Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

U.S. Army Defines Christian Ministry As ‘Domestic Hate Group’
Oct 15th, 2013
Daily NewsFox News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

Several dozen U.S. Army active duty and reserve troops were told last week that the American Family Association, a well-respected Christian ministry, should be classified as a domestic hate group because the group advocates for traditional family values.

The briefing was held at Camp Shelby in Mississippi and listed the AFA alongside domestic hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam.

A soldier who attended the briefing contacted me and sent me a photograph of a slide show presentation that listed AFA as a domestic hate group. Under the AFA headline is a photograph of Westboro Baptist Church preacher Fred Phelps holding a sign reading “No special law for f***.”

American Family Association has absolutely no affiliation with the controversial church group known for picketing the funerals of American servicemembers.

“I had to show Americans what our soldiers are now being taught,” said the soldier who asked not to be identified. “I couldn’t just let this one pass.”

The soldier said a chaplain interrupted the briefing and challenged the instructor’s assertion that AFA is a hate group.

“The instructor said AFA could be considered a hate group because they don’t like gays,” the soldier told me. “The slide was talking about how AFA refers to gays as sinners and heathens and derogatory terms.”

The soldier, who is an evangelical Christian, said the chaplain defended the Christian ministry.

“He kept asking the instructor, ‘Are you sure about that, son? Are you sure about that?’” he said, recalling the back and forth.

Later in the briefing, the soldiers were reportedly told that they could face punishment for participating in organizations that are considered hate groups.

That considered, the soldier contacted me because he is a financial contributor to the AFA ministry.

“I donate to AFA as often as I can,” he said. “Am I going to be punished? I listen to American Family Radio all day. If they hear it on my radio, will I be faced with a Uniformed Code of Military Justice charge?”

The soldier said he was “completely taken back by this blatant attack not only on the AFA but Christians and our beliefs.”

The Sun is Setting on Dollar Supremacy, and With It, American Power
Oct 15th, 2013
Daily NewsThe Telegraph
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Netanyahu: Preemptive Strike Against Iran Must not be Ruled Out
Oct 15th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

One lesson Israel learned from the Yom Kippur war, said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Tuesday, was never to disallow in advance the option of a preemptive strikei.  Addressing the Knesset session marking the 40th anniversary of that war, Netanyahu stressed that while this option may not meet all situations, it has to be seriously weighed.

Let the Headlines Speak
Oct 15th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

South Dakota's cattle cataclysm: why isn't this horror news?
Ranchers in South Dakota lost tens of thousands of cattle from a freak storm. Thanks to the shutdown, no one is paying attention If you aren't in the ag world, you most likely haven't heard about the devastating loss that ranchers in western South Dakota are struggling with after being hit by winter storm Atlas. For some reason the news stations aren't covering this story. I don't understand why they wouldn't. This story has heartbreak, tragedy and even a convenient tie into the current government shutdown. Isn't that what the news is all about these days?  

Unions poised to win delay of ObamaCare tax in budget deal
The bargain under negotiation would make small adjustments to the healthcare law, including delaying the law's reinsurance fee for one year. The three-year tax is meant to generate revenue that will stabilize premiums on the individual market as sick patients enter the risk pool. The tax applies to all group health plans, but unions argue it will raise their healthcare costs while providing them no benefit. The reinsurance tax figured prominently in discussions at a recent AFL-CIO convention, where workers passed a resolution demanding changes to ObamaCare.  

China bypasses American ‘New Silk Road’ with two of its own
Armed with tens of billions of dollars in investment deals and romantic tales of ancient explorers, Chinese President Xi Jinping has spent much of the past month promoting his vision of two new “Silk Roads” to connect his country to the West and secure its energy supplies — one by land and another by sea. In the process, he has eclipsed an American vision of a New Silk Road that was advanced with much fanfare by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton two years ago and was supposed to revitalize Afghanistan as the link between Central and South Asia.  

Australia to see worse drought thanks to intensifying El Niño
El Niño is a complex interaction between air and sea in the tropical Pacific which controls many of our weather patterns. The findings show that eastern Australia will see worse droughts, while the central and eastern Pacific will see increased rainfall.  

Germany Outlines New Strategy for a European Army
Rather than create a European army all at once, Germany should focus on building it bit by bit, according to a paper published this month by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (kaf). Germany should develop “islands of cooperation”—small groups of countries whose militaries work together—that can be used as “building blocks” of a pan-European military power, it wrote. To dedicated Trumpet readers, this should sound very familiar. It is exactly what we described Germany doing in the August print edition of the Trumpet. Now you can read it in black and white, from a think tank that describes itself as “closely associated with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (cdu)”—the party of Angela Merkel.  

Sending message ‘near and far,’ air force conducts massive drill
The Israeli Air Force conducted an unusually large exercise over the northern border and the Mediterranean Sea overnight, the Walla news outlet reported. Military sources confirmed the exercise Tuesday morning.  

Iran presents proposal as nuclear talks kick off
The United States and five other world powers sat down Tuesday for the first talks on Tehran’s nuclear program since the election of reformist Iranian President Hassan Rouhani four months ago.  

Obama's leadership proves presidency is no place for amateurs
As usual, the plain-speaking Truman got it right: presidential power is the power to persuade. Too bad the current occupant of the White House has never learned this basic lesson. Obama’s refusal to negotiate with the Republicans in Congress on the government shutdown is proof once again that he doesn’t understand the first thing about presidential leadership.  

US Army defines Christian ministry as ‘domestic hate group’
Several dozen U.S. Army active duty and reserve troops were told last week that the American Family Association, a well-respected Christian ministry, should be classified as a domestic hate group because the group advocates for traditional family values. The briefing was held at Camp Shelby in Mississippi and listed the AFA alongside domestic hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam.  

Russian Commandos Train for Arctic Combat
Russian army special forces units have had their first training sessions in Arctic warfare, under plans to boost the country’s military presence in the region, a Western Military District spokesman said Monday. According to Col. Oleg Kochetkov, Russian special forces reconnaissance units have carried out a number of training missions on the Kola Peninsula under an experimental program simulating combat in the polar regions’ mountainous terrain.  

US Lab in Georgia at Center of Storm Over Biological Warfare Claims
A US-funded laboratory in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, accused by a prominent Russian official Monday of developing biological weapons, has been repeatedly touted by US officials as a key tool in guarding the region against dangerous infectious diseases.  

NSA collects millions of e-mail address books globally
The National Security Agency is harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans, according to senior intelligence officials and top-secret documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The collection program, which has not been disclosed before, intercepts e-mail address books and “buddy lists” from instant messaging services as they move across global data links.  

CHANCE OF STORMS
NOAA Forecasters estimate a 20% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on October 15th when a minor CME (movie) is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. The cloud of plasma was hurled in our direction by an M1-class eruption from sunspot AR1865.  

Thousands evacuated as Typhoon Nari set to hit Vietnam
Typhoon Nari will slam into central Vietnam tomorrow after the powerful storm left 13 dead in the Philippines. The typhoon hit northern Philippines over the weekend ripping off rooftops, toppling trees and triggering flash floods. Authorities in the central provinces of Thien Hue and Da Nang are moving roughly 66,000 people in vulnerable coastal areas to safety, according to the state-controlled Tuoi Tre newspaper.  

Obama shutdown of Catholic Mass sparks reaction
In what has been described as “an astonishing attack on religious freedom,” Catholics at a Navy base were banned from attending worship services because of the partial shutdown of the federal government. In response, the Thomas More Law Center announced it has filed a lawsuit over the orders at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia. The legal team said a Catholic priest who serves the community on the military base “has been prohibited from even volunteering to celebrate Holy Mass without pay and was told that if he violated that order, he could be subject to arrest.”  

Supreme Court justice unloads on Satan, demons
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made headlines recently when he declared his belief that the devil is a real being who has a presence in the world today. His interviewer, Jennifer Senior of New York Magazine, was shocked by Scalia’s statements. But Karl Payne, author of “Spiritual Warfare: Christians, Demonization, and Deliverance,” says the reaction is a sign of how secularized certain segments of American society have become. He believes Scalia is right on the mark.  

Israeli leader vows hard-line in Palestinian talks
srael's prime minister on Monday said he is making a "real effort" to reach peace with the Palestinians, but vowed to maintain a hard-line stance in recently relaunched negotiations. The tough positions laid out by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew jeers from opposition lawmakers, and the Palestinians, already wary of his intentions, questioned his commitment to peace.  

India's Cyclone Phailin: Thousands marooned by floods
Workers are battling to rescue tens of thousands of people marooned by rising flood waters in Orissa, after the state was hit by the strongest cyclone in 14 years. Flood waters have left nearly 100,000 people stranded in Mayurbhanj and Balasore districts, officials say. The death toll from the cyclone has risen to 27 in Orissa, with four people killed in the floods.  

Federal Reserve Balance Sheet Soon To Hit $4 Trillion in Assets
It is going to be interesting to see exactly what happens with the Federal Reserve's balance sheet under Janet Yellen. We do not yet have the full details of a compromise for the debt ceiling, but it seems obvious that a resolution is going to be found that will reopen the federal government and which will allow the United States to pay its bills. The reality is that the Federal Reserve's balance sheet is getting closer and closer to having $4 trillion worth of assets. It also now seems more than possible that quantitative easing will go on much longer than expected even just a month ago.  

Surprise! Europe's Banks Are STILL Totally Insolvent...
Nobody knows the true scale of potential losses at Europe's banks, but the International Monetary Fund hinted at the enormity of the problem this month, saying that Spanish and Italian banks face 230 billion euros ($310 billion) of losses alone on credit to companies in the next two years.  

U.S. ready to ease Iran sanctions if Tehran acts
The United States held out the prospect of quick sanctions relief for Iran on Monday if Tehran moves swiftly to allay concerns about its nuclear programme, although both countries said any deal would be complex and take time. Six world powers - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - are to hold talks with Iran on its nuclear programme in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday. "No one should expect a breakthrough overnight," a senior U.S. administration official told reporters.  

Major 7.2 magnitude quake strikes Philippines: USGS
A major 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck near one of the Philippines key tourist hubs on Tuesday, the United States Geological Survey reported. The quake struck at 08:12 local time (0012 GMT) some five kilometres (three miles) east of Balilihan, in the Bohol region of the archipelago, at a depth of 56 kilometres, the agency said.  

Conservative Catholics Question Pope Francis’s Approach
Oct 15th, 2013
Daily NewsWashington Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Rattled by Pope Francis’s admonishment to Catholics not to be “obsessed” by doctrine, his stated reluctance to judge gay priests and his apparent willingness to engage just about anyone — including atheists — many conservative Catholics are doing what only recently seemed unthinkable:

They are openly questioning the pope.

Concern among traditionalists began building soon after Francis was elected this spring. Almost immediately, the new pope told non-Catholic and atheist journalists he would bless them silently out of respect. Soon after, he eschewed Vatican practice and included women in a foot-washing ceremony.

The wary traditionalists became critical when, in an interview a few weeks ago, Francis said Catholics shouldn’t be “obsessed” with imposing doctrines, including on gay marriage and abortion. Then earlier this month, Francis told an atheist journalist that people should follow good and fight evil as they “conceive” of them. These remarks followed an interview with journalists this summer aboard the papal airplane in which the pope declared that it is not his role to judge someone who is gay “if they accept the Lord and have goodwill.”

Never mind that the pope has also made clear his acceptance of church doctrine, which regards homosexuality and abortion as sins and bans women from the priesthood. Behind the growing skepticism is the fear in some quarters that Francis’s all-embracing style and spontaneous speech, so open as it is to interpretation, are undoing decades of church efforts to speak clearly on Catholic teachings. Some conservatives also feel that the pope is undermining them at a time when they are already being sidelined by an increasingly secular culture.

“When [abortion rights group] NARAL sends you a thank-you note, it’s clear something got miscommunicated,” said Robert Royal, president of the D.C. think tank Faith & Reason.

Francis is “a remarkable man, no one would deny that,” Royal said. “But I’m not sure if he cares about being accurate. He gets into an [evangelizing] dynamic with people and that seems to be the most important thing. . . . In some ways it makes people very anxious. If you do this, what’s the next thing?”

During the previous three decades, popes John Paul II and Benedict shared a focus: Make orthodox teachings crystal clear so Catholics don’t get lost in an increasingly messy, relativistic world.

Catholics also became accustomed to popes who were largely speaking to “the Church,” rather than the public. These men often communicated in the language of Catholic theology, and through books, not through long, freewheeling interviews, like Pope Francis.