By Rabbi Nachum Shifren

We are living in an era of insanity! Witness the latest attempt to remake the nature of our country, founded and established on certain principles that have been the envy of the entire world. The latest assault on our country and its values comes in the form of vicious and criminal violence against the Mormon church in Westwood, California

"WE ALL ARE MORMONS!"

"Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order [referring to the 1991 LA Riot]. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or *promulgated*, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this *scenario*, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government."

-- Henry Kissinger

"My senior year I joined Skull and Bones, a secret society, so secret I can't say anything more."

-- George W. Bush, A Charge to Keep (1999)

In the middle of December 1620 the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, leaving behind the sinfulness of the "old world" to make a "new Jerusalem" in America. Three years later, in November 1623, they had a great feast thanking God for getting them through an earlier famine, and now for a bountiful crop.

What had created the earlier famine and then the bountiful crops? The story is told in the diary of Governor Bradford, who was one of the elders of that early Puritan colony.

At first, they decided to turn their back on all the institutions of the England that had been their home. This included the institution of private property, which they declared to be the basis of greed, avarice, and selfishness. Instead, they were determined to live the "Platonic ideal" of collectivism, in which all work would be done in common, with the rewards of their collective efforts evenly divided among the colonists. Farming was done in common, as well as housekeeping and child raising. This was supposed to lead to prosperity and brotherly love.

"Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion...when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing...when you see your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you...when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice...you may know that your society is doomed."

--"Atlas Shrugged"

"Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period."

-- Michael Chrichton

Bloomberg is reporting that the US Treasury/Federal Reserve has now provided $7.4 Trillion worth of bailout money to ease frozen credit in the market even though Congress only called it a $700 Billion Bailout plan. Basic economics tells us that increasing the money supply decreases the value of the dollar. All of our savings will be eroded even faster due to this increase in the inflation rate.

The Telegraph has listed the top 30 conspiracy theories in history. Believe it or not, there are actually a couple I had never heard of before.

On the night of November 22, 1910, a group of bankers met at an elite resort at Jekyll Island, Georgia.

So began the dark conception of the Federal Reserve System, which many economists argue is responsible for devouring the political and financial wealth of America. The U.S. Dollar has seen a better than 98% decline in its purchasing power since that time.

"The purpose of this meeting on Jekyll Island was...to come to an agreement on the structure and operation of a banking cartel. The goal of the cartel, as is true with all of them, was to maximize profits by minimizing competition between members, to make it difficult for new competitors to enter the field, and to utilize the police power of government to enforce the cartel agreement. In more specific terms, the purpose and, indeed, the actual outcome of this meeting was to create the blueprint for the Federal Reserve System." From "The Creature from Jekyll Island" --G. Edward Griffin

"But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.  It behooves you, therefore, to be watchful in your States as well as in the Federal Government."

-- Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address, March 4, 1837

"The California courts erred.  In February, they issued a flawed decision that, if implemented, would deny nearly all California parents the right to homeschool their children.  The ACLJ filed a friend-of-the-court brief in May urging the appeals court to protect the right to homeschool and argued that the right of parents to homeschool their children is derived from both the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.  In response, the Second Appellate District in Los Angeles upheld the rights of California parents to homeschool their children." --ACLJ

According to the New York Post, "People around the world are demanding so many of the valuable coins that government mints are having difficulty filling orders." Bill Murphy, chairman of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, says "Today the public is buying gold like crazy, but the US government and the banks that hold bullion are intentionally keeping the price down."

Interestingly, the article also mentions the high level ties between the Treasury Secretary and large Wall Street banks:

"...current Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is a former Goldman chairman, as was Robert Rubin who headed the department during Bill Clinton's presidency.

And more Goldman execs are being mentioned for the Treasury job in President-elect Barack Obama's administration.

Specifically, Grassley is concerned about a tax code change that paved the way for the acquisition of Wachovia by Wells Fargo. An ex-Goldman executive was leading Wachovia at the time of that deal."

The great struggle which now rocks the whole earth more and more takes on the character of a struggle of the individual versus the state.  This gigantic worldwide struggle takes on the form of a war to the death. We shall do well and wisely so to face and so to enter it. And we must all take part. Indeed, we all are taking part in that struggle, whether we will not.  Upon its final issue, liberty lives or dies. The plain and simple issue now facing us in America is freedom or slavery. We have largely lost the conflict so far waged. But there is time to win the final victory, if we sense our danger, and FIGHT.

-- President J. Reuben Clark – Vital Speeches 1938
 again in Church News 1949
 and yet again by Ezra Taft Benson CR Apr 1965
 

"Policies are many; principles are few. Policies will change; principles never do."

--John C. Maxwell

I testify that wickedness is rapidly expanding in every segment of our society. (See D&C 1:14–16; D&C 84:49–53.) It is more highly organized, more cleverly disguised, and more powerfully promoted than ever before. Secret combinations lusting for power, gain, and glory are flourishing. A secret combination that seeks to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries is increasing its evil influence and control over America and the entire world. (See Ether 8:18–25.)

-- President Ezra Taft Benson, Oct. General Conference 1988

"You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe."

--John Adams, Second President of the United States

"The Final Act of the Uruguay Round, marking the conclusion of the most ambitious trade negotiation of our century, will give birth - in Morocco - to the World Trade Organization, the third pillar of the New World Order, along with the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund."

-- Statement by the Moroccan government

"Northcom has announced that two more U.S. military units will be assigned for domestic homeland security missions, bringing the total number of combat ready service members operating inside the U.S. to round 4,700, as fears grow about the increasing militarization of law enforcement. The announcement follows the controversy surrounding a September 8 Army Times report (revised on September 30), which revealed that the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, fresh from combat duties in Iraq, would be operating inside America for tasks including 'civil unrest and crowd control,' a detail that was later denied by Northcom despite the concession that forces would be armed with both non-lethal and lethal weapons as well as having access to tanks. ... The ACLU has filed a Freedom Of Information Request demanding more information on the purpose and scope of military assets under Northcom control being deployed domestically."

“I know of nothing in the history of the Church or in the history of the world to compare with our present circumstances. Nothing happened in Sodom and Gomorrah which exceeds in wickedness and depravity that which surrounds us now.”

-- President Boyd K. Packer, “The One Pure Defense” (address to CES religious educators, Feb. 6, 2004)

"...This regionalization is in keeping with the Tri-Lateral Plan which calls for a gradual convergence of East and West, ultimately leading toward the goal of "one world government'....National sovereignty is no longer a viable concept..."

-- Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama's chief foreign policy advisor

During the past 50 years, growing numbers of academicians became disenchanted with the family – and marriage in particular.  These academicians slowly, but surely, persuaded ever-larger segments of the past two generations that marriage requires neither a man, nor a woman, and has no necessary connection to procreation.  Rather, marriage is now described as a utilitarian concept that can (and should) be reconstructed to satisfy the longings of autonomous individuals, who are entitled to define their intimate relationships without the fetters of established sexual and social norms, including those related to human reproduction. Gender, in turn, has been similarly deconstructed.  Professors (and politicians) now insist that gender is a “social construct” that is “mutable,” “changeable” and not “essential” to “individual identity.” “Fatherhood,” when and if acknowledged, is described in modern classrooms as a relic of patriarchal oppression, while international human rights organizations – including the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women -- criticize “motherhood” as a “harmful traditional stereotype.”

This is amazing...President Bush is pushing legislation which deep inside includes a provision to pardon himself and his administration of all war crimes they have committed.

uShip is a site which allows you to find someone traveling between you and a place where you need something (or someone) shipped and bid on a shipping fee. A friend of mine has been using this site for several years. Say, for example, you're driving from SLC to Disneyland in your family van. You can post that information on the site and someone in Provo may pay you to deliver a package, dog in a carrying case, or even their son to their grandmother's house in Las Vegas. I think this is a great business concept.

"The Trilateral Commission is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the United States. The Trilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power; political, monetary, intellectual and ecclesiastical. What the Trilateral Commission intends is to create a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nationstates involved. As managers and creators of the system, they will rule the future."

-- Barry Goldwater

"The New World Order is a world that has a supernational authority to regulate world commerce and industry; an international organization that would control the production and consumption of oil; an international currency that would replace the dollar; a World Development Fund that would make funds available to free and Communist nations alike; and an international police force to enforce the edicts of the New World Order."

-- Willy Brandt, former West German Chancellor

 "The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity."

-- Benjamin Franklin

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.

'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to cut cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.'

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.

But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20,' declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, 'but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and  they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

-- David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible