‘Dozens of Hamas gunmen killed in clashes with IDF troops’

For the first time since the start of Operation Cast Lead, IDF ground troops entered the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening, exchanging fire with Hamas gunmen.

Channel 2 reported that the Navy was imposing a blockade on the water near Gaza to prevent Hamas from receiving assistance through Gaza’s coastline.

January 3, 2009
By JPOST.COM STAFF, YAAKOV KATZ AND AP
http://www.jpost.com/

Scientists are monitoring a cluster of earthquakes that have rattled Yellowstone National Park over the past few days amid concerns that a larger earthquake could be brewing.

More than 250 tremors have been recorded since Friday including nine greater than magnitude 3.0 on the Richter scale, according to the University of Utah. The largest, a magnitude 3.9, struck on Saturday and the area was shaken by a 3.3 tremor just after midday on Monday.

While earthquakes are common in the giant park, which covers parts of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana and experiences about 1,000 to 2,000 tremors a year, the intense burst of seismic activity lasting several days has been described as unusual.

December 30, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

The Center for Defense Information (CDI) has published a report titled “America’s Defense Meltdown: 13 non-partisan insiders, retired military officers & defense specialists speak out.” The report flatly states that America’s defenses are “outdated,” with “insufficient” lethality bought at high expense. In a chapter written by a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, we read: “The large standing forces were supposed to facilitate professional preparation for war, but the essential officer corps never truly professionalized itself.”

Regarding the projected national security strategy for 2009-2017, Col. Chet Richards (USAF, ret.) wrote: “Decisions by the last two Democratic and Republican administrations have … depleted our military strength … and strengthened those around the world whose goals conflict with ours.” He places the largest share of the blame on the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, where military forces were used to solve problems “that are inherently social, economic or political….”

In a chapter written by a Marine colonel and an Army major, we read: “Institutional failures pervade the current management of military men and women, by far our most important defense resource.” The authors write of “ingrained behaviors” related to risk aversion, “group think” and a preoccupation with “turf battles.” Contracts are said to matter more than winning wars. “The primary route to valuing people is to … nurture highly innovative, unshakably ethical thinkers. Sadly, in today’s armed forces such people … are known as mavericks.”

by J. R. Nyquist
December 27, 2008
http://www.financialsense.com/

CHICAGO (AP) — Rain and rapidly rising temperatures accompanied by thick fog threatened to cause flooding Saturday in the Midwestern United States after days of Arctic cold, heavy snow and ice.

Thick ice on roads that contributed to dozens of deaths had thawed and mountains of snow turned into pools and streams of water.

December 27, 2008
http://www.usatoday.com/

Previous posts have commented on the fact that US and NATO warships were sent to the Gulf of Aden to combat the threat of ragtag pirates operating on tiny surface craft. Previous blogs also discussed the near-disastrous terrorist attack which could have occurred if an Iranian ship loaded with radioactive cargo (reportedly radioactive sand loaded in China) had not been Providentially hijacked by the Somali pirates. It was when the pirates began dying of radiation sickness that the world’s intelligence services realized the real nature of the cargo on the Iranian ship and hurriedly sent warships to the Arabian Sea. If this Iranian ship had detonated itself as a radioactive dirty bomb off the coast of Israel after passing through the Suez Canal on its way to its supposed destination in Europe, the Israeli reaction would very likely have been nuclear. Such cities as Tehran, Qom, etc. in Iran would likely no longer exist if an Iranian-abetted nuclear terrorist strike had hit Israeli territory. Knowing nuclear strikes by the Israelis could be triggered by such a mass-casualty attack upon the Jewish State, the USA and NATO rushed warships to the Arabian Sea. Personally, I think the US and NATO motive was less-motivated by a concern to fight piracy and more-motivated by a need to stop Iranian-sponsored “suicide ships” which could start a nuclear war. Evidence for this conclusion is found in the fact that NATO warships have done precious little to use their power to stop piracy since arriving in the region. Only India’s warship seems serious about opening fire on the pirates.

December 27, 2008
Steven Collins
http://stevenmcollins.com/

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli warplanes pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 225 people in one of the bloodiest days for the Palestinians in 60 years of conflict with the Jewish state.

Hamas vowed revenge including suicide bomb attacks in the “cafes and streets” of Israel. But Israeli leaders said the offensive would continue as long as necessary and suggested it may also involve land forces.

Mideast Video: Massive Israeli air raids on Gaza BBC

By Nidal al-Mughrabi Nidal Al-mughrabi
December 27, 2008
http://news.yahoo.com/

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - India warned its citizens on Friday it was unsafe to travel to Pakistan after the prime minister met military chiefs, and Pakistan cancelled army leave and moved some troops from its western border.

The warning marked a dramatic rise in tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours after last month’s attack on Mumbai, in which 179 people were killed and which India has blamed on Islamist militants based in Pakistan.

December 26, 2008
By Bappa Majumdar and Kamran Haider
http://in.reuters.com/

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — Pakistani troops have been moved to the Indian border amid fears of an Indian ground incursion, two Pakistani military officials told CNN on Friday.

The troops were deployed from Pakistan’s western border with Afghanistan, where forces have been battling Taliban and al Qaeda militants in North West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

December 26, 2008
From Zein Basravi
http://cnn.com/

In The Gathering Storm, the first of six volumes in his Nobel Prize-winning chronicle of the Second World War, Sir Winston Churchill compared the rise of Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany to ominous, dark storm clouds that threatened to unleash death and destruction on unsuspecting people living on the European continent and throughout the world.

Churchill lamented the indifference of leaders of democratic countries to those developing clouds as they ignored key events between World Wars I and II that indicated terrible trouble was brewing in Central Europe.

They simply hoped it would go away without dealing with it. Churchill was a lone voice in the wilderness relentlessly crying out against Hitler and his aggressive remilitarization of Germany that ultimately would plunge the world into an unimaginable nightmare!

By Mark Mendiola
The Philadelphia Remnant Magazine

Brought to you as a Biblical Perspective by the
Church of God Faithful Flock

On Tuesday President George W. Bush made a remarkable admission. He told CNN television, “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.” It is hard to believe, coming from a two-term Republican president. But there it is – proof positive that socialism is the wave of the future. President Bush does not believe in the free market. If he did, he would let the market function. He would have allowed the catastrophe to unfold according to market principles, trusting that the outcome would be better – in the long run – than the outcome of government intervention. For this is what market principles teach: that government planning cannot save an economy.

The president indirectly proposes that the government knows better than the market. He is saying that the government knows how to save the market, namely, by violating the market. By way of analogy, this amounts to advocating promiscuity as a means for preserving virginity. It would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. “We’re in a huge recession,” said Bush, “but I don’t want to make it even worse.”

But President Bush has made it worse by throwing good money after bad, by redistributing the market’s losses, pronouncing in favor of moral hazard, and by making massive decisions for the market. What comes next is hyperinflation. According to a senior economist at Decision Economics, quoted in an AFP news story titled “Fed cuts rate to virtually zero, will expand stimulus moves,” the government is “pulling every lever and pulling them hard. They are going to print money until they get a reaction from the economy.” Well, the reaction has begun. The good faith and credit of the United States is over. Who is going to loan money to a government determined to inflate?

by J. R. Nyquist
December 19, 2008
http://www.financialsense.com/

Isa 3:14  Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders of His people, and their kings; for you have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.