Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Two New Chinese Cruise Missiles 'Could Sink a 3,000 Ton Warship'
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsWant China Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A C-602 missile, also known as the YJ-62. (Internet Photo)

China's PLA has released the details of its two anti-ship cruise missiles — the C-602 and C-802A — designed to sink warships weighing above 3,000 tonnes, reports national broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV).

Both cruise missiles are designed by the China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation. Guan Shiyi, an expert from the corporation, said that the cruise missile is designed to fly like an aircraft in the atmosphere. With an engine similar to those in airplanes, the cruise missile can skim at low altitudes above the sea surface, making it very difficult to detect on radar.

The Chinese government has not sponsored the domestic development of the missile, despite its power, Guan said. The China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation had to spend its own resources developing the missiles.

The C-602 missile weighs only a ton, but one is enough to sink or severely damage a 3,000-ton warship. Guan said that three explosions were set off during trials for the missile's engine.

Guan said that C-602 and C-802A both hit their targets precisely during trials. The C-802, China's first generation cruise missile, was displayed during a military parade in 1984 to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. As Liu Qingmei, another expert from the China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation said, the C-802 has been exported to various nations and is popular among their weapons stock.

Study: 49% of Those Killed in Gaza War Were Terrorists
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Hamas terrorists in Gaza

Flash 90

The terrorist to civilian ratio of Palestinian deaths in Operation Protective Edge is an unprecedented 1:1, a news study released last week reveals - supporting earlier findings regarding the so-called "civilian casualties" Hamas touts to international media. 

According to the highly respected Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), 49% of the "martyrs" listed on the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry (PHM) list were found to have been linked to terrorist organizations; just 51% were confirmed civilian casualties.

The study, which has examined PHM's death tally since the war's early stages, has now tracked roughly 40% of published casualties during the war - some 842 people. 

According to the ITIC, of those 842:

• 354 of those killed were terrorist operatives. 
• 367 of those killed were non-involved civilians.
• 121 people who were killed are unidentified at this stage. Therefore, it is not possible to determine whether they were terrorist operatives or non-involved civilians.
• Of the 721 dead who could be identified, terrorist operatives constitute approximately 49% of the names. Non-involved civilians constitute approximately 51%.
• In addition, two names deemed originally as civilian casualties have now been re-identified as members of Hamas's "military wing," the Al-Qassam Brigades. A third has been re-identified as a member of Islamic Jihad.

PHM - the officiating body for casualty counts in Gaza which has enacted a monopoly on Western media - is run by a known Hamas terrorist, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qurda. 

The PHM does not differentiate between terrorists and civilians, but several "Palestinian rights groups" - including one UN-based group - do, and have estimated the civilian casualty rate at between 72-82%.

Israel, however, has maintained since the early stages of the operation that some 900 of those killed, or 47%, were terrorists.

Such a ratio of combatant to non-combatant casualties - roughly 1:1 - would be almost unprecedented in the history of urban warfare.

ITIC's results surface in the midst of the Palestinian Arab leaderships' continued insistence that Israel has committed "genocide" and "war crimes" during its fifty-day self-defense operation, and days after Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas perpetuated the accusation at the UN General Assembly.

Report: Israel, Hamas Close to Terrorist Swap Deal
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Protesters marching against third batch of terrorist releases

Flash 90

Hamas and Israel may be on the verge of a terrorist swap deal, sources said Tuesday - trading convicted murderers for the bodies of fallen soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, hy"d.

According to Israel Hayom, Hamas official Mushir al-Masri stated that such a deal is close to being concretized with Israeli officials. 

Goldin and Shaul were both killed during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza; after initially being declared abducted, both were declared dead - and analysts have said their bodies are being held by Hamas as ransom for more terrorist releases. 

Al-Masri hinted strongly at the deal in a Facebook post.

"Hamas has a bargaining chip, by forcing Israel to accept Palestinian demands," Al-Masri said. "Ongoing indirect negotiations, brokered by Egypt, may lead to a new deal for prisoner releases." 

"We will release as many Palestinian prisoners as possible," he added. 

Initially, Israel reportedly refused to sign an agreement that would not include the return of Goldin's and Shaul's bodies in truce agreements with Hamas. 

However, Jerusalem appeared recently to be relenting on this point, and the issue has drawn ire from some nationalist MKs. 

Several days ago, the issue was raised again by Likud MK Ze'ev Elkin, who urged Jerusalem to hold on to the bodies of Hamas terrorists and murderers of three Israeli teenagers, Marwan Kawasmeh and Amar Abu-Eisha, until Goldin's and Shaul's bodies were released. 

Previous terrorist releases have elicited fierce protests from nationalist MKs and bereaved families alike, who have noted that the practice provides Hamas with incentives to continue inciting terror.

Obama Chided for Telling Un: Many Israelis Ready to Ditch Peace
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Morton Klein

Screenshot

With the world concentrating on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's hard-hitting remarks at the UN General Assembly on Monday, the Zionist Organization of America turns attention to President Barack Obama's address to the UN – and what it calls his "baseless and offensive claim" that "the violence engulfing the region today has made too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace."

Obama addressed the UN on Sept. 24, two days before PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of "genocide" from the same podium.

President Obama said in his address, "The situation in Iraq, Syria and Libya should cure anyone of the illusion that this conflict [between Palestinians and Israelis] is the main source of problems in the region."

He then mentioned the Muslim extremist violence "engulfing the region" in the same breath as the "too many Israelis [who are] ready to abandon the hard work of peace."

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, "It is remarkable that President Obama can deduce from current Middle Eastern developments and realities that Israel is to be chided for not pursuing peace."

"In fact," Klein continued, "it is the PA which has made not a single concession, while continuing unabated with its glorification of terrorists, incitement to hatred and murder, denial of Jewish history in Israel, non-acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state and publicly stating that a future Palestinian state will never allow Jews."

Klein further noted that the PA has "concluded a unity regime agreement with Hamas, the U.S.- and European Union-listed terrorist organization that calls in its Charter for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews," and has "refused without counter-offer U.S. and Israeli offers of Palestinian statehood throughout virtually the whole of Judea/Samaria, all of Gaza and half of Jerusalem in 2000 and again in 2008."

"Instead of admitting his errors" in promoting the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamic movements, and in concentrating on the Israeli situation so exclusively, "President Obama has chided Israel for supposedly tiring of peace, even as he now rightly claims that the Israeli/Palestinian issue is not the heart of the Middle East's problems at all -- a position the ZOA has long argued."

Netanyahu Shows in Pictures How 'Hamas is ISIS'
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;War

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with leaders of the Jewish Federations of North America on Tuesday, a day after addressing the UN General Assembly in New York where he argued the Hamas terror group is just like Islamic State (ISIS).

"Every time I come to the UN I try to tell the truth as it is," Netanyahu said. During his address Netanyahu showed a picture of Hamas terrorists firing a rocket near small children.

"But here's a picture I didn't show in the UN yesterday. This is an impending execution. But this isn't ISIS, this is Hamas. And during the recent fighting in Gaza, right around the time that ISIS was doing its grisly deeds, Hamas executed dozens of Palestinians just to impose fear and force the population of Gaza into submission," said Netanyahu.

The Hamas "killing spree" of those it accused of "collaboration" with Israel led to outrage from the Palestinian Authority (PA), partially due perhaps to rumors that Hamas was using the claims to liquidate Fatah rivals.

The White House on Monday criticized Netanyahu's comparison of the two terrorist organizations Hamas and ISIS, to which Netanyahu said Tuesday "it's true there are some differences between Hamas and ISIS - for example ISIS beheads people and Hamas puts a bullet in the back of their heads. But to the victims, and the victims' families, the horror is the same."

"The point I was trying to make yesterday and I'm making today is that we are faced with a world-wide network of militant Islamists, groups and regimes. It's not that they have a common war-room. They have war-rooms against each other because all of them wish to dominate first the region in which they are in and then ultimately the entire world," continued the prime minister.

"But they all share this fanatic ideology; they all have not only unbridled ambitions but also savage methods. And the more they have the capability to realize their ambitions, the more they'll unleash their pent-up aggression against our common civilizations," added Netanyahu. "We have to stop ISIS, defeat ISIS, but we have to prevent Iran from getting the capability to produce nuclear weapons."

Netanyahu is set to meet with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and speak to world media later on Tuesday, and on Wednesday to meet with US President Barack Obama.

In that meeting, a senior source with Netanyahu's entourage revealed to Arutz Sheva that Netanyahu plans to raise the release of Jonathan Pollard, now in his 29th year of incarceration in an American jail cell on charges of spying for Israel.

Netanyahu 'Turned the World Upside Down'
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Arutz Sheva security analyst and UN corespondent Mark Langfan analyzed Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations on Monday, and said it “turned the world upside down” by requiring peace with Arabs first, before Israel makes peace with the Palestinians. This is a "historic" reversal of the previous order of things, he determined.

Netanyahu sees a burgeoning alliance between Israel and the more moderate Sunni states forming to face the radical elements in the Sunni and Shi'a worlds, Langfan explained.

Netanyahu explicitly mentioned “Riyadh” and “Cairo” as possible new allies, with underlying common strategic enemies and dangers, noted Langfan.

Six months ago, on April 2014, Langfan sketched out the outlines and possible strategic synergies in just such an alliance in his article, “MEATO: the Trans-Riyadh-Jerusalem-Athens Alliance.”

Langfan will hold a “Senate-side” talk on the subject of “Anti-Zionism, the New Anti-Semitism-the Strategic Threat to US Interests” under the auspices of Sarah Stern’s EMET, Endowment for Middle East Truth tomorrow, Wednesday, October 1, 2014 on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C.

The graphic power-point talk will focus on how today’s waxing anti-Zionism is a strategic threat, not only to US interests among the moderate Sunni Muslims, but also to Cyprus, the entire Mediterranean basin, and NATO.

Langfan will focus, among other issues, on the underlying strategic elements of the nascent alliance between Israel, and the moderate Sunni Arab countries surrounding it. 

At the event, Langfan will explain with the help of his special-designed, 3-d topographic maps of Iran, Iraq and Syria where Iran’s nuclear facilities are located, and where ISIS was formed, has been focused, and where it may spread to next. Also, he will discuss over-the-horizon threats that face US interests in the Middle East.

Mass Default Looms As World Sinks Beneath a Sea of Debt
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Telegraph
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Global debt is still rising strongly, crimping growth and threatening defaults around the world

Countries face being swamped by a tidal wave of debt Photo: AP

Libya Holds UN - Brokered Talks to Prevent Civil War
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

UN-mediated talks were held between Libya’s internationally acknowledged parliament, which was elected this past June, and a group from the city of Misrata, in the west, which took control of Tripoli this past month, setting up its own assembly and cabinet in the city, reports Reuters.

The meeting, which took place in Ghadames, located near the Algerian border, convened in an attempt to circumvent the two factions’ confrontations from deteriorating into a civil war just three years after the uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi’s more than four-decade rule.

UN Special Envoy, Bernandino Leon, announced following today's (Tuesday) meeting that both factions had agreed on the need for a ceasefire, for humanitarian aid for the victims of the recent clashes in the capital, and to find a way to reopen the airports that had been forced to close due to the fighting.

Let the Headlines Speak
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Another Oklahoma Man, Reportedly a Muslim, Arrested After He Allegedly Threatened to Cut Off Coworker’s Head: ‘This Is Just What We Do’
A fired Oklahoma City nursing home employee was arrested after a female coworker reported that he threatened to behead her, the Oklahoman said. The woman said she asked him why they kill Christians and he replied, “This is just what we do,” the detective reported. “The victim said Jacob asked her what time she got off work and she replied by asking him in a joking manner if he was going to kill her,” the detective wrote. “Jacob told the victim, ‘Yes,’ he was going to cut her head off.  

Obama Acknowledges: ISIS Seeks to Kill Those Who ‘Worship a Different God’
In an interview with CBS on Sunday, while repeating his assertion that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) does not represent the Islamic religion, Barack Obama acknowledged that the group seeks to kill those who “worship a different God” than Allah.  

Vladimir Putin Is Not The Russian People, But The Ukraine War Still Hurts Russia
The Russian economy is thought to be on the verge of a recession and the ruble has dropped in value to a record low, falling in value by thirty percent since Putin became President. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) originally forecast economic growth of 3.9 percent in Russia in 2013, but in actuality the Russian economy only increased by 1.3 percent. Global investors pulled about $850 million out of the country in 2014 and already 2015 is expected to be worse.  

Obama faces backlash after blaming intel community for missing ISIS
The official, said the threat from ISIS and Khorasan was well-documented in the president's daily brief for over a year, but the White House failed to act.  

Twenty Five Thousand Earthquakes
Around 25,000 earthquakes have registered on Icelandic Met Office’s equipment since August 29. The eruption is one of the largest in the world. All in all 39 quakes over 5.0 have been recorded, most of them in the rim of the Bárðarbunga crater.  

Stocks head for worst quarter since euro crisis, dollar soars
A new trough in euro zone inflation pushed the euro to a two-year low on Tuesday, leaving the dollar on course for its biggest quarterly gain in six years and world stocks facing their largest drop since the peak of the euro crisis.  

Islamic State uses grain to tighten grip in Iraq
..the man asked in formal Arabic. “Come back and we will guarantee your safety. But you must convert and pay $500.” When Paulis refused, the man spelled out the penalty. “We are taking your wheat,” he said. “Just to let you know we are not stealing it because we gave you a choice.”  

Hamas: Israel the Source of All World Evil
n his speech, Netanyahu equated Hamas with the Islamic State, the Islamist group that has conquered large parts of Syria and Iraq. “ISIS is Hamas, and Hamas is ISIS,” Netanyahu said. “Both want the same things. Hamas shares the same militant ambitions of global Islamists,” the Prime Minister said.  

CHANCE OF FLARES
There are eight sunspot groups on the Earthside of the sun. Fully half of them pose a threat for strong solar flares. AR2175 is the most potent of the quartet. It has a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares.  

4.2 earthquake near Perry, felt in Kansas
A 4.2-magnitude earthquake rattled central Oklahoma Monday night, with the tremors felt in south central Kansas.  

New documents show legal basis for NSA surveillance programs
Documents released by the U.S. government show it views an executive order issued in 1981 as the basis of most of the National Security Agency's surveillance activities... The NSA relied on Executive Order 12333 more than it did on two other laws that have been the focus of public debate following the leaks exposing U.S. surveillance programs by former agency contractor Edward Snowden, according to the papers released by the ACLU.  

Netanyahu: Iran is a bigger threat than Islamic State
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that a nuclear Iran is a bigger threat to the world than Islamic State (IS) militants. In a speech at the UN, he said that to defeat IS but ignore Iran would be "to win the battle but lose the war". Mr Netanyahu also urged the West not to be fooled by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's "charm offensive".  

Islamic State crisis: Iraq air strikes 'halt IS advance'
Iraqi ground forces, backed by air strikes, appear to have halted advancing Islamic State (IS) militants in a town west of Baghdad. The BBC's Lyse Doucet in the Iraqi capital says the air strikes followed clashes with IS militants, who have been making gains towards the capital. Amariya al-Falluja, 40km (25 miles) from Baghdad, is a key strategic town.  

Ebola outbreak: 'Thousands of children orphaned'
Almost 4,900 children in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have lost one or both parents to Ebola this year, the UN children's agency has said. Finding care for them is proving incredibly difficult because the children are stigmatised, Unicef added. Some are "being fed by neighbours but no more", the agency said.  

Peru earthquake kills eight in Andes village
At least eight people have died in an earthquake in southern Peru, officials announced on Sunday. The 4.9-magnitude quake hit the Cusco region in the early hours of Sunday. Worst affected was the remote Andean village of Misca, where 45 homes collapsed killing four children and four adults, emergency workers said.  

Ya'alon tells defense conference that Hamas 'did not intend to launch war'
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Tuesday that Hamas "did not intend" to initiate hostilities against Israel in the days leading up to Operation Protective Edge, though the Palestinian Islamist group "was planning to carry out kidnappings of Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza." Ya'alon said that Hamas “achieved nothing” as a result of the 50-day Operation Protective Edge.

Hong Kong Protesters Set Wednesday Deadline for Reform    Protesters camped out in Hong Kong for a fifth consecutive day are threatening to expand their campaign of civil disobedience if the territory's chief executive does not meet their demand for democratic reforms.  

Ebola-hit Liberia staring into the abyss
With its collapsed health service, sick and poorly equipped security forces and broken economy, Ebola-hit Liberia finds itself on the brink of complete societal breakdown, experts warn. The already impoverished west African state was on the slow road to recovery after 14 years of ruinous civil war ended in 2003, following the deaths of 250,000 people.  

U.S., Kurds strike at Islamic State in Syria
U.S. warplanes attacked Islamic State targets in Syria overnight, in raids that a group monitoring the war said killed civilians as well as jihadist fighters.  

Israeli cargo ship heads for L.A. to unload after Oakland protest
An Israeli-owned container ship that was blocked from unloading its cargo at the Port of Oakland by pro-Palestinian protesters over the weekend was headed to Los Angeles on Monday, according to a ship-tracking website.  

One-fifth of U.S. workers were laid off in past five years, study says
One in five U.S. workers was laid off in the past five years and about 22% of those who lost their jobs still haven't found another one, according to a new survey that showed the extent Americans have struggled in the sluggish labor market since the Great Recession ended.  

California drought and climate warming: Studies find no clear link
Global warming contributed to extreme heat waves in many parts of the world last year, but cannot be definitively linked to the California drought, according to a report released Monday.  

Israeli Fields Enter Biblical Shmita - Fallow Year
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsIsrael Today
Categories: The Nation Of Israel;Contemporary Issues

The new year that began last week on Rosh Hashanah (year 5775 by Jewish reckoning) is a biblically-mandated shmita year in which all farmland is to lie fallow.

While the weekly Shabbat (Sabbath) is a day of rest for man, the shmita is to be a year of rest for the land every seventh year. It is commanded in Exodus 23:10–11, which reads:

"And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard."

It is estimated that some 5,000 Israeli farmers obey the above commandment, and the state sets aside around USD $28.5 million to support them during a year without crops to sell.

The largest and oldest Israeli environmental organization, the Jewish National Fund, also strictly adheres to the shmita, and will not prepare any land for new forestation efforts during the fallow year.

At the same time, many Israeli Jewish farmers fearing a significant loss of income circumvent the rules of the shmita, which are encoded in Israeli religious law, by “selling” their land to a non-Jew for a token amount of money. Once the land is in non-Jewish hands, the farmer is free to work it as usual.

Many also believe there is increasing reason to violate the shmita due to a downturn in Israeli agriculture over the past 30 years. Whereas Israel could once boast some 40,000 farms in its tiny corner of the Middle East, today there are only around 13,000 farms in the Jewish state.

ISIS Threatens to Gas British Troops in Iraq: Soldiers Ordered to Carry Chemical Suits
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsMirror
Categories: Today's Headlines;War

Threat: ISIS fighters in Syria

British special forces in Iraq have been ordered to carry chemical protection suits amid fears Islamic State terrorists could be plotting to launch horror gas attacks.

Crack troops are in the north of the country training Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and ­identifying RAF bombing targets as part of ­Operation Shader.

And spies warn IS fighters have stolen poison gas from Syrian forces.

This could be unleashed on British troops in the wake of air strikes on the Islamic extremists in Iraq.

The soldiers now carry nuclear and biological warfare protection and respirators. All vehicles are being fitted with gas detectors and an RAF Regiment trained in chemical warfare is on standby to fly to the region.

The move comes as Britain was warned the battle to crush IS in the region could last up to a decade. And Barack Obama admitted the US “underestimated” the murderous group’s emergence in Syria. The Mirror understands there are many more UK troops in Iraq than admitted by the Government.

Islamic State (IS) group recruits riding in armed trucks in an unknown location  

As well as the special forces there are also soldiers from 1 Para, RAF air support experts and signals intelligence troops, bringing the number of personnel to 350.

Syria last year agreed to destroy its chemical weapons but US spies suspect ­president Bashar al-Assad shifted some to secret locations. IS are thought to have stolen sarin and chlorine when they captured a Syrian air force base two months ago. As RAF Tornados yesterday returned to Cyrpus from their fifth sortie over IS targets – without firing their weapons – former Army commander Major General Julian Thompson warned the fight could be a long one. Mr Thompson, who led forces in the Falklands conflict, said: “The problem is that we always want an answer by tomorrow. That’s not the real world.

“This is not about force, it’s about changing the perceptions of people who live in these areas.”

And he said Britain’s war on IS could move into Syria. Mr Thompson added: “We are silly to say we are not going to get involved in bombing in Syria. ISIS operates on both sides of the border.”

Iraqi Army Retakes Territory from ISIS
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;War

The Iraqi Army has been reported to have taken back some of  its territory which had fallen into the hands of the "Islamic State" during the course of the night (Monday).

According to several news agencies, the Iraqi Army succeeded in retaking 16 villages in the Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.

Iran to Give Military Grant to Lebanese Army
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Director of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, announced today (Tuesday) that Iran will be giving a military grant to the Lebanese Army to boost their security forces that are already being funded by the US and Saudi Arabia.

“The Islamic Republic has decided to give a military grant to the Lebanese Army,” Shamkhani said in Beirut, reports Reuters.

Duck Dynastys Phil to ABC: Why Wouldnt You Ever Mention Sin?
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsCNS News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Moral Decline

Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson expressed impatience and frustration with the news media and universities because they rarely ever acknowledge the reality of “sin” or even use the word “sin,” and explained that he compelled an ABC reporter to admit he had never “once” in his career mentioned sin.

“I said, why wouldn’t you ever mention sin?” said Robertson. “They’re breaking God’s laws. We won’t even acknowledge it, not once!”

Robertson, a non-denominational Bible Christian, made his remarks during a sermon at the White’s Ferry Road Church in West Monroe, La., on Sept. 14. Robertson and his eldest son, Alan, are elders at the church, which the Duck Dynasty family members and friends regularly attend.

During the sermon, which focused on political correctness and sin, Phil Robertson alluded to his Sept. 2 interview with ABC Good Morning America reporter Ryan Owens, who had asked him about sin.

“I’m waiting on some news organization, at some point, some university, some movie that will just acknowledge sin,” Robertson told the church attendees.  “I’m like, ABC, the news [reporter] sat across from me the other day quizzing me about yeah, yeah, yeah, and I’m like, ‘Let me ask you something, you’ve been with ABC quite awhile, right?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’”

“I said, ‘has ABC or any other news organizations, to your knowledge, have you ever heard anyone say anything about sin?’ And he was like [scratches his beard, looks up].  I said, ‘Come on out with it. Have you ever, yourself, mentioned sin ONCE in your entire career?’ He said, ‘I don’t think I have, Mr. Robertson.’”

Robertson continued,  “I said, have you looked around at the murder, the rape, the robbery, the mayhem, the burning, the looting, these outright theft,  bank robberies?  I’m looking around, I said, while you’ve been in the news business reporting the news – ‘there’s a shooting down there’ – I said, well, that was sin.”

Several Duck Dynasty cast members, l-r, Phil Robertson, Jase Robertson, Si Robertson and Willie Robertson. (A&E)

“Some guy went down there and started shooting, somebody drove by and shot eight people, somebody burned somebody out, somebody kidnapped our children,” said Robertson.  “I said, why wouldn’t you ever mention sin? They’re breaking God’s laws.  We won’t even acknowledge it, not once!”

Robertson, whose Duck Dynasty program is the highest-rated reality-TV show in cable history, was criticized in December 2013 for stating in a GQ magazine interview that homosexual behavior is sinful and citing the New Testament’s letter to the Corinthians to make his point.

During the Good Morning America interview, reporter Ryan Owens noted that “Robertson called homosexual behavior a sin,” and asked the outspoken Christian, “Would you consider yourself a homophobe?”

Robertson answered, “I’m as much of a homophobe as Jesus was. People who are participating in homosexual behavior, they need to know that I love them.”

As for his remarks that homosexual behavior is sinful, Robertson told ABC: “The only place I know of that I could have gone to answer that question would be a Bible. The dictionary wouldn't have explained it, and an encyclopedia wouldn't have explained it, whether it was a sin or not, so I went to the only source I had to answer his question [for GQ].”

Duck Dynasty, which completed its fourth season on A&E in mid-August, had an average audience of 6.51 million viewers for each Wednesday night episode. That’s down from an average of 9.1 million viewers in 2013.

Despite that ratings decline, Duck Dynasty is still considered the highest-rated reality-TV program in cable history. In the summer 2014 season, the show came in No. 1 every week, beating all other cable-TV shows in its time-slot.

Drought: 60 Days of Water Remaining for a Dozen CA Communities
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsBreitbart
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

According to state officials, a dozen communities in Central and Northern California will run out of water in 60 days.

The impact of the state’s drought has reached a critical stage for Colusa and El Dorado County who may run out even before that. At Big Bend Mobile Home Park near Oroville just north of Sacramento in Butte County, CBS reports that water levels have dwindled to the point that the community shuts off the water supply between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Right now a single well is the only water source for Big Bend’s entire community. Although there are other wells at the mobile home park, they are empty. Big Bend resident Michelle Payne contends that the situation becomes impractical when you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. “I guess we’re not flushing,” she reluctantly admitted.

Payne’s neighbor John Dougherty added that at this point there is little to do about the drought. “I don’t water any plants… try to cut back on toilet usage… whatever we can do is what you gotta do…all we can do,” he bemoaned.

Notably, thirty days ago the state listed eight communities that would run out of water in sixty days, now it is up to twelve. Big Bend recently made the sixty-day list and they are being told that the state is coming to drill a new well. So far, however, they have not been given a date when the drilling will commence.

Creation Vs. Evolution: Could the Immune System Evolve?
Sep 30th, 2014
CommentaryCommentary by Roger Oakland
Categories: Creation - Evolution;Contemporary Issues

Anyone who lived through the 70s will remember David Vetter, the young boy better known as the “Bubble Boy. David, born without a functioning immune system, lived his entire life in a completely sterile environment. First, as an infant, he was placed in a small “bubble” crib. Later he lived in a one-room bubble. Eventually, at the age of twelve, David passed away. His life was most significant because he was the first person to survive so long without a proper functioning immune system.

Certainly, David’s life and death should cause serious thinking people to ask some questions about the idea of Darwinian evolution. It is obvious that the immune system acts like a bubble around the human body protecting it from foreign agents that bring about death. When the immune system works, our bodies are protected from the attack of bacteria, viruses, allergens, and toxins. If the system does not work, then the results are catastrophic and can eventually be lethal.

So how would an evolutionist explain the development of the immune system through the concept of natural selection and the idea of the survival of the fittest? According to the theory, gradual changes that occur over millions of years are responsible for producing all the complexity we see in living creatures.

Stop for a moment and think. The immune system must be functional, or you don’t have an organism that can be in the process of evolving. If evolutionists insist on calling their theory scientific, then they must come up with a well-demonstrated mechanism on how the immune system evolved. It is not enough just to say that it happened. We must be told how it happened in a step-by-step process.

It is interesting to note that it is common for prominent evolutionists to ridicule Bible-believing creationists, saying they are religious bigots who are forcing Science back into the dark ages.  However, it seems to me that the inadequate explanation of the origin and development of the human body by evolutionists shows they also have a faith – a faith in their faith in evolution.

The Bible gives God the credit for the complexity of the human body. The Psalmist wrote: “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” [1]

Next time you are confronted by someone who believes in evolution ask the person to describe to you how the immune system evolved. I guarantee they won’t have an answer. The only reasonable answer is a Creator.

The Bible perspective on the subject of the complexity of the human body makes sense, and it is also the truth.

China: Resume Nuclear Talks With N. Korea
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

China’s Foreign Minister called for an immediate renewal of nuclear talks with North Korea.

Speaking at the United Nations’ ceremony, the FM said that this is the only way to settle the crisis in the peninsula.

Abbas's Spokesman: We Want a Palestinian State
Sep 30th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Mahmoud Abbas addresses the UN General Assembly

Reuters

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, responded on Monday evening to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations, saying that the solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict should be based on the decisions of legitimate international institutions, on the Arab Peace Initiative and on the UN General Assembly resolution of November 29, 2012, in which “Palestine” was recognized as a non-member observer state at the UN.

Abu Rudeineh added that the solution should lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in eastern Jerusalem.

He said Israel “must stop settlement construction immediately, lift the siege [on Gaza] and stop the actions of the extremists in the holy places.”

In his speech, Netanyahu linked subjects such as Hamas, ISIS, Iran, anti-Semitism, and Israeli-Palestinian issues to the theme of global partnership and the war against global jihad (and, by extension, extremism).

He said that "Hamas is ISIS, and ISIS is Hamas. And what they share is what all Islamism shares: [. . .] they all have the same ideology, they all seek to establish a global militant Islam - where there is no freedom."

"To them, anyone can be considered an infidel, including fellow Muslims," declared Netanyahu.

The speech also focused on refuting claims by Abbas in his UN speech last week, in which he accused Israel of “genocide” and “war crimes”.

"Hamas cynically used schools - UN schools! - and hospitals, and mosques to house civilians, as Israel surgically struck to eliminate terrorists," Netanyahu said.

"We were not [targeting civilians]," Netanyahu fired. "We regret every civilian casualty."

He noted that the IDF took many measures to warn Palestinian civilians ahead of every strike.

"No other army in history has gone to greater lengths to prevent civilian casualties in the population of their enemies," he noted, to applause. "They upheld the highest moral values of any army in the world."

"Israel's army deserves the admiration of decent people everywhere," he added, to applause.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) denounced Netanyahu’s speech, accusing him of “blatantly manipulating” the facts when he compared Hamas with the Islamic State and Iran.

"Netanyahu's speech at the UN was a blatant manipulation of facts and attempted at misleading the audience through a combination of hate language, slander and argument of obfuscation," PLO executive member Hanan Ashrawi said.

Editors Note.....It seems to this observer that what the Palestinians want is not an Arab state but the elimination of the Jewish state.