It may be outrageous, but it is not far-fetched, to speak of a special grace for America, because hundreds of millions of people around the world look toward such a special grace, in the precise sense of the word.
No one is more keenly aware that all will not be saved than the fragile peoples of the Global South. Christianity, it might be argued, is garnering in a greater proportion of the world's population than at any time since late antiquity precisely because conditions in so many parts of the world resemble late antiquity. China alone is subject to the greatest migrations in human history, adding to its cities 10 or 15 million people each year. The Great Extinction of the peoples makes short work of the hope that all shall be saved, for those who cling to blood, soil, ethnicity and hearth-gods will perish.
Germany plans to give vote to babies
Dozens of German politicians have tabled a new law to extend voting rights to babies, toddlers, children and teenagers.
The bill, which has won the cross-party backing of some heavyweight German politicians, would wipe away decades of "exclusion" and "discrimination" against minors, according to its supporters.
Murder rate increasing amid epidemic of knife and gun crime
The murder rate has risen in England and Wales in the past year, crime figures are expected to show next week.
Amid rising concerns over an epidemic of knife and gun crime - there were six fatal stabbings in one day this week - some forces have reported a doubling in killings.
On Thursday, there were four stabbings in London, one in West Bromwich in the West Midlands and a sixth in Tarleton in Lancashire.
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Zimbabwe Christian Leaders Say Situation Deteriorating
The heads of Christian bodies in Zimbabwe voiced their “deep concern” this week over the country’s continuous downward spiral following the disputed national elections.
Church leaders of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference, and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches lamented that the political, security, economic and human rights situation are all deteriorating.
“People are being abducted, tortured, humiliated by being asked to repeat slogans of the political party they are alleged not to support, ordered to attend mass meetings where they are told they voted for the ‘wrong’ candidate and should never repeat it in the run-off election for President, and, in some cases, people are murdered,” the church leaders said in a statement.
Norwegian Police Arrest Missionaries for Spreading Gospel At National Parade
OSLO, May 22, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Norwegian police arrested two Christian missionaries for spreading the Gospel to crowds alongside an Oslo parade celebrating the birthday of Norway's constitution last week.
US evangelist Larry Keefer from Tampa, Florida, and Norwegian evangelist, Petar Keseljevic had come to the May 17 national event in Oslo, where Norwegians celebrate the 1814 ratification of Norway's constitution with flag-waving, parades, and a public appearance of Norway's reigning monarch, King Harald V. Police arrested the Christian missionaries as they were conversing with several members of the crowd beyond the parade lines.
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Fannie Plan a `Disaster' to Rogers; Goldman Says Sell
July 14 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury Department's plan to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is an ``unmitigated disaster'' and the largest U.S. mortgage lenders are ``basically insolvent,'' according to investor Jim Rogers.
Taxpayers will be saddled with debt if Congress approves U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's request for the authority to buy unlimited stakes in and lend to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Rogers said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Rogers is betting that Fannie Mae shares will keep tumbling.
Who's Next? List of Troubled Banks Worries Wall Street, DC
Banks in Colorado, Maryland, Georgia and California top privately-prepared lists of troubled banks being circulated on Wall Street and in Washington.
The IndyMac fallout
As hundreds of customers lined up at IndyMac bank branches Monday, investors and customers took stock of the health of other banks -- and they showed their concern.
IndyMac became the seventh bank to fail since the credit crisis began last summer, and the second-largest bank to fail in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s 75-year history when it was seized Friday. On Monday, stocks in nearly all the nation's banks and thrifts were clobbered as the market bet that there will be more failures.
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Goldwasser, Regev to be laid to rest after 2 uncertain years
Following two years of uncertainty and a day after a long and multi-staged prisoner swap at the Rosh Hanikra border crossing, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser will finally be laid to rest in military cemeteries on Thursday.
Scientist to Congress: U.S. risks 'catastrophe' in nuke EMP attack
WASHINGTON – A top scientist today warned the House Armed Services Committee America remains vulnerable to a "catastrophe" from a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack that could be launched with plausible deniability by hostile rogue nations or terrorists.
William R. Graham, chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack and the former national science adviser to President Reagan, testified before the committee while presenting a sobering new report on "one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences."
Insurer: Weather disasters becoming more frequent
The number of natural disasters has more than doubled since 1980, mostly because of a worsening of weather-driven catastrophes, according to a German insurance company.
In its report [PDF], Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer (that is, an insurance company for insurance companies), said that 400 natural disasters occurred in the first six months of 2008, with 300 of them attributed to extreme weather, such as storms, floods, and heat waves.
This number is in line with a steady increase in the number of natural disasters that the company has tracked since 1980. In the 1980s, the average number of yearly natural disasters was 400. That number increased to 630 in the 1990s and 730 in the past 10 years. The number of geophysical disasters – earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions – increased from the mid-80s to the mid-90s, but has since returned to early-80s levels.
The highest number of recorded natural disasters, 960, was in 2007, the company said.
Are You Ready for the Next Disaster?
Wealthy nations are much better protected from the so-called natural hazards, but by no means have they been spared this year. Consider the U.S. in June: Iowa experienced a deluge of historic proportions, with large-scale crop destruction spiking the cost of food and raising fears of an inflationary spiral. California, where the driest two months of spring on record turned grass and brush into kindling, endured more than 1,000 wildfires and braced for more to come. On the East Coast, more than 30 people perished during the kind of heat wave that usually comes in July or August.
Is there anything we can do to avert such dangers? These days, of course, extreme weather is only one of the many perils we face. Terrorist attacks or technological accidents involving nuclear weapons; pandemic diseases that cannot be cured; comets and asteroids that could wipe out the human race. We live in an age of risk assessment and risk analysis, when doomsday scenarios have become daily anxieties, and planning for improbable but world-changing events has become a focus of disaster policy.
With resources tight, Californians take on wildfires themselves
ELK, California: When he spotted a small fire two weeks ago atop a steep hill outside this blocklong town, Charlie Acker, 57, the president of the local school board and a volunteer firefighter, jumped inside his stubby red 1965 fire truck and, with a skid and a prayer, drove up the severe incline to check out the situation.
Knowing that every other volunteer firefighter in this community of 100 residents was battling a larger blaze nearby, he used his cellphone to call his wife. She roused a crew of young kayakers who cater to tourists in this picturesque old logging town at the edge of the Pacific, some 140 miles, or 225 kilometers, north of San Francisco, and joined Acker on the line.
The state fire agency, CalFire, had promised to send a helicopter, but just as Acker was waiting its arrival, it was diverted, he said, "to a higher rent district" in another county. When he radioed for more firefighters and an air tanker with fire retardant, he was sent 13 state prison inmates and told he was on his own.
Modest crop gains opening land reserve
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States would grow a bit more corn, wheat and soybeans if it opens the Conservation Reserve to crops, but any relief for soaring food prices would be modest and would not be felt until next year.
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer could act as soon as Friday to allow landowners to convert the idled land to crops. Livestock feeders and grain processors are seeking relief from record-high crop prices, forecast to trim U.S. meat consumption in coming months.
Ethiopia hunger averted, prices high
LONDON (Reuters) - Government and U.N. action has averted an immediate hunger emergency in Ethiopia, but high food prices are still making it hard for parents to feed their children, a major medical charity said.
The cost of teff grain -- used to make the thin, round spongy bread that accompanies most Ethiopian meals -- has more than doubled in the past year, and lentils have quadrupled in price, said International Medical Corps (IMC).
Australia food-bowl drought worsens, rains spare wheat
CANBERRA, July 10 (Reuters) - The prolonged drought in Australia's Murray-Darling river system is worsening and the country's main food bowl may forever be changed by accelerating climate warming, government officials said on Thursday.
Despite good autumn rains, June inflows into the river basin were the lowest in more than a century on record and climate experts are tipping a 60-70 percent chance of below average rain in the next decade, with the year ahead likely to be a "shocker".
Psalm 37
Psalm 37
[A Psalm] of David. 1FRET NOT yourself because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness (that which is not upright or in right standing with God).
2For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
3Trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) in the Lord and do good; so shall you dwell in the land and feed surely on His faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed.
4Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.
5Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass.
6And He will make your uprightness and right standing with God go forth as the light, and your justice and right as [the shining sun of] the noonday.
7Be still and rest in the Lord; wait for Him and patiently lean yourself upon Him; fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass.
8Cease from anger and forsake wrath; fret not yourself--it tends only to evildoing.
9For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait and hope and look for the Lord [in the end] shall inherit the earth.(A)
10For yet a little while, and the evildoers will be no more; though you look with care where they used to be, they will not be found.(B)
11But the meek [in the end] shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.(C)
12The wicked plot against the [uncompromisingly] righteous (the upright in right standing with God); they gnash at them with their teeth.
13The Lord laughs at [the wicked], for He sees that their own day [of defeat] is coming.
14The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to cast down the poor and needy, to slay those who walk uprightly (blameless in conduct and in conversation).
15The swords [of the wicked] shall enter their own hearts, and their bows shall be broken.
16Better is the little that the [uncompromisingly] righteous have than the abundance [of possessions] of many who are wrong and wicked.(D)
17For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the [consistently] righteous.
18The Lord knows the days of the upright and blameless, and their heritage will abide forever.
19They shall not be put to shame in the time of evil; and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
20But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs [that is consumed in smoke] and as the glory of the pastures. They shall vanish; like smoke shall they consume away.
21The wicked borrow and pay not again [for they may be unable], but the [uncompromisingly] righteous deal kindly and give [for they are able].
22For such as are blessed of God shall [in the end] inherit the earth, but they that are cursed of Him shall be cut off.(E)
23The steps of a [good] man are directed and established by the Lord when He delights in his way [and He busies Himself with his every step].
24Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord grasps his hand in support and upholds him.
25I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the [uncompromisingly] righteous forsaken or their seed begging bread.
26All day long they are merciful and deal graciously; they lend, and their offspring are blessed.
27Depart from evil and do good; and you will dwell forever [securely].
28For the Lord delights in justice and forsakes not His saints; they are preserved forever, but the offspring of the wicked [in time] shall be cut off.
29[Then] the [consistently] righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.
30The mouth of the [uncompromisingly] righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks with justice.
31The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.
32The wicked lie in wait for the [uncompromisingly] righteous and seek to put them to death.
33The Lord will not leave them in their hands, or [suffer them to] condemn them when they are judged.
34Wait for and expect the Lord and keep and heed His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; [in the end] when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.
35I have seen a wicked man in great power and spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil,
36Yet he passed away, and behold, he was not; yes, I sought and inquired for him, but he could not be found.
37Mark the blameless man and behold the upright, for there is a happy end for the man of peace.
38As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed together; in the end the wicked shall be cut off.
39But the salvation of the [consistently] righteous is of the Lord; He is their Refuge and secure Stronghold in the time of trouble.
40And the Lord helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they trust and take refuge in Him.
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