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Rampant materialism and secularism has led Europeans to forsake family burdens and responsibilities. Furthermore, they are abandoning the Christian faith and failing to teach it to the offspring they do have. Secularism has no power to inspire anything but consumption, self-indulence, and dissipation. Western Europe's prospects are not very good, it appears.

There was an article back in June in a British paper about a special forces outfit that does this. They said they can jump from a plane outside denied territory and fly in 120 miles at a speed of up to 220 mph with such a system. Here's the original article. Link to Special forces to use strap-on Batwings

A lady tourist in downtown Anchorage, Alaska was walking her chihuahua on a leash one morning. A bald eagle swooped down and grabbed the dog and flew off with it. From that time on, whenever we saw a chihuahua on a leash, we said the owner was "trolling for eagles."

This post isn't a direct reply to yours. It was just an opportune place to join the thread.

It was an interesting article, especially Buchanan's use of the term "the "Establishment." This has long been used as the acceptable media term for the Illuminati/CFR/Trilateraist conspiracy. That's the term Prof. Quigley used for it in his tome "Tragedy and Hope."

Buchanan makes a couple of serious errors in his thinking, however, largely from his loyalty to Nixon. Nixon was a has-been who was taken under the Rockefellers' wings and politically rehabilitated after his first unsuccessful bid for the presidency. Nixon, though he started out as a staunch anti-Communist, his thinking was corrupted by his lust for power. Surrounding himself with CFR-types and under Kissinger's tutelage, he adopted Keynesian economics and morphed into a Fabian socialist. Detente was part and parcel of that transformation.

Ford's ascension to the presidency was carefully orchestrated and his appointment of Rockefeller as the VP was insurance that nothing would disrupt the Establishment's hold on the Executive Branch.

Carter, a disciple of Trilateral Commission founder Zbigniew Brzezinski, was anointed to become the next president by Rockefeller before the primaries even got started and he too surrounded himself by CFR/Trilateralists.

We haven't had a president who has not been under the influence and control of this cabal, going back to at least Wilson. It may have been active even in Jacksonian times, because the term secret combination was the term frequently used to describe it in those days.

Buchanan's loyalty to the White House he personally served prevents him from admitting this. Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan, Ford, and Bush are (or were) respectable men who were simply used by a secret combination for its own ends.

If you'd like to research more on this topic, I recommend the following reading:

The Naked Capitalist by Cleon Skousen
None Dare Call It Conspiracy by Gary Allen
Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger
Tragedy and Hope by Carrol Quigley

These four books provide a good view of the "Establishment." Two of the books are from staunch, pro-American anti-Communists, the other two are from insiders who openly speak about the plans, goals, and intententions of this movement. Call me a "conspiracy nut" if you like, but read the books before you do!

...or the reader can simply go to www.mormon.org or www.lds.org to actually see for themselves. Ask a Chevy dealer if you should buy the Ford F-150. Go to the source and get the straight scoop. Like I always say, if people would just live their own religion and let others live theirs, the world would be a better place. It's a sign of a deep obsession and insecurity that sectarian Christians can't leave Mormons alone.

They're not going to get the chance. The Baathists and Sunnis are going to try to bust Saddam out after the US transfers him to Iraqi custody for the execution. I will truly be surprised if he hangs.

Just another hireling shepherd who feeds the flock for filthy lucre.

If someone wanted to find a way to explore the moon and make it profitable, here's my proposition. Send a small fleet of robotic cars with stereo-vision cameras. Set the controllers up at EPCOT or even on the internet where people could pay to drive one for an hour. The video gets captured and can be studied by scientists and any amazing discoveries get named for the person who finds them.

The time lag between earth and the moon is negligible for radio communications, so the little rovers wouldn't have to be as elaborate as the Mars versions. Keep them small and deliver them with one of those air bag-bounce systems like we used on Mars. Who wouldn't pay to go for a drive on the Moon and see what you could find if the price was affordable?

A friend of mine worked as an "advance man" for the Ford White House, setting up events where the Prez appeared. He said Gerald Ford impressed him by his humanity and his interest in other people.

For example, there were several "stewards" at the White House who took care of the kinds of chores that one would expect of a butler. Several of them were Filipinos who had served in this capacity through several administrations as employees of the government. They told my friend that Pres. Ford almost always took time to speak with them and not only remembered their names, but details about their wives, family members, etc. He really listened to them with personal concern and interest.

That impresses me, that a man in such an exalted position would be personable with the serving staff. It speaks volumes about his character.

"WE LOVE MOSLEMS, WE PITY THEM, WE HOPE FOR THEIR REVERSION TO HUMANITY"

Shame on any Christian who would consider any Muslim less than human, as this quote does. Muslims are children of God. God loves them and sent Jesus to die for them as well as us. Would any of the ten points listed here be effective in softening their hearts and preparing them to accept the testimony of Christ? If not, you need to try something more effective.

This question goes right to the heart of what really works to save souls. What did Jesus do to save people? He taught them truth in the spirit of kindness and then he submitted himself to die to prove his point. He was willing to go to his death to prove that love overcomes all things.

If Christians want to save Muslims, there will be more Christian martyrs, but that is what will reach them. Bombing them, arguing with them, bashing them with condemning Bible verses, and calling them inhuman will not achieve what God desires. If the war on terror is to be stopped, it will take this same kind of love Christ showed us all.

Thanks to HeadOn for getting my point. As for BruceysMom, who was insulted by my comparison of the two faiths, it was not my intent to insult anyone. Intellectual comparison and discussion is a necessary aspect to the search for Divine truth.

The meat of my point can be found in Luke 6:46, where the Lord says, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" Many Christians hold a misguided belief that Christ's offer of grace means that obedience is no longer necessary.

I have had discussions with many "Christian believers" who justify all kinds of behaviors, such as having out-of-wedlock children with multiple sex-partners and still considering themselves "saved" because they made a confession of faith somewhere along the way.

Others drink excessively, abuse spouse and children, gamble, engage in sordid entertainment, commit adultery, etc. They believe in a "once saved, always saved" doctrine. There was even one instance where Pat Robertson intervened to try to stop the execution of Texas' first woman on death row, because she had accepted Christ while in prison. He apparently believed that this murderess deserved mercy because she had been saved by grace.

My "David and Goliath" analogy goes straight to that point. The Christian world largely calls Jesus "Lord" and doesn't actually do what he says. They don't bother keeping the commandments, having the misguided expectation that God will forgive them without profound repentance. On the other hand, God might just favor a people who, acting without benefit of the light of Christ, do their best to be obedient, benevolent, kind, obedient, and humble before God. To we Christians, where much is given, much is expected of us. If we commit sin, we do so with knowledge.

Only a small, radical element of Islam tends to produce terrorists. The vast majority of Muslims live in a manner that would do credit to most Christians. Christians won't successfuly invite Muslims to Christ until they build a bridge to the other side with understanding.

I served as a missionary in the predominantly Muslim areas of France. I've had the good Christians slam the door in my face because they didn't want to be bothered, but I never found a Muslim who would do that. They were always kind, friendly, and tolerant, even if they disagreed with the testimony of Christ I shared with them.

Overall, Muslims accept a gnostic-born doctrine that Jesus was so holy that God wouldn't allow him to be crucified. They don't understand that it was necessary for him to die to atone for mankind's sins. This specific doctrine was around, even during the apostolic years. Specifically, 1st Corinthians 15 addresses it and teaches the necessity of Christ's death and resurrection in light of this gnostic teaching.

In my experiences with teaching Muslims, I found that the Holy Ghost witnesses powerfully to them. Perhaps this is because of the price they'd pay upon gaining a testimony of Christ. They face alienation, loss of their family ties, and possibly death. You don't help a Muslim gain a testimony of Christ by bashing the Koran and beating them over the head with a Bible. It takes, tolerance, understanding, knowing how to make links to references they can identify with, and when that door opens just a little, the Holy Ghost can touch them. At that moment, they can risk it all, but it's still a huge leap of faith.

It's for that reason that I frequently defend Islam on FR when others would bash it. People who abuse Islam in the name of Christ don't save souls. They condemn them. In my understanding, that's not what John 3:16 tells us about the mission of Jesus.

This topic is illustrative of why Muslims feel compelled to engage the West in jihad. Their apparent desire is to remain modest (nobody mentioned that the men in the pictures aren't wearing western-style swimwear either) while engaging in a wholesome leisure activity. Instead of accepting Muslim's sense of modesty, we subject them to ridicule. A hundred years ago, Americans didn't wear bikinis to the beach either, but I guess we'd call that "progress."

Modest Christian women in the USA have to deal with this dilemma to some degree when they shop for clothing in general and swimwear in particular. They often feel uncomfortable in the immodest fashions that are popular today. There's a not-so-subtle intolerance evident in western fashion that tells women that, unless they've got a perfect body and are willing to bare it, they're unacceptable to western men.

The Muslim world resents the West's ridicule of their standards and the aggressive corporate messages that tell women they're not beautiful unless they look like Angelina, Jennifer, or Britney. They see us as a society that celebrates and promotes indecency, drunkenness, and sexual license. Like conservative Christians, Muslims not only fear that acceptance of these behaviors will bring God's displeasure on society at-large, but they also fear for their personal salvation, knowing tolerance may lead to temptation and sin.

Muslims and Christians feel this encroachment of worldliness threating their families. They realize that there is a tragic human cost behind our culture's acceptance of vice. Every pornographic photo on the internet represents a personal tragedy for someone who is a child of God--someone's daughter, or sister, or son, or brother. Broad acceptance of indecency repels the light of God instead of inviting it. Choosing spiritual darkness over light is always ill-advised.

Unfortunately, radical elements in both religions have used this encroachment to justify violence (like the armed-to-the-teeth Branch Davidians or Eric Rudolph, the abortion clinic bomber). If one chooses to ridicule the Iranians at the beach in this picture, it should be a reminder to us how far our standards of decency have fallen in the past century.

All the glib commentators and analysts in the media miss a major point. In the past, America has gone to war "in the strength of the Lord." That is to say, America was a relatively righteous nation that adhered to Christian principles. We faced deadly enemies and had Providence on our side. That is no longer the case.

There is a clash of civilizations and cultures ongoing, but ours doesn't necessarily have the Divine stamp of approval. Unless America turns to godly behavior, we may be facing a "David and Goliath" moment, with us playing the role of the Philistines.

The only positive thing I expect from a Romney run for the Oval Office is that the media and the anti-Mormon evangelicals will foam at the mouth and spit out a bunch of vitriol. As a result, many open-minded, reasonable people will know that the scurrilous tales can't possibly be true and they'll make a sincere inquiry into Mormon beliefs. A small number of them will join the Church, who might not have ever investigated its teachings otherwise. Beyond that, I believe our political system has become so corrupt that the president has little ability to control, reform, or change things. The more it changes, the more it stays the same, politically.

If it's any hope, there was a family we went to church with a few years back. Eventually, it became clear that we wasn't going to make it through high school. He quit, got in trouble with the law, and a judge sent him to a "boot camp" of some kind. He came out of that and started to get his act together. He got a GED and tried to join the Marines, but they wouldn't take him because of his dope smoking past. He ended up in the Army. He grew up seemingly "overnight" in the service and found something he cared about more than himself. He made it into the Rangers and served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He was in that big offensive in Fallujah. In Afghanistan, he received a Purple Heart and some other commendations. He apparently covered the retreat of his 4-man recon team when they were ambushed. After being shot twice in the arm and chest, he manned a SAW with the good arm and hand and fended off 40-odd Taliban for four hours until air support came and took the rest of the bad guys out. The dang kid ended up being a war hero.

There's hope yet. The key seems to be removing the kid from the peer group. Sell your house and move. Put the kid in military school. He's worth whatever sacrifice you make for his good.

I'm old enough now (47) to have seen this go full circle in my adult life. I was 18 or so when Jimmy Carter had me sitting in gas lines on odd-days due to the gas rationing that occurred from the Arab oil embargo. Meanwhile those "dark conspiracy" folks were saying that those tankers sitting out in the Chesapeake Bay near my home were just waiting for the price to go up before they came into port to unload. There were the Iranian hostages, 18 percent interest on home loans, and the whole national malaise thing.

Then Reagan came along and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Ronnie cut taxes, but even more his optimism and patriotism inspired a generation. I joined the Air Force and served proudly under him as our Commander-in-Chief. Under the surface however, there were those same "dark conspiracy guys" working, quietly in the background.

They came back with George Bush 41, who celebrated the New World Order in public speeches and put the likes of James Baker at the center of his international policies. From that moment on, American prestige began to slip. After the first Gulf War, Bush lauded the new age of cooperation between nations and cut back the military drastically. Seeing the writing on the wall, I began to consider leaving the service.

Then came spoiler Ross Perot who handed Clinton the White House twice with only 43 percent of the vote. Clinton's policies made the service unbearable. The military's mission changed to nation building. It was obvious that no one was guarding the home front anymore. The military was the armed enforcement wing of the New World Order.

Enter Bush 43. He continued the same internationalist policies of his dad and Clinton, driven by a new wave of idealistic neocons. When 9/11 came, my suspicions were confirmed, that the defense of the US homeland was secondary to building a transnational system of governance. The Republicans, after 12 years of control, (which we always dreamed of under Reagan) left America vulnerable and failed to enforce the borders.

Now the Dems are on the ascendance and the whole thing comes full circle. What's on the radar? Just go back and read the history. Recession. Failing real estate markets. Dollar devaluations. Soaring interest rates. Only now, this will be coupled with war, higher taxes, and higher consumer prices on gas and almost everything else. Regulatory intrusions are going to skyrocket.

The "dark conspiracy" guys are still there. James Baker, Warren Christopher came out of the woodwork to ensure the correct election results were obtained. Henry Kissinger is back advising a sitting president. We just tossed the best guy we ever had at the UN in my lifetime and we might stick some Muslim guy in there now? With the 2008 elections, watch for a major conservative spoiler to split the conservative vote so Hillary can prance in there and become President Rodham.

Folks, the 70s are coming back with a major attitude. It's time to batten down the hatches.

The whole concept of "interceptors" is bogus after 9/11. We spent billions on fighters that simply weren't there to intercept anything when it was critical. The best fighters in the world don't mean squat if they're sitting on the ground in a non-alert status. I certainly hope the "expeditionary" Air Corps that the Air Force has become will someday get back to the protection of US airspace as a primary mission.

"The LDS church most emphatically does NOT endorse gay marriage.
Romney's religious credentials are in serious doubt."

The LDS Church opposes anything that weakens marriage period, not just gay marriage. This also includes adultery, pre-marital sex, and any form of unchastity. For that reason, Newt, Giuliani, and other confessed adulterers don't merit much in the way of trust. A politician who espouses "family values" and cheats on his wife has zero credibility. Having these men be the torch bearer for the party that claims the moral high ground is a joke.

As far as gays go, there is a difference between protecting the institution of marriage and preventing overt discrimination of gay citizens by their government. It's not my intent to be an apologist for Romney, but I would interpret this letter as expressing the understanding that individual (gay or not) rights need to be protected. It's not an endorsement of the lifestyle or gay marriage by any means.

"...who deliberately escalate tension among group members, pitting one faction against another to make a preordained viewpoint appear "sensible," while making opposing views appear ridiculous."

It sounds like an average day on FR

As I posted on another thread earlier, the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which is basically a colloquy of the Left and Right-leaning globalists basically made recommendations that weaken the US in the Middle East and exclude Israel from the regional talks they want to have there.

Ultimately, these bright minds are solely secular and see no Divine hand in the gather of the Jews to their promised land. They see Israel as the main obstacle to regional peace. If they can get rid of it, their plans for world order can move forward more effectively.

Israel's existence is a stumbling block God placed there to confound these globalists. Unwittingly, these people are taking us inexorably closer to a "final solution" which will be defeated by God's hand in Armageddon. Despite their best efforts and against their own designs, they will pave the way for the triumph of God's kingdom. Their new world order will give way to a kingdom that has been "cut out of the mountain without hands" and is currently rolling forth to fill the whole earth. Ironic.

I truly believe President Bush is a sincere Christian and a noble figure, but he has been "handled" from the outset of his Presidential run by a cadre of globalists, much like Reagan was. I shuddered during the 2000 election aftermath when James Baker and Warren Christopher emerged to represent the factions struggling to obtain power. Seeing Bush pull in such types, including Henry Kissinger (go read his book "Diplomacy" where he talks about the third and final push towards a new world order), it shakes my faith in the viability of our nation.

People want to blame the "neo-cons" but it has been the Trilateralist/CFR types who set the terms for entry into the war, who sent Colin Powell in to the UN with dicey intelligence to justify the war, and have intentionally mismanaged it to bring us to this point. Their objective is now evident: weaken the US in the region, eliminate Israel as a party to regional talks, and eventually eliminate the problem Israel's existence creates for those seeking to create a global government.

Bush is and has been a puppet. The political process in the US has become a sham for a privileged class of influential oligarchs.