LONDON -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said leaders of 20 rich and developing countries must start to sketch out the outlines of a new global economic order when they meet in Pittsburgh later this week, as well as making sure that the fledgling recovery sustains itself.
In a briefing Monday ahead of Thursday's Group of 20 meeting, Brown said it was important that longer-term issues, such as preventing huge financial imbalances in trade, savings and consumption, are tackled as the global economy recovers from its worst recession since World War II. Countries running surpluses, such as Germany, have suffered as badly as those with deficits during the recession as demand for their exports collapsed.
"We are looking at how we can put in place for the future the mechanism or path that can lead us to either making decisions about better ways of creating growth that is sustainable in the future, a better early warning system for the world economy about potential crises, a better way of resolving difficulties or imbalances around the world," Brown said.
Many of the world's leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, have spoken of the need for "rebalancing" the world economy. In essence, that means that the U.S. will have to consume less while it builds up its savings rate to bring its financial books into balance, while surplus countries, including dollar-rich China, start spending more to take up the slack left from lower U.S. spending.
"It's a compact for growth and jobs; it's a global compact and it's the first one that you would ever have and I believe there is substantial support for moving in this direction," Brown said.
"This new framework is the key to resolving issues where different continents can better work together to achieve the growth levels we need," Brown said.
Art's Commentary.....The pace is quickening, the world is rushing toward World Government. It is later than you think! It's time to arise and be doing! What you are going to do for Christ, do now! The night cometh when no man worketh.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will urge world leaders this week to launch a new push in November to rebalance the world economy, but there are doubts national governments will bow to external advice.
The United States envisages the IMF playing a central role in a process of "mutual assessment" by making policy recommendations to the G20 every six months.
Finance ministers and central bankers from the G20 countries are due to meet November 7-8 in Scotland.
Unchecked population growth is speeding climate change, damaging life-nurturing ecosystems and dooming many countries to poverty, experts concluded in a conference report released Monday.
Unless birth rates are lowered sharply through voluntary family-planning programmes and easy access to contraceptives, the tally of humans on Earth could swell to an unsustainable 11 billion by 2050, they warned.
The researchers said that with one and a half million more humans climbing aboard the planet every week, a recipe is looming for ecological overload, famine and broken states.
"Continued rapid population growth in many of the least developed countries could lead to hunger, a failure of education and conflict," said Malcolm Potts at the University of California in Berkeley, which hosted the conference in February.
The papers, authored by 42 specialists in environmental science, economics and demography, are published by the Royal Society, Britain's de-facto academy of sciences.
"There is no doubt that the current rate of human population growth is unsustainable," summarised Roger Short, a professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
Art's Commentary.....God said to Adam and to Noah, "Be fruitful, and multiply". God placed man on the earth and commanded him to take dominion over the earth and to fill the earth. God said because of his sin, man would have to work and by the sweat of his brow obtain a living from the earth. The earth is given to man as a marvellous home and latent in the earth is everything man needs sustain him. As the population has grown over the years, new resources have been discovered to meet the needs of the larger numbers. God has also endowed man with the intelligence to use those resources to meet the world's expanding needs.
Man's problem is not that God has not provided for him in the resources of the earth, but rather the problem is man's sin. The earth is cursed because of man's sin and we read in Romans that when the curse of sin is lifted from man, the curse will be lifted from the earth and all of creation, Romans 8:19-23.
Today, there are those that are opposed to God and everything He says in His Word. When you see God with the eye of faith, you have no trouble trusting Him to keep His promises and meet every need. When the heart rejects God, it rejects everything God has said in His word. Men reject God's command to multiply out of unbelief and fear. Men who do not know God will not trust Him to provide. Men reject God's commands concerning, marriage, immorality, abortion, homosexuality, idolatry and the whole counsel of God in His Word. If God says it, were against it. The world is divided into two groups of people, those who obey and believe God and trust Him to provide. The other group are those who will not obey God and will not trust Him. This group has come up with another program to replace the program of God.
The usual September parade of world leaders descending on New York City for the opening of the annual United Nations General Assembly will be characterized this year by the presence of some of the world's most controversial leaders.
Likely to provoke the most ire this year will be Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who plans his first visit ever to the United States at a time when his emergence from international isolation has been set back by the release of the Libyan convicted in the Lockerbie bombing. Of the 270 people killed when the New York-bound Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up after taking off from London in 1988, 189 were Americans.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also plans to attend the UNGA session, as he has for the past four consecutive years, but this time the visit comes on the heels of his disputed re-election and subsequent state crackdown, and as an Obama administration deadline for cooperation on the nuclear issue runs out the clock.
Adding to the storm, Ahmadinejad has nominated as defense minister a man wanted by Argentina and Interpol for his alleged role in the deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.
The 2008 visit also saw five religious "peace" groups organize an interfaith meeting with Ahmadinejad in a bid to "build bridges of peace and understanding." Critics derided the event as naïve.
Other leaders hostile to the U.S. who may attend this year's session opening on September 23 include Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
Chavez grabbed the headlines in 2006 when, addressing the General Assembly one day after President Bush had spoken there, called the American president "the devil" and said "it still smells of sulphur around here."
Also yet to confirm his attendance is Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for 29 years, but over the past year under international pressure agreed to allow opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to become prime minister.
The executive director of Mission Network News says the gospel is making inroads into Iran.
Mission Network News (MNN) recently concluded a prayer initiative for Muslims that coincided with Ramadan. Greg Yoder, executive director of MNN, says many Muslims in countries such as Iran are turning to Christianity after they have realized that religious leaders have dictated and crafted governmental policies.
"So they're thinking to themselves, 'We don't really like the government in Iran. We don't really like what's happening; there must be some other truth' -- and that's why they're turning to Christian television, satellite radio, and many are turning to Christ," he notes. "We're seeing a new generation in Iran coming to Christ, and they're even developing churches around radio and TV today so they can grow in their faith."
Yoder encourages Christians to pray for the salvation of Muslims and witness to them when opportunities arise.
“Former Political Insider Discovers The Shocking Truth About A Vicious New Plan To Institute Martial Law...
And Reveals How To Get Out Of Harms Way Before Globalists Pull The Trigger”
September 2, 2009
Washington, D.C.
Dear Fellow Citizen,
A year ago I had what I thought was the best job in the world. I was a political advisor to a very powerful elected official in a pretty safe district. I not only had an insider’s perspective on how legislation was really passed, I was even able to tweak laws to favor our constituents. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with what I was doing, after all, we were elected by the people and they wanted us to deliver for them.
One cold, snowy January evening I was working late and ran across a report I probably never should have seen... the Army’s 2008 Modernization Strategy report, which predicted near constant conflicts in the future, both overseas and at home. An entire Command (NorthCom) had been created to deal with ‘natural or man-made’ emergencies, consisting primarily of battle-hardened soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan who could “use some of the skills they acquired in the war zone" to deal with "civil unrest and crowd control” here... in the United States!
The More of The Report I Read... The Clearer It Became.
One of the first things you used to learn in boot camp is the Posse Comitatus Act, which was created 200 years ago to make sure the military was never used against the citizens. But, for all practical purposes, this law has now been completely negated through Executive Orders issued by Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama(1).
The more of the report I read, the clearer it became that over many years the bureaucrats in Washington, Republican and Democrat alike - were carefully maneuvering for an eventual silent coup... one that would never make headlines but would result in the transfer of power from the American people to a secret group of wealthy bankers who already had everything they wanted... except total power.
Shortly thereafter, I left my job and began making plans to prepare for what I see as a martial law lockdown or perhaps even a complete military takeover. That’s when a friend of mine (who still worked and ran in these elite circles) asked me to take a look at an advance manuscript that he had “acquired”. He said it was sending shockwaves through the establishment. He didn’t say how he got it, he simply urged me to read it.
I saw the list the government was compiling... I knew who was at the top... and I couldn’t believe what I was reading!”
I wondered how this advance copy came to be in my friend’s hands, but thought better than to ask. I was simply glad to have it... because in a clear and concise way it explained exactly what is happening behind the scenes and what establishment insiders want to happen. Even more importantly, the manuscript detailed precisely how the global elite and their families are preparing for dangerous times.
Look, if you’re thinking this is all just conspiracy hype, just consider for a moment some recent headlines:
The last one, H.R.645 was part of the plan I had read before and actually calls for Homeland Security to build no fewer than 6 national facilities for holding civilians. Trust me when I tell you that there is a plan in place for the suspension of all Constitutional Rights of Americans. The plan includes "interning" certain segments of the population if such a national emergency arises.
Almost daily you’ll find headlines telling the same story... and these are in establishment publications! The manuscript I had received ‘unofficially’ has now been rewritten to avoid security issues and copyright problems. It’s also been condensed to eliminate the fluff, tightly edited to deliver the more essential material and then finally republished with some very obvious pro-freedom observations.
And now, I’m risking it all to share it with you. But be forewarned, “Understanding and Surviving Martial Law”, is not for the faint-hearted, and may even shock you.
This new manual “Understanding and Surviving Martial Law” has demonstrated to me that our government is no longer concerned with protecting the public... our government now exists to benefit a select few and the rest of us are wage slaves. Listen, even though things on the surface seem normal, they are not. It’s the calm before the engineered storm.
I firmly believe that conditions in this country are going to deteriorate rapidly once the right “event” triggers a crisis. Despite advice from well meaning friends, I felt I owed it to my fellow citizens who have been lulled into pacifism by promises of "hope and change." However, this information is only for the stout of heart, because what you will learn about it may shake your patriotism deeply... and perhaps even lead you to doubt your allegiance.
I had forgotten much of my history and was reminded of the history of many “dust bin” republics when reading Chapter One, “A Brief History of Tyranny,” about how tyrants use crises to grab more power, always holding onto that power until it is taken from them by force. This happened with both Greece and Rome, and in our own time dictators on the right and left have taken power during times of economic crisis.
Unfortunately, the framework for martial law has already been put in place by the last two administrations and now only needs a "trigger". Interestingly enough, this country has a long history of evoking martial law, all of which will make it easier to declare the next one. The problem is that all the previous declarations of Martial Law will pale in comparison to what our rulers have planned very soon! Here are some previous examples:
Even worse, our country already has a history of the domestic use of the armed forces without a declaration of martial law.
In the first 130 years of our country’s history, federal troops were used more than 100 times without a declaration of martial law! The truth is that the unprecedented economic crisis afflicting the nation, along with building resentment over the new President’s socialist policies and questionable eligibility for office has the central government looking for a reason, any reason to pull the trigger. But trust me...
You Are Not Prepared For The Extreme Violence They Have Planned!
Art's Comments......I have no way of verifying this article, I simply present as it was found on the World Net Daily website. I present it, because many of the items refered to have surfaced many times in news articles and the whole movement of events in recent times has left a suspicion in the hearts of many. I do not believe that the followers of Christ should be involved in any action or reaction against the government. I believe that God is in control and that He allows men to do their worst at times. Even during the tribulation period the believers are not instructed to rebel against Antichrist, but are to go even to the death quietly and confidently. Paul said to the Thessalonians, "And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ."
Believers, remember we will not be here in this world when the Antichrist comes to power, however we do not know what further events may unfold prior to the blast of the TRUMPET.
Ben Bernanke isn't waiting for Congress to expand the Fed's regulatory powers. Instead, he wants to put regulators directly inside banks to monitor (and possibly reject) pay packages.
The new proposal from the Fed requires a vote by the central bank's board but no congressional approval.
If enacted, pay for tens of thousands of bank employees nationwide would require approval from the Federal Reserve, empowering the Fed to reject any compensation policies it believes encourage bank employees to take too much risk.
"Given the changes the industry has already done, if the restrictions on income-producers or salespeople are too draconian, it will actually undermine the strength of the institution," Scott Talbott of the Financial Services Roundtable, a trade group of financial companies, told The Wall Street Journal.
Bernanke's proposal would, for the first time, inject government regulators deep into compensation decisions traditionally reserved for the banks' corporate boards and executives.
Though it wouldn't set salaries, the proposal would enable the Fed to review and amend each bank's salary and bonus policies. The U.S.'s largest banks, about 25 in number, would get especially close scrutiny.
Ron Paul, Republican of Texas, says the Fed is already doing too much.
“The Fed not only creates our problems, they perpetuate the problems” and the sooner we all understand that, the better, says Rep. Paul.
According to figures posted at the politician’s Web site, Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve (HR 1207) now has 290 co-sponsors and a companion bill in the Senate (S 604) has already attracted 25 co-sponsors.
Art's Commentary......The drive to centralize power in the hands of a few is a preparation for world government. Notice that the Congress has no say in this matter.
Everybody is saying no to the American president these days. And it's not just that they're saying no, it's also the way they're saying no.
The Saudis twice said no to his request for normalization gestures towards Israel (at Barack Obama's meeting with King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia, and in Washington at meetings with Hillary Clinton). Who says no to the American president twice? What must they think of Obama in the desert kingdom?
The North Koreans said no to repeated attempts at talks, by test-launching long-range missiles in April; Russia and China keep on saying no to tougher sanctions on Iran; the Iranians keep saying no to offers of talks by saying they're willing to talk about everything except a halt to uranium enrichment; Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is saying no by refusing to meet with Binyamin Netanyahu until Israel freezes all settlement construction; the Israelis said no by refusing to agree to a settlement freeze, or even a settlement moratorium until and unless the Arabs ante up their normalization gestures. Which brings us back to the original Saudi no.
The only thing Obama did manage to get Bibi and Abbas to say yes to is a photo-op at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in NY. Mazel tov.
So why is everyone saying no to Obama?
It's the economy, stupid.
Everyone has worked it out by now: The great secret is out. America's economy has made Obama a weak president, and he will likely remain weak throughout his first term. He has about two years to pull the American economy out of its free-fall before he begins his reelection campaign. If he can do it, and that's a big if, chances are good that he'll get reelected, and in his second term he can try to pull some geopolitical strings. But for the next three years, expect to see a world that says no to Obama. No meaningful and dramatic diplomatic initiative can come out of the White House in the next three years, as long as Obama remains weak.
And that's a real pity, because there are some serious and imminent issues that need to be addressed.
Pyongyang is getting more bellicose and not being punished. The North Koreans have violated every single international agreement and norm, and nothing tangible has happened to them.
In Iran, this registers. "Look at how bad they're being," the mullahs say, "and they're getting away with it." Even so, the Iranian government is weak internally and internationally following its election fiasco.
The US and EU could tighten sanctions against Iran without the support of Russia and China, but they would need political will for that. Sanctions, such as a ban on refined oil imports, barring Iranian flights to America and Europe etc., could have a serious impact on Iran and weaken the regime further. The US and EU can act now against Iran like the US and UK did against Libya several years ago when they persuaded Gaddafi to abandon his nuclear ambitions. Back then, though, the US was much stronger. Now, the American economy, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Korea have all weakened the US.
In retaliation for increased, unilateral sanctions, Iran could turn up the heat on US and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, which will stymie Obama's plan to win and withdraw. In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran has the US president by the kishkes, in a manner of speaking. And so do the Taliban.
So, when a president with so many problems comes asking for a favor, everyone finds it easier to just say no.
Art's Commentary.....America is in a serious decline which has many facets beside the economy. Behind it all is the moral decline and the turning away from God. America's change of loyalty from Israel to the Arab nations is a certain recipe for disaster.
Unless there is a sudden and drastic change, look for America's demise. This would definitely match with end time prophecy. America has no role to play in the last days, as of now, her great power is in the way of unfolding Bible prophecy.
'Nothing Created Everything' exposes scientific impossibility of evolution
What is it about a California-based Christian evangelist from New Zealand that makes him irresistible to even the most sophisticated secularist?
"You sir, are a fool who could not lie straight in bed. It is beneath me to even address you," wrote an online respondent to Ray Comfort's weblog Friday, "but I was passing by and saw this tripe, I could not constrain myself."
The lively interaction on his Atheist Central blog with scores of atheists and agnostics of all kinds – from young students to decorated scientists – has given Comfort unusual insight into the skeptical mind and led him to conclude atheism rests on a remarkably illogical and unscientific premise that became the title of his latest book, "Nothing Created Everything."
"I found over the last year, when I said an atheist is someone who believes nothing created everything, they go berserk and say, 'We don't believe that,'" said Comfort, co-host of "The Way of the Master" television show with actor Kirk Cameron and the head of Bellflower, Calif.-based Living Waters ministry.
But Comfort insists atheists clearly believe nothing created everything.
"All you have to do," Comfort told WND, "is push them into a corner and say, 'So, you're an atheist?' 'Yep.' 'So you believe that nothing created everything, a scientific impossibility?' And they'll say, 'Well, no.' 'So you believe something created everything?' And they say, 'Well, yeah. Something did, obviously.' 'So you're not an atheist?' 'OK, I'm not an atheist.'
"'This something you believe created everything," Comfort continued, "do you think it was intelligent? I mean, could you create a bird or a flower or a tree or a blade of grass from nothing?' And they'll say, 'No, I can't do that.' 'Well, is this something you believe created everything intelligent?' And they'll say, 'Obviously.' And I'll say, 'Congratulations, you've just become an anti-science, knuckle-dragger in the eyes of our learning institutions, because you believe in intelligent design.'"
To help make the point in his book, Comfort culled quotes from leading scientists who believe "nothing created everything," including British biologist and unofficial leader of the popular atheist movement, Richard Dawkins.
Dawkins, in his 2004 book "The Ancestor's Tale" wrote, "The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved literally out of nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice."
Among others, Comfort cites physicist Robert A.J. Matthews of Ashton University in England, who wrote, "It is now becoming clear that everything can – and probably did – come from nothing."
American physicist Paul Davies of Arizona State University wrote, "Even if we don't have a precise idea of exactly what took place at the beginning, we can at least see that the origin of the universe from nothing need not be unlawful or unnatural or unscientific."
"The whole thought that nothing created everything is an intellectual embarrassment for atheists," Comfort told WND.
He writes in his book: "There's no way to say it kindly, but such thoughts show that the atheist doesn't think, and proves the Bible right when it says that the fool has said in his heart that there is no God.
"All you have to do is present unbiased facts about the unscientific and unthinking nature of atheistic evolution, and then watch people change their minds."
Comfort contends many atheists, including Dawkins, engage in a "reverse idolatry."
"Instead of taking nice things and creating a congenial god, they make a repulsive god," he explained.
Dawkins, Comfort said, goes through the Old Testament and picks out the harsh judgments of God "and makes an idol that's repulsive."
"But the problem is the god that Richard Dawkins doesn't believe in, doesn't exist," Comfort said. "He's a figment of his imagination."
The God of the Bible, Comfort contends, "is the God of righteousness and holiness and justice and truth and love and mercy. And he's taken the time to write his law upon their hearts in the form of a conscience."
Comfort says that while the intellectual appeal to atheists is important, the argument must move away from the intellect, "the place of hostility," and to the conscience, "the place of knowledge of right and wrong."
He points out the word conscience literally means "with knowledge."
"That's what Jesus did when he spoke to people about the kingdom of God," Comfort said. "He addressed their conscience by going through the commandments. That's what Paul did; that's what we have to do if we want to be effective."
Comfort said he's seen many dialogues with atheists move from the intellect to the conscience.
"We've got on video atheists changing their minds within one minute of talking to them," he said.
Creation proves there's a creator," Comfort argues. "And once you've established that, the fact is that every single human being is without excuse."
He contends that while many atheists and agnostics assert religious believers abandon science and reason, defenders of Darwinian evolutionary theory actually must have a "childlike faith" to accept its tenets.
Comfort said "time is the god of evolutionists," who believe that with enough time anything can happen.
"Time performs miracles. Time is the creator," he said.
"You can say to them, 'OK, there's nothing in your garage, could you believe in 10,000 years a Mercedes would evolve out of nothing? You'd say, No, that's ridiculous.' 'So, what about 100,000 years?' 'No, that's stupid.' But if you start talking billions of years, they'll suddenly go glaze-eyed and, 'Yeah, I could believe that, a Mercedes could evolve out of nothing over billions of year.' So time is their miracle worker."