We Have Reached the end of Anti-Biotics
Oct 28th, 2013
Daily NewsMailonline
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues
A high-ranking official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared in an interview with PBS that the age of antibiotics has come to an end.
‘For a long time, there have been newspaper stories and covers of magazines that talked about “The end of antibiotics, question mark?”‘ said Dr Arjun Srinivasan. ‘Well, now I would say you can change the title to “The end of antibiotics, period.”’
The associate director of the CDC sat down with Frontline over the summer for a lengthy interview about the growing problem of antibacterial resistance.
Srinivasan, who is also featured in a Frontline report called ’Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria,’ which aired Tuesday, said that both humans and livestock have been overmedicated to such a degree that bacteria are now resistant to antibiotics.
‘We’re in the post-antibiotic era,’ he said. ‘There are patients for whom we have no therapy, and we are literally in a position of having a patient in a bed who has an infection, something that five years ago even we could have treated, but now we can’t.’.
Dr Srinivasan offered an example of this notion, citing the recent case of three Tampa Bay Buccaneers players who made headlines after reportedly contracting potentially deadly MRSA infections, which until recently were largely restricted to hospitals.
About 10 years ago, however, the CDC official began seeing outbreaks of different kinds of MRSA infections in schools and gyms.
‘In hospitals, when you see MRSA infections, you oftentimes see that in patients who have a catheter in their blood, and that creates an opportunity for MRSA to get into their bloodstream,’ he said.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) quietly dropped a bomb in its October Fiscal Monitor Report. Titled “Taxing Times,” the report paints a dire picture for advanced economies with high debts that fail to aggressively “mobilize domestic revenue.” It goes on to build a case for drastic measures and recommends a series of escalating income and consumption tax increases culminating in the direct confiscation of assets.
Yes, you read that right. But don’t take it from me. The report itself says:
“The sharp deterioration of the public finances in many countries has revived interest in a “capital levy”- a one-off tax on private wealth-as an exceptional measure to restore debt sustainability. The appeal is that such a tax, if it is implemented before avoidance is possible and there is a belief that it will never be repeated, does not distort behavior (and may be seen by some as fair). … The conditions for success are strong, but also need to be weighed against the risks of the alternatives, which include repudiating public debt or inflating it away. … The tax rates needed to bring down public debt to precrisis levels, moreover, are sizable: reducing debt ratios to end-2007 levels would require (for a sample of 15 euro area countries) a tax rate of about 10 percent on households with positive net wealth. (page 49)”
Note three takeaways. First, IMF economists know there are not enough rich people to fund today’s governments even if 100 percent of the assets of the 1 percent were expropriated. That means that all households with positive net wealth-everyone with retirement savings or home equity-would have their assets plundered under the IMF’s formulation.
Second, such a repudiation of private property will not pay off Western governments’ debts or fund budgets going forward. It will merely “restore debt sustainability,” allowing free-spending sovereigns to keep tapping the bond markets until the next crisis comes along-for which stronger measures will be required, of course.
Third, should politicians fail to muster the courage to engage in this kind of wholesale robbery, the only alternative scenario the IMF posits is public debt repudiation and hyperinflation. Structural reform proposals for the Ponzi-scheme entitlement programs that are bankrupting us are nowhere to be seen.
The rhetoric between Asia’s two superpowers is becoming more belligerent with China warning that if Japan carries out a threat to shoot down foreign drones, it would be an act of war.
Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe has issued his own warning, saying Tokyo is prepared to be more assertive towards Beijing, while also telling China not to use force to try to change the regional balance of power.
Over the weekend, Japan twice scrambled fighter jets to monitor Chinese military aircraft flying near Okinawa.
Speaking at a military parade which looked very similar to the ones seen in North Korea, Mr Abe rallied Japanese troops.
“Post-World War II, we have prospered and moved forward as a peaceful nation. This is something for us to be very proud of,” Mr Abe said.
“However, in order for us to continue protecting this peace into the future, we must be vigilant.”
This vigilance is particularly directed towards China, which is locked in a dispute with Japan over a handful of rocky outcrops in the East China Sea.
Controlled by Tokyo and known in Japan as the Senkakus and in China as the Diaouyu Islands, they are home to nothing more than a few inbred goats.
IAF Attacks Rocket Launchers in Gaza
Oct 28th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Gil Ronen
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel
The Israel Air Force attacked two underground rocket launch pads in northern Gaza Monday morning, in retaliation to the firing of rockets at Israel by Hamas-controlled Gaza. The rocket fire from Gaza is intended to terrorize Israel's civilian population.
The IDF Spokesman said that the IAF identified accurate hits on target. "Palestinian" sources reported that one person was injured in the attack. AFP reported that Arab witnesses said the attack targeted a training ground used by the armed wing of the Hamas movement west of Beit Lahiya, but that no one was hurt.
"The IDF will not stand any attempt to hurt the citizens of the state of Israel and IDF soldiers, and will continue to act against any element that uses terror against the state of Israel," the Spokesman said. "Hamas is the address and it bears responsibility."
The “Red Alert” siren was heard early Monday morning in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council and in communities in the Gaza belt.
Residents reported hearing several explosions, as four rockets were fired by Gaza terrorists at southern Israel.
The Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted one of the rockets, and the other three exploded in open areas. There were no physical injuries or damages.
Early Sunday afternoon, Gaza terrorists fired two mortar shells at the southern Negev. The shells exploded in the Eshkol region, but did not cause injury.
In the latter years of his life, someone said to Gipsy Smith: "Gypsy, I heard you preach over fifty years ago, you blessed my heart then. I have never forgotten it, but again tonight, how my heart was warmed and thrilled! Gypsy, tell me--what's the secret?"
Gypsy answered, "Sir, I have never lost the wonder of it all."
Years later, the songwriter, Alfred B. Smith, wrote a song based on this story entitled "I Have Never Lost the Wonder of It All":
“Once so aimlessly I wondered round the tangled paths of sin. All about me seemed so hopeless, Doubts and fears without, within. Then a voice so kind and gentle, Spoke sweet peace unto my soul. Gone my days of sin and wandering, Since the Savior made me whole.
Now my life is full of gladness, All my days are filled with joy. I no longer walk in sadness, Happy songs my lips employ. For I've learned the wondrous secret Only those in Christ can know.'Tis the peace of sins forgiven--Joy that makes my glad heart glow. I have never lost the wonder of it all.
I have never lost the wonder of it all! Since the day that Jesus saved me and a whole new life He gave me, I have never lost the wonder of it all!
Gypsy Smith
Oct 28th, 2013
CommentaryLifting up the Standard
Categories: Bible Salvation
Gipsy Smith said, “I wandered one evening into a little Primitive Methodist Chapel in Fitzroy Street, Cambridge, where I heard a sermon by the Rev. George Warner. Oddly enough, I cannot remember a word of what Mr. Warner said, but I made up my mind in that service that if there was a chance I would publicly give myself to Christ. After the sermon a prayer meeting was held, and Mr. Warner invited all those who desired to give themselves to the Lord to come forward and kneel at the communion-rail. I was the first to go forward. I do not know whether anybody else was there or not. I think not. Soon there was a dear old man beside me, an old man with great flowing locks, who put his arm round me and began to pray with me and for me. I did not know his name. I do not know it even now. I told him that I had given myself to Jesus for time and eternity - to be His boy for ever. He said – "You must believe that He has saved you. 'To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to be the sons of God; even to them that believed on His name.'" "Well," I said to my dear old friend, "I cannot trust myself, for I am nothing; and I cannot trust in what I have, for I have nothing; and I cannot trust in what I know, for I know nothing; and so far as I can see my friends are as badly off as I am."
So there and then I placed myself by simple trust and committal to Jesus Christ. I knew He died for me; I knew He was able to save me, and I just believed Him to be as good as His word. And thus the light broke and assurance came. I knew that if I was not what I ought to be, I never should be again what I had been. I went home and told my father that his prayers were answered, and he wept tears of joy with me.
For the first time in over 40 years, China reveals a fleet of its older generation of nuclear submarines, which fires rockets from under the water.
The fleet of nuclear submarines has been around for four decades but, in a sign of the country’s growing military strength, China has now decided to openly display the vessels.
The submarines, which were taking part in training drills and simulating combat, could also be seen firing rockets from under the water.
Former IDF Chief Rabbi, res. Brigadier General Rabbi Avihai Ronsky, has made a public statement on his Facebook page decrying the government decision to release terrorist murders to the Palestinian Authority, claiming that those responsible have "blood on their hands."
Rabbi Ronsky stated, "during my tenure as Chief Rabbi of the IDF, I was invited to testify before the Shamgar Commission about the Torah standpoint regarding terrorist release in general, and the release of murderers in particular, as part of a prisoner exchange and diplomatic negotiations."
The Shamgar Commission was the official, State-run Commission of Inquiry which investigated the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Ronsky holds that a Torah warning against the move appear in a verse, "Do not take ransom for a murderer, who is wicked [and destined] to die, and let the dead, die" (Numbers 35:16). He continues that "what the Torah is saying is simple: there is no pardon for a murderer deliberately taking a human life [. . .] much less so the release of murderers of [the Jewish] people, whose sole purpose is to create fear and terror and to prevent us from living in the Land [of Israel]."
Ronsky notes that "according to my understanding -- and I even heard this from the Committee member and reserve General Amos Yaron -- the consensus is not to release or exchange terrorists for our own purposes, unless conditions are such that it would prevent further conflict. Unfortunately, the Committee's conclusions were not taken into account by the Defense Ministry, and have effectively been shelved."
Ronsky also points out that the original members of the Shamgar Committee "are not known right-wingers, and their conclusions are derived from the simple, logical, and professional [analysis] of this issue." He also emphasizes that the notion of releasing terrorists immediately, only as a pre-emptive measure for negotiations, are "a fatal blow to our national dignity, which is a vital source of our national strength," weakening the power to intimidate potential terrorists "who cannot claim to know how long their 'life sentence' will be", cheapens the legal system, and "severely injures bereaved families" of terrorist victims.
Ronsky went on to encourage participation in protests against the measure, saying it is a threat to national dignity and security.
