NORTH KOREA: I hate to say ...!

... I told you so, but "I told you so!"

Former American Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton has been predicting North Korea would disavow previous commitments (inspection and verification efforts) made to America and its allies regarding its nuclear program

Bolton was right; and the New York Times editorial page was wrong when it trusted the North Koreans to follow through and blamed the Bush Administration for problems dealing with the North Korean regime. Now the North Koreans are threatening war if America tries to hold it to its promises. [Ed Lasky at The American Thinker; h/t Black Kettle]

Asia, Bolton, North Korea,
Geopolitics, United Nations

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PETRO DOLLARS: USA consumers apparently funding UK bailout!

If I understand this right, the UK's Gordon Brown (PM) is seeking to influence Saudi Arabia's support of the IMF and the World Bank ... why? Because the Saudis have excess petrodollars lying around and the IMF and the World Bank, due to the seriousness of the global financial crisis, don't! So?

It seems Brown, like most of the rest of the world, needs tons of pounds to bail the English economy out, and the UK doesn't want to be seen going hat in hand to Arab Gulf states; normally the only source of those funds is the IMF and the World Bank.

Where did the Saudis get all this hard cash? From petrodollars ... the recent rise in crude prices filled Arab States coffers. Where do the petrodollars come from? Well, something shy of 25% of every petrodollar comes from the American consumer (this assumes US petroleum consumption and US energy consumption track).

So if the Saudis agree to fund the IMF and the World Bank, and the UK obtains bailout funds from them, about 20 cents of every dollar borrowed by the UK would come from an American purse!

So, the American taxpayer is not only bailing out AIG, the national banking system, and soon the automakers, but theoretically any nation or group that relies on Saudi funding; blend in ongoing funding of the UN (22% of annual budget), the consumer's indirect involvement in any UK bailout, the fact that Arabian petrodollars go to support terrorist organizations, and a web of self-destructive global financing begins to appear before our eyes.

What a mess! If we factor in the bankrupt Social Security and Medicare systems it gets even messier.

American taxpayers need immediate action from their representatives.

Bailout, IMF, Medicare, Petrodollars,
Politics, Saudi Arabia, Social Security,
Terrorism, UK, UN, World Bank

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CONGO: Here we go again ... rape, torture, pillaging, and genocide!

The continuing rebel incursion into the DR Congo is Rwanda all over again. I sometimes wonder if ANYONE knows where and what Africa is?

While the world continues to have an erection over "The One" (h/t FL), rape, torture, and murder proceed unimpeded in the DR Congo, the third largest country by area in Africa.

The UN was shouldered with responsibility for finding a solution years ago ... long before the current war; their answer to the challenge was and is MONUC, which is nothing more than a subsidy for thousands of emasculated foreign military personnel. The EU sent its own contingent of troops as well ... so too the French.

In the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, conservative and religious voices lifted a chorus of "never again," while numerous Western nations conducted inquiries into their failure to prevent the inhumanity ... yet here we are again.

We have well over 5 million (mostly civilian) native deaths directly or indirectly related to the DR Congo wars, yet the world watches and yawns; add the genocide in Darfur and one should choke on the staggering loss of lives in Africa in the past decade.

The incompetence of our global structures to stop these tribal and regional conflicts and bring general peace to the continent speaks volumes about the state of 21st Century man and his creations.

If it weren't so damn irritating it would be laughable.

Raise a stink about this, write your leaders, write the UN, call newspapers. Do something!

Africa, Darfur, DR Congo,
Genocide, Global incompetence, MONUC,
Obama, Geopolitics, United Nations

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ISLAM: And the Last Days!

It is just my opinion, but two things seem certain to me as we enter the leading edge of the one and only Last Days: first, there will be a worldwide war with Islam (and, if I am correct about the last days, Islam will gain the appearance of victory) and, second, signs of these last days will increase geometrically in the years ahead.

For the average man to keep track of current indicators is impossible; it must boggle the mind of even those trained in such a discipline.

Consider just one report from this morning's news ...

The war against free speech is advancing rapidly: Associated Press reported Thursday that “Muslim countries have won a battle to prevent Islam from being criticised during debates by the UN Human Rights Council.” Council President Doru-Romulus Costea explained that religious issues can be “very complex, very sensitive and very intense…This council is not prepared to discuss religious matters in depth, consequently we should not do it.” Henceforth only religious scholars would be permitted to broach them.

The UN's tentacles are everywhere present in this era; we've been warned for decades about the danger.

Presently, radical Islam (phooey - Islam herself) is being everywhere capitulated to; and, what with EU (see Sarkozy's divided Israel) & UN lackeys fawning all over each other, she stands in a unique position to thwart the cause of Christ and the Jews in the West like never before.

Because the War on Terror is being managed (sic) by women and sissies, Western Civilization has inadvertently given Islam an international soapbox of which Hussein, Qaddafi, the Ayatollahs, and the Taliban only dreamed.

Who would have thought a few decades ago Islam and the international community would have the leverage to bring back the Roman Church's doctrine of "only religious scholars would be permitted to [discuss religious issues]"? This is the Dark Ages again.

You may say I am overreacting to an isolated news item - not so ... see here and here and here.

HT - The Black Kettle "Free Speech Dies at the UN"

Christianity, European Union, Free Speech,
Last Days, Religion, United Nations

ABORTION: The slippery, slimy slope of socialist skulduggery!

HT: The Brussels Journal

In the latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights, Jakob Cornides of the European Commission finds that nations have naively “handed over too much power to self-styled ‘human rights experts’” which is seriously damaging, perhaps even destroying, the credibility of the concept of human rights. [...]

Cornides carefully analyzes two recent examples of how European bureaucracies are overstepping their mandates and pushing a pro-abortion ideology using language, supposition and selectivity to usher in a right to abortion by “the backdoor.”

Proponents of a right to abortion relied on “obfuscating and denying reality,” “inventing and distorting reality” and the manipulation of human rights language precisely because it is so unlikely that a new treaty recognizing abortion as a fundamental human right could ever be adopted, Cornides argues. “Instead of saying that they want to impose new laws (like abortion on demand) on society, they pretend that international law obliges them to do so, and that the new laws they are making represent the true and original sense of the relevant Conventions,” he explains.

For nearly a century, conservatives have warned of the disastrous potential of globalism as represented by such things as The League of Nations and The United Nations ... the above represents why our prophetic juices have been working overtime for so long.

BLOGGERS BLOGGING:

New York Articles

Abortion, Human rights, Socialism

TALIBAN: Answering the unanswerable!

Today's article suggests the Taliban may be ready to release their Korean hostages (mostly women).

I've been personally frustrated by various complaints from Christians and Christian organizations about the silence from the Christian community and the Godblogosphere concerning these "Christian" aid workers. The complaints are warranted to a certain extent but let's face reality.

At this juncture, two male members of the Korean group have been murdered; there is no guarantee more won't suffer the same fate.

Most Western Christians are news savvy and know when they are dealing with ignorant unprincipled people; leaders who have no moral compunctions other than their wild allegiance to an aberrant idea.

This does have a tendency to dampen involvement.

And speaking for myself - I have 24 hours each day to minister for the Lord; I'm obligated to use those hours as a gift (no, I'm not always perfect in their use) and to prioritize my labors. Like Satan, I cannot be everywhere at once, all-knowing, and all-mighty. Most of us are doing the best we can.

And I would suggest that Darfur, the Iraqi Christian exodus, and Arab persecution of Christians in general trump the hostages ... and where pray tell is the UN, man's answer to all of this? What a waste!

In other words, where can my noise, my sweat, and my heart do the most good? And since when is this a problem of the American church only? And is the noise I hear from the Church in the North, South, and East not still "from the Church"? Why is so much guilt placed on the shoulders of the Church in the West? We are one body!

Bottom-line, Paul knew before going "to Caesar" that he might not come out alive; the same was said by Jesus on His entry into Jerusalem.

When we opt to go on mission for God, and opt for a dangerous mission field (the field of another), there is a certain awareness of the dangers involved. In some fields (like Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Afghanistan) there is a tacit understanding that there are no clandestine black berets lurking in the shadows to extricate us if we get in trouble.

My feeling is the criticism is both warranted (in a qualified sense) and unwarranted (in an unqualified sense). Perhaps the critics should reexamine their criticism.

Chritianity, Criticism, Geopolitics,
Hostages, Korean, Missions, Taliban

DARFUR: Authorization for 26 thousand UN troops, but ...

... will they actually go?

Darfur is an ongoing genocide of non-Muslims by Muslims the nations of this world have been ignoring for years.

If as much attention was paid to it by Bono et al, as has been paid to the HIV problem in Africa perhaps these troops could have stayed home!

Africa, Christianity, Darfur, Genocide,
Peace Keeping, United Nations