'' We cannot live with a nuclear Iran. The most blatant form of voter intimidation i've seen,'' he writes. Biologically there is no such thing as "two fathers," he says. A child may be raised by his father and his father's homosexual partner.
'' We cannot live with a nuclear Iran. The most blatant form of voter intimidation i've seen,'' he writes. Biologically there is no such thing as "two fathers," he says. A child may be raised by his father and his father's homosexual partner.
'' We cannot live with a nuclear Iran. The most blatant form of voter intimidation i've seen,'' he writes. Biologically there is no such thing as "two fathers," he says. A child may be raised by his father and his father's homosexual partner.
A DIGEST OF SIGNIFICANT WORLD NEWS FROM THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET STAFF FOR THE WEEK OF JULY 4-10, 2010
We cannot live with a
nuclear Iran. The most blatant form of voter intimidation Ive ever seen. We may be getting dumber, but when it comes to self-esteem, no one outperforms America! Do they think they can take British membership of the EU for granted? In Britain today, hating Israel has become a valid criminal defense. P resident Obama used this past Fathers Day to show his support for homosexuals raising children. Nurturing families come in many forms, he wrote, and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a stepfather, a grandfather, or caring guardian. Of course, biologically there is no such thing as two fathers. A child may be raised by his father and his fathers homosexual partner, but not by two fathers. That euphe- mistic term is a gross error. In June, completely outside the purview of elected legislators, the Obama administrations Labor Department unilaterally announced that the Family and Medical Leave Act (fmla) now covers all families, including lgbt families. Thus, companies will now be forced to permit homosexual couples that adopt children up to 12 weeks of leave. How could it make such a change? Simply by redefn- ing son or daughter to extend to the various parenting relationships that exist in todays world. Thus, using the presidents own terminology, a childs fathers homosexual partner may now legally also be considered a second fa- ther. This action is a victory for many non-traditional families, including families in the lesbian-gay-bisexual- transgender community, the press release from Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said. [A]n employee who intends to share in the parenting of a child with his or her same-sex partner will be able to exercise the right to fmla leave to bond with that child. All this language is framed to sound like it promotes family in generalthat it is just win-win-win all around. In truth, it represents the ceaseless efforts of self-professed intellectuals to popularize deviant sexuality. They are hostile to the actual meaning of deep and won- derful words like father, son and daughter, and are eager to redefne them after their own fancies. On June 9, the Obama administrations State Depart- ment dropped this bombshell: The U.S. Department of State is pleased to use the occasion of Lesbian, Gay, Bi- sexual, Transgender Pride Month to announce its new policy guidelines regarding gender change in passports and Consular Reports of Birth Abroad. Beginning June 10, when a passport applicant presents a certifcation from an attending medical physician that the applicant has undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition, the passport will refect the new gender. The guidelines include detailed information about what information the certifcation must include. It is also pos- sible to obtain a limited-validity passport if the physicians statement shows the applicant is in the process of gender transition. Thus, anyone with a doctors note confrming his or her gender confusion can receive an offcial U.S. passport stating as fact that he or she is the opposite sex from plain biological reality! The press release nonchalantly states, Sexual reassignment surgery is no longer a prerequisite for passport issuance. What utter confusion! Even male and female are open to redefnition, in their minds. Perhaps there is no clearer illustration of the muddled thinking plaguing liberal secularists than the fact that they simply will not accept something so simple and clear-cut as male and female. In their twisted view, gender is a choice, a state of mind, a construct, and always open for reinterpre- tation. Again, though, all this redefning is an intellectual fraud aimed squarely at exalting deviant sexuality. Britain has gone one step further in trying to drive their make-believe redefnitions into reality: British law now mandates that transsexuals be allowed to receive a new birth certifcate saying they were born the opposite sex. A man may have lived for several decades, married and had children; but if at some point he decides that he is actu- ally a woman trapped in a mans body, he can receive the offcial government-issued document to prove that, yes, he was actually born a girl. Reality simply doesnt matter. If this person believes he was born female, then he was born female! And anyone who says differently is a bigot! That is the message the British government is sticking in the face of anyone who would raise an eyebrow at this nonsense. Proponents of such policies think they are creating a world free from oppression and hate, a world of tolerance and understanding, where everyone is accepted, where no one is condemned and no ones feelings are ever hurt. In truth they are intolerantly imposing their sick views, creating a nightmare world where discomfort with moral deviancy is punishable by law. There is no such Thing as Two fathers see FATHERS page 10 JOEL HILLIKER COLUMNIST Middle east T urkey infOrmed Israel last weekend that it has withdrawn from naval exercises with Israel and the United States scheduled for August. This was the latest of Ankaras hostile moves against Israel since the Mavi Marmara incident in May, when Israel raided a Turkish fotilla bound for the Gaza Strip. Additionally, Turkeys foreign minister has confrmed that Turkish airspace has been closed to Israeli military fights. Turkeys airspace is fully closed to Israeli military planes. The ban is not implemented case-by-case. Its a blanket ban, Ahmet Davu- toglu said in an interview last Sunday. Davutoglu last week threatened to break diplomatic ties with Israel unless it apologizes for or accepts an international probe into its raid on the Gaza-bound fotilla. While analysts are describing relations between Turkey and Israel as business as usual, the relationship is irreparably damaged. In the end, Turkeys antipathy toward Israel will lead to a tragic betrayal of its erstwhile ally. U.S. President Barack Obama met with Israeli Prime Minister Ben- jamin Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday. Some view the ostensibly cordial meeting as an effort by President Obama to win over voters ahead of mid-term congressional elections in November. Other analysts say it is the Obama administrations attempt to be seen to be making progress in the Middle East peace process. In an effort to ease international pres- sure, Netanyahu said he was prepared to meet with Palestinian Author- ity President Mahmoud Abbas, and Israel has taken legal action against several Israeli soldiers involved in the 2008 offensive in the Gaza Strip, including charging one soldier with manslaughter. Despite the apparent reconciliation between the two leaders after President Obamas previous snubs of Prime Minister Netanyahu, based on biblical prophecy we can expect Americas relationship with Israel to continue to deteriorate. Hezbollah is establishing military positions, including the placement of weapons and explosives, next to schools and hospitals in southern Lebanon, an idf offcer said on Wednesday. The Iranian-sponsored terrorist group is digging tunnels and setting up communications infrastructure as it prepares for war, the source said. Hezbollah has infrastructure set up close to population centers in about 160 villages in southern Lebanon. This has been achieved even while the United Na- tions force in Lebanon has been present, supposedly to stop Hezbollah rearming and rebuilding. PRESS TV | July 7 UK Troops forced to Pull Out: Taliban T he reclusive leader of the Taliban has taken credit for a plan by British troops to pull out from a troubled southern district in Af- ghanistan, saying they were forced to withdraw by the militants. A statement attributed to Mullah Mohammad Omar said Wednesday that British forces were pulling out from the violence-wracked Sangin district of Afghanistans Helmand Province due to pressure from mili- tant attacks. This is the start of the British forces defeat in Afghanistan, a Tal- iban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, quoted Mullah Omar as saying. We defeated them in Sangin. Theyll be defeated in the rest of the country soon, he added. Under the new plan, British troops will hand over control of the troubled region to U.S. forces. Taliban militants, however, warned that the U.S. forces will suffer the same fate. THE TRUMPET WEEKLY July 10, 2010 2 standing down the hanging Jury in britain today, hating Israel has become a valid criminal defense. This week fve criminal defendants charged with destroy- ing property valued at some $285,000 at the edO mbm arms factory in Brighton during a January 2009 break-in were found innocent of all charges. They were found innocent despite the fact that all fve admitted to having committed the crime. As the Guardian reported, the defen- dants boasted in online forums at the time of the incident that their crime was premeditated. It took place during the idfs campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Their declared aim was to smash up the fac- tory. And they achieved their goal. The jury found the fve innocent because the jurors accepted as a valid defense the defendants claim that they vandalized the edO mbm plant because they wanted to pre- vent Israel from carrying out war crimes in Gaza. edO mbm does business with the idf, therefore, the defendants claimed and the jury agreed, it deserved to be attacked. In fnding as they did, the jurors were acting in accordance with the guidance they received from the presiding judge. As the Guardian reported, Judge George Bathurst-Norman instructed the jury, You may well think that hell on Earth would not be an understatement of what the Gazans suffered in that time. What this verdict shows is that in Brit- ish courts, hatred of Israel has become a license to break the law. This turn of events is the logical fipside of Parlia- ments abject refusal to amend Britains outrageous universal jurisdiction law. British lawmakers, government offcials and jurists all basically agree that the lawwhich allows magistrates to issue arrest warrants against foreigners based on allegations fled by British subjectsis a legal travesty. It subverts the capacity of the British government to conduct foreign policy by placing all foreigners at the mercy of political activists. Both Spain and Belgium amended their universal jurisdiction laws for this reason. But in Britain no amendment is in the offng because the demand for the amend- ment is linked to Israel. Since Israel-hat- ing activists began hijacking magistrate courts to force the issuance of arrest war- rants against Israeli military personnel and politicians fve years ago, Israel has repeatedly asked that the law be changed. And because Israel wants it changed, it will remain in force. JERUSALEM POST, CAROLINE GLICK | JULY 5 THE TRUMPET WEEKLY July 10, 2010 3 The decision was announced as the UK has suffered its heaviest loss in the notorious Sangin districtwith almost 100 deaths since the start of the U.S.-led war nine years ago. The British government is under fre at home over the rising number of fatalities in Afghanistan. Opinion polls show that most Britons want their troops back home. WORLD TRIBUNE | July 6 Obama Promises saudi King That israel Will Withdraw from Jerusalem, West Bank P resident barack Obama was said to have pledged to Saudi Arabia that the United States would force Israel to withdraw from eastern Jerusalem and the entire West Bank by 2012. Diplomatic sources said Obama relayed a pledge to Saudi King Abdullah that he would take any measure to ensure an Israeli with- drawal from the West Bank and Jerusalem over the next 18 months. They said Obama relayed the pledge to Abdullah during the presidents trip to Riyad in June 2009, about four months after he assumed offce, in exchange for Abdullahs help to arrange for the end of the Taliban war in Afghanistan. Obama believes the Saudis are the most important element in his strategy to withdraw from Afghanistan, a diplomatic source familiar with the Obama-Abdullah talks, said. Abdullah said he was ready to talk to Taliban, but asked for a clear and defnitive promise to deliver Israel. On June 29, Abdullah met Obama in the White House, the third ses- sion over the last 18 months. The sources said Abdullah has demand- ed U.S. guarantees that Israel would withdraw from the West Bank and most of Jerusalem by 2012. They said the Saudi king also expressed opposition to U.S. arms sales to Israel and Washingtons boycott of the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. Obamas approach to the Saudis was formulated soon after he en- tered the White House in late January 2009. In May 2009, Obama sent an envoy, Richard Holbrooke, to the kingdom . The sources said Abdullah asserted that he wielded signifcant infu- ence over the Saudi-fnanced Taliban . But the king told Holbrooke that he frst wanted Washington to adopt and implement the Saudi plan for an Arab-Israeli settlement. Holbrooke agreed with everything Abdullah asked, a source who monitored the meeting recalled. He [Hol- brook] kept saying No problem, even to the most outrageous demands. At that point, the king said, I want to hear this from your boss. Holbrooke, who helped broker the end of the war in Bosnia in 1995, has long advocated that Washington must be prepared to force Israel into a settlement with the Palestinians in any effort to win Arab sup- port for U.S. policy in the Middle East. Holbrooke, who also reports to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was said to have joined senior U.S. military commanders in asserting that Washingtons support for Israel was the key reason for the Arab refusal to cooperate in either Afghani- stan or Iraq. Since the Obama pledge, the sources said, the White House has rejected virtually every Israeli request for U.S. weapons platforms. They said Obama also delayed decisions by the former administration of President George Bush to deliver attack helicopters, air transports, bunker-buster air bombs and Hellfre air-to-ground missiles to the Jewish state. The More flags the EU run Up Their flag Poles, the fewer salutes They get Our masters in the European Union are apparently fed up with our insolence and ingratitude. They are fning us 150 million for failing to display the EU fag with suffcient regularity, prominence and enthusiasm. The Eurocrats provide grants for as- sorted regional development projects usually with matching funds from the British governmentand it is true that these grants amount to big money. But our apparent lack of appreciation should not be all that hard to fathom. We are paying 10.2 billion a year to the Euro- pean Unionand less than half that sum comes back to us. We have a situation of the EU giving us back some of our money and telling us how we are allowed to spend it (often on some wasteful project). They then foam with indignation that we fail to parade our allegiance to the EU. Do these people not realize how thin our patience is growing? Do they think they can take British membership of the EU for granted? If we ceased to be members, where do they imagine the extra 6.6 billion would be found to pay for their salaries and pampered working conditions? Do they imagine the Germans would cheerfully pick up the tab? Do they think the Greeks have plenty of spare cash at the moment? Certainly the rulebook shows just how seriously the EU takes itself. The image of the EU fag should only be increased or reduced in size proportionally, it says. It should never be squeezed or stretched. The correct proportions are 1.5 horizontal to 1 vertical. There is a requirement that On billboards and commemorative plaques, the acknowledgment of European Union funding must constitute a minimum of 25 percent of the total area. There is also a warning that The European Union logo works best on a white background. Howev- er, if it appears on a non-white background then a white border should be placed around it. On and on it goes. Page after page of requirements from the EUs Logo Police. I sense our politicians realize we are close to the breaking point so far as the EU is concerned.
DAILY MAIL | JULY 8 THE TRUMPET WEEKLY July 10, 2010 4 WASHINGTON TIMES | July 6 UaE diplomat Mulls hit on irans nukes T he united Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that the benefts of bombing Irans nuclear program out- weigh the short-term costs such an attack would impose. In unusually blunt remarks, Ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba publicly endorsed the use of the military option for countering Irans nuclear program, if sanctions fail to stop the countrys quest for nuclear weap- ons. I think its a cost-beneft analysis, Mr. al-Otaiba said. I think despite the large amount of trade we do with Iran, which is close to $12 billion there will be consequences, there will be a backlash and there will be problems with people protesting and rioting and very unhappy that there is an outside force attacking a Muslim country; that is going to happen no matter what. If you are asking me, Am I willing to live with that versus living with a nuclear Iran?, my answer is still the same: We cannot live with a nuclear Iran. I am willing to absorb what takes place at the expense of the security of the uae. Mr. al-Otaiba made his comments in response to a question after a public interview session with the Atlantic magazine . They echo those of some Arab diplomats who have said similar things in private to their American counterparts but never this bluntly in public. Mr. al-Otaiba said that his country would be the last Arab country to cut a deal with Iran, if Tehran were to go nuclear. But he predicted other wealthy Arab states in the Gulf would dump their alliances with the U.S. in favor of ties with Tehran if President Obama does not stop the Islamic Republics quest to become a nuclear power. There are many countries in the region that if they lack assurance that the U.S. is willing to confront Iran, they will start running for cover with Iran, he said. Small, rich, vulnerable countries do not want to stick their fnger in the big boys eye if they do not have the backing of the United States. europe B rOnislaw kOmOrOwski, the candidate for the Civic Platform Party, was elected the new president of Poland on July 4, setting Poland up for a cozier relationship with Europe and Russia and signal- ing frostier relations with Washington. Komorowski, Polands acting president and parliamentary speaker, won 53 percent of the vote in the runoff elections. His opponent, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, twin brother of the late President Lech Kaczynski, won 47 percent of the vote. The result may herald a shift for Poland away from the U.S. and toward Europe. Komorowki is from the same party as Polands Prime Minister Donald Tusk and therefore is unlikely to obstruct Tusks shift toward Europe and Russia. He shares Tusks vision of a Poland frmly anchored in the EU, working closely with Germany and trying to improve long-troubled ties with Russia, writes Time. Despite Europes economic turmoil, Komorowski wants Poland to adopt the euro as its currency. His views are broadly in line with younger, city-dwelling Poles who see Polands future in Europe. Komorowski is also less supportive of the U.S. In the election, he promised to pull Polish troops out of Afghanistan by 2012. Expect Eastern European nations to form stronger ties with the EU as a 10-nation European superstate comes together. Following German Chancellor Angela Merkels setback in the presi- Prince charles is right! in a recent speech, Prince Charles observed: [A] great many of our scientists today profess a faith in God. I am aware of one recent survey that suggests over 70 percent of scientists do so. I must say, I fnd this rather baffing. If this is so, why is it that their sense of the sacred has so little bearing on the way science is employed to exploit the natural world in so many damaging ways? I assume that it has to do with who pays the fddler (Tele- graph, June 23). The prince referred to a missing element in humanity, our spiritual es- sence, an essence made for the infnite . Our spiritual perspective has been fat- tened and made earthbound. He noted that when the innate human spiritual desire becomes focused only on the earthly, it becomes potentially disas- trous. The hunger for yet more and more things creates an alarming vacuum and, as we are now realizing, this does great harm to the Earth and creates a never- ending unhappiness for many, many people (ibid.). Herbert Armstrong spoke constantly about the missing dimension that has remained undiscovered by science! No religion has revealed it! Higher educa- tion has never taught the awesome purpose of human lifeabout the way to world peace and how it will come. This is the eye-opening story of the real gospel message of Jesus Christof how this missing dimension was withheld, and the whole world deceived (The Incred- ible Human Potential). Each of these men separately reached the conclusion that there is a missing element, a missing dimension, in humanity today that blinds mankind to the reality of God and of things on the spiritual plane. Prince Charles is right in his desire to protect our God-given environment. He is right in deducing that there is a miss- ing element in man. He just does not know what that missing dimension is. Bible prophecy indicates that a man of God will, in our time, acquaint todays royal family with that missing dimen- sion and its link to the very throne of the house of David, from which todays royal family is descended.
RON FRASER | COLUMNIST dential election on June 30, the New York Times singles out one man to watch as her possible successor. After her biggest challenger, Christian Wulff, was sworn in as president last week, Mrs. Merkel has defected any threat to her leadership. Except, possibly, Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, writes the Times Judy Dempsey. Offcials within Gutten- bergs Christian Social Union (csu) say he is deciding between remaining in Berlin as defense minister, or returning to Bavaria in search of a bigger political role. Throughout the turmoil of Merkels second term in offce, Guttenberg has remained one of Germanys most popular politicians. The question is, asks Dempsey, how Mrs. Merkel will deal with Mr. Guttenbergs growing popularity. She continues: Unlike other potential challengers, Mr. Guttenberg will not be easily silenced. As a member of the Christian Social Union party, he is politically independent from Mrs. Merkels Christian Democrats. She cannot afford a fallout with her sister party in Bavaria. She needs that electoral support. As the Trumpet has been saying for some months now, Guttenberg is a man to watch. PRESS EUROPE | July 8 The 17th german state H eadlining with Czech Economy Boosted, a delighted Lidov Noviny reports on a steep rise in Czech exports, which are up by 24.4 percent over May of 2009. The increase is due to improving conditions in Germany, the countrys main economic partner. German companies have a large number of outsourcing deals with frms in the Czech Republic. As the daily explains, Consumers want German qual- ity at low prices, and we stand to beneft from this trend. At the same time, the Prague-based newspaper notes that dependence on German business has reached a point where the Czech Republic can be con- sidered to be the 17th German state. It is on this basis that the Czech Republics national interest will be best served by supporting Berlin in the argument with Brussels and Paris over the German trade surplus. TELEGRAPH | July 7 EMU Break-Up risks global defation shock A full-fledged disintegration of the eurozone would trigger the worst economic crisis in modern history, devastate every country in Europe including Germany, and infict a defationary shock on the U.S. There would be no winners, warns the Dutch bank ing in a new report Quantifying the Unthinkable. Complete breakup would have effects that dwarf the post-Lehman Brothers collapse. Governments would fnd themselves having to bail out banks again, worsening already fragile government fnances. The risk of at least a temporary breakdown in payments systems would be enormous, said the report by Mark Cliffe, Maarten Leen and Peter Vanden Houte. The new Greek drachma would crash by 80 percent against the new deutschemark. The currencies of Spain, Portugal and Ireland would fall by 50 percent or more, causing infation to soar into double-digits. The impact is dramatic and traumatic, it said. ing has attempted to unpick the complex consequences of breakup scenarios, concluding that even a surgical exit by Greece alone would hurt everybody, and be suicidal for Greece. Both weak and strong states would suffer violent downturns if emu unraveled altogether, though THE TRUMPET WEEKLY July 10, 2010 5 a Very Obama scandal J. christian Adams, a former career Justice Department offcial who resigned over the Obama administrations failure to pursue a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party, will fnally get a chance to tell his story in public today when he testifes before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Mr. Adams will make some explosive charges. He says the administration used a racial double standard in deciding last year to drop the prosecution of the New Black Panther Party after members were video- taped in front of a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008 dressed in military- style uniforms, brandishing a billy club and using racial slurs against voters. Mr. Adams says the career prosecutors who pursued the case did their job but were stymied by Obama political appointees, for whom he has harsh words: To abandon law-abiding citizens and abet wrongdoers constitutes cor- ruption, he told Fox News last week. President Obamas Justice Department continues to stonewall inquiries about why it dropped the voter intimidation case, which Bartle Bull, a former civil rights lawyer and former publisher of the left-wing Village Voice, calls the most blatant form of voter intimidation Ive ever seen. Mr. Bull and oth- ers witnessed one Black Panther pointing his billy club at voters and making racial threats. Mr. Bull says he heard one yell: You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker! Nonetheless, the Justice Department moved to dismiss most of the charges a month after winning a default judgment against the Black Panthers when the party failed to appear in federal court. The move came after Justice secured an agreement from one Black Panther member not to carry a deadly weapon near a polling place until 2012. In a written statement, the Justice Department now says it acted in good faith, adding: It is regrettable when a former department at- torney distorts the facts and makes baseless allegations to promote his or her agenda. But the Washington Times has reported that six career lawyers at Justice, includ- ing Christopher Coates, former chief of the Justice Departments voting section, also favored pursuing the case. One of the career attorneys, Appellate Chief Diana Flynn, had urged in an internal memo that a judgment be pressed against the defendants to prevent the paramilitary style intimidation of voters in the future. All of the career attorneys were overruled by Associate Attorney General Thomas Per- relli, an Obama appointee. WALL STREET JOURNAL, JOHN FUND | JULY 7 each in very different ways. In the frst year, output falls by between 5 percent and 9 percent across the various former member states, it said. The German sphere would face a defationary shock. The U.S. dol- lar would rocket to 85 cents against the euro equivalent, with a tem- porary overshoot to near 75 cents. This would tip the U.S. into acute defation, threatening North America with a double-dip recession. East Europe would contract 5 percent in 2011 alone. This is the picture of a world falling apart. The report said breakup talk is no longer just a fgment of fevered Anglo-Saxon imaginations. It has spread into top policy-making circles in the eurozone and must now be analyzed as a serious tail-risk. A sur- vey of 440 heads of global banks and companies by rbc Capital Markets found that 50 percent expect at least one country to leave emu by 2013, and a quarter expect a complete collapse. asia O n June 28, Chinese offcials were shocked as three nuclear-pow- ered U.S. submarines surfaced unannounced in Pacifc waters sur- rounding China. The submarines were a new class of U.S. warship designed to stealthily strike targets up to 1,000 miles away with hundreds of non-nuclear warheads. According to Time, alarm bells would have sounded in Beijing June 28 when the Tomahawk-laden 560-foot uss Ohio popped up in the Philippines Subic Bay. More alarms likely were sounded when the uss Michigan arrived in Pusan, South Korea, the same day. And the klaxons would have maxed out as the uss Florida surfaced the same day at the joint U.S.-British naval base at Diego Garcia, a fyspeck of an island in the Indian Ocean. The Chinese military awoke to fnd as many as 462 additional Tomahawks deployed by the U.S. in its neighborhood (July 8). U.S. offcials denied that any specifc message is being directed at Beijing, and say that the timing was simply a coincidence. They did, however, make sure news of the deployments appeared in the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Poston Independence Day, July 4. The move in naval forces is part of the Pentagons new dogma that places the Pacifc theater as more of a threat than the Atlantic. The submarines arent the only new potential issue of concern for the Chinese. Two major military exercises involving 37,000 U.S. and allied personnel and three dozen ships and subs are now underway off Hawaii and Singapore. China is excluded from both exercisesand this, at least, is no coincidence. On Wednesday, Chinese offcials held a press conference ostensibly to allay concerns about the damage China could do if it sold the $900 billion worth of U.S. treasuries it currently holds. Its foreign exchange agency assured the press that Chinas dollar holdings were not a nuclear weapon that could be used to blackmail America, and that the issue should not be politicized. The statement seemed to have been in re- sponse to 2007 comments by two Beijing offcials who argued that China could and should use Americas debt as a political weapon or bargain- ing chip to counter congressional calls to revalue the yuan and impose trade sanctions on Chinese goods. At the time, Chinese state media re- ferred to the countrys stockpile of U.S. dollars as its economic nuclear option, capable of destroying the dollar at will. China is Americas biggest creditor and holds over $1.5 trillion in U.S. dollar-denominated assets. The agency said the money it had lent to America was strictly an economic investment designed to beneft the Chinese people. Echoing earlier appeals by Chinese leaders, the agency then called on Washing- ton to follow prudent economic policies to protect the value of Beijings investments. The statement also reassured investors that there was no need to worry that China was shifting out of dollars and buying gold. Chinese demand for treasuries is one of the primary pillars supporting the dollars value. When China buys treasuries, it keeps the dollar strong, THE TRUMPET WEEKLY July 10, 2010 6 failure is not an Option accOrding tO several re- ports cited in the Boston Globe last weekend, the number of hours college students spend studying has been in sharp decline over the past half century. Another study asked college students to identify the biggest obstacles to their academic success. Topping the list, ahead of family diffculties and stressful lives, was this shocker: They simply dont know how to study. But why learn how to study when you can be an A student for merely warming a seat? In 2004, as Jean Twenge points out in Gen- eration Me, almost half of college freshmen said they maintained an A average in high school. Compare that to 1968, when only 18 percent of college freshmen graduated from high school as straight A students. What this means is that the halls of Americas high schools are now crammed with A students whove never really learned how to study. In 2007, the results of an inter- national test found that American students ranked 21st out of 30 industrialized nations in mathematics25th in science. Yet, when asked to rate their own performance in the felds of science and mathematics, Americans penciled themselves in at the top of the list, ahead of their international competitors. We may be getting dumber, but when it comes to self-esteem, no one outperforms America! By their estimation, todays young people have been praised so much that some fail at their frst taste of criticism or failure, Twenge writes. Others develop a keen sense of privilege, believing theyll coast into a golden future regardless of their actual talents, accomplishments or willingness to work. The fruits of self-esteem education have been disastrous in every respect. In the Bible, God plainly reveals that the most important, and long-forgotten, principles of education are discipline and self-control not self-esteem. Every man who strives to master a skill, the Apostle Paul wrote, exercis- es self-control in all things. Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it (1 Corinthians 9:24-25, Revised Standard Version). In a world where every runner is guaran- teed a frst-place trophy, there is little incen- tive to encourage athletes to work harder to improve their performance. STEPHEN FLURRY | COLUMNIST THE TRUMPET WEEKLY July 10, 2010 7 interest rates low, Chinese imports inexpensive, and consumers spend- ing. Remove that pillar, and the whole U.S. economy is thrown into jeop- ardy. Sino-American relations remain far from the offcial most trusted trade status. The longer America remains stuck in recession, the worse tensions between China and America will likely grow. latin aMerica/africa T he vatican is helping to bring Cuba out of diplomatic isolation and closer to Europe. On July 7, Cuban offcials announced they would release 52 political prisoners. The announcement comes after nearly two months of talks between Cuba and the Vatican. The 52 are among 75 prisoners arrested in 2003 for treason. Following the an- nouncement, Spain called for Europe to soften its position on Cuba. EU nations have refused to have normal relations with Cuba because of its human rights record. But Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Mora- tinos said the prisoner release opens a new era in Cuba. I think there is no reason to maintain a common (EU) position any longer, he said. I expect my European colleagues to now respond. Several commenta- tors point out that the prisoner release doesnt mean that conditions in Cuba are improving. The government makes a show of releasing pris- oners but then it does nothing to dismantle the repressive machinery it has in place to imprison people and it continues arresting them, said a spokesman for U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch. The last pris- oner release occurred in 1998, when Cuba released 101 prisoners follow- ing a visit by Pope John Paul ii. Watch for the common Catholic heritage of the EU and Latin America to bring the two blocs closer together. Five east African nations formed a common market on June 1. Mem- bers of the East African Community (eac)Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundioffcially allowed the free movement of people, produce and capital across their borders last week. They aim to be a mon- etary union by 2012, and want a common currency by 2015. Most of the people in the region speak Swahili, and the community has been a cus- toms union since 2005. The EU has been trying to sign Economic Part- nership Agreements with the eac for some time. The European Invest- ment Bank is also working to strengthen its presence in the eac. Europe is trying to gain access to the natural resources of the area. The eac is an excellent tool for this, allowing Europe to form a free-trade agreement with fve nations at once. Expect Europe to continue to push into Africa. anglo-aMerica T he internatiOnal Monetary Fund weighed in on American eco- nomic policy this week, saying that the Obama administration should consider raising taxes and cutting Social Security benefts to get control of the nations budget defcit and public debt, the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday. The imf pointed to joblessness and a still-ane- mic housing market as increased risks to the nations recovery. Watch for outside authorities to seek increasing infuence over Americas economy. At the same time, Federal Reserve offcials have scaled back any enthusiastic evaluations of the nations recovery, causing many to think a double-dip recession might be on the horizon. Investor anxiety has kept interest rates low, and the Fed has said the recovery is not so much strengthening as it is proceeding. In one of the worst-affected states, California, Gov. Arnold Schwar- zenegger has ordered massive salary cuts to try to avoid default and pass a budget. He put 200,000 state employees on minimum wage for The school Where Teachers Talk Through a Translator a schOOl where 60 percent of pupils speak English as a second language has invested in electronic translators for every child so they can communicate with teachers. Manor Park Primary in Aston, Birming- ham, which has 384 pupils of 32 different eth- nicities, is the frst school in Britain to provide translators for all of its children and to make the tools an integral part of every lesson. The technology enables teachers to type messages to pupils which are then translated into the 19 native tongues of children with no English. Another 11 languages are spoken by pupils who have some English. And with fgures showing that one in six primary pupils speaks a different language at homedouble the number 10 years agothe technology could soon become a permanent feature in many more schools. The Talking Tutor can verbally trans- late English into 25 languages . A further 200 languages can be translated on-screen. Teachers type a message into a computer and the virtual tutor then reads the message out to the pupil in their native tongue. The pupil types a response which is read to the teacher by the tutor . Headmaster Jason Smith said the software had transformed his school and given staff the opportunity to communicate with children. We have a very diverse schoolat any one time there are upwards of 30 different languages, he added. We have always found this the biggest barrier to integrating a child into the school. But critics say that giving pupils comput- erized translators could be damaging and dangerous. Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: Surely it would be better to give all these foreign-speak- ing youngsters an intensive course in English. There were mixed reactions to the trans- lator last night from parents of Manor Park pupils. One father of two, who did not want to be named, said: My boys say teachers are spending more time using the computer than teaching. They came home last week and said they felt pushed aside. The teachers are neglecting the English kids. Latest fgures from the Department for Education show that 905,610 children do not speak English as their frst language. This fgure has risen by 42,750 in a year, and accounts for 16 percent of pupils in primary schools and 11.6 percent in secondaries.
DAILY MAIL | JULY 7 Terrorand candor THE TRUMPET WEEKLY July 10, 2010 8 the rest of the month. The federal government has recognized that the nations private companies, as well as government departments, are vulnerable to cyberattack. Washington has initiated a broad program called Perfect Citizen to detect vulnerabilities and assaults via cyberspace that could damage the nations electricity grid or nuclear plants. Trumpet edi- tor in chief Gerald Flurry has pointed to the United States reliance on technology as its Achilles heel. WASHINGTON TIMES | July 7 U.s. Marks Third-largest single-day debt increase T he natiOns debt leapt $166 billion in a single day last week, the third-largest increase in U.S. history, and it comes at a time when Congress is balking over higher spending and debt has become a key policy battleground. The one-day increase for June 30 totaled $165,931,038,264.30big- ger than the entire annual defcit for fscal year 2007 . The fgure works out to nearly $1,500 for every U.S. household, or more than 10 times the median daily household income. Daily debt calculations jump and fall, and big shifts are common. But all three of the biggest one-day debt increases have occurred under the tenure of President Obama, and all of the top six have been in the past two yearsan indication of just how quickly the pace of defcit spending has risen under Mr. Obama and President George W. Bush. What matters is the overall trend line, and the overall trend line is shooting up, said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan defcit watchdog group, who said it is one more reason for a fscal wake-up call. Testifying to that commission last week, cbO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf said to reach the sustainable debt goal the government will have to raise taxes by 25 percent, cut spending by 20 percent or do some combination of the two. That would require, for example, roughly a one-half increase in personal income tax revenue. On the other hand, if the change came entirely from spending that would represent, for example, the near elimination of all government programs except for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and national defense, he said. CNN | July 7 feds sue to Overturn arizona immigration law T he Justice Department on Tuesday weighed in on one of the most explosive issues in American politics, fling a lawsuit to overturn a tough new Arizona immigration law that has sharply divided people along partisan, ideological and ethnic lines. It also asked the federal courts to grant an injunction to stop en- forcement of the measure before it takes effect late this month. Arizonas law requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and allows police to question the residency sta- tus of people in the course of enforcing another law. It also targets busi- the fOrt Hood shooter, the Christmas Day bomber, the Times Square attacker. On May 13, the following exchange occurred at a hear- ing of the House Judiciary Committee: Rep. Lamar Smith (R.,Texas): Do you feel that these individuals might have been incited to take the actions that they did because of radical Islam? Attorney General Eric Holder: There are a variety of reasons why I think people have taken these actions. . . . Smith: Okay, but radical Islam could have been one of the reasons? Holder: There are a variety of reasons why people Smith: But was radical Islam one of them? Holder: There are a variety of reasons why people do these things. Some of them are po- tentially religious-based. Potentially, mind you. This went on until the questioner gave up in exasperation. A similar question arose last week in U.S. District Court when Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square attacker, pleaded guilty. Explained Shahzad: One has to understand where Im coming from. I consider myself a mujahid, a Muslim soldier. Well, that is clarifying. As was the self- printed business card of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, identifying himself as SoA: Soldier of Allah. Holders avoidance of the obvious continues the absurd and embarrassing refusal of the Obama administration to acknowledge who out there is trying to kill Americans and why. In fact, it has banned from its offcial vo- cabulary the terms jihadist, Islamist, and Islamic terrorism. Instead, President Obamas National Se- curity Strategy insists on calling the enemy how else do you defne those seeking your destruction?a loose network of violent ex- tremists. But this is utterly meaningless. This is not an anger-management therapy group gone rogue. These are people professing a powerful ideology rooted in a radical interpre- tation of Islam, in whose name they propagan- dize, proselytize, terrorize, and kill. Churchill famously mobilized the Eng- lish language and sent it into battle. But his greatness lay not just in eloquence but in his appeal to the moral core of a decent people to rise against an ideology the nature of which Churchill never hesitated to defne and de- scribeand to pronounce (Nahhhhzzzzi) in an accent dripping with loathing and con- tempt. No one is asking Obama or Holder to match Churchills rhetoricjust Shahzads candor. WASHINGTON POST, CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER | JULY 2 THE TRUMPET WEEKLY July 10, 2010 9 nesses that hire illegal immigrant laborers or knowingly transport them. Justice Department lawyers argued that the state statute should be declared invalid because it has improperly preempted federal law. In our constitutional system, the power to regulate immigration is exclu- sively vested in the federal government, the brief said. However, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said it was wrong that our own federal government is suing the people of Arizona for helping to enforce federal immigration law. Todays fling is nothing more than a massive waste of taxpayer funds, Brewer said in a statement. These funds could be better used against the violent Mexican cartels than the people of Arizona. DAILY MAIL | July 8 homosexual asylum seekers allowed to stay G ay asylum seekers must be free to enjoy themselves going to Kylie concerts and drinking exotically colored cocktails without fear of persecution, a senior judge declared yesterday. Lord Rodgers extraordinary comments came in a judgment which could allow thousands of homosexuals to claim asylum in Britain. He said they should have the same rights to display their sexuality as straight men who play rugby, drink beer and talk about girls with their mates. The Home Offce has been refusing asylum claims by gay men on the grounds they could hide their sexualityand therefore avoid persecu- tion at homeby behaving discreetly. But, in test cases brought by men from Cameroon and Iran, three Supreme Court judges unanimously ruled the policy was a breach of the UN Convention on Refugees. It sets the precedent that no gay man should be returned to a country which treats homosexuality harshly on the expectation they will act straight. Lord Rodger, one of the most senior judges in Britain, said gay men had a right to live openly and freely. But critics warned it could lead to the UKwhich is among the frst nations to take such a positionbecoming a leading destination for asylum seekers who are claiming to be gay. Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said: This could lead to a potentially massive expansion of asylum claims as it could apply to literally millions of people around the world. An applicant has now only to show that heor sheis homosexual and intends to return and live openly in one of the many countries where it is illegal to be granted asylum in the UK. Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes said: I am delighted this ruling recognizes the rights of gay asylum seekers, ensuring their freedom from persecution around the world. THETRUMPET.COM | July 8 canadas housing Bubble about to Pop? T he Globe and Mail reports that home sales in Vancouver plunged by 30 percent in June compared to one year ago. Sales were down 5.8 percent from May. Calgary saw even greater reductions in sales. In June, the Calgary Real Estate Board reported that single-family home This really is starting to feel like 1932 the ecOnOmy is still in the gravitational pull of the Great Recession, said Robert Reich, former U.S. labor secretary. All the booster rockets for getting us beyond it are failing. Home sales are down. Retail sales are down. Factory orders in May suffered their biggest tumble since March of last year. So what are we doing about it? Less than noth- ing, he said. California is tightening faster than Greece. State workers have seen a 14 percent fall in earnings this year due to forced furloughs. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is cutting pay for 200,000 state workers to the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour to cover his $19 billion defcit. Can Illinois be far behind? The state has a defcit of $12 billion and is $5 billion in arrears to schools, nursing homes, child- care centers, and prisons. It is getting worse every single day, said state comp- troller Daniel Hynes. We are not paying bills for absolutely essential services. That is obscene. Roughly a million Americans have dropped out of the jobs market altogether over the past two months. That is the only reason why the headline unemployment rate is not exploding to a postwar high. Let us be honest. The U.S. is still trapped in depression a full 18 months into zero interest rates, quantitative easing (QE), and fscal stimulus that has pushed the budget defcit above 10 percent of gdp. The share of the U.S. working-age popula- tion with jobs in June actually fell from 58.7 percent to 58.5 percent. This is the real stress indicator. The ratio was 63 percent three years ago. Eight million jobs have been lost. The average time needed to fnd a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks. Nothing like this has been seen before in the postwar era. Republicans on Capitol Hill are flibustering a bill to extend the dole for up to 1.2 million jobless facing an imminent cut-off. Dean Heller from Nevada called them hobos. This really is starting to feel like 1932. The Fed is already eyeing the printing press again. Its appropriate to think about what we would do under a defationary sce- nario, said Dennis Lockhart for the Atlanta Fed. His colleague Kevin Warsh said the pros and cons of purchasing more bonds should be subject to strict scrutiny, a com- ment I took as confrmation that the Fed Board is arguing internally about QE2. TELEGRAPH, AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD | JULY 4 THE TRUMPET WEEKLY July 10, 2010 10 MARK RALSTON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES The offcial language being deployed by the president and the federal departments he has staffedtwo fathers, various parenting relation- ships, lgbt families, gender transition, new gendercamoufages some grotesque realities. Gussied up to look like it is promoting family, this is nothing short of an aggressive assault on family. It is impossible to encourage both deviant sexuality and traditional family; they are diametrically opposite. And traditional family must be vigorously promoted and defended if it is to thrive. The Ten Commandments speak to this fact by commanding both marital fdelity (Thou shalt not commit adultery. [T]hou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife) and parental authority (Honour thy father and thy mother). Such laws are necessary to guide us toward appropri- ate conduct; our baser nature always gravitates toward what is not in societys or our own long-term best interests. Todays society is forcefully pursuing a contrary, anti-Bible agenda that is dismantling families and leading to our ruin. While cranking up the pressure to popularize immorality, it works to remove pressure on singles to marry, pressure on married people to remain together, pres- sure on parents to make sacrifces for their children, and pressure on children to view their parents as authorities. All history proves that strong societies begin with strong marriages and families, yet self-professed intellectuals continue heedlessly strik- ing blows at the pillars of family life. In our own families, we must do all we can to resist this attack. Pro- mote and defend family as originally and correctly defned by the Being who created it. FATHERS from page 1 sales were down 42 percent from a year earlier and down 16 percent from May. In Toronto, realtors report a 23 percent drop in sales from last year. Sitka Pacifc Capital Managements Mike Shedlock warns that the plummeting sales volume pattern is quite similar to how things cascaded in the United States once the hous- ing bubble peaked. I am now confdent the peak in Canadian housing insanity is fnally in, says Shedlock. Canadian readers may want to take note of the calamitous events south of the border that ensued following Americas great housing bust. Millions of Americans are losing their homes and thousands of others are choosing to let the bank foreclose rather than spend decades paying for houses that are worth fractions of current market values. Hundreds of thousands of people associated with the construction, real-estate and mortgage-related industries found themselves out of work. This, plus the resultant credit crunch, caused a snowball effect that hit virtu- ally every sector of the economy. Three years after the peak, Americas economy is still down at least 8 million jobs (conservative estimate)which is the equivalent of every man, woman and child in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Que- bec City, and the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba out of work. Many of these people have been without work for two years. Canadians should prepare for a drastic downturn in the economy. It is coming. Houses for sale at a new property development in Fort McMurray in Alberta Province, Canada. americas rome Moment empires prOgress through predictable cycles. Human nature doesnt change, so the cycles repeat over and over again: birth, growth, decline and deaththen supplantation by a new civilization with a potent new culture. Where is America in the cycle? During the birth and growth phases, civiliza- tions are dynamic. A lack of wealth and security spurs the development of large families, a sense of drive and resourcefulness and reliance on a higher power for protection and guidance. Ag- ricultural production, industry and commerce become the order of the day. Roads and bridges are built. Natural resources are exploited. As success builds upon success, citizens become infused with a sense of manifest destiny. Wealth accumulates and the nation expands. Yet unfortunately, change eventually sets in. Little by little, the old explorers, build- ers, and church-goers are replaced by a new cohort that is rich and increased with goods attained not from their own toil, but that of previous generations. They dont realize that they are living on legacy. This apathy and resultant deteriorating work ethic has predictable results. Decline sets in. As famous historian Edward Gibbons noted about the collapse of ancient Rome, Prosperity ripened the principle of decay. In his masterpiece History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gibbons iden- tifed fve major causes that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire: the breakdown of the family, increased taxation, unsustain- able military commitments, and the decay of religion. The frst four are well established and underway in Americaas is the ffth: an insa- tiable craving for pleasure. Whether it is Americas disappearing work ethic, its entitlement culture, or its buy now, pay later attitude that is ingrained in society, America is charging head frst into the fnal stage: death. At all levels of societyindividual, lo- cal, state and nationalpeople cant control themselves. The work ethic is going, and im- mediate gratifcation is the primary motivator. And what are we left with? For one: the big- gest debt compared to gross domestic product since the war years. For the frst time ever, America is going broke just in the normal course of businesswithout an emergency! America is facing its Rome moment. And new empires are on the rise.