04/8/12

A Wicked Financial Storm Descends On America

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Ever since 2008, this blog has been warning about economic devastation heading our way. You see it everywhere you look today, if you bother to look that is… Gas prices are at close to an average of $4 a gallon and in parts of California, it is now hitting $7, with no end in sight. Food inflation that is rising so precipitously, it takes your breath away – but the government says there is no inflation.

In the world that is America now, all things seem to be upside down and sliding full-blown out of control. This includes the Communist who is our current Commander-in-Chief. He claims he is drilling for oil, when the opposite is true. He is blocking all of it and piling so many regulations on our coal plants in lockstep with his bud, Cass Sunstein, that they are shutting down as well. Lie after lie after infernal lie.

As for unemployment, the government is manipulating the hell out of those numbers in an attempt to calm the sheep before the slaughter. They claim it has fallen to 8.2%. Take a long look at the U6 rate, which tracks not only those out of work, but those who’ve essentially given up looking for work. It currently sits at 14.5% – close to double what is being claimed by our ‘progressive’ leadership. Real unemployment stands at closer to 19.1% and is perhaps substantially higher than that.

People are giving up on finding work. A second, even more brutal wave of foreclosures is also on the horizon. Real hunger is coming to the US and hard times that will make the Great Depression seem like the good ole days are pounding on our door. A majority of states are now close to being unable to cover pensions and other entitlements as well as expenses. Bankruptcy is an understatement for what these states are facing. So, to “solve” the problem, a number of them are taxing more which makes it worse and worse. All the while, the rising flood of fuel prices surges against the levee.

When truckers cannot fill their tanks anymore because of the cost, store shelves will become barren wastelands. Real food deserts. When people get hungry, especially when their children are hungry, they get mean and desperate. Just what the Progressives had in mind. Violence, chaos and mayhem in the streets.

So, you say… the election is not far off and we can get rid of Obama then. Maybe, maybe not… I understand a company owned at least in part by Soros will be handling voting results. It doesn’t take a genius to see how that would be manipulated. Then there is a potential war with Iran. If Obama feels his reelection is in jeopardy, war with Iran will look like just the right emergency. Or, there could be any other number of emergencies, real or ginned up like the Trayvon Martin murder that is sparking racial unrest.

If nothing else, the debt we owe will literally drag us into hell all by itself. We’re broke and we aren’t going back to yesteryear anytime soon. That would take massive cuts and pain and no one with that kind of spine exists today in our government. But until the last penny is stolen and the last party is thrown by the Progressives, they will keep spending until there is nothing left but death, war, famine and blood. And they are okay with that, trust me. We face the abyss and our leaders are embracing the gulf.

From The Economic Collapse Blog:

#1 According to one new survey, approximately one-third of all Americans are not paying their bills on time at this point.

#2 The U.S. housing industry is bracing for another huge wave of foreclosures in 2012. The following is from a recent Reuters article….

“We are right back where we were two years ago. I would put money on 2012 being a bigger year for foreclosures than 2010,” said Mark Seifert, executive director of Empowering & Strengthening Ohio’s People (ESOP), a counseling group with 10 offices in Ohio.

#3 The Citigroup Economic Surprise Index, a key indicator watched by many economists, is on the verge of heading into negative territory.

#4 We are supposed to be in the middle of an economic recovery in the United States, but bad news just keeps pouring in from major companies. For example, Yahoo is firing thousands of workers and Best Buy is closing dozens of stores.

#5 Richard Russell says that the “big money” is starting to quietly exit from the financial markets….

“My guess is that this is the big money that has been holding off as long as it decently can — and then dumping their goods just before the close. I don’t think the big money likes this market, and I think they have been slowly exiting this market, as quietly as they can.”

#6 Goldman Sachs is projecting that the S&P 500 will fall by about 11 percent by the end of 2012.

#7 All over the country, local governments are going into default and we have not even entered the next recession yet.

#8 The U.S. government will add more to the national debt in 2012 than it did from the time that George Washington became president to the time that Ronald Reagan became president.

#9 The Federal Reserve is desperately trying to control interest rates. The Fed purchased approximately 61 percent of all government debt issued by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2011. This is the only thing that is keeping interest rates in the United States from soaring dramatically.

#10 German industrial production is falling at a pace that is far faster then expected.

#11 Italy’s debt-to-GDP ratio is now up to 120 percent.

#12 The Spanish government admitted on Tuesday that Spain’s debt-to-GDP ratio will rise by more than 11 percent this year alone.

#13 Yields on Spanish bonds are rising to dangerous levels.

#14 The Spanish government is projecting that the unemployment rate in Spain will exceed 24 percent by the end of the year.

#15 Unemployment in the eurozone as a whole has risen for 10 months in a row and is now at a 15 year high.

#16 In the aftermath of a 77-year-old retiree killing himself in front of the Greek parliament in protest over pension cuts, the economic rioting in Greece has flared back up dramatically.

#17 At this point, Greece is experiencing an economic depression with no end in sight. Some of the statistics coming out of Greece are really hard to believe. For example, one port town in Greece now has an unemployment rate of approximately 60 percent.

#18 The IMF is asking the United States to contribute more money for European bailouts.

#19 At this point, even some of our top scientists are projecting economic trouble. For example, researchers at MIT are projecting a “global economic collapse” by the year 2030 if current trends continue.

We don’t have till 2030… I personally don’t think we have until 2013. As the stock market (which is hideously manipulated) teeters on the edge of Armageddon and those with any money at all are running for the exits, the warnings of a wicked financial storm descending on America are blaring for all they are worth. And it would seem America is still asleep. Prepare to reap the whirlwind of an economic collapse – we are at its door.

04/8/12

A Lesson Of Easter

By: Garry L. Hamilton

Today is Easter. It’s a day when movies like The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur will come out of hiding briefly in a cursory acknowledgment of the Christian foundations of our culture.

It’s a day when priests and ministers and vicars of all stripes will remind us of the importance of the story of Christ’s rising from the dead to walk among the living. It’s a day when children will wake up to find baskets of candy eggs and chocolate bunnies in strands of Easter grass that will be all but impossible to vacuum up later on. There will be Easter egg hunts. There will be sermons. There will be roast turkeys and hams and the occasional beef. There will be cookouts and family get-togethers with hamburgers and hot dogs and barbecued ribs. Prayers will be said for troops on foreign soil in lands specifically hostile to the holiday at hand.

An assortment of ethnic groups will weave their special ethnic message into the speeches and sermons. Groups of Pagans will, once again, make their point that the pagan holiday was there first, and that it was co-opted by Christians. And groups of Atheists will, once again, ridicule all the religious losers with their “imaginary friends” and congratulate themselves on how smart they are and how unfettered their thinking is.

Retailers will have Easter sales, politicians will be appropriately sober and politically correct and culturally diverse, and students will enjoy that great and important religious holiday, Spring Break.

However, even with all the efforts to paint over Easter with the facade that goes with every interest group’s interpretation of this opportunity to indulge, yet again, in self-important gravitas, there is a lesson within the story of Easter. It is a lesson nearly lost to us in our sophistication and conventional “wisdom” wherein we exalt the triumph of Man over Creation by marginalizing and deprecating the very idea that the universe could be a “creation” at all: we all “know” that it “just happened.” After all, what’s more rational than a huge explosion happening billions of years ago out of the nothingness? Big Bang, right? Almost too obvious to explain.

Yeah. Now listen, children, there’s no such thing as magic, religion is a fraud, and the Universe was caused by a huge random explosion from absolutely nothing. We are so smart. Hey, just ask us, we’ll tell you how smart we are.

And still, in spite of our own self-acknowledged smartness, there remains a lesson in Easter that is largely unlearned.

The Bible begins with a description of Creation and with descriptions of the origins of Man. Now, it can be argued (and has been) that the Bible is really a collection of allegorical tales and metaphors, and really should be taken with a certain amount of salt. And, speaking of salt, it has been pointed out repeatedly that there are contemporary idioms used in the Bible’s stories that have been taken literally by modern man, such as Lot’s wife being “turned to a pillar of salt,” where scholars are quick to point out that the “pillar of salt” idiom was an expression which, in those days, meant “died of fright.” Well, okay, I can accept that, but what about this Easter lesson?

The first clues appear in Genesis, right around chapter 1:27 which says (in the KJV), “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” This assertion shows up as a repeating theme in other places, like Genesis 5:1, “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;” and so on, and this point is made at other places in the Bible as well.

Now Man, being smart and clever, concludes that God must have arms and legs and a beard. Well, if we’re made in His image, then doesn’t that imply that He looks like us? Uh, well, no. Not exactly. Ever had one of those irritating arguments with someone who’s doing his best to discredit the whole idea of God by pointing out that “you’ve never seen Him?” And then you respond that God isn’t a physical manifestation, and he laughs that you hold a belief in an “invisible friend.” Makes disparaging remarks about your sanity, or concedes that your “delusion” is at least mostly harmless. Hey, we all have to believe in something, right?

So, if God isn’t a physical manifestation, then what is He? And so the explanation ensues that God is a non-physical, immortal, eternal, omnipotent, and all-knowing being. Well, non-physical would sort of imply invisible, right? So the “invisible friend” appellation must be right, yes? More laughter, more ridicule, more condescension.

Looks like there are more ways to wipe out the Christians than feeding them to a bunch of hungry lions. Undermining their confidence in their own beliefs is a good start. Declaring any such belief to be a “delusion” is a good second move. Denigrating the whole of Christianity such that it becomes culturally unattractive and socially undesirable is a good strategic continuation.

Wow. Earth, in this sophisticated age, is a tough room. Laughter and catcalls for enlightenment at all turns, and declarations that indulgence is where the real enlightenment is.

Still there is a lesson in the Easter story. The book of Genesis has been around a long time. A very long time. And in it is the germ of a lesson that doesn’t really come forward as an open demonstration until the book of Matthew, and related chapters.

Christ was slain in public view, dead beyond all question, and yet three days hence rose and walked among the living. Well, sure, he could do that, because after all he was the Son of God. And God is an immortal, non-physical being who, incidentally, made Man in His image.

What does that even mean? How does an immortal, non-physical entity have an image? And how does He render Man in that image? Well . . . it could mean that Man is also an immortal and non-physical being. But wouldn’t that mean that men don’t die? I mean, if we’re going down that road, doesn’t that make sense?

Well, what if you had someone willing to demonstrate, convincingly, that death is basically an illusion and not a permanent state of affairs? What if you had someone who was clearly of divine origin who was willing to perform that demonstration, who would allow himself to be killed so that he could stand up again after having been entombed and walk among the living to show that death is not the end?

Of course there’s no guarantee that everyone would actually get the point, learn the lesson, and grasp the truth of the teaching that Man really is created in the image of God: that he really doesn’t die, and that while bodies are temporary, the soul is forever.

And, of course, there’s more implied by that, like what would it be like to have to drag the burden of your sins around for eternity, and what can be done to mitigate that burden. And the Bible might also have some lessons about that, too.

But let’s begin with the simplest — and the largest — of the lessons demonstrated in the Easter story: death is the illusion, the life of a man continues past the end of his body, and consequently the future matters, so your life today matters also.

Yes, He is risen. But in that moment is the lesson that this is not just for Him, but for us all.

You might want to give some thought to how that might apply to you.