Watchman Newsletter

Meet the real Walter Cronkite

WorldNet Daily (Link) (July 18, 2009)

Walter Cronkite is dead at 92 – but most Americans, many of whom considered him "the most trusted man" in the country during his reign as CBS News anchor – still don't know what motivated him and how he secured such an influential and lofty position.

He was like a grandfatherly institution in the early days of TV. People believed him. Uncle Walter wouldn't lie, America believed.

Thus, when he gave his opinions, they had impact. One example was his report on the Tet offensive in Vietnam, which is credited with swinging the tide of opinion against the war.

Even in his death, however, nobody has addressed how and why an otherwise obscure figure at the time was elevated to become the most prominent anchorman on television.

New Ageism: A Vision That Will Usher in the End of History

Lighthouse Trails Research (Link) - Ted Kyle (July 17, 2009)

Many years ago, as I read in the Bible that all the nations of the world would unite to destroy the Jewish nation (Joel 3:2,12; see also Matt. 24:9 and Rev. 14:8), I wondered how a Christian nation--our country--could be brought to league with Muslim nations, and Hindu and Buddhist countries as well, against Israel. Each of these faiths is utterly opposed to the others! It would take a mighty transformation indeed to unite them under any banner!

Only recently have I come to see (in a book by Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing), the mechanism by which this reconciliation can occur: the New Age movement. And already, as Yungen makes clear, Satan's great scheme is far advanced, with its outposts firmly established in popular culture reaching ever deeper into the Church itself.1

Satan's great object, as we know from the Bible, is first to establish his man as the despot or dictator of the whole world. So widespread will his great power be that no one will be able to so much as buy food at the grocery store without displaying the Anti-Christ's mark of ownership. Then, with his power consolidated and his legions marshaled, this Anti-Christ, also named in Scripture as "the Beast," will move to obliterate God's Chosen People, the nation of Israel--thus finally fulfilling Satan's ancient ambition to defeat God's chosen champion, His Son, Jesus Christ (see Genesis 3:15) and rule unchallenged.

Fetuses Found to Have Memories, Say Researchers

Newsmax (Link) - Jennifer Harper - The Washington Times (July 16, 2009)

They weigh less than 3 pounds, usually, and are perhaps 15 inches long. But they can remember.

The unborn have memories, according to medical researchers who used sound and vibration stimulation, combined with sonography, to reveal that the human fetus displays short-term memory from at least 30 weeks gestation - or about two months before they are born.

"In addition, results indicated that 34-week-old fetuses are able to store information and retrieve it four weeks later," said the research, which was released Wednesday.

Scientists from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Maastricht University Medical Centre and the University Medical Centre St. Radboud, both in the Netherlands, based their findings on a study of 100 healthy pregnant women and their fetuses with the help of some gentle but precise sensory stimulation.

Medvedev Makes Unprecedented Visit To Grand Mosque

Radio Free Europe (Link) (July 16, 2009)

President Dmitry Medvedev has toured Moscow's Grand Mosque, the first such visit by a Russian head of state, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports.

Medvedev met with the head of the Council of Russian Muftis, Ravil Gainutdin, and praised the role of Muslim organizations in the country's political life.

Gainutdin called Medvedev's visit to the mosque "historic."

The mosque, built in 1904, has been under reconstruction since 2006. Medvedev said the government will continue to support the work.

He added that he supports the idea of building a mosque in the city of Sochi, which will host of 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Authorities had previously only offered to build a temporary mosque that would be taken down after the Olympics.

Giant Mystery Blob Moves Through Alaskan Waters

Fox News (Link) (July 16, 2009)

It's big, it's black, it's gooey and it may be alive. Giant blobs of thick, oily biological material are floating in the Arctic Ocean's Chukchi Sea north of the Bering Strait, reports the Anchorage Daily News.

"It's certainly biological," Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer told the newspaper. "It's definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter."

No one in the North Slope towns of Barrow and Wainwright can recall ever seeing anything like it.

Jellyfish and sea birds are getting caught up in the sticky, stinky stuff, which according to one official "has hairy strands on it."

"It's definitely, by the smell and the makeup of it, it's some sort of naturally occurring organic or otherwise marine organism," added Hasenauer.

Iceland moves towards joining EU

BBC News (Link) (July 16, 2009)

Parliament in Iceland has voted by a narrow majority to set in motion an application to join the European Union, after five days of gruelling debate.

Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir of the Social Democrats has also been pushing for the adoption of the euro as the Nordic country's currency.

The bid must now be approved by the EU, after which Iceland's people will be asked to vote on it in a referendum.

Ms Sigurdardottir said that several years of negotiations lay ahead.

EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed the vote, saying Iceland was a "European country with long and deep democratic roots".

Opponents of the bid fear EU quotas could hurt Iceland's fishing industry.

Joe Biden: ‘We Have to Go Spend Money to Keep From Going Bankrupt’

CNS News (Link) - Penny Starr (July 16, 2009)

Vice President Joe Biden told people attending an AARP town hall meeting that unless the Democrat-supported health care plan becomes law the nation will go bankrupt and that the only way to avoid that fate is for the government to spend more money.

“And folks look, AARP knows and the people with me here today know, the president knows, and I know, that the status quo is simply not acceptable,” Biden said at the event on Thursday in Alexandria, Va. “It’s totally unacceptable. And it’s completely unsustainable. Even if we wanted to keep it the way we have it now. It can’t do it financially.”

“We’re going to go bankrupt as a nation,” Biden said.

“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’” Biden said. “The answer is yes, that's what I’m telling you.” (Listen to Audio)

Higher gas tax suggested - then wealth distributed

One News Now (Link) - Pete Chagnon (July 16, 2009)

A former director of the Central Intelligence Agency believes Americans should be taxed one dollar per gallon of gasoline.

Jim Woolsey is a venture partner with Vantage Point in Silicon Valley, California, and a former director of the CIA from 1993 to 1995 under President Bill Clinton. In 2008, he endorsed John McCain for president and served as one of McCain's foreign policy advisors.

Woolsey spoke with OneNewsNow about the Waxman-Markey energy bill -- also known as "cap-and-trade" -- and says he wishes the bill were more aggressive. "Uh, well the coal lobbyists got in there and tilted our near and midterm reliance for our base load electric power toward coal," he explains. "And I think that's most unfortunate."

He believes that reliance for base-load electric power should lean towards natural gas -- a fuel he says is less polluting than coal, which he says releases too much carbon dioxide.

Woolsey adds that lawmakers also need to balance taking care of the environment with pushing for energy security and independence.

He claims the cap-and-trade bill leaves too much leeway for the use of foreign oil and gasoline, and he wants to see gasoline heavily taxed in order to discourage the usage and force people to drive electric hybrid vehicles, such as the Toyota Prius he owns. "One possibility is to impose a dollar-a-gallon gasoline tax and then rebate it completely, 100 percent, to the public through the Social Security system or unemployment compensation," he suggests.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: ‘CFR Tells Government What It Should Be Doing’

Newsbuster (Link) (July 16, 2009) Video

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s opening remarks during her speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, July 15, 2009.

“I am delighted to be here in these new headquarters. I have been often to, I guess, the mother ship in New York City, but it’s good to have an outpost of the Council right here down the street from the State Department.”

“We get a lot of advice from the Council, so this will mean I won’t have as far to go to be told what we should be doing and how we should think about the future.”

Sun's Activity Cycle Linked to Earth Climate

Live Science (Link) (July 16, 2009)

When the sun's weather is most active, it can impact Earth’s climate in a way that is similar to El Niño and La Niña events, a new study suggests.

The sun experiences a roughly 11-year cycle, during which the activities on its roiling surface intensify and then dissipate. (One noted sign of a highly active period is the number of sunspots dotting the solar surface).

The total energy reaching Earth from the sun varies by only 0.1 percent across the solar cycle.

Scientists have sought for decades to link these ups and downs to Earth's natural weather and climate variations, and to distinguish their subtle effects from the larger pattern of human-caused global warming. But that link has proven difficult to find.

Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., used computer climate models and more than a century of ocean temperature records to tease out just such a connection.

"We have fleshed out the effects of a new mechanism to understand what happens in the tropical Pacific when there is a maximum of solar activity," said study leader Gerald Meehl. "When the sun's output peaks, it has far-ranging and often subtle impacts on tropical precipitation and on weather systems around much of the world."

Southern New Zealand shaken by large quake

Reuters (Link) - Gyles Beckford (July 15, 2009)

An earthquake struck the south of New Zealand on Wednesday, triggering a tsunami warning and causing minor damage but no injuries.

The Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said the tremor, measuring magnitude 6.6, struck at 9.22 p.m. (0922 GMT).

The government institute said it was centered in the remote and unpopulated Fiordland region, about 150 km (95 miles) north west of the country's most southern city, Invercargill. It was measured at around five km (three miles) below ground level.

Local civil defense officials issued a warning about a "potential tsunami" for the region, because of conflicting reports about the quake's size. The Japanese meteorological agency put the preliminary magnitude at 7.8.

Dumped bodies were Mexico police

BBC News (Link) (July 15, 2009)

Twelve people tortured, murdered and dumped alongside a mountain road in Mexico's Michoacan state were federal police officers, officials say.

The bodies of the 11 men and one woman were found tied and blindfolded near the town of La Huacana on Monday.

They had been ambushed by members of a drugs gang, in apparent retaliation for the capture of one of their leaders.

President Felipe Calderon has vowed to continue his war against drugs cartels, and not be intimidated by violence.

He said a wave of attacks on police was a desperate reaction from the gangs to the capture of some of their top leaders.

"The criminals will not be able to intimidate the federal government," Mr Calderon said. "In this battle we will not give up, we will not hesitate, because what is at stake is Mexico's peace and safety."

Michoacan - the president's home state - has been hit by a wave of drug-related killings after a government crackdown on the cartels.

The latest killings, the highest one-day loss suffered by federal forces, marks an escalation in the violence, correspondents say.

The federal agents are believed to have been targeted as revenge for the arrest last week of the suspected drug boss Arnoldo Rueda Medina - known as La Minsa and described as a senior member of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel.

'Divine justice'

La Familia came to prominence in September 2006 when its members flung five human heads onto a crowded dance floor in Michoacan.

The attackers left behind a bizarre note that said: "The family does not kill for money. It does not kill women or innocent people. Those who die are those who must die. Everyone should know that this is divine justice."

La Minsa's arrest at the end of last week set off a series of attacks, mainly in Michoacan, that left several federal police officers and two soldiers dead.

"This marks an important change in the drug war in that they are attacking federal forces directly," Jorge Chabat, a Mexican drug expert told the Associated Press.

"It also suggests the capture of this person (La Minsa) has affected the operations of the cartel. It was a major blow and this is a reaction out of weakness, not strength."

The state has become one of the key battlegrounds in his war on drugs.

In May, the authorities arrested 27 high-ranking officials, including 10 mayors and an aide to the state governor, who were suspected of collaborating with drug-trafficking gangs in Michoacan.

Police also detained several suspected members of La Familia.

Mr Calderon has sent more than 45,000 troops across Mexico to fight rival drug gangs.

More than 11,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since he took office in December 2006.

China's foreign reserves top $2tn

BBC (Link) (July 15, 2009)

China's foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, have surpassed $2 trillion (£1.2tn), the country's central bank has said.

Currency reserves rose 17.8% from June 2008 to a record $2.13tn. Its currency stockpile is twice the size of Japan's - the second-biggest holder.

The reserves rose as foreign investment flowed back into China.

The People's Bank of China buys many of the dollars entering China to prevent its exchange rate from increasing.

BBC business editor Robert Peston says that the primary cause of China's ballooning foreign currency reserves on this occasion is not the surplus of China's exports over its imports.

He says it is the result of overseas investors identifying China as the strongest of the world's major economies and pouring money into property and shares.

The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think

The Wall Street Journal (Link) - Mortimer Zuckerman (July 14, 2009)

The recent unemployment numbers have undermined confidence that we might be nearing the bottom of the recession. What we can see on the surface is disconcerting enough, but the inside numbers are just as bad.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminary estimate for job losses for June is 467,000, which means 7.2 million people have lost their jobs since the start of the recession. The cumulative job losses over the last six months have been greater than for any other half year period since World War II, including the military demobilization after the war. The job losses are also now equal to the net job gains over the previous nine years, making this the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all job growth from the previous expansion.

Here are 10 reasons we are in even more trouble than the 9.5% unemployment rate indicates:

Obama's science czar suggested compulsory abortion, sterilization

Washington Examiner (Link) - David Freddoso (July 14, 2009)

Internet reports are now circulating that Obama's Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, John Holdren, penned a 1977 book that approved of and recommended compulsory sterilization and even abortion in some cases, as part of a government population control regime.

Given the general unreliability of Internet quotations, I wanted to go straight to this now-rare text and make sure the reports were both accurate and kept Holdren's writings in context. Generally speaking, they are, and they do.

The Holdren book, titled Ecoscience and co-authored with Malthus enthusiasts Paul and Anne Ehrlich, weighs in at more than 1,000 pages. Of greatest importance to its discussion of how to limit the human population is its disregard for any ethical considerations.

Holdren (with the Ehrlichs) notes the existence of “moral objections to some proposals...especially to any kind of compulsion.” But his approach is completely amoral. He implies that compulsory population control is less preferable, because of some people's objections, but he argues repeatedly that it is sometimes necessary, and necessity trumps all ethical objections.

30 dead, including a city mayor, in brutal Mexico violence

Breitbart (Link) - AFP (July 14, 2009)

An armed gang shot dead a mayor in northern Mexico, capping a vicious 48-hour period that has seen 30 people killed, including 12 police officers in the west of the country, officials said Tuesday.

Hector Ariel Meixueiro, who was mayor of Namiquipa in northwestern Chihuahua state near the US border, was shot multiple times after being accosted Tuesday morning by at least 15 men carrying assault rifles, according to the state prosecutors office.

Earlier Tuesday a spokesman for Mexico's public security ministry said the bodies of 12 federal police officers were found along a road in the western state of Michoacan.

The bodies of 11 men and one woman, who had been undertaking investigative work in the area, were found stacked on top of each other and bore signs torture, said police spokesman Monte Alejandro Rubido.

Officials have attributed the killings to the powerful "La Familia" drug cartel that operates in the region and considered one of the most violent criminal gangs in Mexico.

Drought and water policies drying up Euphrates River

Star Telegram (Link) - Campbell Robertson - New York Times (July 13, 2009)

Throughout the marshes, the reed gatherers, standing on land they once floated over, cry out to visitors in a passing boat.

"Maaku mai!" they shout, holding up their rusty sickles. "There is no water!"

The Euphrates is drying up. Strangled by the water policies of neighboring Turkey and Syria, a two-year drought and years of misuse by Iraq and its farmers, the river is significantly smaller than it was just a few years ago. Some officials worry that it could soon be half of what it is now.

The shrinking of the Euphrates, a river so crucial to the birth of civilization that the Book of Revelation prophesies its drying up as a sign of the end times, has decimated farms along its banks, left fishermen impoverished and depleted riverside towns as farmers flee to the cities looking for work.

Questions Raised Over Influence of Obama 'Czars'

Fox News (Link) (July 13, 2009)

As the number of so-called "czars" keeps piling up, it's raising serious questions about how powerful these White House insiders are.

President Obama might have slipped Monday, when he introduced Gil Kerlikowske as his "drug czar" while speaking to an urban policy group in Washington.

Kerlikowske's real title is director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. The administration generally rejects the term "czar" as a media-generated buzzword.

But as the so-called "czars" keep piling up, it's raising serious questions about how powerful these White House insiders are and seems to make the term "czar" all the more appropriate.

By some accounts, there are close to three dozen czars in the Obama administration, managing everything from closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to ending the genocide in Darfur.

Swine flu resembles feared 1918 flu, study finds

MSNBC (Link) (July 13, 2009)

The new H1N1 influenza virus bears a disturbing resemblance to the virus strain that caused the 1918 flu pandemic, with a greater ability to infect the lungs than common seasonal flu viruses, researchers reported on Monday.

Tests in several animals confirmed other studies that have shown the new swine flu strain can spread beyond the upper respiratory tract to go deep into the lungs — making it more likely to cause pneumonia, the international team said.

In addition, they found that people who survived the 1918 pandemic seem to have extra immune protection against the virus, again confirming the work of other researchers.

"When we conducted the experiments in ferrets and monkeys, the seasonal virus did not replicate in the lungs," said Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, who led the study. The H1N1 virus replicates significantly better in the lungs."

Separately, a top official at the World Health Organization said Monday a fully licensed swine flu vaccine might not be available until the end of the year. The report could affect many countries' vaccination plans.

Strong earthquake shakes Peru

Breitbart (Link) (July 12, 2009)

A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Moment Magnitude Scale shook southern Peru early Sunday, but appears to have caused only relatively minor damage, seismologists here said.

The Geophysical Institute of Peru reported that the quake occurred a little after 0600 GMT.

The US Geological Survey said the temblor was located 59 kilometers (36 miles) northwest of the town of Juliaca, which is near Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian border.

Peru's civil defense officials said some homes were damaged in the quake and some traffic had to be rerouted in areas, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Four killed in attacks on Iraq churches

Breitbart (Link) - AFP (July 12, 2009)

At least four people were killed on Sunday and 32 were wounded in a wave of bomb attacks targeting churches in Baghdad, a security official said.

The four dead, all Christians, died when a car bomb exploded near the Notre Dame church in Palestine Street in the east of the capital at around 7:00 pm (1600 GMT), the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The blast targeting the Chaldean house of worship also wounded 21 people, 15 of them Christians.

At least 11 people were wounded in other explosions at churches during the day, the official added. Three were injured in the southern Iraqi district of Dora, while the remaining eight were wounded in the other blasts.

The bombings happened less than two weeks after US forces withdrew from Iraq's urban centres on June 30 under a security pact signed by Baghdad and Washington last November.

Violence has dropped markedly throughout the country in recent months, but attacks remain common, especially in Baghdad and Mosul in the north.

Solana wants UN to establish 'Palestine'

The Jerusalem Post (Link) (July 12, 2009)

The European Union's top diplomat has called for the United Nations Security Council to push forward and recognize a Palestinian state even without a final-status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

According to a Reuters report, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana made the remarks Saturday during a lecture in London, saying that if agreement between the two sides could not be reached, the UN should proffer its own solution to the conflict.

"After a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution," Solana was quoted as saying, adding that such a move should include resolutions regarding borders, the refugee problem, the issue of Jerusalem and security arrangements.

"It would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the UN, and set a calendar for implementation. It would mandate the resolution of other remaining territorial disputes and legitimize the end of claims," Solana was quoted by Reuters as saying.

"If the parties are not able to stick to [the timetable], then a solution backed by the international community should be put on the table," he said.

Last month, Solana drew harsh condemnation from Israeli officials after he met with a Hizbullah legislator in Beirut.

The meeting with parliamentarian Hussein Hajj Hassan marked the first time a senior EU diplomat met with the Iranian-backed terror organization.

Solana - Let's force the birth of Palestine

Jerusalem Newswire (Link) - Stan Goodenough (July 12, 2009)

If Israel and the Palestinian Arabs are not prepared to compromise enough to bring about the creation of the State of Palestine in the Land of Israel, the international community should go ahead and recognize the existence of such a state, thereby making its birth a fait accompli.

This recommendation to forcefully impose the will of the world upon Israel was made Saturday by European Union foreign policy czar Javier Solana.

The Spaniard - who last month became the first senior European diplomat to meet publicly with a member of the Hizb'allah Iranian-sponsored Lebanese terror group - floated his proposal while delivering a lecture in London.

According to Reuters, Solana said the United Nations Security Council should officially pass binding international law adopting the "two-state solution" as the universally-accepted and supported formula for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict.