This is why life in the system is so thoroughly permeated with hypocrisy and lies.
The Virginian:
The recent editorial in the Virginian Pilot Pointless fight over light bulbs is a great example of ideological lying. In seeking to deny people the ability to buy incandescent light bulbs, the editors turn reason inside out and truth upside down.
The initiative to outlaw the incandescent light bulb was both a bald faced example of crony capitalism and an act of cheap grace on the part of lawmakers. But it turned out not to sit well with most people. The old light bulb was a commodity that cost less than a dollar and could be made cheaply. Light bulb makers like GE, Philips and Osram Sylvania could not make much profit, so why not lobby to have the old light bulb outlawed so they could sell us bulbs that cost 5 to 50 times more? Legislators, in turn could line their pockets with campaign contributions while pretending to be champions of the environment.
It turns out that the new, more expensive, replacement bulbs were neither as long lasting, much more hazardous and gave off a harsher light than the bulbs we were used to. But “the people who know better” at the Pilot once again tell us to shut up, sit down and do as we’re told. And then they tell us that repealing the incandescent bulb ban is like mandating buggy whips or coal shuttles.
[...]
Holder’s Voter ID Fraud
WSJ:
The Obama Administration’s re-election mobilization continues: Witness Eric Holder’s attempt to play the race card and perhaps twist the law in a campaign against voter identification laws.
In the Attorney General’s telling, the movement in the states to require voters to show some ID is a revival of minority disenfranchisement a la Jim Crow. A growing number of minorities, he said in a speech last week, are now worried about “the same disparities, divisions and problems” that beset the country in 1965 and “many Americans, for the first time in their lives . . . now have reason to believe that we are failing to live up” to the promise of democracy for all.
If you haven’t heard about this national crisis, perhaps that’s because you don’t travel in Mr. Holder’s political circles. He is merely repeating the howls of groups like the NAACP and the George Soros-funded Brennan Center, which claim without evidence that voter ID laws hurt minorities.
[...]
Thirty states now require some form of ID at the polls, and one goal of Mr. Holder’s attack is to intimidate other states that want to toughen their laws. He’s probably also signaling that Justice will strike down the Texas and South Carolina statutes. This would please the Democratic Party’s left while not-so-subtly inventing a threat of Republican racism to drive minority turnout in 2012. Mr. Holder’s voter ID alarums are one more reason he’s earning a reputation for politicized, partial justice.
The War on Christmas
by Mark D. Tooley:
The multiculturalist Left wants to dilute Christmas into a vacuous, stern celebration of Winter, divorced from culture and religion. Not content with banning crèches, trees and carols, anti-Christmas zealots are often even threatened by Santa Claus. The transcendent authority behind Christmas, even in its commercialized form, is an unwanted challenge to the Left’s preference for all authority vested in the state and its secular clerisy.
Fox News has delighted in lampooning the ongoing absurdities of the “War on Christmas,” which sometimes even include banning green and red from classrooms. The American Family Association, a para-church group, has also challenged the anti-Christmas campaign by affirming companies that affirm Christmas.
Naturally the Religious Left is troubled by this defense of Christmas, especially by Fox News or conservative Christians, both of whom it despises. So the Religious Left has decided that the cultural defenders of Christmas are instead betraying Christmas by actually promoting commercialism.
[...]
Ending the insanity in the peace process
by Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi:
Einstein said that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. The sad truth is that, after 63 years of good people trying, top-down diplomacy in the Arab-Israeli conflict has produced little more than a jobs program for diplomats and the airlines that bring them back and forth between Washington and Jerusalem.
Israel and America can’t want peace more than the Palestinians on the ground. Palestinians have to want it for themselves.
[...]
Double Standards And The Reverend Wright
by Charles C. Johnson:
Rep. Ron Paul, the presumptive frontrunner of the Iowa caucuses, has come under fire again for racist material that appeared in a series of newsletters, written he says by someone else and published under his name nearly two decades ago. Paul has disavowed the letters’ content repeatedly in numerous interviews.
The newsletters’ racially incendiary content were first made public by James Kirchick, a pro-war, neoconservative writer critical of Rep. Paul’s anti-war, libertarian politics. Kirchick has collected some of Paul’s newsletters over at The New Republic and wrote about them in run up to the 2008 election. Paul disavowed those remarks in January 2008 when they surfaced again on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, but CNN and Blitzer are back again now.
[...]
Israel: Some Basic Facts
By Victor Sharpe:
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Nothing could attest to that fact more than the Israel-Arab conflict, which in reality is the Israel-Islamist conflict.
This is not a territorial dispute between Israel and those Arabs who call themselves Palestinians, though it is framed as such. No, the stark reality of the Muslim war against the Jewish state is rooted in one fundamental fact: namely, the unchangeable refusal by Muslims to ever accept a non-Islamic nation in territory once conquered in the name of Allah, even if that nation — the Jewish nation — precedes Islam by millennia.
Peace overtures and endless territorial concessions by tiny Israel to the giant Muslim and Arab world have been, and are, as worthless as a thirsty soul in the desert seeking to survive by staggering towards an inviting mirage.
[...]
Arab Apartheid
by Khaled Abu Toameh:
In recent months, Egyptian authorities have finally began granting Egyptian citizenship to children born to Egyptian mothers and Palestinian fathers.
So far, according to Palestinian sources, more than 500 children have been issued Egyptian passports that enable them legally to live and work in Egypt without having to worry about being detained or deported. The Palestinian population in Egypt is estimated at approximately 100,000.
Egypt is only one of several Arab countries that have always subjected Palestinians to apartheid systems and discriminatory laws.
With the exception of Jordan, the Arab countries have refused to grant their citizenship to Palestinians. Arab governments claimed that this measure was aimed at “protecting the Palestinian identity” of the Palestinians so that one day they would be able to return to their original homes inside Israel.
In most Arab countries, Palestinians are banned from purchasing houses or lands. They are also denied many jobs in the private and public sectors.
This has been happening at a time when Arab citizens of Israel are free to purchase houses in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Upper Nazareth.
[...]
“Kairos Palestine”: From Mendacity to Megalomania
by Malcolm Lowe:
Late in 2009, a small group of Palestinian Christian clergy and laity banded together to produce a document entitled “Kairos Palestine.” Basically, it promoted familiar Palestinian aspirations, dressed up with some theological flourishes. Even by current Palestinian standards, it was an extreme statement. For instance, it avoided endorsement of the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.
Now, two years later, the hard core of the original authors has held an anniversary conference in Bethlehem together with foreign supporters. This time they constituted themselves a tribunal before which to arraign all the churches of the world for not showing enough enthusiasm for their original document. Thus mendacity morphs into megalomania.
The utterances emerging from this conference manifest a mixture of triumph and fury.
[...]
Once again, Britain must show Argentina that it is a serious nation
Once again, Britain must show Argentina that it is a serious nation
More treachery
Obama admin to renew nuke scientist exchange with China that produced loss of secrets in 90s…
How can we remain silent while Christians are being persecuted?
By Fraser Nelson:
Father Immanuel Dabaghian, one of Baghdad’s last surviving priests, is expecting a quiet Christmas. To join him in the Church of the Virgin Mary means two hours of security checks and a body search at the door, and even then there’s no guarantee of survival. Islamist gunmen massacred 58 people in a nearby church last year, and fresh graffiti warns remaining worshippers that they could be next.
The Americans have gone now, and Iraq’s Christian communities – some of the world’s oldest – are undergoing an exodus on a biblical scale.
Of the country’s 1.4 million Christians, about two thirds have now fled. Although the British Government is reluctant to recognise it, a new evil is sweeping the Middle East: religious cleansing. The attacks, which peak at Christmas, have already spread to Egypt, where Coptic Christians have seen their churches firebombed by Islamic fundamentalists. In Tunisia, priests are being murdered. Maronite Christians in Lebanon have, for the first time, become targets of bombing campaigns. Christians in Syria, who have suffered as much as anyone from the Assad regime, now pray for its survival. If it falls, and the Islamists triumph, persecution may begin in earnest.
The idea of Christianity as a kind of contagion that is foreign to the Arab world is bizarre: it is, of course, a Middle Eastern religion successfully exported to the pagan West. Those feet, in ancient times, came nowhere near England’s mountains green. The Nativity is a Middle Eastern story about a child born to a Jewish mother, whose first visitors were three wise Iranians and who was then swept off to Egypt to escape Roman persecution.
His Apostles later scattered to Libya, Turkey and Iraq, to establish the Christian communities that are now under threat. For most of history, they have coexisted happily with Muslims: dressing the same way, even celebrating each other’s festivals. The rise of the veil, and other cultural dividing lines, is a relatively modern phenomenon.
[...]
Fetal Rights Victory! Utah high court rules fetuses are ‘minor children’
Fetal Rights Victory! Utah high court rules fetuses are ‘minor children’
‘Brain Dead’ Student Awakens Hours After Doctors Suggest Pulling the Plug
‘Brain Dead’ Student Awakens Hours After Doctors Suggest Pulling the Plug
DoJ attorney admitted to perjury but still kept her job?
by Ed Morrissey:
Hans von Spakovsky reports today for PJ Media that a key figure in the Department of Justice investigations of Texas redistricting in the last decade admitted to perjury during an Inspector General probe of leaks from the Civil Rights Division to the Washington Post. Spakovsky, who formerly worked in the same office as Celandine Gyamfi, says that Gyamfi twice denied under oath having any knowledge of the leaks, but when confronted with e-mail evidence, admitted that she herself was the source:
[...]
Allen West disgusted by Holder playing the race card over Fast and Furious
Allen West disgusted by Holder playing the race card over Fast and Furious
An International Gold Standard Beats The Rule Of The Governing Elite
Charles Kadlec:
Ever since President Richard Nixon in 1971 killed the Bretton Woods international monetary system by breaking the link between the dollar and gold, the U.S. economy has experienced slower growth, higher average inflation, higher unemployment rates, more bank failures and a series of financial crises that, in total, have reduced our income by about a third.Now, a Bank of England study with the ambitious title, “Reform of the International Monetary and Financial System,” shows that the entire world economy has suffered a similar fate.
The paper’s authors, Oliver Bush, Katie Farrant and Michelle Wright break new ground by documenting the extraordinary short fall of the world economy under the now 40-year old mix of floating, pegged and fixed exchange rates.
When compared to the Bretton Woods system, in which countries defined their currencies by a fixed rate of exchange to the dollar, and the U.S. in turn defined the dollar as 1/35th of an ounce of gold:
[...]
Newt Sets Up a Surprise
Conrad Black:
After the rise and decapitation of each non-Mitt, the frustrations of the average reasonable Republican or independent who loves America and is horrified by the most incompetent administration since that of James Buchanan (who at least had the decency not to seek reelection) seem to have become explosive and irrational. But this is misleading. Inconceivable though Newt is as president, he is an articulate and forceful critic of the administration and not just an O’Reilly-Hannity impersonator. Newt sees it plain, calls it straight, and gets the sleep-deprived Republicans halfway home by tearing the incumbents limb from limb. But there’s more: He is such a cyclonic change of pace, he is a non-Mitt who can actually stay the course and stop Mittification from happening. Never mind that he won’t fly himself, he can keep the nomination open for someone who can, who couldn’t face having to campaign for a year and spend $100 million to be nominated.
[...]
The Persecution & Prayer Alert
The Persecution & Prayer Alert
The Voice of the Martyrs, Canada
http://www.persecution.net
Thursday, December 22, 2011
“Pain and suffering are not good; disobedience to Jesus is even
worse.”
– Dr. Kiflu, Eritrean prisoner
***********************************
Please note: Due to the holidays, there will be no Persecution &
Prayer Alert released on December 29.
In order for donations to be receipted for 2011, please note the
following deadlines:
– Donations sent by mail must be received or postmarked before
December 31;
– Donations by phone must be placed by 5 p.m. EST on December 30;
– Donations made online must be fully processed by 11:59 p.m. EST on
December 31.
Please take time zone differences into consideration. To learn more
about donating to The Voice of the Martyrs, please visit us online at
http://www.persecution.net/donation.htm
or phone our office at 1.888.298.6423.
***********************************
In this week’s edition: reports from Sudan, West Bank, Nepal and Iran.
***********************************
1. Update: Brutalized teenage believer in Sudan prays for forgiveness
for her tormentors
(Source: International Christian Concern)
A young Sudanese Christian teenager who was kidnapped, sexually
assaulted and physically attacked over the course of one year is
praying that her former captors, a gang of Muslims who tried to force
her to convert to Islam, find mercy.
After escaping last July, she says she is praying that Jesus reveals
himself to her assailants, and “forgives them for what they did to
me.” Hiba Abdelfadil Anglo says she escaped from them with the help of
God who did not want her to suffer any more (for more information, go
to http://www.persecution.net/su-2011-08-11.htm
). “I want to thank God who saved me from the hands of the abductors,”
said Hiba just two months after she escaped. “I also thank God for all
believers all over the world for their prayers for me and my family.
It was because of your prayers that my situation changed.”
Hiba, who missed one year of school due to the abduction, is in school
again, but her widowed mother lost her job after taking time to search
for her daughter, so the financial burdens are a strain.
Please pray that Hiba’s physical and emotional wounds will be healed
and that she will succeed in her studies and grow in her faith. Please
pray that her captors’ knees will bend before Jesus, and that they
will turn to the one true God in repentance. Pray that God will
strengthen and embolden the Church in Sudan.
To post a prayer of solidarity with Hiba, please visit our Persecuted
Church Prayer Wall at http://www.persecution.net/prayerwall
. To learn more about how Sudanese believers suffer for Christ’s sake,
go to http://www.persecution.net/sudan.htm
.
***********************************
2. Update: Bomber of Christian family in the West Bank deemed fit to
stand trial
(Source: VOM-USA)
An American-born man who bombed the home of a Messianic Jewish family
in the West Bank has been declared fit to stand trial. Yaakov “Jack”
Teitel, 39, stands accused of planting a bomb in the home of Pastor
David Ortiz in 2008 (for more information, visit
http://www.persecution.net/ps-2009-11-04.htm
). Teitel, who has been dubbed the “Jewish terrorist,” is also charged
with the murder of two Palestinians and with other serious offenses.
Teitel’s lawyers had tried to argue that he was not mentally
competent, but a district court judge in Jerusalem ruled that the
married father of four is fit for trial. He emigrated from Florida to
Israel in 2000, and in March 2008, Teitel attempted to murder
15-year-old Ami Ortiz, the son of a Messianic Jewish couple in Ariel,
by allegedly placing a bomb in a Purim gift basket at the Ortiz’s
home. The bomb, believed to be intended for Ami’s father, exploded
when the teenager opened it, and he was severely burned and injured by
shrapnel. The trial is scheduled to begin in several weeks.
Please pray that Ami will continue to heal and that all the victims of
Teitel’s violence will be comforted. Pray that authorities will act
justly in this case. Pray that Teitel will repent and come to know the
Lord Jesus Christ.
For more information on the opposition facing Christians in the West
Bank, go to http://www.persecution.net/palestine.htm
.
***********************************
3. Buddhists oust believers from their homes in Nepal
(Source: VOM-USA)
Buddhists in Nepal drove a pastor and other believers from their
village, accusing the pastor of bringing a foreign religion to the
village and promoting teachings against society. The oppressors
accused Christians in the village of using bribery and coercion to
covert local residents to Christianity. It is also believed a
six-year-old girl was sexually abused by one of the individuals who
incited the expulsion. A VOM worker has helped the victims resettle in
another village and also prayed with the family of the girl who was
abused.
Pray that the passion these believers have for Christ will be the
light that draws others to Jesus (Matthew 5:14-16). Pray for healing
for the girl who was abused. Please pray that hostility against
Christians in Nepal will cease and that believers will be allowed to
live and worship freely.
Please visit http://www.persecution.net/nepal.htm
for more on the trials believers face in Nepal.
***********************************
4. Three Iranian pastors report to prison
(Source: VOM-USA)
Three pastors, who are also husbands and fathers of young children,
have been ordered to report to prison in Shiraz, Iran.
Pastor Parviz Khalaj, a husband and father to a 10-year-old son, was
convicted of committing crimes against the order and was sentenced to
two years in prison. Pastor William Belyad who was convicted of the
same crime, was sentenced to five years in prison and will be taken
away from his wife and one-month-old son. William’s wife, Nazly, was
arrested with him but has not been called to serve a sentence yet.
Pastor Behrouz Sadegh Khandjani, a husband and father to a
seven-year-old daughter, was sentenced to one year in prison for the
same conviction. Another pastor, Mehdi Foroutan, was arrested at the
same time and has already reported to prison (for more, go to
http://www.persecution.net/ir-2011-11-03.htm
).
Please pray that these brothers will remain faithful and will be soon
returned to their families. Please pray for strength and peace for
their wives and children. Praise God that William’s wife, Nazly, has
not been called to prison. Ask God to be near to those suffering in
prison for His name’s sake.
For more on the trials believers face in Iran, go to
http://www.persecution.net/iran.htm
.
***********************************
The Persecution & Prayer Alert is a ministry of The Voice of the
Martyrs, Canada. (Mailing address: P.O. Box 608, Streetsville,
Ontario, L5M 2C1)
Tel. (905) 670.9721. Website: http://www.persecution.net
***********************************
Palestinian leader meets woman who aided 2001 killing of Israeli teen; Israel irked
Palestinian leader meets woman who aided 2001 killing of Israeli teen; Israel irked
Muslim Persecution of Christians at a Crossroads
by Raymond Ibrahim:
Preface: The following article was written for Christian Solidarity International, “an international, Christian human rights organization, campaigning for religious liberty and human dignity, and assisting victims of religious persecution, victimized children and victims of catastrophe.”
Be sure to sign CSI’s petition urging President Obama to present during his forthcoming State of the Union Address his “administration’s policy to prevent the eradication of the endangered Christian communities and other religious minorities of the Islamic Middle East.”
When the major media reported a few months ago that Iranian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was set to be executed for leaving Islam, many Western people were shocked, finding it hard to believe that in the 21st century people are still being persecuted—by their governments no less—simply for being Christian.
The fact is, Muslim persecution of Christians in the modern era has been consistently growing worse. Yet, because only one out of every few hundred or so cases ever receives major attention, few in the West have any idea that it exists.
[...]
The Justice Department Condones Perjury … Again
Hans A. von Spakovsky:
A career employee in the Voting Section of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has confessed to committing perjury, sources say. The employee, Stephanie Celandine Gyamfi, reportedly told investigators from the Inspector General’s Office that she perjured herself during an inquiry into Justice Department leaks during the previous administration. Despite the admission, she has not been fired for criminal malfeasance. Indeed, it appears she has not been disciplined in any meaningful way at all.
[...]
Religious Leaders Call on Officials, Believers to Intercede for Iraqi Christians
Religious Leaders Call on Officials, Believers to Intercede for Iraqi Christians
On the Holiness of Jerusalem in Judaism and in Islam
By Yonatan Silverman
For 3,000 years, the eternal city of Jerusalem has held the most exalted position in the Jewish religion and a place of unparalleled importance in Jewish life and history.
[...]
Youcef Nadarkhani
Youcef Nadarkhani
Location: Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Arrested: October 2009
Days Imprisoned: 801
Youcef Nadarkhani, a 34-year-old pastor from Rasht, about 750 miles northwest of Tehran, was arrested in October 2009 after he protested a government policy that required children, including his 8- and 9-year-old sons, to study the Quran in school. Youcef told school officials that the Iranian constitution allows for freedom of religious practice. As a result of his protest, secret police called him before a political tribunal and arrested him for protesting. The charges were later amended to apostasy and evangelism of Muslims. Youcef was tried on Sept. 21–22, 2010 by the 1st Court of the Revolutionary Tribunal and sentenced to death on Nov. 13 for apostasy.
The pastor is imprisoned in Lakan prison, where authorities have used various methods, including medication, to convert him back to Islam.
After Youcef refused to convert to Islam, his wife was arrested, put on trial without an attorney and sentenced to life in prison. She was later released after an attorney appealed her sentence. The Nadarkhanis’ children were cared for by a relative while they were both in prison.
Nardarkhani to Remain in Prison
Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor sentenced to death for apostasy, will remain in prison for at least one more year. The presiding judge ordered authorities to keep Youcef in prison, using whatever means necessary to force him to recant his Christian faith and convert to Islam. VOM contacts believe the order’s intent is to keep Youcef in prison for an extended period so that the international Christian community will forget about him. The Iranian courts may then feel free to carry out the death sentence.
FT Hamas Shocker – “We Don’t Feel a Correction Was Warranted”
FT Hamas Shocker – “We Don’t Feel a Correction Was Warranted”
Iran starts building a nuclear weapon: US and Israel tighten cooperation
Iran starts building a nuclear weapon: US and Israel tighten cooperation
Tory MP calls for abortion debate using ‘modern medically accurate evidence’
Tamsin McMahon:
A Conservative MP is seeking to reopen Canada’s abortion debate, apparently against his government’s wishes, by asking Parliament to consider “21st century medical evidence” on when a fetus becomes a person under the law.
Stephen Woodworth, a Waterloo, Ont., lawyer and MP, issued a statement Wednesday saying Parliament should reexamine a set of 17th century English common law principles, inherited by Canada and other former British colonies, that say a child must be born before it can be considered a legal person. The principles have formed the basis for modern-day court judgments that have denied legal rights to the unborn. But it’s a definition Mr. Woodworth said would likely be challenged using modern-day technology capable of detecting human life with much more precision than in 17th century England.
“What I’m convinced of is that the medical evidence would not support the idea that a child becomes a human being only at the moment of complete birth,” Mr. Woodworth said in an interview. “Beyond that we have to have the inquiry and the conversation.”
[...]
Good for him. Perhaps now an honest debate based on scientific and medical evidence will ensue and the slaughter finally brought to a stop.
Christian Man Brutally Attacked After Being Falsely Accused of Blasphemy
Walid Shoebat:
Today in Kasur City one more Christian Irfan Masih was falsely accused of Blasphemy. The Muslim extremists caught him and stabbed him multiple times almost killing him, however due to the intervention of the local police he was rescued.
Police took him to the Lahore General Hospital Lahore where doctors are still fighting to save his life , our partners in Pakistan are in the hospital to provide the assistance to the family as well as future protection. Our donors money will be used to help this family as well as many other cases.
[...]
Harper to Obama: I’ve got plenty of buyers for our oil
by Ed Morrissey:
Canada has patiently waited for Americans to help themselves improve our energy policy by installing a pipeline from Canada’s oil sands to our refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, but this week Prime Minister Stephen Harper signaled that their patience has limits. Speaking to CTV, Harper reminded the US that they have a very thirsty China as a potential customer, too:
[...]
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