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A Service of the Church of God Faithful Flock
Weekly News and Commentary - Week of December 30, 2007
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WORLD NEWS BULLETIN
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 Weakening U.S. Currency Harms Overseas Markets
The sharp decline of the U.S. dollar since 2000 is affecting a broad swath of the world's population, with its drop on global markets being blamed at least in part for misfortunes as diverse as labor strikes in the Middle East, lost jobs in Europe and the end of an era of globe-trotting rich Americans.
It marks a shift for Americans in the global economy. In times of strength, a mightier dollar allowed Americans to feed their insatiable appetite for foreign goods at cheap prices while providing Yankees abroad with virtually unrivaled economic clout. But now, as the United States struggles to fend off a recession, observers say the less lofty dollar is having both a tangible and intangible diminishing effect.
There is far more to all this economic concern than appears on the surface. Its roots even penetrate back into ancient history and biblical prophecy. Where are the United States and British nations mentioned in Bible prophecy? What is prophesied about these very conditions?
 Views from the People
To the Editor
Cumberland Times News
 Many people have been asking themselves lately whether China poses a threat to the United States. Unfortunately, I believe the answer to this question is yes. I also regrettably believe America is at fault.
It may be true that China currently poses no threat to the United States militarily; however, we are far from invulnerable to China’s increasingly tightening grip on America’s economic security. China by no means has the ability at present, to deliver a fatal blow to the U.S. on an economic level; however, they could certainly create a disturbance that would be felt throughout the economy.
 Al Gore says global warming is a planetary emergency. It is difficult to see how this can be so when record low temperatures are being set all over the world. In 2007, hundreds of people died, not from global warming, but from cold weather hazards.
Since the mid-19th century, the mean global temperature has increased by 0.7 degrees Celsius. This slight warming is not unusual, and lies well within the range of natural variation. Carbon dioxide continues to build in the atmosphere, but the mean planetary temperature hasn't increased significantly for nearly nine years. Antarctica is getting colder. Neither the intensity nor the frequency of hurricanes has increased. The 2007 season was the third-quietest since 1966. In 2006 not a single hurricane made landfall in the U.S.
South America this year experienced one of its coldest winters in decades. In Buenos Aires, snow fell for the first time since the year 1918. Dozens of homeless people died from exposure. In Peru, 200 people died from the cold and thousands more became infected with respiratory diseases. Crops failed, livestock perished, and the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency.
The business of marketing the Bible and the Koran says a lot about the state of modern Christianity and Islam
CHRISTIANS and Muslims have one striking thing in common: they are both “people of the book”. And they both have an obligation to spread the Word—to get those Holy Books into the hands and hearts of as many people as they can. (The Jews, the third people of the book, do not feel quite the same obligation.)
Spreading the Word is hard. The Bible is almost 800,000 words long and littered with tedious passages about begetting. The Koran is a mere four-fifths of the length of the New Testament; but some Westerners find it an even more difficult read. Edward Gibbon complained about its “endless incoherent rhapsody of fable and precept”. Thomas Carlyle said that it was “as toilsome reading as I ever undertook; a wearisome, confused jumble, crude, incondite”.
 As central banks continue to splash their cash over the system, so far to little effect, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard argues things are rapidly spiralling out of their control
Twenty billion dollars here, $20bn there, and a lush half-trillion from the European Central Bank at give-away rates for Christmas. Buckets of liquidity are being splashed over the North Atlantic banking system, so far with meagre or fleeting effects.
As the credit paralysis stretches through its fifth month, a chorus of economists has begun to warn that the world's central banks are fighting the wrong war, and perhaps risk a policy error of epochal proportions.
Potential Home Buyers Sitting Tight, Waiting For Slump To Shake Out And Deliver Lower Prices
The upside to a housing slump is cheaper homes. But many prospective buyers don't see bargains yet, especially as stricter lending standards qualify only the cream of the credit crop.
Though some markets, like south Florida, Las Vegas and the central valley of California, have seen sharp declines in home prices — up to 20 percent by some measures — overall national statistics show a much less dramatic drop so far.
By J.W. ELPHINSTONE | Associated Press
December 28, 2007
http://www.courant.com/
 I find myself now in the seventh decade of life still asking two questions that in one way or another the great majority of my 165 published books have sought to answer: 1.) Who are we as a species? 2.) What is our destiny?
The basic reason that I wrote Worlds Before Our Own (G.P. Putnam‘s Sons, 1978; Anomalist Books, 2007) is that I have always found it incredible that such sophisticated people as we judge ourselves to be, do not really know who we are.
Book Review
 The conventional wisdom says that the history of the last 300 years is the story of the rise and fall of Europe. I think that is wrong. The main trend in world history has been the development and continuing growth of a global system of power, finance, culture, ideology and trade based first on the power of Britain and then on that of the United States. Since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Britain has only been defeated in one major great power war – the war of the American Revolution. To put that another way, since the seventeenth century, either Britain or the United States or both together have been on the winning side in every great power war in which they have participated.
God and Gold is a book about this Anglo-American world system. Why have the British and the Americans established the most powerful and influential international power system in the history of the world? What does history teach us about the dangers we now face from the conflicts in the Middle East and from other challenges of the 21st century such as the rise of Asia? Are the best days of Anglo-American power already behind us, or do we still have an important role to play in world history?
God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World, by Walter Russell Mead:
What’s New about New Years?
World News Bulletin is dedicated to bringing you up todate news from around the world with a Biblical Perspective and Focus. We strive to bring the why behind the news from the standpoint of Bible Prophecy.
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Picture of the Day
Mountains of Creation
This fantastic skyscape lies at the eastern edge of giant stellar nursery W5, about 7,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. An infrared view from the Spitzer Space Telescope, it features interstellar clouds of cold gas and dust sculpted by winds and radiation from a hot, massive star outside the picture (just above and to the right). Still swaddled within the cosmic clouds, newborn stars are revealed by Spitzer's penetrating gaze, their formation also triggered by the massive star. Fittingly dubbed "Mountains of Creation", these interstellar clouds are about 10 times the size of the analogous Pillars of Creation in M16, made famous in a 1995 Hubble Space Telescope view. W5 is also known as IC 1848 and together with IC 1805 it is part of a complex region popularly dubbed the Heart and Soul Nebulae. The Spitzer image spans about 70 light-years at the distance of W5.
 LOS ANGELES - An asteroid that could pack a nuclear bomb wallop is heading toward Mars and has a 1 in 75 chance of impact, scientists say.
The newly discovered hunk of space rock could hit the Red Planet on Jan. 30
“These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track . . . threatening asteroids,” said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
http://www.bostonherald.com/
Brought to you as a Study Resource by the
Church of God Faithful Flock
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 Norwegian companies' boards are now stacked with women
HENRIK IBSEN, author of the play “A Doll's House”, in which a pretty, frustrated housewife abandons her husband and children to seek a more serious life, would surely have approved. From January 1st all public companies in Norway are obliged to ensure that at least 40% of their board directors are women. Most firms have obeyed the law, which was passed in 2003. But about 75 out of the 480 or so companies it affects are still too male for the government's liking. They will shortly receive a letter informing them that they have until the end of February to act, or face the legal consequences—which could include being dissolved.
Before the law was proposed, about 7% of board members in Norway were female, according to the Centre for Corporate Diversity. The number has since jumped to 36%. That is far higher than the average of 9% for big companies across Europe—11% for Britain's FTSE 100—or America's 15% for the Fortune 500. Norway's stock exchange and its main business lobby oppose the law, as do many businessmen. “I am against quotas for women or men as a matter of principle,” says Sverre Munck, head of international operations at Schibsted, a media firm. “Board members of public companies should be chosen solely on the basis of merit and experience,” he says. Several firms have even given up their public status in order to escape the new law.
Isa 3:12 As for my people, children are their oppressors,
and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead
thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.
 A New Year's Day storm that snowed over parts of the Midwest and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights will continue tormenting some travelers today.
But the storm is just the beginning of what forecasters are calling a crazy week of weather that could bring 30-degree weather to Miami, followed by a Spring-like heating across the East
The Cost of Battling Terrorism........
 The latest estimate of the growing costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the worldwide battle against terrorism -- nearly $15 billion a month -- came last week from one of the Senate's leading proponents of a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq.
"This cost of this war is approaching $15 billion a month, with the Army spending $4.2 billion of that every month," Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska), the ranking Republican on the Appropriations defense subcommittee, said in a little-noticed floor speech Dec. 18. His remarks came in support of adding $70 billion to the omnibus fiscal 2008 spending legislation to pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, as well as counterterrorism activities, for the six months from Oct. 1, 2007, through March 31 of next year.
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 27, 2007; Page A07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Lev 26:14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
Lev 26:15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:
Lev 26:16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror...
 Japan has for the first time shot down a ballistic missile, testing a defence system aimed at warding off potential missile threats from its neighbours.
A Japanese warship stationed off Hawaii launched a US-developed Standard-3 interceptor missile to destroy a mock target fired from onshore.
The test was carried out in partnership with the US Missile Defense Agency.
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk
Despite its claims, Pakistan's nuclear weapons are vulnerable.
 The assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto reminds us starkly of an unanswered question most of us would prefer to forget: how secure are Pakistan's nuclear weapons? Could Al Qaeda or another terrorist group acquire a warhead or enough radioactive material to create a dirty bomb?
Over the years I have had the opportunity to discuss the loose nukes issue with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf on three separate occasions. On each he insisted that there is no possibility that corrupt custodians or terrorists could steal the country's nuclear weapons and materials. But in the third of these conversations, which occurred in December 2003, just a week after terrorists came within a second and a half of blowing him up, I managed to penetrate his standard defense. How plausible is it, I asked, that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is more secure than the president of the country himself? His answer: well, there you may have a point.
By Graham Allison | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 1:35 p.m. ET Dec 28, 2007
http://www.newsweek.com
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's shopping malls in late December leave little doubt that the country has been smitten by Christmas, if not in quite the way devout Christians might hope.
Christmas has secured a spot on the Chinese calendar as a cherished excuse to buy, buy, buy. And while Christianity is indeed spreading in the officially atheist country, many shoppers have only a faint idea of the holiday's religious connection.
But their manner of celebration is sure to win the blessing of at least one group: economists.
Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:10pm EST
By Simon Rabinovitch
http://www.reuters.com/
 Editorial
 In the Chinese classic, The Art of War, Sun Tzu says: “one who is good at martial arts overcomes others’ forces without battle, conquers others’ cities without siege, destroys others’ nations without taking a long time.” This is accomplished by a process the ancient Chinese strategists called “strategic siege.” It is an approach the enemy cannot detect; the kind of long-range strategy adopted by Mao Zedong and Nikita Khrushchev during the Cold War; the kind of strategy used to orient the Chinese and Russian security services around 1960. It involves a strategy of “peaceful coexistence” and “détente.” It is a strategy of passive aggression, of masked enmity and treacherous cooperation. It continues today even though the West suspects nothing. It was described in 1984 by KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn when he wrote: “the communist strategists are equipped, in pursuing their policy, to engage in maneuvers and stratagems beyond the imagination of Marx or the practical reach of Lenin and unthinkable to Stalin. Among such previously unthinkable stratagems are the introduction of false liberalization in Eastern Europe….”
In the 1950s Russia and China were cut off economically and isolated by the West, outclassed by Western technology, hemmed in by American bases, surrounded by alliances like NATO and SEATO. Russia wanted to break out. China desired to industrialize. In keeping with these desires, Joseph Stalin planned an invasion of Western Europe. In Asia the Chinese invaded Tibet and the North Koreans invaded South Korea. Chinese leader Mao Zedong even talked of building a navy and invading the continental United States. But the aggressive plans of the dictators came to nothing. Stalin died mysteriously in 1953, his war plan unfulfilled. North Korean aggression was thwarted by the United States in 1950, and China’s ambitions ran aground on Mao’s misbegotten “great leap forward.” The Chinese and Russians lacked the economic means and the technology to advance their plans. In order to break out from isolation, to gain the technology and capital needed, they began to reorganize themselves internally – first with Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin, then with a reorganization of the secret police, finally with a more flexible foreign policy. In Russia this was the first de-Stalinization. In China, Mao met with Nixon and a great “opening” began. In both instances the same principle was at work. As Sun Tzu explained: “All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe that we are away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.” The communist world was feigning disorder, and this operation was to be redoubled in the 1990s until the West declared itself the winner in the Cold War.
Editorial
“In 2008, we’re going to see some major, giant financial firms fall as they get hit by an economic 9/11.” - Gerald Celente, The Trends Journal
 December 21, 2007 Rhinebeck, New York - On December 19, 2007, the Federal Reserve announced it was lending another $20 billion to American banks in the first of four special “auctions” designed to help alleviate the credit crunch on Wall Street caused by the subprime loan collapse in real estate. That $20 billion brings the total money pumped into the United States financial sector since June 2007, to about half a trillion dollars. In its announcement, the Federal Reserve said it was responding to requests for $61.6 billion in loans from 93 bidders – illustrating strong demand by banks that need short-term funds.
Some market experts doubt this latest infusion of cash will help much. Barry Ritholtz, Director of Equity Research for Fusion IQ, told CNN: “This is a crisis of confidence, not of liquidity or rates. The problem is that people made bad loans. There’s nothing the Fed can do to fix this. All they can do is try and reduce anxiety.”
And in the December 24, 2007, issue of Newsweek, financial columnist Robert Samuelson wrote about “A Sequel to the Subprime Mess? The obvious danger is another wave of large losses and a chain reaction of fear that paralyzes and cripples investors, particularly banks.”
This is exactly the subject that leads off the 2008 Trends list in The Trends Journal written and published by Gerald Celente in Rhinebeck, New York. Mr. Celente has been interviewed by network newscasters for years and his trend predictions are generally correct. This week I talked to him about trends he sees for 2008, beginning with the top of his list: “Economic 9/11.”
© 2007 by Linda Moulton Howe
The Trends Research Institute,
Rhinebeck, New York
http://www.earthfiles.com/
Biblical Perspective
Sodomy, n. A crime against nature. --American Dictionary of the English language, Noah Webster 1828.
Words mean something. Noah Webster knew that well. Just hearing the word sodomy sounds harsh. This is evidence of how far we have slid.
“Whoever, therefore wishes to ruin a nation, has only to get this vice introduced; for it is extremely difficult to extirpate it where it has once taken root because it can be propagated with much secrecy… and when we perceive that it has once got a footing in any country, however, powerful and flourishing, we may venture as politicians to predict that the foundation of its future decline is laid and that after some hundred years it will no longer be the same…powerful country it is at the present.” (Sir John David Michaelis, Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, 1814.
In 1988, 74.9% of the American Public thought that sex between two people of the same gender was always wrong. By 1998, the percentage had fallen to 54.6% (National Opinion research Center, The University of Chicago.)
Snow storms in the central US have left at least 22 people dead and tens of thousands without electricity, the Associated Press news agency reports.
The storm reduced visibility to nearly zero in some places
Hundreds of accidents were reported as far south as Texas, where there was a 50-vehicle motorway pile-up.
The storm has also felled trees and power lines and caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
More heavy snow has been forecast as the storms move into the Great Lakes region bordering Canada.
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The battle of the books 
Biblical Perspective: 
