Monday, May 14, 2012
Newsweek magazine: ‘The First Gay President’ and what does GOD said....
The president is the head of the country and judgment will come to him and the nation.... study 1 Samuel 24 where GOD judged Israel for the sins that King David committed
Here is a Prophecy of distress and Unrest coming because homosexuality from Dr Owuor:
http://nunezreport.blogspot.com/2011/09/dr-owuor-prophecy-of-distress-and.html
Also read this:
Romans 1:22-32
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
In the battle for most controversial cover of the week, Newsweek fired back at Time magazine’s now-infamous breastfeeding mom image by putting President Barack Obama under a rainbow halo with the tagline "The First Gay President."
"Obama's earned every stripe in this haloed rainbow,” Newsweek’s editor-in-chief Tina Brown wrote on Twitter.
Last week, Obama officially announced his support for same-sex marriage, becoming the first sitting president in U.S. history to do so.
"I've just concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married," Obama told ABC News.
The cover story, written by openly gay Newsweek contributor Andrew Sullivan, has yet to be released in full, but the magazine posted an excerpt on why the writer believes the president's move to support same-sex marriage was not just a political ploy.
"When you step back a little and assess the record of Obama on gay rights, you see, in fact, that this was not an aberration. It was an inevitable culmination of three years of work," Sullivan writes.
Sullivan draws comparisons between Obama's biracial upbringing and the experience of gays who grow up in heterosexual families.
"He had to discover his black identity and then reconcile it with his white family, just as gays discover their homosexual identity and then have to reconcile it with their heterosexual family,” Sullivan writes.
President Obama's announcement to support same-sex marriage came after Vice President Biden unexpectedly stated his view that gay people should be able to legally marry.
"I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties," Biden said on NBC's "Meet the Press" last week.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-named-gay-president-newsweek-magazine-cover-article-1.1077462#ixzz1uqndT3vQ
Here is a Prophecy of distress and Unrest coming because homosexuality from Dr Owuor:
Also read this:
Romans 1:22-32
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
In the battle for most controversial cover of the week, Newsweek fired back at Time magazine’s now-infamous breastfeeding mom image by putting President Barack Obama under a rainbow halo with the tagline "The First Gay President."
"Obama's earned every stripe in this haloed rainbow,” Newsweek’s editor-in-chief Tina Brown wrote on Twitter.
Last week, Obama officially announced his support for same-sex marriage, becoming the first sitting president in U.S. history to do so.
"I've just concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married," Obama told ABC News.
The cover story, written by openly gay Newsweek contributor Andrew Sullivan, has yet to be released in full, but the magazine posted an excerpt on why the writer believes the president's move to support same-sex marriage was not just a political ploy.
"When you step back a little and assess the record of Obama on gay rights, you see, in fact, that this was not an aberration. It was an inevitable culmination of three years of work," Sullivan writes.
Sullivan draws comparisons between Obama's biracial upbringing and the experience of gays who grow up in heterosexual families.
"He had to discover his black identity and then reconcile it with his white family, just as gays discover their homosexual identity and then have to reconcile it with their heterosexual family,” Sullivan writes.
President Obama's announcement to support same-sex marriage came after Vice President Biden unexpectedly stated his view that gay people should be able to legally marry.
"I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties," Biden said on NBC's "Meet the Press" last week.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-named-gay-president-newsweek-magazine-cover-article-1.1077462#ixzz1uqndT3vQ
Mexico volcano spews huge ash cloud, frightens villagers
SANTIAGO XALITZINTLA, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano spewed out huge clouds of ash and fiery rock overnight, closing a local airport on Saturday and frightening nearby villagers, already on edge after weeks of increased activity.
Popocatepetl, 50 miles southeast of Mexico City, shook with tremors that belched out four large plumes of ash on Friday night and Saturday morning, the National Center for Disaster Prevention said in a statement on Saturday.
Chicago Tribune
Soldiers may be deployed to protect Italian tax offices
In the last six months there has been a wave of countrywide attacks on offices of Equitalia, the agency which handles tax collection, with the most recent on Saturday night when a branch was hit with two petrol bombs.
Staff have also expressed fears over their personal safety with increasing numbers calling in sick and with one unidentified employee telling Italian TV: “I have told my son not to say where I work or tell anyone what I do for a living.”
In another incident last week Roberto Adinolfi a director with arms firm Finmeccanica was wounded by anarchists in Genoa. The group later said in a letter claiming responsibility that they would carry out further attacks.
Annamaria Cancellieri, the interior minister, said she was considering calling in the army in a bid to quell the rising social tensions.
“There have been several attacks on the offices of Equitalia in recent weeks. I want to remind people that attacking Equitalia is the equivalent of attacking the State,” she said in an interview with La Repubblica newspaper.
“Bringing in the army to defend sensitive targets is a possibility that we are studying. This has already been done in the past. We have a limited number of personnel available and so that is why using the army is a possible solution.
“We are going through a very difficult moment and some people may feel tempted (to cause disturbances). We all need to have a sense of duty and ensure that this temptation does not spread.”
Saturday night’s attack took place on the Equitalia office in Livorno and the front of the building was left severely damaged by fire after the bombs exploded. The phrases “Thieves” and “Death to Equitalia” were sprayed onto outside walls.
It came just 24 hours after more than 200 people had been involved in running battles with police outside a branch in Naples which left a dozen protesters and officers hurt.
The attacks have escalated in the six months since Mario Monti took over from Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister and introduced a tough austerity package offcuts to public spending, pensions and tax hikes as the country tried to reign in its £1 trillion debt.
There has also been a striking increase in suicides with people leaving notes directly blaming Equitalia and tax demands.
Paola Severino, the Justice minister, said: “The economic situation has produced unease but paying taxes is a duty. On one side there is anger and the problem of paying when the resources are scare but on the other side is the fact that they must be paid.”
Economists estimate that around 540 billion euros (£434 billion) is lost through Italy’s black economy through tax evasion by individuals and companies – the figure is around 35 per cent of the country’s GDP and last year more than 12 billion euros were recovered.
Mr Monti has vowed to press on even harder this year to recover the lost money. He is due to have a meeting with Equitalia chief Attilio Befera to discuss the situation and he has already said: “We are not going to take a step back, there will be no giving in to those who have declared was against the revenue and therefore the State. We will not be intimidated.”
Italy’s chief of staff Claudio Graziano Alla said: “The Army is more than ready to support the police forces in whatever terms the country needs.”
On Sunday ex-footballer Diego Maradona, who played in Italy with Napoli between 1984-1991 and who owes an estimated 40 million euros in unpaid taxes said: “No one has been through what I have – they have been chasing me for 25 years.”
The Telegraph
Shares fall in Europe on monday based on Greek political uncertainty
European shares have fallen as the continuing political uncertainty in Greece undermines investor confidence.
Greek President Karolos Papoulias failed to form a coalition government through talks on Sunday and will continue discussions with political leaders on Monday evening.
Bank shares are worst hit, particularly in Spain and France, with Madrid's Ibex index down 2.8% and the Cac down 2.3%.
London's 100 share index is down 1.7% and Germany's Dax down 2%.
French banks were among the biggest fallers as investors worried about their exposure to other troubled eurozone countries.
BNP Paribas was 3.4% lower, Societe Generale lost 3.3% and Credit Agricole fell 3.4%.
Spanish banks Banco Santander and Bankia were down 3.4% and 4.4% respectively, as they said they would set aside an extra 2.7bn euros (£2.16bn) and 2.1bn euros to meet new government requirements aimed at cleaning up the country's ailing property market.
The price of oil also fell on fears about weakening economic activity.
Brent crude fell $1.69 to $110.57 a barrel. In March, it was $128 a barrel.
US crude fell $1.86 to $94.27.
Meanwhile, both Spain and Italy carried out successful bond auctions on Monday.
Appetite for Spanish and Italian debt was more than strong enough, but the return demanded by investors in Spain's debt was higher than in previous auctions, reflecting a dip in confidence.
Spain sold 2.9bn euros in short-term debt, paying 2.985%, up from 2.623% last time.
The difference in the rate demanded by Spanish 10-year bond investors over the equivalent German bunds hit 4.83%, its highest level since the creation of the euro.
The yield, or interest rate, on Spain's key 10-year bonds, which are traded on the market, jumped 23 basis points to a record high of 6.22%.
Italy raised 5.25bn euros, paying a yield of 3.91%, almost unchanged on the previous rate of 3.89%.Anti-austerity sentiment
The undermining factor is again the future of the eurozone.
Greece's lack of a government puts in doubt its ability to stick to austerity measures imposed as part of its financial bailout. Without holding to agreed cuts it will not get the rest of the support funds it needs to function.
Adding to the lack of clarity is the fact that anti-bailout parties did well in the elections.
Anti-austerity feeling may be growing in Germany too after Chancellor Angela Merkel's party suffered a defeat on Sunday in an election in North Rhine-Westphalia, the country's most populous state.
On top of that, new French President Francois Hollande won his place after promising to focus more on growth rather than austerity, raising concerns as to whether he will be able to work as closely with Mrs Merkel as his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy did.
The two were the driving force behind the eurozone's fiscal compact.
Later on Monday, eurozone finance ministers will meet in Brussels to discuss the situation in Greece and Spain.
BBC
US to announce massive Iron Dome package
The Obama administration plans to announce this week a $680 million aid package to Israel for the procurement of additional Iron Dome batteries.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak is scheduled to meet with US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at the Pentagon on Thursday. Following the meeting, the two intend to hold a joint press conference where they will publicize the news.
As of May, Israel possesses four Iron Dome batteries in operation and the air force plans to deploy an additional three over the coming year. The $680 million in aid will enable Israel to purchase three to four more batteries and accompanying interceptors.
Since its deployment last year, Iron Dome batteries have intercepted nearly 100 Katyusha and Kassam rockets fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Barak’s talks with Panetta will also focus on Iran’s continued pursuit of nuclear capability.
They will also discuss the upcoming second round of talks between Western powers and Iran scheduled for May 23 in Baghdad.
The new aid package comes after the Obama administration gave Israel $205 million in 2011 and comes on top of the $3 billion Israel receives in annual foreign aid from the United States.
There is speculation that the US’s decision to increase funding for Iron Dome could be a sign of improved coordination between Jerusalem and Washington regarding Iran and possibly an indication that Israel does not plan to attack the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities in the near future.
In addition to funding for new batteries, Congress also supports the development of Arrow 3 – Israel’s futuristic defense system against ballistic missiles – as well as David’s Sling, the medium-range missile defense system under development by Raytheon and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
Iron Dome is designed to defend against rockets at a range of 4 to 70 km. Each battery consists of a mini multi-mission radar manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries and three launchers, each equipped with 20 interceptors called Tamirs.
The radar enables Iron Dome operators to predict the impact site of the enemy rocket.
If the rocket is slated to hit an open area, the operator may decide not to intercept. Each interceptor costs between $50,000-$100,000 and usually two are fired at rockets slated for interception.
Jerusalem Post
Syrian clashes 'kill 23 soldiers' in city of Rastan
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens of others were wounded in the city, in the restive Homs province.
Three troop carriers were destroyed in fighting, the UK-based group said.
If confirmed, the attack would be one of the deadliest suffered by security forces in the 14-month-long uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
It comes after government forces launched a fresh assault on Rastan at the weekend, despite a UN-backed nominal ceasefire that was supposed to come into effect just over a month ago.
Meanwhile, the EU has imposed another round of sanctions on Syria - the 15th so far - in an effort to increase pressure on the government.'Hama raid'
The Observatory said Rastan, which lies 180km (120 miles) north of Damascus, was subjected to sustained shelling overnight, leaving dozens of people injured.
The city, currently an opposition stronghold, has been fiercely contested during the Syrian uprising and control of the town has changed several times.
Separately, the army has raided a Sunni village north of Hama, killing five people, the Observatory said.
Activists said at least 30 people died on Sunday - mainly civilians - as violence surged at flashpoints across the country despite an increase of UN observers.
The figures cannot be verified independently, as journalists' movements are severely restricted in Syria.
The UN on Sunday said it had 189 observers in Syria, some two-thirds of the total intended for deployment as part of a six-point peace plan mediated by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.
The EU gave no official details of its newly agreed sanctions, but an EU diplomat said the 27-member bloc had agreed to an assets freeze and visa ban on two companies and three people who are believed to be financially backing the government.
The BBC's Jonathan Head, in neighbouring Turkey, says neither the Syrian military nor the opposition appears to have any confidence that the plan will hold, with both using the putative ceasefire to gain ground before full-scale fighting resumes.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the ceasefire was "not being fully implemented".
"There continues to be killing, torture, abuse in Syria. So it's very important we keep the pressure on the Assad regime."
The UN estimates at least 9,000 people have died since pro-democracy protests began in March 2011.
On Saturday, a radical Islamist group said it carried out a massive bomb attack in Damascus last week, increasing fears that extremists are taking advantage of the unrest.
The violence also once again ignited tensions in neighbouring Lebanon, where clashes in the northern city of Tripoli over the weekend left three dead, according to local media.
The BBC's Jonathan Head, in neighbouring Turkey, says neither the Syrian military nor the opposition appears to have any confidence that the plan will hold, with both using the putative ceasefire to gain ground before full-scale fighting resumes.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the ceasefire was "not being fully implemented".
"There continues to be killing, torture, abuse in Syria. So it's very important we keep the pressure on the Assad regime."
The UN estimates at least 9,000 people have died since pro-democracy protests began in March 2011.
On Saturday, a radical Islamist group said it carried out a massive bomb attack in Damascus last week, increasing fears that extremists are taking advantage of the unrest.
The violence also once again ignited tensions in neighbouring Lebanon, where clashes in the northern city of Tripoli over the weekend left three dead, according to local media.
BBC
Fitch Warns Euro Zone of Downgrades If Greeks Exit
Credit rating agency Fitch put the whole of the euro zone on notice on Friday that were Greece to leave the currency bloc as a result of its current crisis, the remaining countries could find their sovereign ratings at risk.
It said it was likely to put all euro area ratings on negative watch if Greece were to leave and that those countries which currently have a negative outlook on their ratings would be at most immediate risk of a downgrade.
It said those countries were France, Italy, Spain, Cyprus Ireland, Portugal, Slovenia and Belgium.
"In the event of Greece leaving (the euro), either as a result of the current political crisis or at a later date as the economy fails to stabilize, Fitch would likely place the sovereign ratings of all the remaining euro area member states on Rating Watch Negative as it re-assessed the systemic and country-specific implications of a Greek exit," Fitch said in a statement.
The agency, whose decisions along with those of Moody's and Standard & Poor's help set the cost of borrowing by governments, said the extent of any downgrades would depend on how the euro zone reacted to Greece leaving.
"The probability and magnitude... would largely depend on the European policy response and its success in limiting contagion, as well as outlining a credible vision of a reformed (euro zone)," it said.
"Nonetheless, the sovereign ratings of all euro zone member states would potentially be at risk," Fitch said.
The leaders of Greece's once-dominant political parties were making a last push on Friday to avert a new election, which a poll showed would give victory to a radical leftist and doom an EU bailout — its second — agreed in March.
The majority of Greeks want to stay in the euro zone but voted last Sunday for parties that reject the severe terms of a bailout negotiated with foreign lenders.
CNBC
World edges closer to deflationary slump as money contracts in China
Narrow M1 data for April is the weakest since modern records began. Real M1 deposits – a leading indicator of economic growth six months or so ahead – have contracted since November.
They are shrinking faster that at any time during the 2008-2009 crisis, and faster than in Spain right now, according to Simon Ward at Henderson Global Investors.
If China were a normal country, it would be hurtling into a brick wall. A "hard-landing" later this year would already be baked into the pie.
Whether this hybrid system of market Leninism – with banks run by Party bosses – conforms to Western monetary theory is a hotly contested point. The issue will be settled one way or the other soon.
What seems clear is that China's economy did not bottom out as expected in the first quarter. It is flirting with real trouble. Yao Wei from Societe Generale says a blizzard of awful data "screams out for easing".
China's electricity output – watched religiously by bears – slumped in April. It is up just 0.7pc over the last year. State investment in railways has fallen 44pc, with an accelerating downward lurch over recent months. Highway construction has dropped 2.7pc. "The data shows extreme weakness in the Chinese economy," said Alistair Thornton from IHS Global Insight in Beijing.
The Yangtze shipyards tell the tale. Caixin magazine said eight of the 10 largest builders in the country have not received a single new order this year. "A wave of closures in the shipbuilding industry has yet to begin. A hurricane is approaching," said one official.
Housing sales slumped 25pc in the first quarter, testimony to the zeal of regulators. This has since fed into a drastic fall in new building. Mr Thornton said floor place under construction fell 28.3pc in April.
This is hardly a sideshow. The sector employs 10pc of the Chinese work-force, and a further 20pc indirectly. Land sales provide 70pc of tax revenue to local authorities and 30pc to the central government. It is the "fair weather" financing illusion, as
we saw in Ireland. China's scope for fiscal stimulus may be constrained if property goes into a long slump.
The property correction is deemed benign because it is planned. Premier Wen Jiabao wishes to forces down prices as a social welfare policy. Yet did the Fed not slam on the brakes in 1928 to choke an asset boom? Did the Bank of Japan not do likewise in 1990, only to find that boom-bust deflation has its own fiendish momentum? Once you let credit rise by 100pc of GDP in five years – as China has, more than in those US or Japanese episodes – you are at the mercy of powerful forces.
Something odd is now happening. The People's Bank said new loans fell from $160bn (£99.5bn) in March to $108bn in April. Non-conventional lending seized up altogether. Trust lending fell by 96pc, bankers' acceptance bills by 90pc. This is astonishing data.
It may not be as easy for Beijing to turn the tap back on again. Loan demand has been falling for months. Banks are offering credit. Companies are refusing to take it. This is the old Japanese story of pushing on a string, or the European story today.
"China is in deflation," says Charles Dumas from Lombard Street Research. Yes, consumer price inflation is 3.4pc – though falling – but consumption is a third of GDP. Fixed investment is 46pc, and here prices have dropped 3.5pc in six months. Export prices have dropped 6.6pc.
The authorities have belatedly responded, cutting the reserve ratio by 50 points to 20pc over the weekend. It is thin gruel. Are we to conclude that the People's Bank is bent on breaking excess capacity in a cathartic Schumpeterian purge, or that leadership battles have paralysed the Party? Hard to tell.
All the BRICs need watching. India's industrial output fell 3.5pc in March. The country seems caught in a 1970s stagflation vice. Brazil has softened too, with car sales down 15pc and industrial production contracting in March. The bad loans of the banks have reached 10.3pc, higher than post-Lehman.
The bubble has probably popped already, but hoteliers in Rio are hanging on. The European Parliament has pulled out of the UN's Rio forum on sustainable development in June because the rooms are exorbitant. "We are short the vastly over-vaunted and over-owned BRICs," says hedge fund contrarian Hugh Hendry.
My fear has always been that the credit cycle in the Rising World would blow itself out before the Old World has safely recovered, or reached "escape velocity" to use the term in vogue.
Europe will slide further into 1930s self-destruction until it equips itself with a lender of last resort and takes all risk of EMU sovereign default off the table, though that may come too late. The US has functioning institutions at least but growth is barely above stall speed. Ben Bernanke's "massive fiscal cliff" looms this autumn. The Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) has not yet withdrawn its US recession call.
The BRICS helped save us in 2008-2009. If we now face a global crisis on all fronts – and such an outcome can still be avoided – it will test the mettle of world leaders. Interest rates in the G10 are mostly zero already, and budgets are frighteningly stretched.
Sensing what is coming, Citigroup's chief economist Willem Buiter says global central banks have not yet exhausted their arsenal. They can "and should" crank up quantitative easing (QE), buy everything under the sun, and do "helicopter money drops".
I would go even further. sovereign central banks have the means to defeat any depression thrown at them by launching mass purchases of assets outside the banking system, working through the classic Hawtrey-Cassel quantity of money mechanism until nominal GDP is restored to its trend line.
The problem is not scientific. A world slump is preventable if leaders act with enough panache. The hindrance is that the Euro Tower still haunted by Hayekians, and most G10 citizens – and Telegraph readers from my painful experience – view such notions as Weimar debauchery, or plain Devil worship. Economists cannot command a democratic consent for monetary stimulus any more easily today than in 1932.
The Telegraph
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