A highly productive small-scale urban garden

 

A huge ball of fire was spotted falling from the sky and crashing into north-western China’s

 

MSN 24-12-2020

A huge ball of fire was spotted falling from the sky and crashing into north-western China’s Yushu city on Wednesday. In a footage of the incident shared on YouTube, a giant fireball can be spotted flashing across the sky, lighting the dark sky over southern China. In multiple footages captured by locals, a ball of fire, suspected as a meteor, lights up the sky and plummets into the county of Nanggian in north-western China’s Qinghai province. Locals have reported to have heard loud bangs and the incident is said to have occurred at 7 am on December 23.

According to a report by Daily Mail, it is not yet clear what the burning sphere is but the local media is suggesting that the unidentified object could be a bright meteor. It is also suggested by some experts that the object was a bolide, an extremely bright meteor. Chief writer of Chinese science website Guokr, Yu Jun while talking to media said that it looked like a bolide. It might also have dropped several meteorite fragments somewhere around the area. Thankfully, no causalities have been reported.

Mississippi governor declares Sunday a statewide ‘day of prayer, humility and fasting’

CP  December 19, 2020

As 2020 comes to a close and the United States continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic fallout, the governor of Mississippi has called for a statewide day of prayer, humility and fasting.

During a press conference aired on Facebook Live Wednesday, Gov. Tate Reeves, R-Miss., reflected on the challenges Mississippians faced throughout the year, including the coronavirus pandemic, unemployment, economic uncertainty and natural disasters.

“This has been a challenging, dare I say a very, very hard year for so many of our fellow Mississippians,” he said. “There has been so much suffering and for many of our fellow Mississippians, we continue to suffer.”

“As we close out this year, I felt the need to go to God in prayer for our state. Ever since the beginning of this pandemic, we’ve tried to hold opportunities for our fellow Mississippians to pray, to pray together so we can be together,” he asserted. “We know that there is power in prayer. In fact, it is what God commands us to do.”

“Today, I will sign a proclamation to declare a day of prayer, humility and fasting on this upcoming Sunday, Dec. 20,” Reeves announced. “As we have done throughout the history of this country, we will go to the Lord and ask for His protective hand over us as we conclude the year 2020 and as we enter the year 2021.”

Pope Francis teams up with UN to educate world on sustainable lifestyles, gender equality, global citizenship

Lifesite Dec 18, 2020

VATICAN CITY, December 18, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis launched a new partnership between the Vatican and United Nations (UN) this week that aims at educating the world in “sustainable lifestyles,” “gender equality,” and “global citizenship,” among other goals.

The launch of the collaboration between the Pope’s own Global Pact for Education and the UN’s Mission 4.7 took place this week during the Vatican Youth Symposium. Amongst the speakers at the launch were pro-abortion globalists Jeffrey Sachs, the director general of UNESCO, and the former Secretary General of the U.N. Ban Ki-Moon, who were joined by Pope Francis. The symposium was co-hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS) and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) / SDSN Youth.

The Symposium aims to bring about the “instilling” of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Climate Agreement, and the Pope’s encyclicals Fratelli Tutti and Laudato si. The Vatican’s Youth Symposium promotes the SDGs even though targets 3.7 and 5.6 include “sexual and reproductive health services,” what pro-life critics point out are euphemisms for abortion and contraception.

Paris in flames

Express  Nov 28, 2020

Thousands of people across France took to the streets to protest and demand a free press. The protests have been ongoing during the past week after a video of police allegedly beating Black music producer Michel Zecler sparked anger about a draft law that is seen as curbing the right of journalists to report on police brutality. In Paris, protesters set street furniture on fire and clashed with police as they tried to block access to certain streets. Gérald Darmanin, Mr Macron’s interior minister, tweeted: "37 police officers and gendarmes injured in provisional results during the demonstrations. I once again condemn the unacceptable violence against the police."

Puerto Rico to lock down Sundays, close marinas for holidays

KSDK  December 3, 2020

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s governor on Thursday announced stricter measures to fight COVID-19, including a lockdown on Sundays and the closure of all marinas as the U.S. territory grapples with an increase in cases and deaths.

Gov. Wanda Vázquez also tightened an ongoing curfew, with businesses now ordered closed at 8:30 p.m. and no one allowed on streets from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. except for essential workers and those delivering food until 11 p.m.

 Only gas stations, pharmacies, grocery stores and hardware stores will be allowed to open on Sundays, though restaurants can offer delivery or carry-out. In addition, alcohol sales will be banned from Saturdays at 5 a.m. until Mondays at 5 a.m.

The new measures run from Dec. 7 to Jan. 7, the height of the island’s holiday and tourism season. Beaches also will remain closed except to those doing exercise.

“We have to pause to save the lives of our old people mainly,” Vázquez said after she read the names and ages of those reported dead on Thursday.

How are the COVID vaccines different from other vaccines on the market?

Dr Tom   December 31, 2020

The COVID vaccines are mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccines, which are completely new. No mRNA vaccine has ever been licensed for human use before. There are no other therapies or prophylactics on the market that use the same approach, despite a handful of efforts.

Traditional vaccines introduce pieces of a virus ("live" or inert), as well as adjuvants such as aluminum and mercury, to stimulate an immune reaction. The new mRNA vaccine is completely different. It actually injects (transfects) molecules of synthetic genetic material from non-human sources into our cells. Once in the cells, the genetic material interacts with our transfer RNA (tRNA) to make a foreign protein that supposedly teaches the body to destroy the virus being coded for. So the vaccine is hijacking the protein-makeup machinery.

Note that these newly created proteins are not regulated by our own DNA, and are thus completely foreign to our cells. What they are fully capable of doing is unknown.

The Moderna vaccine is given in two doses, 28 days apart. The Pfizer vaccine will require two shots, three weeks apart.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines also include the traditional toxic adjuvants. 

Learn the risk

 

Herd Immunity

Greenmed   July 16th 2012

Paul Offit smiled and PLAYED THE CARD while peddling his book on the comedy central channel as Steven Colbert jokingly said, "if the vaccines work so good for you, why do I need one?" Dr. Mark Segal PULLED IT on fox news as Mary Holland, JD eloquently described the issue of vaccine injury and loss of legal recourse in an era of forced and mandated vaccines. In addition to flaunting several false allegations and sound bites, Dr. Segal's well-rehearsed rant brushed right over the issue at hand, the fact that victims of vaccine injury have no legal right to sue – and instead launched into his agenda of scaring the listeners by parroting the "herd immunity" dogma.

The hype about herd immunity unfortunately creates a wall of hostility between those who vaccinate and those who delay some vaccines, avoid certain vaccines, or quit vaccinating altogether.

Since the beginning of vaccination, there is little proof that vaccines are responsible for eradicating disease even when herd immunity vaccination levels have been reached. Yet celebrity doctors rattle on about your unvaccinated neighbor being the biggest threat to your child – as if vaccination was the only way to avoid an illness or stay healthy.

To make matters worse, this intimidation to vaccinate is played out in an environment where WHO and vaccine manufacturers have been accused of scandalous misrepresentations of disease risk or vaccine safety and effectiveness. If the allegations against these entities are true, which I believe they are, we are being systematically altered, sickened and manipulated by powerful governing bodies that either don't understand the risks of vaccination, or don't care. We are told that the health of the herd is more important than any single life, and you now have no conventional legal recourse when your little sheep is wounded by any type of vaccine, no matter how it happened.

Here's How to Think About the Danish Mask Study

 Medpage  November 18, 2020 

I was drawn to science and medicine because of all human endeavors, ours is one where smart people can say, "I don't know." We don't stop there. We run a study or experiment that helps us know more. That is what makes what we do different than other human endeavors.

I start then with a humility as I take on the Danish Mask Study, published on Wednesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. This is a 4,800-person randomized trial that took place in the spring and early summer in Denmark. The trial was run at a time where most Danes did not wear masks when they left their house. It told participants to practice social distancing and randomly assigned them with the advice to wear a mask (and even gave them 50 surgical masks), advising them to change it after every 8 hours of use, or gave them no advice to wear mask, and followed them to see how many acquired SARS-CoV-2 by PCR or antibody testing. The answer was a nearly identical proportion -- 42 of 2,393 people (1.8%) in the mask group and 53 of 2,470 (2.1%) in the no-mask group. The difference was not statistically significant.

Bright meteor over Puerto Rico

 

What did Kellogg believe?

The following is a letter A. G.Daniells to Ellen White’s son, W. C. White. We find from this letter that Kellogg had come to believe in the Trinity doctrine and not just Pantheism as claimed today. 

“Ever since the council closed I have felt that I should write you confidentially regarding Dr Kellogg’s plans for revising and republishing ‘The Living Temple’...He (Kellogg) said that some days before coming to the council, he had been thinking the matter over, and began to see that he had made a slight mistake in expressing his views. He said that all the way along he had been troubled to know how to state the character of God and his relation to his creation works... He then stated that his former views regarding the trinity had stood in his way of making a clear and absolutely correct statement; but that within a short time he had come to believe in the trinity and could now see pretty clearly where all the difficulty was, and believed that he could clear the matter up satisfactorily. He told me that he now believed in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; and his view was that it was God the Holy Ghost, and not God the Father, that filled all space, and every living thing. He said if he had believed this before writing the book, he could have expressed his views without giving the wrong impression the book now gives. I placed before him the objections I found in the teaching, and tried to show him that the teaching was so utterly contrary to the gospel that I did not see how it could be revised by changing a few expressions. We argued the matter at some length in a friendly way; but I felt sure that when we parted, the doctor did not understand himself, nor the character of his teaching. And I could not see how it would be possible for him to flop over, and in the course of a few days fix the books up so that it would be all right.” —(Letter: A. G.Daniells to W. C. White. October 29, 1903. pp. 1, 2)

Capella Space launched a satellite capable of taking clear radar images of anywhere in the world

FuturismDecember 16th 2020

A few months ago, a company called Capella Space launched a satellite capable of taking clear radar images of anywhere in the world, with incredible resolution. It can even see inside some buildings, including spotting airplanes inside hangars — though only in the case of lightweight structures, the company clarified, and not dense ones like high rises or residential homes.

And unlike most of the huge array of surveillance and observational satellites orbiting the Earth, its satellite Capella 2 can snap a clear picture during night or day, rain or shine.

“It turns out that half of the world is in nighttime, and half of the world, on average, is cloudy,” CEO Payam Banazadeh, a former system engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Futurism. “When you combine those two together, about 75 percent of Earth, at any given time, is going to be cloudy, nighttime, or it’s going to be both. It’s invisible to you, and that portion is moving around.”

On Wednesday, Capella launched a platform allowing governmental or private customers to request images of anything in the world — a capability that will only get more powerful with the deployment of six additional satellites next year. Is that creepy from a privacy point of view? Sure. But Banazadeh says that it also plugs numerous holes in the ways scientists and government agencies are currently able to monitor the planet.

 

Christ was the literal Son of God before coming into the world

"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him."  1 John 4:9

 

 “She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.” John 11:27

Do grace make us free from obedience to God?

Salvation is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9). There is nothing we can do to earn it. But, do grace make us free from obedience to God?  

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law Romans 3:31

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Romans 6:14-16  

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Romans 7:12 

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20

Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments…If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love” John 14:15, 15:10. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 1 John 5:3 

Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” John 8:10-11  

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:1

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James 2:14-26

Old-guard scientists reveal their biases as new scientists suggest evidence for God

American Thinker  December 29, 2020

For many years now, the argument by atheist scientists has seemed reasonable. It goes something like this: we do not claim that there is no God. We simply claim that there is no scientific evidence for Him. If you have such evidence, we will examine it. If the evidence justifies a belief in God, we will accept it. Until then, only the physical can explain the physical. There is no need for God and no room for Him in science. If you say there is a God, then show us the evidence.

That was their argument because, until recent years, there was not, in the strictest sense, the kind of evidence science requires. To be sure, there were claims of such evidence, but however sincere those claims may have been, they were not persuasive enough to convince an honest skeptic. The gold standard of science, stated informally, is that a new paradigm is accepted when the evidence is solid enough to convince an objective, unbiased, and qualified person.

It turns out that scientists are as biased as anyone else. Their biases are being exposed by an increasing number of younger, more open-minded scientists. These newcomers are breaking free of the unscientific philosophy, the doctrine of physicalism, that presently dominates their disciplines. They are willing to challenge the notion that nothing exists except the physical. The old guard is resisting. The entrenched establishment is making ever less credible excuses for holding on to its resolute belief that only the physical exists.

The earth spinning unusually fast lately

 

Time and Date  23-Dec-2020

Many of us wish we could get through this difficult year as quickly as possible. Seems the Earth feels the same way — it has been spinning unusually fast lately. 2020 included the 28 shortest days since 1960.

Atomic Clocks Expose Earth's Irregular Speed

The Earth is an excellent timekeeper: on average, with respect to the Sun, it rotates once every 86,400 seconds, which equals 24 hours, or one mean solar day.

But it is not perfect. When highly accurate atomic clocks were developed in the 1960s, they showed that the length of a mean solar day can vary by milliseconds (1 millisecond equals 0.001 seconds). These differences are obtained by measuring the Earth's rotation with respect to distant astronomical objects, and using a mathematical formula to calculate the mean solar day.

2020 Had Shortest Days on Record

Before this year began, the shortest day since 1973 was July 5, 2005, when the Earth's rotation took 1.0516 milliseconds less than 86,400 seconds.

But in the middle of 2020, the Earth beat that record no less than 28 times. The shortest day of all came on July 19, when the Earth completed its rotation in 1.4602 milliseconds less than 86,400 seconds.

The speed of the Earth's rotation varies constantly because of the complex motion of its molten core, oceans and atmosphere, plus other effects. 

2021 Is Predicted to Be Even Shorter

Scientists monitoring the Earth's rotational speed expect the trend of having shorter days to follow us into 2021 as well.

According to their calculations, an average day in 2021 will be 0.05 ms shorter than 86,400 seconds. Over the course of the entire year, atomic clocks will have accumulated a lag of about 19 ms. For comparison: in past years, they ran fast by a few hundred milliseconds per year. See yearly averages since 1973

In fact, the year 2021 is predicted to be the shortest in decades. The last time that an average day was less than 86,400 seconds across a full year was in 1937.

Electromagnetic and Informational Weapons: The Remote Manipulation of the Human Brain

Global Research  6 August 2004

We bring to our readers this carefully documented review article by Mojmir Babajek first published in 2004.

While the text deals with a number of complex scientific processes, the implications of these findings are far-reaching. This study also has a bearing on the current Corona crisis.

The arsenal of electromagnetic and informational weapons, used to manipulate the human mind of targeted individuals or populations, is an integral part of the weapons system of the New World Order.

The US military possesses a sophisticated arsenal of psychotronic weapons which could be used both domestically and internationally.

Electromagnetic and informational Weapons could be used in conventional wars theatres, without the knowledge of the enemy.

It is therefore essential that we not only take cognizance of these findings, but we mobilize nationally and internationally against the use of brain manipulating technologies.

Michel Chossudovsky, 5 August 2004, 27, October 2020

***

In October 2000, Congressman Denis J. Kucinich introduced in the House of Representatives a bill, which would oblige the American president to engage in negotiations aimed at the ban of space based weapons.

In this bill, the definition of a weapons system included:

“any other unacknowledged or as yet undeveloped means inflicting death or injury on, or damaging or destroying, a person (or the biological life, bodily health, mental health, or physical and economic well-being of a person)… through the use of land-based, sea- based, or space-based systems using radiation, electromagnetic, psychotronic, sonic, laser, or other energies directed at individual persons or targeted populations for the purpose of information war, mood management, or mind control of such persons or populations“(15).

As in all legislative acts quoted in this article, the bill pertains to sound, light or electromagnetic stimulation of the human brain.

Psychotronic weapons belong, at least for a layman uninformed of secret military research, in the sphere of science fiction, since so far none of the published scientific experiments has been presented in a meaningful way to World public opinion.

The truth about the Nuremberg Code and the protection it provides us from accepting any forced medical procedure or therapy at all.

Paul Stramer  November 30, 2020

Some people might not be familiar with the verb "to dissemble", but we all need to become familiar with it, because there is a lot of dissembling going on.

It basically means to deliberately conceal something or obfuscate it, so that one's attention is misdirected or deflected from whatever the Dissembler wishes to obscure. Like the truth. And in this case, the truth about the Nuremberg Code and the protection it provides us from accepting any forced medical procedure or therapy at all.

Together with casting doubts and slander, dissembling is one of the chief tools in the propagandist toolbox.

A few days ago, I wrote an article explaining that forced vaccinations are a violation of the Nuremberg Code. Note the word, "forced". In fact, any forced medical procedure or therapy is against the Nuremberg Code.

All medical procedures and therapies must have fully informed and freely given consent, to the greatest extent possible - which means that people who are conscious and able to decide things for themselves remain in control of their medical destiny.

It's only when you are in desperate straits and unconscious that medical professionals are allowed to step in and make decisions "for you". 

 

This is all cut and dried and set in cement since the 1940's, but now, we have people trying to dissemble it and water it down and reinterpret the Nuremberg Code as applying only to medical experimentation.  

Not. 

The Code itself explains exactly what it applies to, and even though the cases giving rise to the Code arose from medical experiments in Concentration Camps and involved forced medical experimentation on unwilling subjects, the core of the Nuremberg Code rose to the occasion and outlawed all kinds of forced medical procedures and therapies. Not just experimental procedures.  Not just experimental therapies. 

Any medical procedure or therapy that you don't want to participate in, you have the full, free, and unprejudiced right to refuse.  Period.  

Go back and read Article 6, Sections 1 and 3, of the Nuremberg Code for yourselves. 

Don't take anyone else's word for it.  Not even mine.  Be sure.  And make good use of the information if anyone comes to your door with a needle in hand. 

Another good one to quote in their faces is their own cherished Roe vs. Wade decision, the excuse for allowing abortion on demand.  My body.  My choice.  That applies to every aspect of your body, what you take out and what you put into it, too.  

The same dissembling article draws attention to the fact that the Nuremberg Code doesn't make vaccination illegal.  Who said it did?  They are deliberately creating a False Argument as a means to obfuscate. 

The Nuremberg Code makes FORCED vaccination illegal---along with all other forced medical procedures and therapies.  The Nuremberg Code doesn't single out vaccinations or any other procedure or therapy --- it outlaws all forced procedures and therapies with the same broad brush.  

So if you want to be vaccinated, after being fully informed of all the possible downsides and consequences, after understanding exactly what the vaccine contains, after understanding that you will have extremely limited rights of recourse if you voluntarily take the injection and something goes wrong---- then you are free to take your chances and do as you will.  It's your choice.  

The Nuremberg Code won't protect you from your own fully disclosed consent. 

But it will protect you from being imposed upon by politicians and "private security forces" hired by banks that are colluding in this scheme to defraud America under color of law.  

The Nuremberg Code gives you full standing, if they attempt to violate it and force any kind of involuntary or undisclosed vaccination on you by any means---- whether by wrestling you to the ground or by threatening to deprive you of any other right or privilege, including the right to travel and use public facilities. 

All indications are that we are entering a very dark chapter in American history. You will need to stay alert and stay informed, and you are not being given straight information from any of the commercial media channels or their acolytes and paid trolls.  You need to read things with a critical eye and be able to discern the tricks the propagandists employ.  

I am posting (below) an example of a dissembling "News" article so that you can see exactly how they dissemble the actual important information and misrepresent it to mean something else: https://www.boomlive.in/world/do-vaccinations-violate-human-rights-under-the-nuremberg-code-8308

Now read the actual Nuremberg Code Sections --- Article 6, Sections 1 and 3. 

Analysis of teeth of individuals who lived in Megiddo then show that the Canaanites imported exotic food from India and Southeast Asia.

JPost DECEMBER 22, 2020 

Bronze Age cuisine in Israel included exotic foodstuffs, such as bananas, soybeans and turmeric, according to a new study published in the journal PNAS. It pushes back the evidence for these foods by centuries.

The conclusion is based on analysis of micro-remains and proteins preserved in the tooth tartar of individuals who lived in Megiddo and Tel Erani during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. 

 “Human dental calculus is wonderful material, full of information about past food habits,” Prof. Philipp W. Stockhammer said. “By studying calculus from Bronze and Iron Age [remains] at the Levant, we are able to trace otherwise often invisible food and can get insights into individual nutrition.”

The creation of false opposites has been a long-standing obstacle to human progress.

 The creation of false opposites has been a long-standing obstacle to human progress.

From the ancient pleasure-seeking Epicureans who argued against the logic-heavy Stoics of ancient Rome to the war of "salvation through faith vs works" that schismed western Christianity, to the chaotic emotional energy driving the Jacobin mobs of France whose passions were only matched by the radical Cartesian logic of their Girondin enemies; humanity has long been manipulated by oligarchs who knew how to set the species to war against itself. Although these operations have taken many forms, the desired effect has always been the same: divide-to-conquer bloodbaths which drowned out the saner voices of Cicero (executed in 44 BCE), Thomas More (executed in 1535 CE), or Jean Sylvain Bailly (executed in 1793 CE).

Today's polarization across the Trans-Atlantic world has reached a fevered pitch with the "right wing conservatives" shouting for liberty and less government while left wing liberals call for more government and top-down reforms of the system (with Great Reset technocrats laughing in the background).

Everyone with half a brain should be able to sense that the danger of civil war and economic meltdown hang over our destinies like a sword of Damocles, but instead of hearing calls for restoring the SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN traditions of American System banking that author Ellen Brown recently documented in her powerful new essay, we find only feuding sects that assert we must EITHER have top-down centralized planning OR bottom-up free markets laissez faire policies devoid of any government intervention     Sott

An in depth look at the beer bug

 

America says banks can now transact using so-called digital dollars

The Register6 Jan 2021

The US Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on Monday published a letter clarifying how federally chartered banking groups can use cryptocurrency and associated technology to manage financial transactions.

The letter endorses the use of independent node verification networks (INVN), such as blockchain distributed ledgers, and stablecoins – cryptocurrencies tied to fiat currencies, like Ethereum-based USD Coin (USDC) – as a means to settle customer transactions.

"Our letter removes any legal uncertainty about the authority of banks to connect to blockchains as validator nodes and thereby transact stablecoin payments on behalf of customers who are increasingly demanding the speed, efficiency, interoperability, and low cost associated with these products," said Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks in a statement.

The agency letter blesses the use of independent node verification network (INVN) systems to validate, store, and record payment transactions, and lets banks use INVNs and associated stablecoins (those pegged to a physical currency) for other lawful payments, per existing banking laws.

In an email to The Register, David Yermack, a professor of finance at the New York University Stern School of Business and adjunct professor of law at New York University School of Law, said that this looks like a big deal.

"It indirectly encourages banks to explore using FinTech platforms, and it seems to open the door for them to transact in instruments such as Tether, Diem (Libra), and other so-called stablecoins that are pegged to the US dollar," said Yermack.

Bibles and newspapers ‘would be banned under new hate crime law’

The Times  November 08 2020

Books, bibles and newspapers would be seized and destroyed under the SNP’s plan to criminalise “inflammatory” publications, religious and secular organisations have warned.

An unlikely alliance of chapels, kirks, gurdwaras, humanists, secularists, artists, writers and journalists have united in condemnation of the Scottish government’s Hate Crime Bill.

Only Muslim Engagement and Development (MED), an Islamic rights lobby group, and the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (Scotjec) argued that the bill did not go far enough in the latest round of scrutiny by Holyrood’s justice committee.

Once feared as Vatican meddling, Catholic ideas could help America move forward

Religion News November 9, 2020

Americans once feared that Catholic politicians would push Rome's agenda. But in divisive times, we could do worse than implementing the Church's principles of reconciliation and multilateralism. 

 When New York Gov. Al Smith, the first Catholic to be nominated by a major American party, and John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic president, ran in 1928 and 1960, respectively, many Americans feared that, if elected, the two would pursue a hidden Catholic agenda. These days, few fear the influence of the pope on a Biden administration. Indeed, in this time of division, pandemic, racism and global warming, we could do worse than implementing a truly Catholic agenda.

Laws coming to prosecute 'hate speech' at home

The Guardian 4 Nov 2020 1

Proposals to prosecute individuals for hate crimes based on what they discuss in their own homes need to be more widely debated, free speech organisations have said.

The suggestion to remove the “dwelling” privacy exemption from criminal legislation is buried in a few paragraphs of the Law Commission’s 544-page consultation on hate crime published in September.

The commission said on Wednesday that it was “not intending for private conversations at the dinner table to be prosecuted as hate speech”, although that appears to be one possible consequence of the proposed change.

Until 1986, the offence of using words or behaviour intended or likely to incite racial hatred could only be committed in a public place. The scope was later expanded, but an exception remains “where words or behaviour are used or written material displayed within a dwelling, provided that they cannot be seen or heard outside.”

The proposal was spotted by the organisation Fair Cop, which campaigns against what it says is misuse of legislation to curb free speech. Sarah Phillimore, a barrister and member of the organisation, said it would encourage “state surveillance or people to inform on their friends. How else would they get the evidence? It will be like the East German Stasi security service.”

God is the Father of Christ; Christ is the Son of God

The Scriptures clearly indicate the relation between God and Christ, and they bring to view as clearly the personality and individuality of each. 

 “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son?” Hebrews 1:1-5.

God is the Father of Christ; Christ is the Son of God. To Christ has been given an exalted position. He has been made equal with the Father. All the counsels of God are opened to His Son.          8T p. 268

There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

⁷ And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?

⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,

⁹ If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole;

¹⁰ Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.

¹¹ This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

¹² Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.         Acts 4:7-12

The Father and the Son are two, yet little short of being identical; two in individuality, yet one in spirit, and heart, and character.

The love of God was Christ's theme when speaking of his mission and his work. “Therefore doth my Father love me,” he says, “because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.” My Father loves you with a love so unbounded that he loves me the more because I have given my life to redeem you. He loves you, and he loves me more because I love you, and give my life for you. “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you.” Well did the disciples understand this love as they saw their Saviour enduring shame, reproach, doubt, and betrayal, as they saw his agony in the garden, and his death on Calvary's cross. This is a love the depth of which no sounding can ever fathom. As the disciples comprehended it, as their perception took hold of God's divine compassion, they realized that there is a sense in which the sufferings of the Son were the sufferings of the Father. From eternity there was a complete unity between the Father and the Son. They were two, yet little short of being identical; two in individuality, yet one in spirit, and heart, and character.          Youth Instructor, December 16 1897