Amy Winehouse’s Tragic Life Is Not To Be Admired Or Copied
Jul 26th
Every parents nightmare
“For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23
A friend of Amy Winehouse conceded after she drank herself to death on Saturday that, yes she had her problems, but ‘she never did anyone any harm’. If only that were true. The packets of cigarettes and bottles of vodka, beer and rum left outside her home in Camden, North London, by adoring fans bear testimony to how much she affected vulnerable young people.
Along with flowers and farewell notes, this was their way of saying goodbye to a woman they worshipped and emulated — not just because she was a musical genius, but also, I suspect, because of her car-crash lifestyle.
Take a good, long, hard look at the beautiful woman on the left. The woman on the right shows what drugs, booze and sin did for her. You want some of that?
For all her talent, she was a role model of the worst kind. And her eight years in the music business mirror a shocking increase in alcohol among women. Figures published in 2009 showed 250 girls were arrested every day for violence, mostly fuelled by alcohol. One in four were aged between ten and 17. In the years Amy was a star, a generation of ladettes was born, out of their heads and out of control, but thinking they were oh-so-cool. Amy’s love of vodka was legendary. Even in her hard-drinking, rock ’n’ roll set, no one had ever seen anyone drink so much of it so fast. In her final few weeks, she had been found comatose several times by her bodyguards after binges.
Perhaps her death at such a desperately young age will serve as a salutary lesson to her devotees. One that instils the knowledge that her depraved lifestyle was nothing to be admired and would inevitably destroy her.
Given the evidence of the vodka shrine, however, I doubt it.
When her friend said Amy never hurt anyone, it was far from true. She not only hurt herself, but every young woman who believes you can have a life of reckless indulgence without consequences. source – Daily Mail UK
Glenn Beck Calls Norway Shooting VICTIMS ‘Hitler Youth’
Jul 26th
Major gaffe from former Fox News star
Glenn Beck, who in June aired his final cable tv show on Fox News, is still on the radio and has found a new way to get his name into the headlines around the globe. Instead of calling the president of the United States a racist, Beck focused on the scores of young people gunned down at a camp in Norway. Beck said the camp reminded him of Adolf Hitler’s infamous Hitler Youth.
“There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler youth. I mean, who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics? Disturbing,” Beck stated in the first minute of his syndicated radio show Monday.
Torbjørn Eriksen, the former press secretary to Norway’s prime minister, was not amused.
“Young political activists have gathered at Utoya for over 60 years to learn about and be part of democracy, the very opposite of what the Hitler Youth was about,” Eriksen told The Daily Telegraph. “Glenn Beck’s comments are ignorant, incorrect and extremely hurtful,” he added.
To answer Beck’s question of “who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics?”: Caroline Shinkle does. The recent high school grad founded Camp USA two years ago. The free, nonprofit, nonpartisan political camp in Cape Cod, Mass., is designed for middle-schoolers.
According to its website, Camp USA aspires to have kids leave the camp “with knowledge, confidence, and eagerness to be politically involved.”
Conservative columnist Jeff Lukens created a political camp in Tampa, Fla., which aligns itself closer to “tea party” values. One of the games described by the St. Petersburg Times would surely make presidential hopeful Ron Paul smile.
“Children will win hard, wrapped candies to use as currency for a store, symbolizing the gold standard. On the second day, the ‘banker’ will issue paper money instead. Over time, students will realize their paper money buys less and less, while the candies retain their value,” the newspaper explained. source – LA Times
Singularity! 150 Human Animal Hybrids Grown In UK Labs
Jul 24th
Singularity
”And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”Revelation 13:15
The idea of a cyborg was fully developed as far back as the early 1970s with both the movie and TV series the Six Million Dollar Man, along with the female counterpart show, The Bionic Woman.
In the Six Million Dollar Man, the hero is severely injured in a crash. The show begins with the phrase: “We can rebuild him: We have the technology.” He is then “rebuilt” by having his right arm, both legs and the left eye replaced with bionic implants; thus he has greatly enhanced strength, speed and vision far above human natural ability. He now can run 60 miles per hour while his eye has a 20:1 zoom lens with infrared capabilities.
The movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day fully develops the idea of androids so far technologically advanced, that they have destroyed the human race. The androids with artificial intelligence have taken over the world. The Terminator is an android that completely interacts with humans and looks and acts human. In this film, man has created beings that can think and operate as a human.
In The Matrix intelligent machines that man created have conquered mankind. They use the heat from human bodies to survive. To harness the heat, the machines keep the human minds connected to a matrix where the machines control reality. A connection is placed in the back of the human skull by the machines and then the brain is wired to a computer which creates the matrix. This is the complete merging of the brain with a computer. Thoughts and knowledge can be downloaded directly into the brain and become part of the thought pattern.
These movies are more than science fiction. I believe there is a prophetic element to them. The ideas that were first introduced in The Forbidden Planet can become a reality in our lifetime. This type of science fiction has been preparing the public to accept artificial intelligence as a form of life. The merging of humans with machines is a theme which the public is now familiar. Technological concepts that were unimaginable before WW ll are now very familiar with the public. What was pure science fiction in 1956 is becoming reality in the Twenty-first Century. Source - Dr. John McTernan
It’s happening right now
Scientists have created more than 150 human-animal hybrid embryos in British laboratories. The hybrids have been produced secretively over the past three years by researchers looking into possible cures for a wide range of diseases. The revelation comes just a day after a committee of scientists warned of a nightmare ‘Planet of the Apes’ scenario in which work on human-animal creations goes too far.
The Hebrew word for imagine is very interesting. It means to give thought and involves planning. It involves thought with focus. In addition to imagine, this word is also translated: consider, devise, plot, purpose, and think (evil). This concept means that if man focuses on an idea, he can bring it to reality.
Last night a campaigner against the excesses of medical research said he was disgusted that scientists were ‘dabbling in the grotesque’.
Figures seen by the Daily Mail show that 155 ‘admixed’ embryos,containing both human and animal genetic material, have been created since the introduction of the 2008 Human Fertilisation Embryology Act.
This legalised the creation of a variety of hybrids, including an animal egg fertilised by a human sperm; ‘cybrids’, in which a human nucleus is implanted into an animal cell; and ‘chimeras’, in which human cells are mixed with animal embryos.
Scientists say the techniques can be used to develop embryonic stem cells which can be used to treat a range of incurable illnesses.
Three labs in the UK – at King’s College London, Newcastle University and Warwick University – were granted licences to carry out the research after the Act came into force. All have now stopped creating hybrid embryos due to a lack of funding, but scientists believe that there will be more such work in the future. The figure was revealed to crossbench peer Lord Alton following a Parliamentary question.
Last night he said: ‘I argued in Parliament against the creation of human- animal hybrids as a matter of principle. None of the scientists who appeared before us could give us any justification in terms of treatment. ‘Ethically it can never be justifiable – it discredits us as a country. It is dabbling in the grotesque. source – Daily Mail UK
Muslim Terror – “Helpers Of the Global Jihad’ Attack Norway, 7 Dead
Jul 22nd
Islamic terror comes to Norway
OSLO — Powerful explosions shook central Oslo on Friday afternoon, blowing out the windows of several government buildings, including one housing the office of the Norwegian prime minister. The state television broadcaster, citing the police, said 7 people were killed and at least 15 injured; a spokeswoman for the prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, said he was “safe and not hurt.”
Shortly after the explosions, which appeared to be a bomb attack, a man dressed as a police officer opened fire on a summer camp for young members of the governing Labor Party on the island of Utoya about 25 miles northwest of the city, and wounded at least five, a Norwegian security official said.
“The situation’s gone from bad to worse,” said Runar Kvernen, spokesman for the National Police Directorate under the Ministry of Justice and Police, adding that most of the children at the camp were 15 and 16 years old.
A witness on the island told the state broadcaster that he saw between 20 and 25 bodies on the island after the shooting at the youth camp, The Associated Press reported. There was no official confirmation of deaths on the island.
Images of damaged government buildings, calling to mind past terror attacks in Beirut or Baghdad or Oklahoma City, rattled residents of this ordinarily peaceful Scandinavian nation that has been largely spared terror attacks in recent years. As fear of further attacks gripped the capital, police moved to lockdown large areas of the city center, where the streets were already nearly deserted. source – NY Times
MASSACRE AT KIDS’ CAMP
Teenagers on the Norwegian holiday island of Utoya had to ‘swim for their lives’ and hide in trees when a gunman fired indiscriminately at them.
Around 700 had gathered on the island for a meeting of the youth wing of the ruling Labour party.
Witnesses said the man in police uniform who opened fire beckoned several young people over before shooting at them. He told them to ‘come here’.
Other witnesses said they heard him saying: ‘This is just the beginning.’ It came as Norway succumbed to a double attack in what is being described as the worst atrocity it has faced since the Second World War.
Terrorists are believed to be responsible for a massive car blast at a government office block in the capital Oslo which took place earlier on in the day.
One teenager who was caught up in the island attack said: ‘Suddenly, we heard lots of shooting. People had to run and hide. We have been told to get off the island.’
A party official said: ‘There has been a shootout. Many people are shot. Based on what I have seen, at least four people are shot and killed. Now it’s complete panic and we swim off to get to safety.’
Bjorn Jarle Røberg-Larsen, of the Labour party, spoke to young people on Utoya by phone. ‘They say that at least one person wearing a police-like uniform was firing shots with a handgun,’ he said. He said the people he spoke to were hiding and dared not speak on the phone any more for fear of being discovered. ’Young people have to swim in panic, and it is far to the mainland from Utoya,’ he said. ‘Others are hiding. Those I spoke with were terrified.’ source – Daily Mail
Jerusalem, Too? Netanyahu Says EVERYTHING Is On Table For Arab Peace Talks
Jul 22nd
How far will he go?
Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu said something amazing yesterday as the September deadline in the UN for Palestinian recognition approaches. He said that “everything is on the table”. If he truly means that, then he is saying that Jerusalem, the pre-1967 borders, all of it is up for discussion. NTEB is of the opinion that this is political rhetoric and not something he is actually prepared to do., especially after he took Obama to task for saying Israel must return to it’s pre-1967 borders. But in our role as a watchman for Israel, we are letting you know everything that is said. But no matter if this is genuine or political posturing, it’s certainly something you need to know. September is shaping up to be huge in regards to bible prophecy.
Is everything really on the table?
JERUSALEM (AP) — With a September deadline looming, Israel’s prime minister turned to the Arabic media Thursday for the first time since taking office two years ago in an attempt to lure the Palestinians back to peace talks, saying “everything is on the table.”
Benjamin Netanyahu’s interview with the Al-Arabiya satellite channel reflects Israeli concerns over Palestinian plans to seek U.N. recognition of their independence this fall. But it also highlights Netanyahu’s new strategy of engaging directly with the Arab public.
Netanyahu has fielded questions from Arabs before on YouTube and even made a recorded plea to Arab viewers to submit questions. But the face-to-face Al-Arabiya interview is his first of its kind. Netanyahu’s office called the move “the beginning of a new era” and promised more such interviews in the near future.
The interview, which aired Thursday evening, comes as Israel is scrambling to counter the Palestinian U.N. initiative this fall. Israel fiercely opposes the move, saying a Palestinian state should be formed through negotiations and not by unilateral steps.
Peace negotiations have been stalled since 2008, and the Palestinians have refused to negotiate while Israel continues to build homes in Jewish settlements.
Although the vote will be largely symbolic, the Palestinians hope to isolate Israel and put pressure on it to make concessions.
In the interview, Netanyahu says he is willing to negotiate anywhere and with anyone who accepts Israel’s right to exist.
“Everything is on the table. But we need to get to the table,” Netanyahu said.
“I’m prepared to negotiate with President Abbas directly for peace between our two peoples right now. We can do it here in my home in Jerusalem, we can do it in Ramallah, we can do it anywhere,” he said.
Netanyahu said he realized he would have to make “difficult compromises for peace,” but he offered few new details about his plans.
The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — as parts of a future independent state. Netanyahu has said he wants to keep parts of the West Bank, and he opposes any division of Jerusalem.
Netanyahu also addressed the regional unrest in Syria and Egypt.
“You know anything that I say will be used — not against me — but against the process of genuine reform that Syrian people would like to see. We don’t intervene in Syria but it does not mean we are not concerned. We’d like the peace and quiet on the Israeli-Syrian border to be maintained and I would like to ultimately, have that turned into a formal peace between Israel and Syria,” Netanyahu said. “I think the people, the young people of Syria deserve a better future.”
Netanyahu said he hopes the Arab Spring will result in democracies in the Arab world.
“If there’s genuine democracy in the Arab world, in the Arab countries, then there will be genuine peace. Because a genuine democracy reflects the desires of the people, and most people Arabs, Jews, anyone they don’t want their sons and daughters dying on battlefields.”
He said, “If it goes toward an Iranian-style dictatorship, as it did, unfortunately in Iran and in Lebanon, then it’s bad. It’s bad for the peoples there, but it’s also bad for peace.”
Ofir Gendelman, Netanyahu’s spokesman for the Arab media, said Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya was chosen as a conduit for Netanyahu’s outreach because it is a professional station that reaches 40 million Arabs. He refused to discuss why Al-Jazeera, the top-rated Arab media outlet, was not selected. Al-Jazeera’s coverage has been accused of stirring up anti-Israel sentiment on the Arab street.
Gendelman said Netanyahu’s office also communicates with the Arab world via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
“There are a lot of issues the prime minister wants to address,” he said. “The goal of the interview is twofold: to convey the message that he wants to resume negotiations and express via the interview how important Arab public opinion is to him.”
Israel’s most pressing concern at the moment is what happens in September. No one knows exactly how the vote will unfold.
The United States opposes the plan and, as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, could veto a Palestinian membership request and derail the process.
If that happens, the Palestinians could go to the General Assembly and seek recognition there as a nonmember observer state, a largely symbolic nod. Still, widespread support in the General Assembly would signal that a majority of countries support Palestinian statehood in the pre-1967 lines.
The Palestinians insist that their U.N. bid does not rule out a return to negotiations.
Palestinian leaders have called on their people to take to the streets in nonviolent protests in September and Israeli officials are concerned that these could spiral out of control and set off a new round of fighting.
Israeli Cabinet Minister Moshe Yaalon dismissed these concerns Thursday, telling foreign reporters that he “can’t see any change on the ground after September.”
He called the unilateral option one of the “balloons inflated in the last two years by those who thought we might be threatened.”
Yaalon, a former military chief, also rejected the argument that the current status quo is untenable. ”The situation is not sustainable? It’s sustainable. It’s not going to be solved in the near future. We can live with it. We can survive with it,” he said. source – Google News/AP Wire
![China’s [high-altitude] EMP capability could be used in two different ways: as a surprise measure after China’s initial strike against Taiwan and other U.S. [aircraft carrier strike group] assets have moved into a vulnerable position, and as a bluff intended to dissuade the United States from defending Taiwan with a CVBG, the Pentagon acronym for carrier strike groups.](http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/china-builds-EMP-electromagnetic-pulse-weapons-for-use-against-US-carriers-64x64.jpg)
China Building Electromagnetic Pulse Weapons For Use Against US Naval Carriers
Jul 22nd
Blasts thwart all electronics
China’s military is developing electromagnetic pulse weapons that Beijing plans to use against U.S. aircraft carriers in any future conflict over Taiwan, according to an intelligence report made public on Thursday.
Portions of a National Ground Intelligence Center study on the lethal effects of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and high-powered microwave (HPM) weapons revealed that the arms are part of China’s so-called “assassin’s mace” arsenal – weapons that allow a technologically inferior China to defeat U.S. military forces.
EMP weapons mimic the gamma-ray pulse caused by a nuclear blast that knocks out all electronics, including computers and automobiles, over wide areas. The phenomenon was discovered in 1962 after an aboveground nuclear test in the Pacific disabled electronics in Hawaii.
The declassified intelligence report, obtained by the private National Security Archive, provides details on China’s EMP weapons and plans for their use. Annual Pentagon reports on China’s military in the past made only passing references to the arms.
“For use against Taiwan, China could detonate at a much lower altitude (30 to 40 kilometers) … to confine the EMP effects to Taiwan and its immediate vicinity and minimize damage to electronics on the mainland,” the report said.
The report, produced in 2005 and once labeled “secret,” stated that Chinese military writings have discussed building low-yield EMP warheads, but “it is not known whether [the Chinese] have actually done so.” source - Washington Times
Creationism Controversy Again Slips Into Texas Textbook Debate
Jul 21st
Going ape for creationism
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” Romans 1:22,23
Texas schools were back at the center of the argument over whether students should be taught creationism alongside evolution Thursday, even if they weren’t supposed to be.
Charles Darwin - Monkey Man!
Curriculum standards adopted in 2009 say Texas’ science textbooks must “explore all sides” of the theory of evolution, a specification that conservative religious members then on the board said was intended to require textbooks to discuss creationism and “intelligent design,” the hypothesis that a supreme being engineered the creation and development of humanity.
Texas schools are due to update their textbooks this year. Normally, the state board would review and approve all new textbooks. But the state says it can’t afford to pay local school boards to buy any of them.
So the state Board of Education met Thursday to hear four hours of public testimony on which, if any, electronic books and other online materials it should recommend to “supplement” the old textbooks as a stopgap. A final vote is scheduled Friday.
Activists were eager to use Thursday’s hearing to continue their argument over evolution. But the actual matter before the board was much narrower — Friday’s vote is just on a recommendation for this year’s supplements, not a binding vote on Texas’ official textbooks.
None of the nine temporary solutions that state Education Commissioner Robert Scott signed off on for consideration includes creationism or intelligent design. (Conservatives on the board would like to consider a 10th supplement — rejected by Scott — that does examine intelligent design, The Dallas Morning News reported. But unlike two years ago, they no longer control a majority of the board.)
In any event, school districts don’t have to follow the board’s recommendation, under a new law that gives them the sole authority to spend their state education funds. Still, almost 100 people turned out Thursday, hoping once again for the chance to argue over Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. source – MSNBC
