Dear Ron,
The News In Review newsletter is a service
provided
by Understand The Times that
is a compilation of the news articles
previously posted
on our site . Understand The Times does not
endorse these events but rather is
showing the church the current events.
The
purpose of posting these articles is to warn the church of deception from a
Biblical perspective.
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January 22 - Obama Policies Fuel Global Food Crisis Through Ethanol Mandates, While Foster Obesity in America
Article: Signs Of The Last Times
Comment from
Understand the Times:
In India they feed cows and
rats rather than feeding humans. In America they use corn to fuel cars
rather than feeding cows. In California they protect fruit flies and
kangaroo rats. On United Airlines flights to Asia and Australia they
spray bed bugs with insecticides that has damaging effects on humans. In
St. Peter's Basilica in Rome they throw people out of the chapel for
Eucharistic Adoration for taking photos of Jesus. Will someone tell us,
WHAT IS GOING ON?
They say that right is wrong
and wrong is right? Is there really a food shortage? Why are farmer's
getting so little for their grain, cows, pigs, chickens, sheep,
vegetables and turkeys? Is there a conspiracy? What does President Obama
eat? How about Tony Blair? Does the pope eat breakfast or just suck air?
These are questions that
everyone should ask. Humans should be able to think, but they don't.
Food
prices are soaring
all over the world. The global food chain is reportedly
stretched to the limit,
fueled by the
fact
"that more than a third of the corn produced in the U.S is now used to make
ethanol." As a result of such "bio-fuels" subsidies,
one of the world's largest food producers predicts a "global food
crisis."
Unfortunately, the Obama administration has long
pushed
ethanol subsidies,
even though such subsidies have a history
of spawning
famines
and
food riots
overseas. For example, the
costly
climate-change legislation backed by the administration
contained
massive ethanol subsidies.
The administration is now
forcing up
the ethanol content of gasoline through EPA regulations,
heedless of the fact that ethanol makes gasoline
costlier and dirtier,
increases
ozone
pollution,
and increases the
death toll
from smog
and air pollution. Ethanol production also results in
deforestation, soil erosion, and water pollution.
Ethanol subsidies are not the only way that
the Obama administration is harming poor people. The administration is also
discouraging poor Americans from purchasing cheap, nutritious food. For
example, it has also disparaged the
consumption of potatoes,
banning
white potatoes from the federal WIC program, while allowing WIC money to be
spent on far less nutritious things that are starchy, fatty or sugary (such
as
apple sauce,
which has no nutrition unless vitamin C is artificially added to it).
The Obama administration
is also using federal funds to
subsidize the opening
of an International House of Pancakes in Washington, D.C., despite its
sugary and fattening entrees, and the development of
high-calorie foods
that benefit politically connected agribusinesses.
Read Full Article ....
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January 23 - Young People Motivated by Faith to Help Needy, Says Foundation
Article: One World Religion
Forty-one percent of the
applicants to the
interfaith
youth
leadership
program were Christians. Muslims and Hindus
made up the second and third highest faith groups that applied,
accounting for 17 percent and 18 percent of the total applicants,
respectively.
"The idea that young people are not motivated by faith to help others -
or that faith only inspires conflict - is simply wrong," said Tony
Blair, founder and patron of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, in a
statement Thursday.
The program, which is
in its second year, chooses 30 people between the ages of 20 and 27 from
Canada,
India,
the
United Kingdom and the
United States who are motivated by their faith to help vulnerable
people. Selected young adults are paired with
someone of another faith to work together in local communities to tackle
global
poverty.
They will be responsible to bring different religious communities
together to raise funds and awareness to help achieve the Millennium
Development Goals.
"The number of
applicants clearly shows the enthusiasm there is among today's young
people to demonstrate how faith can be a force for good in society,"
said Blair. "It can build understanding
and provide unity and strength to counter those who see faith as a
source of division and discrimination.
"As
the first ever World Interfaith Harmony Week
approaches I remain an optimist about the future,
when I see the commitment of this generation to deliver real change."
The U.N. World Interfaith Harmony Week
will take place the first week of February.
Read Full Article....
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January 24 - Report: USDA also knew about bee-killing pesticide
Article: Miscellaneous
Neonicotinoids,
a class of insecticides that attack insects' central nervous
systems, are increasingly being linked
to killing off bees, bats and other
pollinators that are essential for growing food.
And a two-year-old report just now being released by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) adds to the growing body of
evidence that these toxic
insecticides are a serious threat to not only bees, but also to
humans.
It is now widely known that neonicotinoids are a
highly-dangerous neurotoxin that absorbs systemically into plants,
meaning it makes its way throughout the entire plant,
including into the pollen and nectar that
bees
eat. And these neurotoxins are also a threat to mammals, which
includes humans.
Last month, a leaked document revealed that the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
knowingly approved, and continued to allow
approval for, neonicotinoids, despite the fact that they knew the
chemicals
killed bees. The agency even
knew that
Bayer
CropScience, the purveyor of most of the neonicotinoids used today,
had falsified safety data to get them approved in the first place
(http://www.naturalnews.com/030921_E...).
And now it has been revealed that
USDA scientists
also knew about the dangers
associated with neonicotinoids. So why did it
take two years for
the USDA report to
see the light of day? Dr. Jeffrey Pettis and researchers from the
U.S.
government
bee laboratory in Maryland, authors of the USDA study, did not
provide an answer to this question. They did admit to the U.K.
Independent, however, that their study
"has been too long in getting out," and that it would soon be
published in a journal.
Pettis and his team found that neonicotinoids were
directly responsible for increasing
bees' susceptibility to infectious diseases, even at levels so low
that they are practically undetected. This fact
alone debunks the myth perpetuated by Bayer and other neonicotinoid
producers that the chemicals are safe when used "properly", because
there, in fact, seems to be no proper or safe level.
"This new research from America confirms that at very, very low
concentrations, neonicotinoid chemicals
can make a honeybee vulnerable to fatal
disease,"
said Matt Shardlow, director of the charity Buglife, to the
Independent.
"If these pesticides are causing large numbers of honeybees,
bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies and moths to get sick and die
from diseases they would otherwise have survived, then neonicotinoid
chemicals could be the main cause of both colony collapse disorder
and the loss of wild pollinator populations."
Read Full Article ....
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January 24 - "Unscientific" is secret code for anyone who opposes GMOs or pesticides
Article: One World Government
Watch out for
the word "unscientific" in
propaganda that's pushing GMOs, pesticides or other dangerous
chemicals onto our world. In a joint letter
to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, three Republican members of
Congress (Rep. Frank Lucas, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Sen. Pat
Roberts) attempted to spin GMOs
as being "scientific."
They urged the USDA to
"return to a science based regulatory system" and claimed that
"science strongly supports the safety of GE alfalfa." (http://agriculture.house.gov/press/...)
The implication, of course, is
that anyone who opposes
GMOs
is "unscientific" (and therefore stupid). The letter further
implies that any
USDA
opposition to GMOs is purely political in nature and not based
on
science.
Apparently the cabal of
GMO
pseudoscientists have forgotten one of the most important
principles of science: The Precautionary Principle which
states that when dealing with
large-scale unknowns (such as modifying the genetic code of the
world's food
crops),
it is wise to err on the side of caution.
This effort to characterize GMO opposition as "unscientific" is
just the latest outlandish spin campaign that attempts to
reframe the entire GMO
debate as
"scientific versus unscientific."
You're either in favor of GMOs, the
twisted logic goes, or you're against science!
In reality, it's not actually science that's
behind GMOs but rather
corporate greed, public relations, lobbying and the financial
influence of members of
Congress.
Today, Frank Lucas, Saxby Chambliss and Pat Roberts all
effectively painted signs on their foreheads that read, "GMO
sellout."
Take a look at this astonishing letter from Big Agro giants
which literally claims that any
regulation of GMOs would "...undermine the public's trust in the
integrity of the scientific process that the president directed
all executive branch agencies to uphold."
(http://www.naturalnews.com/files/GM...)
That letter, in fact, is one of the most grotesque examples of
pseudoscientific linguistic contortionism I've ever seen. The
author of the letter, whoever he may be, is an intellectually
dishonest individual who is knowingly
bastardizing the use of the
word "science" to try to hide the real agenda of corporate
domination over the world's
food crops.
Read Full Article ....
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January 24 - Witness Says He Saw Man Carrying Flaming Suitcase in Russian Airport Before Blast
Article: Miscellaneous
A witness to the massive explosion that
killed at least 35 people at Moscow's busiest airport Monday says he saw
a man carrying a flaming suitcase seconds before the blast. "The guy
standing next to me was torn to pieces," he added.
Russian officials said
the blast killed 35 people and wounded 180. "From the preliminary
information we have it was a terror attack,"
President Dmitry Medvedev told officials.
Amateur video posted on YouTube showed the
international arrivals terminal at Domodedovo Airport
engulfed by smoke and splattered with body parts
after the mid-afternoon terror attack sprayed shrapnel, screws and ball
bearings at passengers and workers. Hundreds of people were in the
loosely guarded area at the time.
Medvedev said the
explosion demonstrated that security regulations had been
breached and ordered Moscow police to beef up security at
Moscow's two other commercial airports and other key transport
facilities, including the subway system, the target of past terror
attacks.
In Washington, President Obama condemned
the "outrageous act of terrorism against the
Russian people" and offered assistance to Russian investigators.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
said he was "deeply disturbed" by the reported terror attacks.
"I strongly condemn it," he said on Twitter. "NATO and Russia stand
together in the fight against terrorism."
Read Full Article ....
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Billy Graham's Regret: 'I Would Have Steered Clear of Politics'
Article: Miscellaneous
Comment from
Understand the Times:
An appropriate comment
on this article would take a book.
At 92, Graham can look
back to 1949 when it all began. I am sure he would have done a lot
of things differently. Not only would he have stayed home more and
had less contact with Presidents who were Masons and the Calvary
Chapel movement, he should also have had less contact with Jesuits
who founded the Masons.
For more information,
please watch Chris Pinto's new DVD called "Hidden Faith of the
Founding Fathers" and "Lamp into the Dark." These two, three hour
documentaries are available from our website and at Lighthouse
Trails.
Billy Graham, the beloved
evangelist known as "America's pastor," says that looking back on
his long life and public ministry, one thing he would do differently
is to avoid the political entanglements that
have been one of the rare blots on his otherwise hallowed legacy.
But it was his regret over his past political liaisons that
stands out in an era when many
Christian figures do not hesitate to champion politicians or cheer
for a particular party.
"I'm grateful for the opportunities God gave me
to minister to people in high places; people
in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and
often they have no one to talk to," Graham said in the e-mail
exchange. "But looking back I know
I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldn't do
that now.
Graham has been known as the
"pastor to presidents" because of his ties to nine U.S. presidents.
But though he befriended Democrats as well as Republicans,
he was closest to GOP politicians -- George W. Bush has credited
Graham's counsel for his personal religious turnabout -- and for
years he was particularly close to Richard M. Nixon.
Still, Graham has continued to serve as a kind
of touchstone for presidents and would-be leaders. He
remained especially close to the Bush family, and last April, Barack
Obama made a pilgrimage
to meet Graham
at his home in Montreat, N.C., where he has spent most of his time
since his wife's death four years ago.
Graham also said he has been "amazed" and gratified at the global
success of evangelical Christianity, though he added a note of
caution to those following in his footsteps:
"[S]uccess is always dangerous, and we need to
be alert and avoid becoming the victims of our own success. Will we
influence the world for Christ, or will the world influence us?"
Read Full Article ....
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January 21 - Americans Give U.S. Moral Climate Low Marks
Article: Perilous Times
More than a third of Americans would grade the
country's moral climate with a D or F, a new survey
found. Evangelicals are more likely to give the
current "moral state of the union" the same poor marks with 54 percent
grading it a D or F, according to a survey conducted by Public
Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service.
Overall,
three out of four Americans give the moral state of the U.S. a grade of
a C or below. Meanwhile,
only 22 percent said they would grade the moral
climate with an A or B.
Only 21 percent of Democrats said they would grade the moral state of
the country a D or F.
Republicans (55 percent) were more than twice as likely to agree.
Compared to other
industrialized nations, half of
Americans believe the moral climate in the United States is about the
same. Nearly a quarter (24 percent) said it is worse.
The poll revealed
that the public was split when identifying the biggest obstacles to
changing the tone in Washington. Seventeen percent
of Americans believe cable news commentators are the biggest obstacles,
15 percent said they blame the Tea Party, 14 percent blame liberal
bloggers, and 13 percent singled out conservative talk radio.
Read Full Article ....
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January 25 - Churches Loan Buildings to Muslims for Worship
Article: Unbiblical Christianity
More than a third of Americans would grade the
country's moral climate with a D or F, a new survey
found. Evangelicals are more likely to give the
current "moral state of the union" the same poor marks with 54 percent
grading it a D or F, according to a survey conducted by Public
Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service.
Overall,
three out of four Americans give the moral state of the U.S. a grade of
a C or below. Meanwhile,
only 22 percent said they would grade the moral
climate with an A or B.
Only 21 percent of Democrats said they would grade the moral state of
the country a D or F.
Republicans (55 percent) were more than twice as likely to agree.
Compared to other
industrialized nations, half of
Americans believe the moral climate in the United States is about the
same. Nearly a quarter (24 percent) said it is worse.
The poll revealed
that the public was split when identifying the biggest obstacles to
changing the tone in Washington. Seventeen percent
of Americans believe cable news commentators are the biggest obstacles,
15 percent said they blame the Tea Party, 14 percent blame liberal
bloggers, and 13 percent singled out conservative talk radio.
Read Full Article....
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January 23 - Ground Zero imam: 'Apostates against Islam must be jailed'
Article: Miscellaneous
Those who leave Islam and preach against the
Muslim religion must be jailed,
declared the imam who has become the new face of
the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero in New York City.
"If someone leaves the din, leaves the path
privately, they cannot be touched. If someone preaches about apostasy,
or preaches their views, they're jailed," stated
Imam Abdallah Adhami in a November lecture obtained and reviewed by WND.
According to Shariah,
or Islamic law, the consensus view in Sunni Islam is that
a male apostate must be put to death unless he
suffers from a mental disorder or converted against his will.
He claimed
Islam was "revolutionary"
for purportedly only punishing those who preach apostasy publicly, as
opposed to other religions, which, he claimed, punish both public and
private apostates.
Adhami admitted,
"Yes, many jurists said [public apostates] have to be killed.
But the position of the state was the position of Islamic scholars -
they must be jailed so they are contained."
He said, "In Islam,
in the Quran, theoretically, if you look over the Quran from cover to
cover, you literally have the right to the choice to reject God's
message. The only thing you do not have
the right to do is to spread this conviction, lest you, quote unquote,
pollute others."
It was announced last
week Adhami, 44, will be taking on the
role of senior adviser for the proposed $100-million Islamic cultural
center and mosque to be built near Ground Zero.
Read Full Article ....
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January 24 - Credit cards: On their way out 'like vinyl records'
Article: Technology For Global Monetary System
Credit cards may soon be as outdated as
vinyl records. (Remember those?) And
this is the year that the slow, steady march to oblivion begins.
You can already use your iPhone, Droid or
BlackBerry
to buy a hotdog at the ballgame, buy your Starbucks latté, or give a
friend a few bucks by Bumping phones. But by the end of the year you may
not even think twice about reaching for your phone to pay at the
register instead of fumbling for your credit card.
"Your plastic card
hasn't changed since the age of the vinyl records," said Michael Abbott,
CEO of Isis, a new mobile payment network.
"This is the chance to bring payments forward from the plastic age and
the vinyl records age to the digital age."
While companies have
been experimenting with contactless mobile payments for years,
2011 is expected to be the year the
technology really takes off. That's because millions of phones capable
of making contactless payments are expected to be shipped out in 2011.
As a result,
this pay-by-phone market is forecast to make up
$22 billion in transactions by 2015, up from "practically none"
last year, according to research firm Aite Group.
"Mobile payment is going to get really interesting and is going to see a
lot of activity in 2011," said George Peabody, director of
emerging technologies at Mercator Advisory Group.
"We're going to start seeing more and more people leaving their homes
without their wallets."
"I definitely believe
that the mobile wallet will eventually replace the plastic card -- but
it's going to take some time because consumer habits take a long time to
change," she said. "But where before it's been a lot of discussion,
we're at the point now where you're going
to start seeing momentum toward it and going to see it move beyond the
trials and into reality."
Companies including
Visa, MasterCard, Google, Bank of America, Citi
and U.S. Bank are all testing contactless mobile payments, and many
expect to roll out mobile wallets this year.
Beth Robertson, a
payments analyst at Javelin Research and Strategy, said that could mean
developing ways for consumers to make
contactless ATM withdrawals by simply waving a phone in front of an ATM
as you would at the point of sale.
Read Full Article ....
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January 24 - GM food needed to avert global crisis, says Government adviser
Article: One World Government
Professor Sir John
Beddington said there was no one ''silver bullet'' to the
''enormously serious'' problem of feeding the world in the future in
the face of problems such as climate change, population growth and
energy shortages. He told BBC Breakfast: ''If
there are genetically modified (GM) organisms that actually solve
problems that we can't solve in other ways, and are shown to be safe
from a human health point of view, and safe from an environmental
point of view, and they can solve problems we can't solve otherwise,
then we should use them.
''The sort of problems I am thinking of are new diseases which are
likely to come with climate change, problems to do with drought,
problems to do with the salination of ground, we need
organisms that actually address that.''
Sir John was
speaking in advance of the publication of a Government-commissioned
report warning that urgent action
is needed to avert global hunger on a huge scale in the future.
Factors such as a growing global population,
climate change, scarcity of water and energy will put massive
pressure on food production, the report is
expected to warn.
''I don't think
we are going to run out (of food) if we get it right, but the
point is, we don't have time to
actually relax and say things are fine - in 20 years' time, the
world population is going to be sky high, demand for food,
demand for water, demand for energy, is going to be way up there,''
he said.
He said
the world will need 40% more food,
30% more water and 50% more energy by the middle of the century
at a time when climate change will be starting to have serious
environmental impacts on the planet. Sir
John said food price rises will
hit the poorest hardest unless farming techniques
intensify.
"There's no
one simple solution. GM may be
the answer for certain problems.
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January 22 - Mexico to pioneer iris technology on ID cards
Article: Technology For Global Monetary System
Mexico will
on Monday become the first country to start using iris scans for
identity cards, according to the government,
which claims the scheme will be highly secure.
"The
legal, technical and financial conditions are ready to start the process
of issuing this identity document," Felipe Zamora,
responsible for legal affairs at the Mexican Interior Ministry, told
journalists Thursday.
The documents,
which will include the eye's image as well as
fingerprints, a photo and signature, will be 99 percent reliable,
Zamora said.
Critics, including the National Human
Rights Commission, have slammed the system,
expressing concern that compiling personal data
could violate individual rights.
The move will be
introduced gradually, with some 28 million minors taking part in a first
two-year stage, due to cost 25 million dollars. The cards are due to
start for adults from 2013.
Iris
recognition is increasingly used in airports, controlling access to
restricted areas, and prisoner booking and release.
Read Full Article ....
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January 24 - Food prices to rocket by 50% as global hunger epidemic causes riots and famines
Article: Signs Of The Last Times
The cost of food will soar by 50 per cent over the
next few decades as the world becomes racked by famine, mass migrations and
riots, experts have warned. The increase
will be triggered by the exploding world population,
rising cost of fuel and increased competition for water, according to a
leading Government think-tank.
Spiralling food prices will push hundreds of millions
of people into hunger, trigger mass migration and spark civil unrest,
the report warned.
And in the UK,
the price of basics such as bread,
rice and milk will spiral to inflation-busting record prices within the next
few decades.
The report, from
Foresight, a think-tank set up to predict future crises,
called for 'urgent action' to prevent food shortages,
and said genetically modified crops may be needed to prevent
famines. Even a
'modest' rise in food prices could push 100 million people into hunger,
the report warned.
Global food prices
are already at a record high. Last month the price of
cereals, sugar and meat soared on the world's markets after a series of crop
failures caused by bad weather. As
the world gets more crowded and more wealthy, demand for food, water and
energy will soar.
At the same time,
climate change will increase the risk of droughts, floods and crop failures
- creating a 'perfect storm' of food shortages and above-inflation rises in
prices.
The report, written by 40
scientists in 35 countries, calls for a
'green revolution' to boost production using traditional, organic and
genetically modified crops - designed to be resistant to drought or salt
water - and better training for farmers in less well-off countries.
Professor John Beddington,
the Government's chief scientific adviser, said the food system was failing.
'Firstly it is unsustainable, with
resources being used faster than they can be naturally replenished,'
he said. 'Secondly a billion
people are going hungry with another billion people suffering from "hidden
hunger", whilst a billion people are over-consuming.'
Read Full Article ....
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We hope the Weekly News In Review has been a
blessing to you.
Sincerely,
Roger Oakland
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