it's a start.

Every year 50,000 people in Spokane, Washington, put on jogging shoes and run about 7.5 miles in a race called Bloomsday. I'll never forget the year my 8-year-old daughter Heather and I "ran" it together. Over the previous couple of months we had the chance to train together a few times (not nearly as many as we wanted because of sickness, business trips and a busy life).

I'll always treasure those times. We may not have done a lot of running, but walking and talking about the things on her mind gave me a much greater grasp of what things are like on Pluto.

We didn't set any speed records in the Bloomsday "race" itself—though Heather did take off like a bullet when she saw the finish line! But far more rewarding than finishing the race itself was spending the time together beforehand. As a parent I've learned to look for and appreciate such opportunities to do a little cosmic engineering—moving Mars and Pluto just a little closer to each other. GN

Are We Living in a '9/10' Economy?

Global financial markets were rocked recently following rising defaults affecting mortgage-backed securities. What does this mean for the world’s money supply and confidence in Western financial institutions? Are we on the verge of a major upheaval in the world economy?
by Beyond Today host Darris McNeely

On Sept. 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists attacked America, and overnight everything changed. The signs and warnings of such an attack were there the day before (9/10), but were ignored, misunderstood and glossed over by those charged with protecting the security of the nation. Had they been properly analyzed and acted on, the tragedy could have been averted.

But it wasn't, and much has changed for America and the West since that fateful day. Now come signs of a looming financial crisis that could completely change the global economy and have a dramatic impact on America's role as the world's dominant economic power.

Subprime lending crisis

The world's financial markets experienced a crisis caused by falling confidence in what is called the "subprime lending market." Banks, brokerage houses and mortgage lenders in America and Europe were stung by the rising defaults on risky loans made to home buyers of limited means on reckless terms.

Many buyers took out loans on the gamble that housing prices would continue to rise. Lenders extended credit to them on a gamble that the buyers would not default on the loans. These adjustable loans, often with low initial interest rates that can rise sharply, were made to many people who weren't really able to afford owning a home at the inflated prices in many areas.

These mortgages were then resold to other financial institutions that offered the potential for high returns to investors willing to take a high risk.

That risk was spread among many to the point that no one could really identify where the risk was. The result was fear in the markets, and the money that banks needed to do daily business began to dry up.

Many people who took these loans and were unable to pay have suffered the loss of housing, money and their credit rating. Many thousands who worked in mortgage lending have lost their jobs as companies shut down or reorganized this part of their business. The Federal Reserve quickly took steps to lower interest rates and to loosen the money supply. At the time of this writing, the dive has leveled off and markets seem to be returning to normal.

A worldwide system

Even if you neither had a subprime mortgage nor work in the industry, could this crisis affect you?

The Western world's financial markets have created a major problem that threatens the bedrock of global finance. The system is so precarious that it threatens the financial security of all citizens, regardless of their exposure to financial markets. You may be completely free of debt and still be impacted by this latest trouble.

Foreign investors have taken on hundreds of billions of dollars of American debt. In essence, they are the ones who have borne the risks; they have financed the unrealistic housing boom and irresponsible consumer spending of recent years.

China is one of the major creditors that hold this debt. This can work as long as America is the major market for goods made in China. But one report says that soon the European Union will become China's largest export market.

Now we have seen significant default in a major segment of the American economy. The confidence other nations have in the American economy has been shaken. And confidence is a key ingredient of financial markets. When confidence is lost in a currency, all the "good money" flees to other currencies thought to be more secure. No one backs a loser in the high-stakes game of global finance.

For this and other reasons, the Western economies have a real problem that could lead to some major corrections, thus impacting jobs, income and growth in America and Great Britain. America has fewer dollar reserves than other emerging nations such as India, and the United States has the largest trade deficit in the world. Britain has the world's third-largest trade deficit.

There exists the potential for an unprecedented financial meltdown. Many experts see this problem and predict a major shift in investment toward other nations that seem to be healthier and a better investment.

An approaching fiscal hurricane

America faces a number of financial challenges beyond this most recent subprime issue. The coming retirement of the baby boomer generation will swamp the Medicare and Social Security system in the coming decades. The money promised to fund these programs is not there, and the cost of these entitlements will overwhelm the federal budget.

In 2008 the leading edge of the boomer generation will begin retirement. Those covered by Social Security are expected to grow to 69 million by 2020. By 2030 Social Security spending as a share of the budget will rise to 40 percent. These obligations will have to be borne by fewer workers.

America's health care is facing its own crisis. Medicare's prescription drug coverage, which took effect in 2006, is expected to cost more than $700 billion over 10 years. By 2050, expanding at current rates and adjusted for inflation, the whole Medicare program is expected to cost $2.6 trillion. That is the size of the entire federal budget today.

Budget deficits another problem

Add continuing budget deficits to this. The American government spends hundreds of billions of dollars more than it brings in. In recent years increased tax revenues have helped keep the national debt from growing as fast as it did in 2003 and 2004.

Some economists argue that deficits don't matter, especially since they are a small percentage (less than 3 percent) of the entire national economy. Given the enormous size of the economy, this can be managed. Funds have been easily borrowed from foreign investors, such as China, to postpone a day of reckoning. But what happens if the day comes when other nations do not want to lend or invest on the same terms as in the past?

China holds more than $1 trillion. What would happen if China chose to dump those dollars on the world market? This would cause a devaluation of the dollar and loss of confidence in the U.S. economy.

Of course, it is in China's short-term interest not to see the dollar devalued. They would lose their investment, and the resultant slump in the American economy would harm the Chinese economy. But it would be a mistake to think this could not change—indeed, China has already threatened similar actions.

What if OPEC decided it would no longer price its oil in dollars but instead switched to the euro? Such a move would lead to higher fuel prices in the United States. Some oil-producing countries want to see this change. If confidence in the American economy took a serious hit, the movement toward such action could accelerate.

No matter how one looks at America's national economy, the fact is it has generated an enormous amount of debt—more than this generation, or future ones, can ever hope to comfortably repay.

For now the country prints more paper strips with colored ink, calls them dollars and puts them out to creditors with the hope they will continue to have confidence in the American government and its economic policies. The day that changes will see Americans and many other nations paying a lot more for the basics of life we have come to take for granted.

Living beyond its means

The United States has written checks that cannot be cashed. It is shielded temporarily from the consequences by political leadership that appears unwilling to face the moral and fiscal consequences of greed, indifference and self-indulgence.

And the fault does not lie just with leadership. Every citizen must come to see his or her role in creating a society that cannot pay its bills and chases after the gods of consumerism and mammon while others finance our extravagance.

Both the nation and many of its citizens have been living beyond their means for too long. Other countries see this and are beginning to take steps to try to protect themselves from market volatility caused by this behavior.

Last December the European Central Bank raised its key interest rate in the wake of a declining dollar. This made the euro more attractive to international investors. The decline in the value of the dollar was seen as a threat to the European economy.

In the wake of the recent crisis in credit markets, interest rates could rise again to keep liquidity strong and confidence high. Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, keeps a close eye on potential risks and "concerns regarding possible uncontrolled developments triggered by global economic imbalances" ("How Dangerous Is the Dollar Drop?," Der Spiegel, Dec. 12, 2006).

Isaiah the prophet said of ancient Israel, in a message that resonates into our modern world: "Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity . . . They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel . . . The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness it" (Isaiah 1:4-6).

Unless the United States as a whole understands and accepts the root causes of its current dilemma and its people come to deep, heartfelt repentance, Americans will stumble blindly forward till a day of accounting is required for the great sin of forgetting where our blessings originated.

It is a trait of the descendants of Jacob to forget the source of their wealth and abundance. God foretold this when He brought the tribes of Israel into the land of promise. "So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build . . . then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage" (Deuteronomy 6:10-12).

That is why I ask whether we are living in a 9/10 economy. The signs of economic change have been in front of us for many years, but we go blindly on as if nothing will change.

This current crisis will likely stabilize. But because the fundamental problems remain, unless there is significant change a worse crisis will follow. Obviously, greed is an underlying factor in all facets of the subprime crisis. God is ever merciful, but there will be a day of judgment if America does not repent.

Don't let complacency lull you to sleep when it comes to world events. The Good News will continue to keep you informed. GN

400 Years After Jamestown: Where Did the Bible Go?

In recent decades the British and American peoples have increasingly turned away from the Bible. Few can even remember when the Word of God was revered in our nations, but only a century ago it was considered the source of the “ennobling ideals” that united both nations.
by Melvin Rhodes

The Bible was missing.

I searched through the sanctuary. It must be somewhere. After all, it was a church.

I finally gave up and asked a female volunteer if she knew where the Bible was. She explained that it had been moved to an anteroom and that I could find it there. She added that she did not approve of it being moved.

I finally did locate it in a glass case that was hardly noticeable. That Bible, so much a part of the history of the church, had been relegated to a side room, signifying its reduced importance in the fabric of the church and of the nation as a whole.

The Bible in question was presented in 1907 to the president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, by Britain's King Edward VII on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the founding of the colony of Virginia. The Bible and the lectern on which it had rested, now devoid of any copy of the Scriptures, had been presented to Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg by the president himself.

Times have changed

The dedicatory message from the king read: "This Bible is presented by His Majesty King Edward the Seventh, King of Great Britain and Ireland & Emperor of India to the church of Bruton, Virginia, a shrine rich in venerable tradition of worship, in solemn memories of patriots and statesmen and in historic witness to the oneness of our peoples.

"The King will ever hope and pray that the ties of kinship and of language and the common heritage of ordered worship and of ennobling ideals may through the saving faith in our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ revealed in these sacred pages, continue to unite Great Britain & America in a beneficent fellowship for setting forward peace & goodwill among men. MCMVII [1907]."

How times have changed in just a century! The public reverence for the Bible shown by both the king and the president 100 years ago is sadly lacking in our nations today!

Before visiting Colonial Williamsburg, my wife and I had toured Jamestown, site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. While there we had visited a replica of the original settlement, which included a church building.

In the church our guide asked us if we had heard of the King James translation of the Bible. As soon as the question was raised, people in our group started wandering off looking at other things. The musketry display was of particular interest. The significance of the King James translation of the Bible in the history of early America seemed of no interest to most of those touring Jamestown that day.

The most significant book in history and an inspiration for the settlers of Virginia and the later colonies of New England is now of little interest to the general populace. Yet without this book the United States would not have come into existence.

Historic importance of the Bible

It's no coincidence that the settlement in Jamestown and the publication of the King James Bible coincided. Those first settlers already had Bibles in their possession, translations that went back as far as John Wycliffe in the 14th century, the first man to translate the Scriptures into English.

But in the year the settlers sailed to Jamestown, the greatest English scholars were engaged in translating the Bible from ancient Hebrew and Greek texts into a new "Authorized Version," which was to become the most influential book ever published. Named after the king who authorized the translation work and who himself understood the ancient languages from which the Scriptures were to be translated, the Bible is known to Americans as the King James Version.

In a recent historical account of how we got the English Bible, the American historian Benson Bobrick wrote:"Only in England was the Bible in any sense a national possession . . . Englishmen carried their Bible with them—as the rock and foundation of their lives—overseas . . . Beyond the shores of Albion [Britain] it fortified the spirit of the pioneers of New England, helped to shape the American psyche, and through its impact on thought and culture eventually spread the world over, 'as wide as the waters be'" (Wide as the Waters, 2001, p. 12).

The book's title is taken from a poem about John Wycliffe (1330-1384), the father of the English Bible. Wycliffe was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as a heretic. By order of Pope Martin V, his bones were to be exhumed and removed from consecrated ground. His remains were disinterred and burned, and his ashes cast into a river.

Bobrick relates how Wycliffe's favorite verse was Philippians 2:12, which admonishes each person to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." This was a revolutionary concept in Europe where for centuries people had been taught that salvation was only possible through the Catholic Church and its priests. Wycliffe is credited with laying a foundation for religious freedom and for the Anglo-American democratic systems that also emphasize individual responsibility.

Historic importance of the Bible

King Henry VIII legalized the publication and distribution of the Bible in 1537.

"By royal injunction, the Lord's Prayer and the 10 Commandments in English were to be taught sentence by sentence on Sundays and holy days throughout the year; at least one sermon on the Gospel was to be preached every quarter . . . ; and every parish church in England was to 'set up in some convenient place' a copy of the English Bible accessible to all as 'the very lively Word of God'" (Bobrick, p. 151).

Throughout the kingdom, copies for public use and edification were soon chained to lecterns in the vestibules of church buildings—six of them in St. Paul's Church alone.

The publication of the Bible was received with great enthusiasm. "It was wonderful to see with what joy the book of God was received," wrote an early biographer of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, ". . . not only among the learneder sort . . . but generally all England over among all the vulgar and common people; with what greediness God's Word was read, and what resort to places where the reading of it was.

"Everybody that could bought the book and busily read it; or got others to read it to them, if they could not themselves; and divers[e people] among the elderly learned to read on purpose. And even little boys flocked among the rest to hear portions of the Holy Scriptures read" (quoted by Bobrick, pp. 151-152).

In their enthusiasm for the Word of God, "crowds sometimes assembled in the church vestibules during Sunday service and eventually the king found it necessary to issue a proclamation (in April 1539) forbidding the reading of the Bible aloud at such times" (p. 152). "In his famous last speech to Parliament the king complained, with tears in his eyes, that the Bible was being 'disputed, rhymed, sung and jangled in every ale-house and tavern'" (p. 160).

It's striking to note in stark contrast the total lack of enthusiasm for the Bible today. The enthusiasm described here for God's Word was displayed recently upon publication of the latest Harry Potter book. Even many Christians showed a marked preference for the latter over the former!

A president's words of warning

When did all this enthusiasm for God's Word change? "It did not cease for 350 years: 1900 was the first year in which religious works (at least in England) did not outnumber all other publications" (Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence, 2000, p. 10).

The title of the book cited here is insightful. The enthusiasm for the Bible led to the rise of the English-speaking peoples, the "dawn" of our civilization, while the rejection of the Bible in more recent times has led to the present period of "decadence," defined as the rejection of all the values on which our civilization was built. Such decadence can only precede an inevitable fall.

As noted earlier, "Englishmen carried their Bible with them" everywhere. That sentence reminds me of the title of author James Morris' first volume of his history of the British Empire: By Heaven's Command. People believed they were given a divine responsibility to take Christian civilization, the Bible, the rule of law, parliamentary democracy and free trade to the rest of the world. This fulfilled ancient prophecies about Abraham's descendants through the tribe of Joseph being a blessing to the world (Genesis 12:3; Micah 5:7).

The Bible was to continue to be an inspiration for the English-speaking peoples. In 1789 George Washington took his oath of office and kissed a Bible opened to Genesis 49-50, "passages that include Joseph's dying reminder that God had promised the Israelites a new land" (Paul Gutjahr, An American Bible: A History of the Good Book in the United States, 1777-1880, 1999, p. 41).

Then "at the end of the oath he added the words 'So help me God' . . . Every president since Washington has repeated this same appeal to God" (Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell, America's Providential History, 1989, p. 174).

In his inaugural address, the first ever in the history of the United States, Washington clearly had the Bible's promises in mind when he said: "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency . . .

"We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained" (ibid., p. 175).

Today it's fashionable to deny the role the Bible played in the foundation of the United States. Although America's founders were of many different denominations, this was the one book that influenced them all. They were clearly all familiar with the Bible's promises or Washington would not have referred to them in his inaugural address. They knew the promise of blessings made to ancient Israel if they obeyed God and the inevitable curses that would come on the nation if it turned away from God.

Will we listen?

People can deny the importance of the Bible. Churches can even remove the Scriptures from their sanctuaries. But the fact remains that God's Word is just as relevant today as it was when George Washington became the first president of the United States more than 200 years ago.

The Bible being opened to verses about Israel's future was prescient—revealing blessings for the modern descendants of ancient Israel (the American and British-descended peoples, the nations of northwestern Europe and the Jewish state of Israel). Washington was also well aware of the Bible's warnings to Israel—applicable to the same nations. If they want to continue to receive God's physical blessings, they need to return to God and His laws.

The increasing problems that challenge the English-speaking nations are the direct result of turning away from the laws of God. Do we have the wisdom to listen to the words of George Washington, who foresaw the inevitability of failure for his new country if it chose to reject the laws of God and hide the Scriptures in a corner? GN

GRAVITY BEYOND LIGHT SPEED EVIDENCE

Learn about the six (6) amazing signatures from the NASA UFO investigation that makes a legendary connection to the Star System of "Sirius."

1. Learn about how the 2-3 mile wide, NASA UFOs from Space Shuttle Mission STS-75 in 1996 and its markings are identical to an ancient articaft known as a Dropa Stone. They are both disc-shaped, with a hole in the middle, with a square notch cut out of the side and have a spiraling configuration signature. Dropa Stones were Found on the Tibetan-Chinese Border in 1936 led by a University of Bejing Archaeology professor.

2. Dropa Stones reveal themselves to be ancient artists renditions of spacecraft that crash landed on Earth from the Star System of Sirius 12,000 years ago. Find out all the details.

3. Learn from British Astronomer Robert Temple's "Sirius Mystery" the ancient African-Egyptian, Dogon Tribe's, Sirian connection to ancient Gods and Goddeses who were masters of water and said to be half-human, half-fish who co-founded the earliest civilizations on Earth.

4. Learn about the great mysterious water connection at NASA to the NASA UFO phenomenon and the evidence of the intelligence behind them. Could there be a connection? Find out!

5. Learn about the Ancient Dogon Tribe in Northwest Africa's prophecy of the Sirian's (Nommos) return to Earth. Discover that the space shuttle was passing directly over the home of the Dogon Tribe in Northwest Africa when a swarm of 1-3 mile wide UFOs came into view, revealing the signature of the star system of "Sirius" videotaped by the astronauts themselves.

6.Learn what NASA knows and is doing to communicate with the star Sirius. Have they made the connection too?

THE SIRIUS CONNECTION

Learn about the six (6) amazing signatures from the NASA UFO investigation that makes a legendary connection to the Star System of "Sirius."

1. Learn about how the 2-3 mile wide, NASA UFOs from Space Shuttle Mission STS-75 in 1996 and its markings are identical to an ancient articaft known as a Dropa Stone. They are both disc-shaped, with a hole in the middle, with a square notch cut out of the side and have a spiraling configuration signature. Dropa Stones were Found on the Tibetan-Chinese Border in 1936 led by a University of Bejing Archaeology professor.

2. Dropa Stones reveal themselves to be ancient artists renditions of spacecraft that crash landed on Earth from the Star System of Sirius 12,000 years ago. Find out all the details.

3. Learn from British Astronomer Robert Temple's "Sirius Mystery" the ancient African-Egyptian, Dogon Tribe's, Sirian connection to ancient Gods and Goddeses who were masters of water and said to be half-human, half-fish who co-founded the earliest civilizations on Earth.

4. Learn about the great mysterious water connection at NASA to the NASA UFO phenomenon and the evidence of the intelligence behind them. Could there be a connection? Find out!

5. Learn about the Ancient Dogon Tribe in Northwest Africa's prophecy of the Sirian's (Nommos) return to Earth. Discover that the space shuttle was passing directly over the home of the Dogon Tribe in Northwest Africa when a swarm of 1-3 mile wide UFOs came into view, revealing the signature of the star system of "Sirius" videotaped by the astronauts themselves.

6.Learn what NASA knows and is doing to communicate with the star Sirius. Have they made the connection too?

The Galaxy Clock

The Galaxy Clock is the model used in a new theory in Quantum Physics that will demonstrate how to cause mass (spacecraft) to break Einstein's law and attain light speed and beyond. Einstein's law prohibits any mass from attaining the speed of light (see Steven Hawkings). Basically, his law states that as any spacecraft or mass solid object tries to increase its speed, its mass increases towards infinity due to inertia. As its mass increases with higher velocities, it takes more and more energy to accelerate it. The faster it goes, the more its mass increases and it becomes impossible for it to attain light speed because it would take an infinite amount of energy. Max Planck, the Godfather of Quantum Physics had a theory that gives the basis for a new break-through in Quantum mechanics. Hidden in his code is a secret that could change history. Find out what the hidden code is.

Scientists have discovered that matter (mass) on a subatomic level is just electromagnetic wave patterns vibrating so fast within a space that they give the illusion that mass is solid. Because of this dichotmoy, mass is believed to be both made of particles and waves. Particle and wave theory are fusing together as they are both revealing the same thing. All mass has waves that vibrate at different frequencies. The waves in solid mass as we experience it is relatively low in frequency (measured in Hertzian waves). Photons (lightwaves) are very high in frequency (Hertzian waves). Photons are said to have near zero-mass, a property that allows them to attain light speed. A Photon's mass is a huge debate still unanswered until now.

The Galaxy Clock will show us how to reduce an object's (spacecraft's) mass (breaking Einstein's law) and cause it to become as light as a photon's mass (nearly zero). Because mass can now be reduced to Zero, an object's (spacecraft's) mass can now easily glide towards light speed. In this theory we will examine what properties a photon has that allow it to attain light speed and how mass can also attain the same properties. This new theory will show how solid mass (spacecraft) can change frequency and transform into the same frequency as light at attain light speed.

Tune in and examine how the NASA UFOs reveal the same kind of quantum physics and become capable of attaining light speed and find out startling evidence on how a spacecraft can go beyond light speed. Find out new revealtions on Black Holes.

PRO IP Bill Slammed By Bloggers

Though the report on the House Judiciary Committee website noted how the PRO IP Act helps labor unions and industry groups, there isn't any mention of how this legislation benefits anyone who isn't dumping campaign contributions on the bipartisan supporters of the bill.

"This legislation is an important and necessary step in the fight to maintain our competitive edge in a global marketplace," Chairman John Conyers said in the statement.

With all due respect, Chairman Conyers, and distinguished members of the Committee, it is not. Adding layers to US laws and bureaucracy matters not one whit to the counterfeiters who ply their trade in China, Russia, and a host of other countries.

With all due respect, Chairman Conyers, and distinguished members of the Committee, it is not. Adding layers to US laws and bureaucracy matters not one whit to the counterfeiters who ply their trade in China, Russia, and a host of other countries.

It doesn't benefit the rights of any American with regards to fair use of intellectual property. The Act certainly does a hell of a job criminalizing alleged copyright and trademark infringement. Jeremy Toeman commented best on this, on his heavily linked open letter to House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi:

Instead of protecting the wants and needs of the many by forcing big media firms to evolve and adapt to the new technologies, the laws sprung up to protect these companies and allow them to live in the older world. PRO IP is yet another example of such laws.

It is bad enough that we have so few major media companies. It is bad enough that they can exert financial pressure to dominate the movie theaters and the airwaves. It is bad enough that they control the enormous quantities of media we as Americans consume....individual creativity combined with the distribution power of the Internet is finally allowing people to slowly retake control of the media they consume.

Historically it is this effort, individual creativity, that our government has helped protect and thrive. Not the demands of the rich and famous. It is in fact ironic that the major media companies of today were built on the shoulders of enabling laws, not crippling laws.

Chris Thomas argues that Toeman and Robert Scoble are wrong to argue against PRO IP. Toeman agreed with most of Thomas' argument, but pointed out that PRO IP isn't focused on protecting IP; it's focused on making it easier to sue and penalize individuals.

The provisions of PRO IP touted by the Judiciary Committee include the creation of a new Executive Branch office to oversee IP enforcement, and the creation of a permanent Intellectual Property Division within the Department of Justice.

More bureaucracy, another well-connected insider getting a sweet gig to graze at the taxpayer trough (we're betting whoever gets the new IP Enforcement Representative job will have a big media background), and absolutely no impact on foreign counterfeiting whatsoever appear to be the salient points of PRO IP.

But Heaven help the first college kid busted under PRO IP for MP3 trading. It's going to be brutal.

'UFOs: The Secret Evidence'

Channel 4 (U.K.), 13th October 2005

This 2 hour television programme set out to solve some of the great UFO mysteries, perhaps even provide a catch-all explanation for the whole field of Ufology. 'UFOs: The Secret Evidence' was written and presented by journalist Nick Cook, who has been an aviation editor and aerospace consultant for the world-renowned trade publication "Jane's Defence Weekly". His impeccable credentials might suggest a rather stuffy approach to the subject, but Nick Cook actually brings with him a down-to-earth, common sense approach which is refreshing. His stance on UFOs seems open-minded and objective. He also manages to gain interviews with some very intriguing individuals from the aerospace and intelligence fields.

The programme started by asserting that UFO reports began during the Second World War. This is an incorrect assertion, unfortunately, ignoring a wealth of historical evidence dating back centuries. Still, it's probably fair to say that the first official military reports on the subject were generated in the 1940s, and that is the focus of Nick's investigation. He tackled the phenomenon of the 'Foo Fighters' reported by airmen during WWII and, with John Dering (a senior scientist at SARA), considered the possibility that the Nazis were sending up prototype Unmanned Aerial Vehicles which were "reusable"!

A bizarre technological artefact known as 'the Fly Trap' was visited, and the theory that it was a test-rig for Nazi flying saucers was discussed. This was in the context of a secret Nazi underground base where derro-like scientists played with glowing bell-shaped devices which seemed to defy gravity. This was research which led to the death of several scientists, allegedly.

Then we moved onto the Roswell incident, via the infamous U.S. defence programme to incorporate Nazi scientists into sensitive research areas (like White Sands Missile Range), known as Operation Paperclip. The Roswell incident resulted, it was alleged, from a top secret defence programme known as 'Sky Hook', which sent up advanced surveillance balloons. Its flight path took it over Roswell, and when one crashed the UFO story was sprung to hide the truth about 'Sky Hook' from the Soviets.

This is a running theme throughout Nick Cook's thesis. Whatever the truth behind the wider phenomenon, the subject was used mercilessly by intelligence agencies in the psychological war with the Soviet Union. This occurred to such an extent that UFOs became part of American culture for a long while; as a propaganda instrument UFOs were unrivalled in their success, it was claimed. Not only that, but the U.S. then used UFO flaps as a means to track the progress of their experimental craft.

It all sounds like those clever military intelligence people had their finger on the pulse all along! This rose-tinted view of UFO history, US of A-style, was backed up by various characters from the Intelligence field interviewed by Nick Cook, who all smiled knowingly as they openly revealed the deepest secrets of military intelligence to the public. "We suckered you all, you fools!" they arrogantly insinuated. But this version of history runs against the grain of the U.S. Government's public panic over the subject at the time, as revealed in various memos that have come to light.

After the death of the brutal Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, the CIA upped the ante, using UFOs as a propaganda tool to cover up the top secret flights of the U2 spy-plane over the Soviet Union. It didn't work, of course, because the Soviets shot one down. One would have expected the UFO phenomenon to stop dead in its tracks at that point. But, no, on it went, cruelly ignoring the whole CIA/Propaganda theory.

So various other aerospace oddities are wheeled out of their hangers to shock and amaze us. Like the 'Avro Car', and the 'Silver Bug'. There is something to be said for the idea that sightings of UFOs at or near sensitive aerospace research establishments might just have something to do with what's going on there. Policeman Lonnie Zamora might have seen a 'Silver Bug', or a downed prototype Sampler destined for the Moon, next to White Sands, for instance.

The Russians certainly seemed to be well and truly hooked on UFOs, with Andropov ordering the Red Army to watch the skies, which they did dutifully for 13 years. But the canny Russians would have known that the Americans liked to regularly risk their young pilots on surveillance missions across Soviet territory, despite already having spy satellite technology quite sufficient for the task. There's more to all this than meets the eye. Yes, Stealth aircraft undoubtedly contributed to UFO sightings. But that's not the whole story.

And Nick Cook seems to realise that too. The first hint of that came when watching the uncomfortable reaction of British sceptics Andy Roberts and Dave Clarke to his gentle questioning. They were not amongst friends, one could judge. Then his appraisal of the eye-witness account of pilot Tom Hanley, who described the incredible manoeuvring capability of an unidentified flying object darting around his reconnaissance aircraft, seemed to open up greater potentials than the US military dangerously interfering with its own advanced aircraft.

The 1952 flap over Washington D.C. also brought about a pause for thought. Nick Cook is not a dyed-in-the-wool sceptic by any means.

He then tackled subsidiary subjects, like cattle mutilations across stretches of the continental USA. He concluded that these were covert missions carried out by military agents using helicopters and field-based surgical equipment, to monitor contamination levels of some kind. It would have been easier to just buy some cattle and then take body parts to the lab for analysis, I'd have thought. But ten out of ten for style, that's for sure.

Then there was the alien abduction phenomenon, which is a massive subject in its own right. Nick Cook looked at the Travis Walton case, including an excellent interview with the man himself. No explanation was forthcoming, except for a generalised gloss over the experiences of the Contactees some years before. Perhaps to try to indict the U.S. Government in human experiments against the will, or knowledge, of the victims involved, was a step too far for Cook. The U.S. Government's dismissive contempt for the great, impoverished mass of its own people has been clear to see for many years, most recently noted during the Hurricane Katrina debacle. So it's possible, surely?


'UFOs: The Secret Evidence" wound up with a look at satellite photographs showing contrails from an unidentified craft which flew halfway across the globe at 8000mph. 'Aurora' was the modern UFO par excellence, it seems. But however fast these things get, the fact remains that the difficulty with identifying many UFOs lies in their bizarre patterns of manoeuvrability. If the Nazis created the Foo Fighters back in the 1940s, then why the heck are we still flying around in fixed wing aircraft 60 years later? It all seems so unlikely. Yes, UFOs were a wonderful cover story to hide black projects behind, but the black projects in themselves do not completely solve the UFO problem. Not by a long chalk. In the end, Nick Cook seemed to agree.

Written by Andy Lloyd © 16th October 2005

"STAR WAR " OVER AUSTRALIA?

(Extracted from Nexus Magazine April-May 1996, Vol. 3 No. 3)
One of the most spectacular video footages of a UFO encounter was taken by cameras onboard the Discovery space shuttle on 15th September 1991. The video sequence was picked up live by a number of amateurs who were directly monitoring the transmissions. The material has been shown in news broadcasts and circulated amongst UFO researches worldwide.The video shows several small, bright objects manoeuvring on screen, apparantly interacting with one another in a complex fashion. Sceptics have usually insisted these are merely shots of some of the many small ice particles which inevitably end up in orbit with every space shuttle.
UFO investigators were quick to dispute this interpretation, and US scientist Dr Richard Hoagland soon conclusively demonstrated the objects were actually large sized and many hundreds of kilometers away from the shuttle.

One UFO in particular appears to rise up from below the Earth's dawn horizon and can be clearly seen emerging from behind the atmosphere and the 'airglow' layers. It is certainly in orbit around the Earth, some distance out in space, and travelling quickly.

A sudden, bright flash of light is then seen to the left of the picture, below the shuttle. The UFO then turns at a sharp angle and heads out into space at very high speed. Two thin beams of light (or possibly condensation trails) move rapidly up from the Earth's surface towards where the UFO would have been if it continued in its original orbit.

Subsequently, careful analysis of the video shows that:

The distance from the Discovery to the Earth's horizon is 2,757 kilometers.The UFO's speed before accelerating into space
is calculated at 87,000 km per hour (Mach 73).Three seconds after the light flash, the UFO changes direction sharply and accelerates off into space at 340,000 km per hour (Mach 285) within 2.2 seconds. (Such an acceleration would produce
14,000 g of force.)

The light flash and light beams (or contrails) that shoot into space have variously been described as a ground-based attempt to disrupt or destroy the UFO. Hoagland interprets the incident captured by the Discovery's videocamera more specifically as a "Star Wars" weapons test against a Star Wars drone (the UFO). Other UFO investigators prefer to describe it as a Star Wars attempt against an extraterrestrial UFO.

Whichever version you prefer, the technology implied is most certainly impressive - at least of Star Wars calibre.More recently, from New Zealand, investigators have reveiwed the video and corrected the actual time it was taken.

They have found the UFO incident was recorded over Australia and not the Philippine islands as was originally thought. Discovery's trajectory had already taken it across Surabaya in Java and above the Simpson Desert, Western Australia.

The UFO is first picked up coming over the horizon when the shuttle is close to Lake Carnegie, WA. Later, the light flash and one contrail can be tracked back to Exmouth Bay near the North West Cape military facility. A second contrail can be tracked back to the Pine Gap military facility in central australia.

US investigators have been asking their Australian counterparts to provide further information which they don't have and which they probably can't get. All the information we have on the incident so far comes from the US and New Zealand. And, of course there are Australia's stringent secrecy laws to contend with.

Professor Jack Kasher from the University Of Nebraska, who worked with NASA scientists at the Mitchell Space Centre in Alabama, studied the footage and produced a 105-page report. Kasher states: 'NASA claimed they were ice crystals. We proved that was physically impossible. Ice crystals couldn't change direction the way these objects could. We calculated that if they were ten miles away from the shuttle, the biggest went from zero to 2,500 mph (4,023 km/h) in one second.'

The scenario was probably captured on video purely by chance. Along with other UFO incidents recorded on video by NASA, this material has contributed significantly towards NASA's recent decision to discontinue live transmissions from space.

Nature Of The Men In Black

The Hollywood blockbuster ”Men in Black” brought this mysterious group of individuals to the attention of the public in a snappy and humorous way. It beautifully portrayed the ease with which legitimate sightings of UFOs/aliens can be debunked when the witness is willing to believe any explanation to explain away the paradigm-altering revelation they were just witness to. As an aside, it could be argued that a well produced movie that puts UFOs in a favourable light will sway public opinion behind the E.T.H. far better than any well documented case in the real world. That’s not to say that a scientific approach to Ufology isn’t vital, only that it isn’t terribly accessible to many people.

The Men In Black appear to have some basis in fact, although they seem far more sinister than their benevolent portrayal in the film. They tend to work in groups, visiting close encounter witnesses in an effort to silence them, or at least discourage further investigation of their claims. The true nature of these individuals is far from clear.

For a start, the choice of UFO witness they visit is often counter-intuitive. Sometimes a relatively minor observation by a disinterested party prompts their intervention, thereby only serving to stoke up an otherwise bland case. The vast majority of witnesses, even of major UFO flaps, will never encounter them. Clearly, the issue at stake is not merely the impending publicity of a new UFO case. So this would suggest a government agency intervening in a situation where national security is at stake, perhaps where cutting edge terrestrial technology is compromised.

But, as ever in Ufology, things are not as straightforward as they seem. Many “victims” of MIBs tell of telepathic powers, mind control tricks and paranormal auras. These other-worldly aspects lead some commentators to argue that MIBs are an intrinsic part of the UFO phenomenon itself. Adherents of the hypothesis that aliens are among us will not be surprised by this conclusion, but to many it smacks of paranoia, X-Files style.

Another suggestion put forward by the Whitehall ufologist Nick Pope is that MIBs are merely “Walter Mitty” types, in other words private individuals out to have a bit of a laugh. This may be so in a few cases, but it falls far short of a broad-based solution. In contrast, Nick Redfern’s research has uncovered cases where government agents, perhaps operating out of the fabled Rudloe Manor, have covertly made their presence felt, despite strong government denials.

Perhaps the facts point in the direction taken by the Hollywood movie! Perhaps the MIBs represent the covert action of New World Order intelligence agencies that contain certain other-worldly, post-Roswell era elements to them. In other words, ultra secret psychic warfare capabilities, even hybrid individuals. This is conjecture, of course, but it is a hypothesis that is in broad agreement with the facts. The problem would be proving it.
I would recommend Jenny Randles’ book “MIB: Investigating the Truth Behind the Men In Black Phenomenon” to those interested in looking through some case histories and, of course, we at Cosmic Conpiracies will keep you updated on developments that come to light.
Who Are The Men In Black?
There are three main theories which attempt to explain who, or what, the MEN IN BLACK are.
The first suggests that the MIB are in the employ of a secretive government agency, or an unknown branch of the CIA or Ministry of Defence. This is a theory favoured by those who are fond of conspiracies and assume that the govenments are aware of the existance of UFOs.
Another argument suggests that the MIB are a figment of the witness' imagination or a hallucination. However , although there are many cases of MIB sightings appearing to a lone witness, there are many well documented cases from multiple witnesses. It is highly unlikely that all of these individuals suffered from some form of mass hallucination. The final theory suggests that the Men In Black are of an extraterrestrial origin and that they are 'androids' sent to silence UFO witnesses. This wild suggestion is certainly substantiated by witness' accounts of the Men In Blacks androidian behaviour.
How To Recognise A M.I.B.
The Men In Black(MIB) are mysterious characters who are known to question, threaten and harass UFO witnesses and researchers.

Below we have listed the physical attributes and characteristics which are associated with the MIB.

M.I.B. Characteristics
#
The MIB wear black suits with white shirts and black ties. Their clothes seem to be brand new and fit perfectly, as if tailor-made
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MIB have dark complexions and have an almost Oriental or 'foreign' appearance
#
MIB have 'expressionless' facial features
#
They speak formally, using stiff phrases that sound like they come from a Hollywood 'B' movie script
#
They travel in groups of three
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When travelling in groups, the Men In Black look almost identical and walk in 'formation'
#
MIB use large black old-fashioned cars, usually Cadillacs or Lincolns in the United States and Rolls Royce or Jaguars in England.
#
These cars appear to be brand new and sometimes sport 'strange' insignia or logos
#
MIB have smooth featureless skin and a distinct lack of facial hair ( it has been suggested that they look like they dont need to shave)
#
They have shiny black hair which is always impeccably groomed
#
Men In Black seem to know things about the UFO witness that the latter have not told anyone before
#
Men In Black have 'unusually' broad shoulders and narrow waists
#
. They also walk upright with a 'stiff ' gait
#
MIB seem capable of doing 'impossible' things, like making themselves
#
appear or disappear without trace

Space Object Puzzle Nasa

The strange object in the above sequence was captured on film by the Night Sky Live (NSL) project on December 17th, 2004. The NSL has a vast network of continuously updating web cameras (CONCAMs) that are fixed to watch the night sky. The object, which was filmed by the fisheye CONCAM perched on top of an active volcano in Haleakala, Hawaii, saw something moving across the night sky that remains mysterious. The NSL team might have disregarded the above streak as unconfirmed, but the Mauna Kea CONCAM on the next Hawaiian island recorded the same thing. The NSL team might then have disregarded the streak as a satellite, but no record of it was found in the heavens-above.com site that usually documents bright satellite events.

A NASA website which hosts the above image includes an online discussion board for people to speculate about what the streak might have been.

One poster wrote: "What is truly bizarre is that this object is visible for a good 55 minutes at Haleakala and close to 30 minutes at Mauna Kea. Usually, satellites take a few dozen seconds or, at the most, a couple of minutes to cross the entire sky.

"If this object is a satellite, it is either very slow moving or at a very high altitude. I checked all the possibilities at Heavens-Above and no satellite passes seem to fit this observation. It is also impossible to be a meteorite."

Phallus in Football Field

In the summer of 2004 pranksters used herbicide to trace the outline of a giant phallus in the football field located inside Harman-Geist Stadium in Northeastern Pennsylvania. When the grass died, the phallus became visible.

Maintenance crews did their best to hide the phallus by painting it green, but eventually the paint wore away. And now the prank has succeeded in reaching an even wider audience, thanks to satellite technology.

Overhead satellite imagery of the stadium -- and giant phallus -- has shown up on google maps. You can see it for yourself by searching for the address "300 N. Cedar St., Hazleton, Pa." and then zooming in to see the stadium.

An interesting thing I noticed. One of the streets leading to the stadium is called Shaft Rd., which seems very appropriate.

The organization that does the satellite imagery says that it plans to resurvey that region in early 2009. Until then, the football-field phallus will remain on google maps.

AP CEO Declares War On Internet

Currently embroiled in a lawsuit with Moreover, Curley's interview at Paid Content had no details beyond the flood of cease and desist threats the Associated Press chief unsubtly suggested would become very plentiful from the news organization.

"If you want our content, we expect to be paid for it … this nonsense that you can just take the first paragraph or use the picture small doesn’t really fly with us. People die trying to take those pictures," Curley said in the report.

Many times, AP has to file a cease and desist against an organization, with lawsuits to follow, according to the interview.

AP has been facing the same transformative forces of the Internet that have confronted all kinds of media companies, from Hollywood studios to news organizations. Google's deal with AP represents one way Curley and company have tried to keep control of their content.

Fair use remains the topic that never seems to come up in the discussion of using content others have created. Doctrines of fair use allow for "any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and 'transformative' purpose such as to comment upon, criticize or parody a copyrighted work," according to Stanford University's Copyright & Fair Use Center.

The problem with fair use stems from a lack of a solid definition of the concept. Stanford said this is by design, making it like free speech and not limiting it in some way.

This leaves the issue open for people like Curley and a deep-pocketed organization to force a definition of fair use by litigating against anyone who tries to reuse their content.

It's been said that the Internet routes around the roadblocks it encounters. In a world with many informational choices, it would be sad if AP's content entered a silo that useful commentators online have to ignore.