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bible jesus, chastity bono, chaz, God, homosexuality, transgender

Transgendered Chastity Bono and "Dancing with the Stars", God, and culture

Posted on September 3, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Chaz. Chastity Bono. Sonny & Cher’s daughter…who chose to reject her biologically determined gender as a woman and surgically become a man.

Chastity as a child:

Chastity as a woman:

Chaz as a man:

Cher’s celebrity daughter was tapped to become a contestant on Dancing With the Stars, a long-running successful reality game show. The outcry was immediate. AFP reports, “The 42-year-old LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) activist formerly known as Chastity Bono is the first transgender contestant on the US version of the globally popular reality television series. He’s the only child of entertainers Cher and the late Sonny Bono, and his debut on prime-time television comes hard on the heels of the release of his autobiography “Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man”. “I’m an activist, first and foremost,” said Bono when ABC television, part of the family-oriented Disney media empire, introduced its 12 couples who will tackle the tango, the foxtrot and samba when the series begins September 19. “I will look at this as just a wonderful opportunity to kind of bring my message to even more people than I’ve had the chance to.”

The backlash against this decision to place a transgendered person front and center in prime time apparently stunned Hollywood. There were immediately over 1000 comments on the show’s website. Most of the comments accused the show of pushing a homosexual agenda in prime time. Chastity’s eagerness to visibly tout his transgenderism as stated above belies the show’s denials of having an agenda. GLAAD also says that the inclusion of openly gay judge Carson Kressley and the lineup of dancers including Bono is a ‘major step forward.’ Step forard in what? In pushing the agenda. In this article, the show’s producers seek to address the backlash, unsuccessfully. One commenter said,

RACAsper said, “I fully respect ABC’s Freedom of Speech. They are free to choose whomever they want for whatever reasons they want. I am also free to turn off the show. I am free to state that I am tired of their never ending assault on moral values. I am tired of hastily flipping the channel when ABC and the other networks show a ferociously violent, sexually charged, or deviant clip from their latest show. They keep pushing the envelope and now they’ve gone too far in my book.”

Why is presenting gay, lesbian, and transgendered people ‘an agenda’? Because the attention paid to their agenda, or as it is defined, ‘set of goals of an ideological group’ is disproportionate to their population number. There are only 400,000 people in the United States who define themselves as biologically born in the “wrong” gender. The population in the US is 300 million.

More to the point, the issue isn’t just numerical, it is moral. People intuitively react negatively when confronted with the sexual sins of homosexuality, lesbianism, and transgenderism, because they’re gross. They defy God’s plan. He foreknew each person He was going to make, and he formed us in the womb (Jer 1:5; Psalm 139:13; Ephesians 2:10). He doesn’t make creative mistakes. If He knew us before He made us then He knew whether we were going to be a woman or a man. If we emerge from the womb and then grow with the mindful decision that we are not the gender we are then it is our mistake, not God’s.

This is not to take away a person’s pain as they grow and feel they are trapped in a wrong body. That struggle may indeed be real to them. But just as many people have struggles, such as unwanted sexual urges toward an opposite or the same gender, toward a desire for alcohol, or for material things that eventually swamp them (Hoarders) it just means they must work harder to resist these urges and wants. The flesh wants what it wants but that does not mean that it should get what it wants. People who succumb to these fleshly desires are to be looked on with compassion, for we all sin. But when looking upon these sins, we exclaim and cry out that God is not to be mocked, and the distortion of transgenderism is an affront to many people who love God and His sovereignty.

In old, staid Maine, a transgender argument is bubbling up now. A family who has a transgendered boy-to-girl is suing the public school system for denial of bathroom access.

The child, who is a twin, was said to have started playing with ‘girl things’ at age three. At age nine, he called himself a boy-girl. The next year, at age ten, he said he was a girl trapped in boy’s body. Eventually, the adjudicating panel ruled against the school district.

How does a child that young know what it feels like to be the wrong gender, or to know what is good for them? We don’t let a ten-year old cross the street by themselves, let alone decide to cross their gender! Allowing a child to distort their God-given biology is a recipe for disaster!

In this Bangor Daily News article accompanying the transgender article above, this doctor (who is the doctor for the aforementioned transgendered child), says “The attempted suicide rate for people who go untreated and unsupported is 45 percent. This population has one of the highest suicide rates of any population in the world. Once they walk in the door for treatment that kind of depression ends.” The implication is that because this small population of transgendered folks is so highly depressed, due to the denial of their expression of their switched gender, they commit suicide. Might I suggest the opposite: they are suicidal because they are living a life that is contrary to their intended gender and satan has instilled in them this dissatisfaction with God’s plan?

The article goes on to interview Dr. Scott Leibowitz, a psychiatrist at the Boston Gender Management Service Clinic. He says, “Gender identity typically is formed around age 3,” he said in a phone interview in August. “It usually presents when a child makes it known that how he or she expresses gender does not match society’s expectations of how that gender should behave.”

Society DOES have expectations of how a gender should behave, and that is for a reason. God’s reason. He made man to be have dominion over the animals, and to provide for the family. He made the woman to be the helper of the man in those endeavors, and to keep the home. He made children the product of their union. When someone chooses not to behave according to their God-given gender, society reacts negatively, and rightly so. As evidenced in the Chaz ‘Dancing With The Stars’ debacle, we are revolted.

In this Christianity Today article, “Peter Sprigg, Family Research Council (FRC) vice president for policy in Washington, D.C., says, “The pressure for acceptance is ultimately a challenge to the authority of Scripture and a violation of natural law. In the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender movement there is a tendency to continually push the envelope in trying to demand the acceptance of what most people perceive to be unusual behavior.”

“God planned for me to be a man before I had ever been created,” Jerry Leach, director of Reality Resources, a ministry in Lexington, Kentucky, to people dealing with gender confusion says. “There was not a woman inside my body longing to be expressed. There is no human condition outside the redemptive circle of God’s love and power.”

The question is often asked, ‘is homosexuality a greater sin than others?” It is answered in a Q&A session by John MacArthur this way:

“Categorically, no, and I’ll tell you why. Because when you have any listing of sins in the Scripture; for example, in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 6, he says in Verse 9, “Do not be deceived,” 1 Corinthians 6:9, “Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” Categorically, you’ve got everything in the same list, … Some would even use those words to refer to people like transvestites or what are they are called today, transgender people, but when you look at a list like that, you see that they’re are all outside the kingdom, so, categorically, they’re all in the same situation. They’re defined by their sin. ”

Then he goes on to describe five kinds of wrath related to sin, especially the sin of homosexuality, and one of them is a kind of wrath that is the wrath of abandonment to a reprobate mind:

“Well, there are five kinds of wrath. There is eternal wrath. That’s hell. There is, I guess what we could call eschatological wrath or the wrath of the last days, the wrath described in Revelation 6 to 19 … so there is eternal wrath; there is eschatological wrath.”

“There is also what I could call cataclysmic wrath, the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, … and in history, God has judged whole civilizations through cataclysms that took unbelieving people and catapulted them into eternity, such as Pompeii, which was a city literally notorious for its vice, so you have eternal wrath; you have eschatological wrath; you have cataclysmic wrath.”

“Then you have what I would call natural wrath, and that is the wrath of God that comes in a sowing-and-reaping fashion. If you are a drunkard all your life, you may die of cirrhosis of the liver. If you live in sexual sin all your life, you may shorten your life and die of some venereal disease, including AIDS, so there are certain things built in. “Whatever a man sows, he reaps.” That’s another kind of wrath, but the wrath being spoken of here [of homosexuality] is the fifth kind. It’s the wrath of abandonment.”

“It is that judicial act of God, whereby He lets the sinner go. In other words, He stops convicting. He stops calling.” In other words, he gives them over to their reprobate mind, defined in today’s language as “to condemn strongly as unworthy, unacceptable, or evil”.

It seems to me that it is a terrible kind of wrath to be abandoned by God to one’s sin. There does come a time when He stops calling a person toward repentance, and there comes a time when he stops calling a nation toward repentance, too. As we see the warped agenda from a tiny minority of transgendered people has become loomingly disproportionate in secular culture, we must wonder how long the Lord will continue to bestow mercy and how soon He will give us over to our refusal to accept His ways.
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birth pangs, end of days. prophecy, end time, pre-tribulation rapture

Record shattering events continue to increase in economic damage and personal pain

Posted on September 3, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

The Weather Channel reports: “August 2011 set records in several locations for torrid heat, torrential rain and river flooding. You can thank, in part, an exceptional Plains drought and Hurricane Irene. Plotted on the clickable map below are locations that set notable records during the month. Sun icons denote heat records, rain icons denote rainfall records, wave icons denote flood records, and, oh yes, there was the strongest earthquake in the East since World War II also plotted.”

The costs of Hurricane Irene, which made landfall his week and raked up the eastern seaboard, may become one of the top ten most expensive natural disasters in US history.

The Weather Channel continues, “August 2011 continued a torrid, record-breaking summer in the Southern Plains, rewriting the record books in many parts of Texas, Oklahoma, as well as parts of Louisiana, Kansas, and New Mexico. Looking at the month’s temperature departures (i.e…how far above and below temperatures were compared to 30-year averages), your eye immediately is drawn to the “big red spot” in the Southern Plains. In fact, when grouping June-August together, called “meteorological summer” by us weather geeks, it was the hottest on record for many cities in Texas and Oklahoma.” Remember the tornado outbreak that razed parts of the US Plains, including Joplin MO? That occurred in May, just three months ago, but it seems like it was in a different epoch because so much has happened between then and now.

There are more graphics at the Weather Channel web page, hit the above links for more information. I think any person can see that the weather is going kerflooey and that the only debate among the lost is the source of the record shattering events. As I wrote earlier this week, some think the cause of our constant record-shattering weather is global warming, others think it is the approach of 2012 and a fulfillment of Mayan prophecy, but others know that it is God warning us. For Christians, there is no debate. We are nearing the end.

The Tribulation will be a time of even greater earthquakes (Rev 6:12), even worse floods (Rev 16:20), even more terrifying things than the UFO sightings, mystery bubble and other unsolved events. These events will be so terrifying that people will heave instant heart attacks just by experiencing them (Luke 21:6). There will be pain so bad that people will gnaw their tongues (Rev 16:10) and scream they wish to die, but they cannot (Rev 9:10). So now is the time of warnings, while we can still bear the events and have sentient thought.

I write the same thing over and over here on this blog, “God is warning us, are you ready to deal with your sin?” and I guess that is what a drum beat is. Sounding the alarm is not something you do once, but you do over and over until people pay attention. The Wall Street Journal made mention of that fact in their Hurricane Irene article this week, saying, “Steady Drumbeat of Hurricane Warning Finally Lulls City That Never Sleeps“

I pray that the steady drumbeat of God’s warnings will finally awaken many, to enjoy the peace that comes with reconciliation with Jesus as He forgives you of your sins when you confess. I don’t write of the terrible judgments to come because I enjoy it, but to show you the unalterable fact that they are coming, they will happen. If you think they are awful things, just wait until you are experiencing them, not just reading about them on some blog, or even better, in the bible. The Book of Revelation is not poetry, it is not allegory, it is not a parable, it is a history told in advance. It will happen, just as all the events in the past the bible describes happened. It will be the most awful time on earth that ever was or will be (Matthew 24:21). The horror of the 7 year Tribulation is soon to arrive but Jesus made a way to escape the wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9), and that is by confessing you are a sinner in need of Jesus to forgive your sins.

When you are an unforgiven sinner, a wall is between you and Jesus, and that all becomes permanent at death. Don’t let that happen to you. I’ll re-use Mr Reagan’s famous line here: “Sinner, tear down that wall!!” Do so by clasping your hands and telling Jesus you know that you think, say, and do wrong things, and that you know these evil things are keeping you from a righteous relationship with Him. Ask Him to forgive you of these things, and He will. He will send the Holy Spirit to come into you to stand you up in righteousness and grow you in His likeness. As was tweeted this morning at the Truth Matters conference, “Unlike any other religion in the world, ours is a reconciling God. God is our Savior!”
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china, rapture

Why China is getting tough, and what it means for prophecy

Posted on September 2, 2011 by elizabethprata

Yesterday I read a good article in The Diplomat, an international current-affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific region. It offers analysis and commentary on events occurring in Asia and around the world, on Geo-political trends throughout the Asia-Pacific, defense and intelligence, environment, human security and development etc. The title is “Why China is Getting Tough” and offers an incisive analysis of the recent aggressive stance that China has adopted. They report, “In recent months, China has adopted an increasingly aggressive posture across the Asia-Pacific region – from provoking fights with neighbours in the South China Sea, to introducing provocative new military systems, to holding joint military exercises with Pakistan on India’s border. Why now?”

Good question. Why is China getting tough now? Several reasons. Remember, nature abhors a vacuum, and there does exist a vacuum in the Asia-Pacific theater.

“China’s regional environment has grown more accommodating this year as Japan and the United States have become increasingly unable to fulfil their traditional roles of balancing Chinese power in the Asia-Pacific. Tokyo’s troubles began when a number of public scandals led to growing dissatisfaction with the Kan administration.”

Second, “The onset of the Arab Spring, meanwhile, forced yet another US administration to turn its attention to the Middle East at the expense of the Asia-Pacific, a trend exacerbated by the decision to intervene militarily in Libya.” So the vacuum deepens…

Further, “Developments elsewhere in the region also seem to be working in China’s favour. For example, the so-called reset in US-Russia relations has steadily deteriorated in recent weeks… Despite stamping out calls for a Jasmine Revolution, the Chinese government continues to face an unsettling domestic situation…” and it is true that oppressive governments that face trying times at home often foment external situations to claim their attention and rally the populace, such as military incursions.

The article goes into good detail in a readable way, so I recommend reading the full article.

All this to say, that in the time of the end (The Tribulation) we know that the Kings of the East become a major military force. As Bible.org says so well, “One of the significant developments of the twentieth century is the political and military awakening of the Orient. The great nations of Asia east of the Euphrates River, slumbering for centuries, are now beginning to stir and to become a major factor in the international situation. The geographic immensity and the millions of humanity involved make it inevitable that any future development embracing the entire world must take the Orient into consideration.”

Israel and the Orient have had little dealings with each other. In fact, China and Japan and Korea were and still are in some cases very insular. It was quite a surprise in 1941 when Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor. China, despire having ‘opened’ to the world recently, is still inscrutable. South Korea is a closed country.

Bible.org goes on to say “Two important passages in Revelation, namely, 9:13-21 and 16:12-16 contribute to the conclusion that one of the large armies employed in the final world conflict will be a military force of great power which comes from the Orient. The first intimation of this is found in Revelation 9 where it is recorded that John:

“heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates, And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them…” (verses 13-16). Though there were not two hundred million people on earth at John’s time, now China has two hundred million in their army.

The passage goes on to describe the character of this army and the conclusion that one-third of the men were killed in the resulting military struggle. “A later development in prophetic fulfillment is portrayed in the sixth vial described in Revelation 16:12-16. There it is recorded, “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared” (Revelation 16:12). Revelation 16:14 reveals that this movement is part of a world-wide gathering of “the kings of the earth and of the whole world” in order that they might participate in “the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”

Grant Phillips asks, “Are We in the Last Days?” “Some prophecies of the last days to consider in answering our question are weather patterns, the economy, society, placement of countries who will come against Israel, modern day technology that provides the means for fulfillment of end-time prophecies, but especially those concerning the State of Israel. In addition to all this though, the beginning Scripture passage of this article should answer this prevailing and burning question. Are we in the last days? If we are now seeing signs that are preparation indicators for the Tribulation, can the Tribulation be that far off? Since the Rapture precedes the Tribulation, then obviously it would be even closer.”

It is the $64,000 question. Actually, it is the priceless question. It is the eternal question. Get ready. He is coming, whether you are ready or not.
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fractals

Random this and that

Posted on September 1, 2011 by elizabethprata

I’m constantly amazed by Jesus. I feel such strong emotions while worshiping. I am amazed that the love of Jesus and from Jesus can be so universal, so powerful, and the desire to worship Him the best way I can is so permeating, that it transcends my very brain structure and pierces every biological limit. I feel sometimes that I love Him so much I am about to burst! I feel close to Him in a great and wonderful way.

I like to read a Pastor’s blog that has a goal of encouragement. It really does meet that goal every day, for me at least. He is a good writer and what he writes about is uplifting. It’s “Pastor Paul’s Blog” a pastor from LaSalle, Quebec, Canada. Yesterday he wrote about “Letting to of our victim mentality” and its main message was having strong faith and taking bold action on that faith, because Jesus is there to sustain us. The message reminded me of a person who always has the opposite message:opposite: Beth Moore, who is always telling us that we are victims. Victims of falling into pits. Victims of circumstance. Victims of our past. But I prefer the message of the Pastor who says that of anyone who could legitimately claim victimhood, Paul, when on the boat in the storm took such a bold stand for Jesus that the sailors on the ship cut away the lifeboat. They did not look at their past and moan about it. They did not look at the storm and cry about it. They looked past the storm, and chose to depend on the promises of Jesus. Now that’s strength!

I watched a documentary about Fractals last night on NOVA. It was pretty interesting. I remember when I used to subscribe to Smithsonian Magazine in the 1980s, the cover at one time featured this new geometry. I read the article bug didn’t understand it. I said to myself that someday I was going to study it again, and I guess that was last night. Fractals as I understand it, is a geometry that brings to visual life in this dimension the curvy geometry, as opposed to straight geometry such as Euclidean geometry. Of course, that is a gross oversimplification, but to add to the confusion, it also brings to life the half dimension. Fractal geometry isn’t 2 dimensional, or three dimensional, but somewhere in between. NOVA’s program description is “You may not know it, but fractals, like the air you breathe, are all around you. Their irregular, repeating shapes are found in cloud formations and tree limbs, in stalks of broccoli and craggy mountain ranges, even in the rhythm of the human heart. In this film, NOVA takes viewers on a fascinating quest with a group of maverick mathematicians determined to decipher the rules that govern fractal geometry. For centuries, fractal-like irregular shapes were considered beyond the boundaries of mathematical understanding. Now, mathematicians have finally begun mapping this uncharted territory. Their remarkable findings are deepening our understanding of nature and stimulating a new wave of scientific, medical, and artistic innovation stretching from the ecology of the rain forest to fashion design. The documentary highlights a host of filmmakers, fashion designers, physicians, and researchers who are using fractal geometry to innovate and inspire.”

If you zoom in on a fractal, it will look like the bigger fractal, and zoom in again, it will retain its look, and over and over and over, to infinity. Look for yourself, an interactive fractal zoomer widget, here at NOVA.

What I found interesting is that the pattern of branching in tree growth is similar all over the tree, and the pattern of trees in the forests as they grow replicates the same pattern as tree branch growth. Also interesting is that the closer you zoom in on a fractal, the more same it is. Fractals are repetitive, iterative, and, well, here is what NOVA explained: “Applying zoom-ins and different iterative prisms to the numbers in the boundary area of the Mandelbrot set has revealed that this region is a mathematical strange attractor. The “strange attractor” name here applies to the set because it is self-similar at many scales, is infinitely detailed, and attracts points (numbers) to certain recurrent behavior.”

In other words, the patterns in the numerical representation of the geometry of the fractal is orderly, and infinite. Just like God. his patterns at the visible level and the invisible level are magnificent. This orderliness did not come from chaos (like a “big Bang”). It came from an orderly mind. God’s orderly mind.

At school, I was walking down the hallway leading a group of kindergarten kids. One little guy fell down. I turned to see him getting up. I asked if he was all right, and he said that he was except his hand hurt a little. I said “How did you fall down, anyway?” He said, “Like this,” and proceeded to show me by falling down again. I laughed all day over that one.

At church tonight the kids were great. I am always astounded by how the kids have strong spiritual connection to the Truth. For example, I asked the kids to listen to Psalm 100. I re-read it, emphasizing all the words “His”. His gates, His people, His sheep, His pasture. I asked them what they thought about what I read. That’s all I said. Immediately one of the kids said, “Well, God made it all, so obviously, it’s all His.” These kids are seven years old.

We’re closing on on another day, if it not be the rapture tonight! Have a good one, and see you tomorrow!
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bees

Man vs. bees

Posted on August 30, 2011 by elizabethprata

Do people have a short fuse these days, or what?

Dude…

Man avenges bee-stung friend, sets hive on fire
“(AP) LYNDEN, Wash. – A Washington state fire chief says a man dumped gasoline on a beehive in a tree in retaliation for a bee sting, then ignited the hive, causing an explosion heard throughout his suburban neighborhood just a few miles south of the Canadian border. Lynden chief Gary Baar tells the Bellingham Herald that the Sunday night fire caused a large “whoosh,” singed the tree and killed the bees but no people were hurt. Baar says the man’s friend had been stung earlier in the day. The fire chief says, “The correct way to do that is to call a beekeeper.” Firefighters explained that to the homeowner, and the newspaper says it doesn’t appear that that the man will be cited.”

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bible jesus, prophecy, psalm 83

If Syria’s regime fails, what happens to its chemical weapons?

Posted on August 30, 2011 by elizabethprata

The bible prophesies that a certain battle will occur and that prophecy has not been fulfilled. It is parked intercessory prayer for Israel’s victory in a battle against her neighbors, and it is in Psalm 83. We know that it has not occurred yet because the specific line-up of nations participating in the war has never happened.

In this battle, Israel is soundly vanquishing attacking enemies Palestinians, Syrians, Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians, Lebanese, and various terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda. The victory Israel execute is firm, these nations and organizations do not rise again.

People who watch the prophecies and know the bible wonder what it will take for Israel to go into a battle such as the one described in Psalm 83. Would she be defending herself after a heinous attack Would she be executing pre-emptive attack because of imminent threats Would it be a retaliation for an accumulated drip-drip of constant rocket and terrorist attacks unknown. But we watch and we notice what is happening int he Middle east from the vantage point of knowing the end and living it in the present. Some things are happening in the Middle East that have me concerned.

Syrian unrest raises fears about chemical arsenal
“The Middle Eastern state with the dangerous chemicals was not Libya, whose modest stockpile was thrust into the spotlight last week because of fighting there. It was Syria, another violence-torn Arab state whose advanced weapons are drawing new concern as the country drifts toward an uncertain future. A sudden collapse of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could mean a breakdown in controls over the country’s weapons, U.S. officials and weapons experts said in interviews. But while Libya’s chemical arsenal consists of unwieldy canisters filled mostly with mustard gas, the World War I-era blistering agent, Syria possesses some of the deadliest chemicals ever to be weaponized, dispersed in thousands of artillery shells and warheads that are easy to transport.”

Dr. Jill Dekker is a consultant to the NATO Defense Establishment in bio-warfare and counter terrorism. Dr. Dekker is also a member of the board of advisors of the Intelligence Summit. She gave an interview to the New English Review in December 2007. In it, she said,

“Contrary to how the US State Department and other agencies tend to downplay the sophistication of the Syrian biological and nuclear programs, they are very advanced. Syria has always had the most advanced chemical weapons program in the Middle East. The US and other western agencies have in a sense been distracted by this, but their biological programs and the “concept of use” are robust. Syria’s biological weapons capability today is closely tied to the former and current Soviet and Russian programs respectively, the DPRK, Iran and the former Iraq regime. A major concern is their strategic concept of use – which has gone from one of ‘special weapons’ to incorporation into their ‘conventional arsenal.’ That is a significant shift and one that seems to have eluded the US. The Syrians run their biological programs out of the Syrian Scientific Research Council (SSRC) in Damascus.”

“They have separate wings for separate pathogens. They also have a number of programs running in Aleppo. The Syrians are 100% committed to deniable operations as their modus operandi. Biological weapons, particularly those which might occur naturally, are the ultimate in deniability, for example, their cryptosporidium program for force reduction. The Wednesday Report noted a few years ago that in terms of the Syrian anthrax program, Syria has extensive expertise in the industrial cultivation of germs and viruses for the civilian production of anthrax (and smallpox) vaccines. It also noted that Russian experts, contracted by Syria, are apparently helping them to cultivate a highly virulent anthrax germ for installation in missile warheads. Their pharmaceutical infrastructure is fully integrated with their defense structure. Syrians cannot reach parity with US and Israeli conventional weapons. However, they view their bio-chemical arsenal as part of a normal weapons program. This is a huge shift in thinking by the Syrian military. It means they condone the use of biological pathogens as ‘offensive’ weapons. NATO and the United States should be very concerned about that re-designation.”

We know that in Isaiah 17 the prophecy says Damascus will be destroyed. The prophecy does not say when or how, just that the city and its area will be razed and unfit for human habitation.

Israel knows that Damascus is a center for bio-warfare. Israel knows that the regime handling these deadly weapons at their abutting border is fighting for its life, gasping even today. How far will Israel demonstrate restraint in the face of these threats? This week an opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post proposed that Israel should intervene in Syria.
“There is no question Israel will have to deal with a post-Assad Syria, so why not start that process now? For those who support Israel, perhaps the most ironclad principle of our diplomatic posture is non-intervention in the Arab Spring. Unless there is an active Arab attempt to drag Israel into conflict to deflect popular internal dissent – as Bashar Assad attempted on the Golan to protest Naksa Day in June – conventional wisdom has Israel withdrawn to the periphery. The argument, of course, is that a provoked Israeli response is just the tonic embattled Arab despots need to deflect attention to the old Zionist monster under the bed and stir up Iranian and leftist critiques of Israel. Further, a desperate Assad (or even post-Mubarak Egypt) might escalate to non-conventional weapons in a bid to retain power: the massive Israeli retaliation would end internal uprisings. These high-risk scenarios cultivate a conservative Israeli mindset according to which the Devil one knows is better than the Devil one doesn’t.”

The costs from Hurricane Irene are outweighed by the cost of not repenting

Posted on August 30, 2011 by elizabethprata

That natural disasters are on the rise is unquestionable. The data is the data and the facts are the facts. The debate is not whether they are increasing, but is over the cause of the increase. Some people say that these disasters are increasing because of changes in the magnetosphere, which, they say, caused the aflockalypse of bird deaths at the beginning of this year. Others say the cause is from government conspiracies such as HAARP, or High Frequency Active Auroral research Program which purposely disturbs a segment of our ionosphere and measures the effects. HAARP really exists but conspiracy theorists posit that it is being used for dark purposes. Others say it is global warming, such as the author of this first article. But whatever the cause (and it is GOD) the effects are real.

In this article by Bill McKibben, he attributes the recent increase of disasters to global warming but in his article he totes up the effects, which are devastating:

“Remember—this year has already seen more billion-dollar weather-related disasters than any year in U.S. history. Last year was the warmest ever recorded on planet Earth. Arctic sea ice is near all-time record lows. Record floods from Pakistan to Queensland to the Mississippi basin; record drought from the steppes of Russia to the plains of Texas. Just about the only trauma we haven’t had are hurricanes plowing into the U.S., but that’s just luck—last year was a big storm year, but they all veered out to sea. This year we’re already on letter I—which in a normal year we don’t get to until well into October.”

But then Irene hit.

In an incredible decision, all Mass Transit in NY City was closed in advance of Hurricane Irene, costing millions. There were no flights Sunday at the 5 NY-area airports; 9000 flights were canceled, and the George Washington Bridge lower level was closed in both directions. Amazing. What an incredible shut-down for our largest city. But that was not the worst of it. Upstate NY and Vermont were hammered.

Hurricane Irene flood damage stuns inland areas
“Brattleboro, Vt. — Rippling creeks became deadly deluges. Bridges collapsed into roiling waves. Dry streets turned into fast-rising lakes, closing in around stunned towns. While Irene – first a hurricane and then a tropical storm – unleashed its initial share of damage along the sandy shores of the Eastern Seaboard, by Monday its greatest impact was felt far from the coastline, in places such as landlocked Vermont and the bucolic mountains of upstate New York. Even so, more than 48 hours after Irene made landfall early Saturday, about 4.5 million people remained without power in 13 states from North Carolina to Maine. The death toll jumped to at least 40, according to the Associated Press, and some rivers had yet to crest.”

“Hundreds remained stranded in communities cut off by washed-out roads, including at least 2,500 residents of remote Hatteras Island in North Carolina, where severed utility lines also left them without power. The only access to the island was via a ferry limited to emergency use. Police in suburban Parsippany, N.J., had to rescue dozens of people who became trapped in two hotels Monday when a nearby lake spilled over its banks and sent enough water into the streets and hotel parking lots to swallow vehicles. Evacuees included guests who had fled to the hotels after heeding advice to evacuate their homes in advance of Irene.”

The economic cost of the advanced protection and evacuations, the lost revenue from closed businesses, and the cleanup afterwards is incalculable.

Joel Rosenberg wrote a good piece this week titled “This was a wake up call: American East Coast shaken by Hurricane Irene.” Joel write in part–

“This was a wake up call. At its peak, Hurricane Irene was the size of the State of Texas. Had it remained a Category 3 storm — or even increased in intensity — it could have created the greatest natural disaster catastrophe in the history of the United States. Fortunately, that’s not what happened. The storm is now over, and even as the clean up begins, critics are saying it was hyped up and “overblown” by government officials and weather forecasters. But did the experts really badly “misjudge” Irene, or did God hear people’s prayers and have mercy on us by weakening the storm faster than the experts had predicted? I think both are true. I am grateful to the Lord for His grace and mercy on us. I am also grateful to the forecasters and the government leaders who warned us as best they could and took decisive action to put public safety first. As I have written about several times in recent months, the Lord is shaking us, trying to wake us up and get us to focused back on Him and on His Word. We need to recommit ourselves to prayer, fasting and reading the Bible and get our hearts right with the Lord. For Bible prophecy tells us that far greater storms are coming as we steadily approach the Day of the Lord.”

And another storm has formed. She is on the same track as Irene. Her name is Katia… I’ll repeat Joel’s good advice: “We need to recommit ourselves to prayer, fasting and reading the Bible and get our hearts right with the Lord. For Bible prophecy tells us that far greater storms are coming as we steadily approach the Day of the Lord.”

bachmann, bible jesus

Bachmann pulls a punch: says eq & hurricane was warning from God, then says she’s joking

Posted on August 29, 2011 by elizabethprata

Presidential Candidate Michelle Bachmann is an evangelical conservative. This always makes the political world nervous. It makes everyone who is not saved nervous, frankly. The world does not understand our adherence to Jesus, our love for Him, and certainly does not understand submission to Him and His ways. Christians and the world are separate. (1 John 2:15; James 4:4).

We are told to be bold in declaring Jesus as savior and not to deny Him before men or he will deny us. (Matthew 10:33; Mark 8:38; 2 Tim 2:12).

Today Bachmann said the following: “While courting conservative and religious voters in Florida over the weekend, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann used the significant natural disasters that recently hit the East Coast to jokingly make the case that God would approve of less government spending. “I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians,” Bachmann said at a rally, eliciting chuckles from audience. “We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now… They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.” After reports of the remarks generated some criticism, the Bachmann campaign clarified the candidate was joking.”

Now, I do not believe that her comments denied Jesus, exactly. She seems to me to be a year-round believer, unlike some fair weather, political believers (calling John McCain…). But it just makes me sad to hear someone say something that’s true- God is sending warnings, and when criticized, pulls back and claims she’s ‘joking.’ That is worse. Warnings of imminent judgment are not a joking matter. Either be up front about your thoughts on God, or down’t say anything at all in the public spheres.

Just once, I’d love to hear a candidate who follows Jesus say something about Him that we all know will rile the unsaved, and stand on the comment with boldness and joy. If Bachmann had responded, “Yes, I said that and I believe it. Next question, please”, I’d be so much happier with her right now.
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comet elenin, end of days. prophecy

Comet Elenin info for the worried

Posted on August 29, 2011 by elizabethprata

I dunno who this guy Astro Blogger Ian Musgrave is, aside from being a knowledgeable amateur astronomer, but he seems both scientifically solid and on the up-and-up. Check out his post with Elenin facts. At his web page his article has live links to much of the information which explains more. As Elenin comes into view, and I understand that it can be seen now by amateur telescopes in the southern hemisphere, really, we have enough real events to worry about in the near term than the fabricated hype of Elenin … like, the Federal Reserve/Treasury has to refloat the bonds coming due in Mid September, and QE3 (third round of quantitative easing, i.e. flooding the economy with freshly printed fiat money) will be required (even though Bernanke says no QE3 is on the horizon, yet) because there are no buyers for US Notes at present. Printing more money means that we will dig ourselves very deeply into the hole we already cannot get out of and dilute the already crumbling buying power of the dollar. Also, the upcoming vote at the United Nations to allow Palestinians their own state on Israel’s lands will be an earth-shattering moment. The EU has some decisions to make about bailing out several of their member nations in trouble. Not to mention the ongoing natural disasters happening in the world every day. Forget Elenin. Pray for the real problems.

Comet Elenin: the FAQ for the worried.

Will it Hit Earth: No, its closest approach is 0.23 AU on Oct 16, 2011, where 1 AU is the distance from the Earth to the Sun. To put this in perspective, this is only a little closer than the closest approach of Venus to Earth, and roughly 100 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. This distance is from the latest MPEC ephemeris which is based on over 100 observations from multiple observatories that have been continuously tracking the comet, so it won’t change appreciably.

But its Earth MOID is only 0.03 AU! MOID stands for Minimal Orbital Interaction Distance. It is how close the orbits are together, not how close the objects are themselves. It’s important for objects that have multiple return orbits, like potential asteroid impactors, but not for a one-off visitor like Elenin (well, you could wait for another 10,000 years or so). Earth and Elenin themselves never get closer than 100 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

Surely if Elenin Was Going to Hit the Earth NASA/the Government Would Hush it Up? Which government? The Australian Government, the UK Government? The Italian Government? The South African Government? Amateur astronomers world wide are following this comet and continually talking to each other. The have the programs to work out where the comet is going. If the comet was coming anywhere near us, the amateur community would be first to know, and there is no keeping them quite. Consider how wide spread the information is about Apophis, which is a real, if extremely marginal, hazard.

Will it Cause Earthquakes, Abnormally High Tides or Other Disasters: No, Elenin is a mere 3-5 kilometres across and has less than a billionth of the tidal force of the Moon at closest approach (as well as a negligible magnetic field). If the Moon can’t cause the poles to tip, cause massive tidal floods or earthquakes, Comet 2010 X1 Elenin won’t. We’ve been closer to other comets before with no ill effect.

But What About Mensur Omerbashich’s Paper that Says Elenin is Causing Earthquakes? It shows nothing of the sort, earthquakes are no more common during comet alignments than at any other time (see here for an update, earthquakes still not caused by Elenin).

But it’s bigger than Jupiter! No, that’s the coma , the thin haze of gas and dust that surrounds the comet nucleus. The nucleus of C/2010 X1 Elenin is roughly 3-4 Km in diameter and Elenin has a coma around 50,000 km wide at the time of writing (which is a third of the diameter of Jupiter). The average density of the coma is about the same as the density of the atmosphere on the Moon. A coma is a feature of all comets that approach the Sun closely, for example comet 81P Wild (nucleus 4 Km diameter) had a coma of 50,000 Km and 103P Hartley had a coma of 150,000 Km. The Great Comet of 1811 had a nucleus of around 30km in diameter and had a coma nearly as big as the Sun. Comet Halley is 6×15 km and had a coma 100,000 km wide when it last approached Earth. We survived them all (and 103P Hartley came nearly twice as close as Elenin will), and we will survive Elenin without incident.

The size of Elenin has been independently confirmed (well, it’s probably smaller), by observation of the orbit of the small asteroid 1999 RQ176 when it had a close encounter with Elenin.

But I Can See a Picture of it in WikiSky, it’s HUGE! That is the carbon star CW Leonis.

Didn’t it Just Cause Saturn’s Tilt to Change? No, the author of that article didn’t realize that telescopes invert the image.

Is Elenin a Moon of a Brown Dwarf Star? No.

But Brown Dwarf Stars are so Cold, you Can’t See Them. No, coldest detected so far is ~370K (about the temperature of a hot cup of tea), the the warmest are around 2200 K, and most range between 500-1000 K. They may not produce much visible light, but they reflect light. Jupiter has a composition similar to those of Drown Dwarf stars. Jupiter’s cloud tops are a chilly 128 K and it reflects light just fine. Any Brown Dwarf in the inner solar system would be painfully obvious.

Will Going Through the Comets Tail Affect Us? No, should the rather small tail of Elenin actually pass over us, it’s doing a pretty good imitation of a vacuum (about 100 atoms per cm3). We have been through bigger and denser comet tails before with no effect whatsoever (especially the Great Comet of 1861).

Why isn’t Comet Elenin in the News? For the same reason that the other 16 comets discovered in 2010 didn’t get in the news, or the 5 comets discovered in 2011. They are all dim. The News is only interested in comets that are spectacular, readily visible to the unaided eye or are being visited by spacecraft. Comet 2009 P1 will be as bright, if not brighter than C/2010 X1 Elenin, but that’s not in the news either. Amateur and professional astronomers are watching comet Elenin and others avidly, but the news channels don’t care about our obsessions with faint fuzzies.

Why Can’t I Find Information of Elenin at the NASA Website? Because NASA is not the arbiter of all things astronomical. You won’t find information on C/2009 P1, C/2011 C1 or any of the faint comets discovered during 2010 and 2011. NASA does have information of comets that its spacecraft have visited, or are interesting in some other way, but it’s not an exhaustive comet site like Cometography or Aerith.

I Saw Comet Elenin Near the Sun in August 2010/Now: In August 2010 only really powerful telescopes could see Elenin. You saw Venus. If you are seeing something bright near the Sun in the morning sky now, it’s Venus.

How Can I Tell What IS in the Sky and Avoid The Venus Confusion? For freeware standalone programs there is Cartes du Ciel and Stellarium (my favourite). For Web based solutions Skyview Cafe, Sky-Map and GoogleEarth (KMZ file here) all work.
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hurricane irene, michelle kosinski in a canoe

Fave storm reporting: Michelle Kosinski in a canoe

Posted on August 28, 2011 by elizabethprata

This clip below is not from the current storm of Hurricane (now TS) Irene. It is from 2005. But it is funny anyway and kind of representative of Irene. Now as for the blame going around regarding Irene, remember that 17 inches of rain fell on NC, 10 people died, including a fireman performing a swift water rescue, there is billions of damage, more billions in lost economies and millions without power. I think the government officials did a good job of preparing, especially Mayor Bloomberg of NYC. I understand it takes at least 12 hours from the stop order to do the things he ordered, such as evac hospitals and shut transit, so he was going on the best information at the time. They did a good job and I commend them all.

But the reporters in the storm were funny nonetheless. In one example from today’s storm, “For the television reporter, clad in his red cagoule emblazoned with the CNN logo, it was a dramatic on-air moment, broadcasting live from Long Island, New York during a hurricane that also threatened Manhattan. “We are in, right, now…the right eye wall, no doubt about that…there you see the surf,” he said breathlessly. “That tells a story right there.” Stumbling and apparently buffeted by ferocious gusts, he took shelter next to a building. “This is our protection from the wind,” he explained. “It’s been truly remarkable to watch the power of the ocean here.” The surf may have told a story but so too did the sight behind the reporter of people chatting and ambling along the sea front and just goofing around. There was a man in a t-shirt, a woman waving her arms and then walking backwards. Then someone on a bicycle glided past.”

And here is NBC’s Michelle Kosinski-

and here is the 2005 news article about that Canoe moment courtesy of the NY Observer.
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