Paul B. Farrell
Marketwatch, August 9th, 2009 4

Warning: Behavioral economics means one thing to Wall Street and Washington and something quite different to Main Street. It depends on whether you’re the nudger or nudgee, the manipulator or the manipulated, the guys making lots of money or the folks being scammed.

Average folks erroneously believe behavioral economics helps them. But behavioral nudgers just want to help themselves.

And both political parties are guilty. Behavioral economics is all the rage since the new president hired some academic behaviorists. That also helped the GOP, made average folks forget the former president had his nudgers, too, like former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Moreover, his party recently hired 350 lobbyists, many former Senators and Congressmen, to kill the new guy’s health-care reform.

The truth is, folks, behavioral economics, nudging, manipulation and lobbying, whatever you call it, has been a part of American politics for a long time under many names, though neither party publicly admits their nudging strategies.

Puzzled? Ask yourself: Why is the GOP so aggressively demonizing Obama’s health-care reform as “socialism?” Why? Yes, something smells fishy, especially since the GOP created the biggest “socialized medicine” program ever with Medicare drugs.

Then suddenly the “why” hit me. Here’s why … All the fear-mongering about health-care “socialism” is actually a strategic smoke screen, a brilliant counterattack, a sneaky political cover-up of the GOP’s recent historic takeover of America using taxpayer-funded bailout money against us. Get it? The Right’s making Left turns into “socialism.”

You heard me. In “Bailout Nation,” money manager Barry Ritholtz summarizes this clandestine takeover of the great American democracy, led by Paulson and the Goldman Conspiracy juggernaut. In less than a year America has become “Socialism for the Rich! Capitalism for the Rest,” says Ritholtz.

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“Be careful what you put in that Google search.  The government may now spy on web surfing of innocent Americans, including terms entered into search engines, by merely telling a judge anywhere in the U.S. that the spying could lead to information that is ‘relevant’ to an ongoing criminal investigation. The person spied on does not have to be the target of the investigation. This application must be granted and the government is not obligated to report to the court or tell the person spied upon what it has done.”

“Still,” he answered.

They asked, “Why so?”

“Because the leaders of this Church have rejected the definitions of four holy councils [...] They have repeatedly excommunicated themselves from the Church and are completely unstable in the faith.  Additionally, they have been cut off and stripped of priesthood by the local council held at Rome. What Mysteries, then, can they perform? And what spirit descends on those whom they ordain?”

“So then, you alone will be saved, and all others will perish?” the Emperor’s men objected.

The saint explained, “When the people in Babylon worshipped the golden idol, the Three Holy Youths condemned no one. Their concern was not for the doings of others, but that they themselves should not fall away from piety. When Daniel was cast into the lion’s den, he did not condemn those who, obeying Darius, failed to worship God, but kept in mind his own duty. He preferred to die rather than sin against conscience and transgress God’s law. God forbid that I should judge anyone or say that I alone will be saved! Nevertheless, I would rather die than violate my conscience by betraying the Orthodox faith in any particular.”

“And what will you do when the Romans unite with the Byzantines? Yesterday two papal legates arrived. Tomorrow is the Lord’s day, and they will partake of the immaculate Mysteries with the Patriarch,” they taunted him.

The godly one replied, “The whole world may enter into communion with the Patriarch, but I will not. The Apostle Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit anathematizes even angels who preach a new Gospel, that is, introduce novel teaching.”

Source: www.trueorthodoxy.info

Thousands of camels will be shot from helicopters and turned into burgers in a bid to halt their trail of havoc across Australia.
Marksmen plan to gun the animals down amid concern the thirsty dromedaries are barging into people’s homes and ripping up their bathrooms looking for water.
Government officials plan to wipe out 650,000 of the feral population in the remote Outback area of the country.
The creatures were first introduced to Australia in the 1840s to help explorers travel through the Australian desert.
There are now about one million camels roaming the country.
They compete with sheep and cattle for food, trample vegetation and invade remote settlements in search of water.
On a number of occasions they have scared residents – tearing apart bathrooms and ripping up water pipes.
Last month, the federal government set aside £9.5m for the cull.
Besides sending in sharpshooters in helicopters and on foot, officials are planning to turn many of the creatures into camel burgers and other treats.
Glenn Edwards, who is working on drafting the government’s camel reduction program, said the camel population needs to be slashed by two-thirds to reduce catastrophic damage.
But some remain opposed to a mass slaughter.
Camel exporter Paddy McHugh, who runs camel catching operations throughout Australia, said a cull would be ineffective.
“What happens in 15 years when the numbers come back again? Do we waste another £9.5m,” McHugh said.
But Tony Peacock, CEO of the University of Canberra’s Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Center, said: “To be shot from a helicopter is actually quite humane, even though that sounds brutal.”
“If I was a camel, I’d prefer to just get it in the head.”

Source: SkyNews

by Archbishop Averky (Taushev)

I am come to send fire on the earth,
and what will I, but that it be already kindled?
Luke 12:49

The chief thing in Christianity, according to the clear teaching of the Word of God, is the fire of Divine zeal, zeal for God and His glory — the holy zeal which alone is able to inspire man in labors and struggles pleasing to God, and without which there is no authentic spiritual life and there is not and cannot be any true Christianity. Without this holy zeal Christians are “Christians” in name only: they only “have a name that they live,” but in reality “they are dead,” as was said to the holy Seer of Mysteries John (Apocalypse 3:1). True spiritual zeal is expressed, first of all, in zeal for God’s glory, which is taught us in the words of the Lord’s Prayer which stand at its very beginning: Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9).
Those who are zealous for God’s glory themselves glorify God with their whole heart — both in thought and feeling, both by words and deeds and with their whole life — and naturally desire that all other people should glorify God also in the same way, and therefore they cannot, of course, endure with indifference when in their presence, in some way or other, the name of God is blasphemed or holy things are mocked. Being zealous for God, they sincerely strive to please God themselves and serve Him alone with all the power of their being, and they are ready to forget themselves all the way to sacrificing their very life in order to bring all men to the pleasing and the service of God. They cannot calmly listen to blasphemy, and therefore they cannot support communion with and have friendship with blasphemers and mockers of the Name of God and despisers of holy things.
A striking and extremely clear example of such fiery zeal for God’s glory comes to us from the depths of antiquity of the Old Testament in a great Prophet of God, the flaming Elias, who grieved in soul when he saw the apostasy from God of his people, led by the impious King Ahab, who introduced into Israel the pagan worship of Baal in the place of the true God.
I have been very jealous for the Lord God Almighty — thus did he exclaim many times, expressing his grief — because the children of Israel have forsaken Thee: they have dug down Thine altars, and have slain Thy prophets with the sword, and I only am left, and they seek my life to take it (3 Kings 19:10 LXX – 1 Kings KJV).
And behold, this holy zeal aroused him, by the power of the grace of God which reposed on him, as a chastisement of Israel which had apostatized from God, to “close heaven” (3 Kings 17:1; 18:42-45 LXX – 2 Kings KJV), so that there was neither rain nor dew for three years and six months.
This same zeal later aroused Elias to slay the false prophets and priests of Baal, after the miraculous descent of the fire from heaven on Mt. Carmel, so that these deceivers might no longer turn the sons of Israel away from the true worship of God (3 Kings 18:40 LXX – 2 Kings KJV).
By the power of the same Divine zeal, St. Elias brought down fire from heaven, which burned the captains and their fifties which had been sent by the king to seize him (4 Kings 1:9-14 LXX).
That all this was in reality holy zeal which was pleasing to God is testified to by the fact that the Holy Prophet Elias did not die the usual death of all men, but was miraculously raised up to heaven in a chariot of fire, as if signifying his authentically fiery zeal for God (4 Kings 2:10-12 LXX).
But even then, in the severe Old Testament, the Lord Himself showed to His true servant that one can have recourse to such severe measures only in extreme cases, for the Lord was not in the great and strong wind rending the mountains and crushing the rocks, and not in the earthquake, and not in the fire, but in the voice of a gentle breeze (3 Kings 19:11-12 LXX).
This is why, when James and John, who were especially fervent in their zeal for the glory of their Divine Teacher, wished to bring down fire from heaven, imitating the Holy Prophet Elias, so as to punish the Samaritans who did not desire to receive Him when He was walking through the Samaritan village to Jerusalem, the Lord forbade them to do this, saying: Ye know not of what spirit ye are, for the Son of Man came not to destroy the souls of men, but to save (Luke 9:51 – 56).

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Forced abortions. Mass sterilization. A “Planetary Regime” with the power of life and death over American citizens.
The tyrannical fantasies of a madman? Or merely the opinions of the person now in control of science policy in the United States? Or both?
These ideas (among many other equally horrifying recommendations) were put forth by John Holdren, whom Barack Obama has recently appointed Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology — informally known as the United States’ Science Czar. In a book Holdren co-authored in 1977, the man now firmly in control of science policy in this country wrote that:

• Women could be forced to abort their pregnancies, whether they wanted to or not;
• The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation’s drinking water or in food;
• Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise;
• People who “contribute to social deterioration” (i.e. undesirables) “can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility” — in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.
• A transnational “Planetary Regime” should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans’ lives — using an armed international police force.

Impossible, you say? That must be an exaggeration or a hoax. No one in their right mind would say such things.

Well, I hate to break the news to you, but it is no hoax, no exaggeration. John Holdren really did say those things, and this report contains the proof. Below you will find photographs, scans, and transcriptions of pages in the book Ecoscience, co-authored in 1977 by John Holdren and his close colleagues Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich. The scans and photos are provided to supply conclusive evidence that the words attributed to Holdren are unaltered and accurately transcribed.

Read the article here.

By Mark Kinver
Science and environment reporter, BBC News

An international team of scientists has agreed on a standard “DNA barcode” for plants that will allow botanists to identify species quickly and easily.

They hope the agreement will lead to the formation of a global plant DNA library, which can be shared by the scientific community.

The barcodes are expected to have a number of uses, including identifying illegal trade in endangered species.

The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Identification is important,” said lead author Dr Peter Hollingsworth, head of genetics and conservation at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Scotland.

“It is the link between a given plant and the accumulated information available for that species.

“It is not possible to know whether a plant is common or rare, poisonous or edible, being traded legally or illegally, unless it can be identified.”

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Associated Press: Pope Benedict XVI has called for a new world financial order guided by ethics, dignity and the search for the common good in the third encyclical of his pontificate.

The Kremlin’s Religious Crusade By: Ion Mihai Pacepa

If you think that Russia has become a friend of ours, think again. Let’s not spend all our money on welfare and global warming. The recent “election” of Russia’s new patriarch shows that we still need to defend ourselves against the Kremlin’s imperial dreams.

Since ancient times the Kremlin has used religion to manipulate people. The tsars employed the Church to instill domestic obedience. The Soviet rulers kept the population quiet through the KGB, but they dreamed about world revolution. After the home front had calmed down, they charged the KGB to work through the church to help the Kremlin expand its influence into Latin America and beyond—since Peter the Great, Russian tsars have been obsessed with finding a way to break into the New World.

Creating a secret intelligence army of religious servants and using it to promote the Kremlin’s interests abroad was an important task the KGB community had during the 27 years I belonged to it. Thousands of uncooperative religious servants were killed or sent to gulags. The compliant ones were used. Since priests were not allowed to become KGB officers, they assumed the position of cooptee or deepcoverofficer. A cooptee received perks from the KGB (promotions, trips abroad, foreign cigarettes, foreign beverages, etc). A deepcover officer enjoyed the same perks, plus a secret supplementary salary according to his real or imaginary KGB rank. To preserve their secrecy, all priests who became cooptees or deepcover officers were known inside the KGB only by their code names.

Recent revelations show that the KGB continues along the same religious crusade as before, although it has meanwhile been discreetly renamed the FSB to promote the idea that the criminal Soviet political police, which killed over 20 million people, has been dispersed to the winds of change.

On December 5, 2008, the Russian patriarch Aleksi II died. The KGB had carried him under the codename “DROZDOV” and awarded him its Certificate of Honor, as was learned from a KGB archive accidentally left behind in Estonia. For the first time in its history, Russia could now democratically elect a new patriarch.

On January 27, 2009, the 700 Synod delegates assembling in Moscow were indeed presented with a slate listing three candidates. All, however, belonged to the secret KGB army: Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk worked for the KGB under the code name “MIKHAYLOV”; Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk has just been identified as having labored for the KGB under the codename “OSTROVSKY”; Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga was recently discovered to have been listed under the codename “TOPAZ”.

When the bells at Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow announced that a new patriarch had been elected, Metropolitan Kirill, aka “MIKHAYLOV,” proved to be the winner. Presumably, the KGB/FSB considered him to be in a better position to carry out its tasks abroad, where he had directed his efforts during most of his professional life. In 1971, the KGB had sent him to Geneva (Switzerland) as a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church to the World Council of Churches (WCC), the largest international ecumenical organization after the Vatican, representing some 550 million Christians of various denominations throughout 120 countries. His task was to use his position in the WCC to spread the doctrine of Liberation Theology—a Marxist religious movement born in the KGB—throughout Latin America. In 1975, the KGB had infiltrated “MIKHAYLOV” into the WCC’s central committee, and in 1989 the KGB had appointed him chairman of the Russian patriarchate’s foreign relations as well—positions he still held when he was “elected” patriarch. Indeed, in his acceptance speech “MIKHAYLOV” announced that he would establish religious television channels in Russia that would broadcast abroad.
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Source: Guba, via David Lester

June 13, 2009, New York Times: The Saturday Profile

In Finland, a Man of Politics, Without His Cloth

By JOHN TAGLIABUE
HELSINKI, Finland

By conventional lights, the Rev. Mitro Repo’s candidacy for the European
Parliament never should have succeeded. As a Finnish Orthodox priest, he was
bucking his superiors, who have strict rules about the mixing of politics and
piety. As a Social Democrat, he was bucking the political tides sweeping Europe
after the financial crisis.

But last Sunday Father Repo, 50, the son and grandson of priests, was elected as
an independent candidate on the Social Democratic ticket as one of Finland’s 13
deputies in the 376-seat Parliament. It was a bittersweet victory in one
respect: along the way, the bishops of the church forbade him to conduct
religious services or wear the robe or pectoral cross or any other symbols of
his priesthood. “They are accusing me of a crime,” he said of the church
officials during the campaign. “I think it is an honor to do what I do.”
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Metropolitan Arsenius, in the world Auxentius Georgievich Stadnitsky, was
born on January 22, 1862 in the village of Komarov, Khotinsky uyezd,
Kishinev province, in the family of a priest. In 1880 he finished his studies
at the Kishinev theological seminary, and became a teacher at the Kishinev
and Yedinets theological seminaries. In 1881 he entered the Kiev
Theological Academy, and in 1885 graduated from it with the degree of candidate
of theology. In 1895 he became master of theology and was tonsured into the
mantia. In 1896 he was ordained to the priesthood and became inspector, later
rector of the Novgorod theological seminary, and superior of the monastery
of St. Anthony the Roman with the rank of archimandrite. In 1897 he became
inspector of the Moscow Theological Academy, and in 1898 – rector of that
Academy. In February, 1899, he was consecrated bishop of Volokolamsk, a
vicariate of the Moscow diocese. From 1903 to 1910 he was bishop of Pskov. In
1904 he became a doctor of Church history. He was also an archaeologist, and
published many works. In 1905 he became a member, and later president, of
the Educational Committee attached to the Holy Synod. In 1907 he was raised
to the rank of archbishop and was elected a member of the State Council. In
1910 he became archbishop of Novgorod. In 1917-18 he was a member of the
Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, the deputy president of the
Council, being in fact the leader of almost all the Council’s sessions. He was
also a member of the Council’s department on the legal position of the Church
in the State. He was one of the three candidates to the patriarchal throne,
and received the second highest number of votes after Archbishop Anthony
(Khrapovitsky) on the first ballot. On November 28 / December 11, 1917,
Patriarch Tikhon raised him and Archbishop Anthony to the rank of metropolitan.
He was a close associate of the Patriarch, and a member of the Higher
Church Council and the Holy Synod. In 1919 he was arrested, returning to his
duties in 1921. In 1922 he was arrested again, put on trial together with
Patriarch Tikhon and others, and served a term of exile in Central Asia. He
spent 11 months in one of the GPU prisons, and was then exiled to Turkestan.
According to one source, in 1926 he was in Butyrki prison, from whence he
was transferred to Tashkent in the same year.
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