Brinkmanship on a sinking ship?

Brinkmanship on a sinking ship?

I don’t think Mr. Obama and the EU leaders will get many points with their unwashed masses for their efforts to curtail Russia’s ambitions. 

“U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday promised to increase Russia’s isolation, as the United States and the European Union agreed to work together to prepare possible tougher economic sanctions in response to Russia's behavior in Ukraine.
Speaking after a summit with top EU officials and quoted by Reuters, Obama declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin had miscalculated if he thought he could divide the West or count on its indifference over his annexation of Crimea.
"If Russia continues on its current course, however, the isolation will deepen, sanctions will increase and there will be more consequences for the Russian economy," he told a joint news conference with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/178953#.UzO1XfmwLa4

Meanwhile:

“Russia has increased its gold holdings by 7.247 tonnes to 1,042 tonnes in February. Turkey and Kazakhstan also raised their bullion reserves, data from the International Monetary Fund showed today.
Turkey's gold holdings rose 9.292 tonnes to 497.869 tonnes, the data showed.
Many analysts are ignoring the important context of today's new geopolitical backdrop. Russia alone has some $400 billion in foreign exchange reserves - mostly in U.S. dollars. If they were to diversify just 5%, worth some $20 billion, of those reserves into gold - it would be equal to nearly 500 tonnes of gold or nearly 25% of global annual production.”

http://www.goldcore.com/goldcore_blog/Russia_Raises_Gold_Holdings_By_7.247_Tonnes_To_Over_1040_Tonnes_In_February

China is now the world’s largest consumer of gold.

Jim Rickards is the author of the bestseller“Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis” and the forthcoming, “The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System”.
He is a portfolio manager at West Shore Group and a partner in Tangent Capital Partners, a merchant bank based in New York. He is an advisor on capital markets to the U.S. intelligence community and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

“The best guide is to assume China has some target in mind, probably 5,000 tonnes or higher, and will continue to accumulate through diverse channels until that target is reached. My estimate is that China will announce it has over 5,000 tonnes of gold in early 2015. It probably has at least 3,000 tonnes today.”

At Bank of America:

“Here’s a story that’s starting to sound weirdly familiar: Bank of America Corp. just agreed to pay $9.5 billion to settle U.S. claims linked to mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from 2005 to 2007. The deal, which roughly $6.3 billion in cash to end legal claims and an agreement to buy back $3.2 billion worth of mortgage-backed bonds, might seem like a landmark … if it was not so similar to multi-billion dollar agreements Bank of America signed in 2011 and 2013.
The 2013 deal, signed that January, also involved paying $3.6 billion in cash and buying back mortgages with billions of dollars in outstanding principal. At the time, Bank of America CEO Brian T. Moynihan called the 2013 agreements “a significant step in resolving our remaining legacy mortgage issues.” One analyst told Bloomberg that the deal would let Bank of America put its Fannie and Freddie issues behind it.
Apparently not. But there’s more. The current deal doesn’t just come on top of the 2013 settlement. It also comes on top of a $3 billion deal with Fannie and Freddie in 2011. Not to mention an $8.5 billion settlement reached with mortgage bond investors the same year. The consensus then was also that Bank of America seemed to be climbing out of the mortgage crisis pit. “The good news for BofA is that it seems to be putting a significant chunk of its Countrywide problems behind it,” Forbes wrote. Sound familiar?”

http://go.bloomberg.com/market-now/2014/03/26/at-bank-of-america-a-multi-billion-dollar-deja-vu/

At Citigroup:

Citigroup Inc.’s capital plan was among five that failed Federal Reserve stress tests, while Bank of America Corp. won approval for its first dividend increase since the financial crisis.

http://www.trunews.com/citigroup-fails-feds-stress-test/

And another meanwhile:

It looks like the National Science Foundation has been handing out grants for some unorthodox research projects, according to House Republicans.
This includes $700,000 in funding for a climate change musical.
House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith questioned White House science czar John Holdren in a Thursday hearing over whether or not the National Science Foundation (NSF) should have to justify its use of taxpayer dollars to fund projects. Smith pointed out some examples of questionable projects the NSF has funded.

• $700,000 on a climate change musical

• $15,000 to study fishing practices around Lake Victoria in Africa

• $340,000 to examine the “ecological consequences” of early human fires in New Zealand

• $200,000 for a three-year study of the Bronze Age around the Mediterranean

• $50,000 to survey archived 17th Century lawsuits in Peru

• $20,00 to look at the causes of stress in Bolivia

“The Administration’s willful disregard for public accountability distracts from the important issues of how America can stay ahead of China, Russia, and other countries in the highly-competitive race for technological leadership,” said Smith, a Texas Republican.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/26/feds-spent-700000-on-a-climate-change-musical/

I’m thinking of the Titanic and “The band played on” Steve Turner wrote a book about:

“I believe the band took the courageous decision to play because of the moral character of their leader, the violinist Wallace Hartley. This musician, who’d previously played on both the Mauretania and the Lusitania, was from the small town of Colne in Lancashire, England, and was raised in the Methodist church. His father was the choirmaster there and responsible for introducing the hymn ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee’ to the congregation.
By all accounts Hartley was a highly principled person and a devout Christian. He’d recently been engaged to a young Christian girl, Maria Robinson, and they planned to marry after he’d completed a few trips on the Titanic. He was personable, cheerful and would always attend church when he was back on land.”

But I don’t believe our leaders have the principles as Hartley. 

“Rats deserting a sinking ship” is a more likely term.

God Particle?

God Particle?Have particle physicists actually falsified both quantum mechanics and special relativity?

If there indeed are ”Higgs particles” in this world, as particle physicists at Cern claim to have discovered, then “particles” do actually equal “fields”. This claim does, however, run counter to the scientific development since James Clerk Maxwell’s equations of 1865 unifying electromagnetic phenomena.

http://menvall.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/have-particle-physicists-actually-falsified-both-quantum-mechanics-and-special-relativity/ 

The finding of Higgs particle is a fraud  

This possibility reveals that “truth” has two orthogonal aspects: one specific and one generic, whereof the generic concerns the matter itself and the specific concerns the truthfulnesses of its alternatives. The problem with this is that it means that a search for a single truth actually is an orthogonal merry-go-round between these different kinds of truths, because the no-no alternative, ie that both alternatives are false, is the route to the yes-yes alternative, ie that both alternatives are true, and vice versa…

…We can, of course claim that there indeed is a single truth and even that we have found it, as cladists and particle physicists do,  but it does not change the fact that there isn’t any. Claims can’t create reality. The only thing it can accomplish is to confuse science, and thus also confuse those of us that weren’t confused in the first place. Fact is that such claims are wrong. There isn’t any single truth, although particle physicists have been awarded the Nobel Prize for finding it. This “finding” is actually nothing but a fraud. 

http://menvall.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/the-finding-of-higgs-particle-is-a-fraud/

No wonder they are confused!

I can recommend study material. It’s the Bible. You find out about the God who made the particles. 

“We were given the Scriptures to humble us into realizing that God is right, and the rest of us are just guessing.” 

― Rich Mullins

Not Normal

Not Normal

This morning after reading My Utmost for His Highest (February 10), I spoke  aloud saying, “Why is it so convoluted…the normal thinking person wouldn’t understand a word of it!" Then the forceful voice intruded with: “None of My children are normal thinking!” I had to laugh, and said, “You’re right, Lord!” …

Because we aren’t!…

The author, Mindy Silva, writes about what is normal and what is not. I have said that the definition of normal has been turned up side down in recent  years.

So, no, “Normal” is not something we are. We went from the world’s “normal” to uncommon…uncommon Christianity…

 We don’t even go where “normal” people go! We don’t drink, and we don’t party. We don’t curse and tell people where to stuff it, now do we? (Although some most likely do in the back of their minds!) We don’t envy, we don’t murder, we don’t commit adultery, we don’t worship anything or anybody but Christ…

So, no, “Normal” is not something we are. We went from the world’s “normal” to uncommon…uncommon Christianity.

But Christianity doesn’t allow for a middle road. We can’t please the world by operating as the world does once we know who we are in Christ.           

We can’t blend in folks, we are to stand out. This is the gist of Christianity. And that is the difference between not being normal, and trying to be.  

Jesus taught Christians are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Read the whole article here:

http://www.raptureready.com/soap/silva-mindy10.html

Just some random notes

Americans are enthusiastic about the promise of science but lack basic knowledge of it, with one in four unaware that the Earth revolves around the Sun, said a poll out Friday.
The survey included more than 2,200 people in the United States and was conducted by the National Science Foundation.
Ten questions about physical and biological science were on the quiz, and the average score -- 6.5 correct -- was barely a passing grade.
Just 74 percent of respondents knew that the Earth revolved around the Sun, according to the results released at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting
in Chicago.

"STOP WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE!!!

A couple of years ago an undergrad went to the campus of UCF with a sign that said "STOP WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE!!!" and asked students to sign the petition to end the brutal act. The undergrad stayed there all day long, gathering signatures, the entire time, students going on and on about how much women had suffered and that the suffrage MUST be stopped!! Only ONE student stopped with a stunned look on his face, knowing what this meant...he's a Korean exchange student.

John Kerry Calls Climate Change a 'Weapon of Mass Destruction'

Secretary of State John Kerry today spoke in stark terms about the dangers of climate change and compared those who deny it is happening to people who believe the world is flat.
Calling climate change "catastrophic," Kerry called on Indonesia's leaders to work on cutting greenhouse emissions.
"Climate change can now be considered another weapon of mass destruction, perhaps the world's most fearsome weapon of mass destruction," he said.

I have your dog

An anonymous announcement in the New York PETS section of CraigsList shared a tale of redemption about an abused dog that was found in 2011 and has been recovering and thriving since being adopted through a rescue group. (We have messaged the author to ask their name but have not heard back yet.)
Three years ago on Feb 9th, you were evicted from apartment 13B at 20 Catherine Street and your old red pit bull was seized by animal control and taken to the kill shelter. She was really skinny and had bad skin infections, and had been bred A LOT. She'd even had a Caesarian, judging by the scar. They said at the kill shelter she was 12 years old. She also had a lopsided face and it looked like there were a few cigarette burns on her head/ears.
I figure you were having a pretty bad time of it, since you were being evicted. I hope things have gotten better for you in the intervening years. Although it's unlikely you'll ever see this note, I just wanted you to know that I have your dog and she is doing great.

Are you rapture ready?

Specifically Abraham

Specifically Abraham

I got absorbed in the Good Book a while ago. Specifically Abraham. Lot of people read about him but they gloss over some juicy stuff. Most people know that he was 99 years when Isaac was conceived, but they don't really notice that Isaac  was,  most likely,  in his twenties when they went to the mountain to make the sacrifice.

Sara was 124 years when she died, so she lived to see her son grow up, and be a man.

After Sara's death. Abraham was ready to pack it in, so he made his servant take an other to find Isaac a wife. The servant did that, and Isaac moved his new wife into Sara's house. Abraham apparently like that and he stuck around.

Abraham married again when he was, most likely, about 130 years old or older, and had 6 kid. He finally died at the tender of 175.

Wonder what the neighbors thought about a old guy marrying a child bride of only 62? I don't know the age of his bride, but he got the job done.

 It's a good day.