EMAILS - # 8 "LAUS DEO"

[I'm collecting the viral emails I receive]

To: Friends 1
From: 
Subject: Re: Fwd: Fw: "LAUS DEO"

Hi again guyz!

Interesting! I can't figure, though, how people figure that there's no separation of church and state in the Constitution.... Do you know how they interpret the First Amendment -- "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”?
.... I believe those are wise principles -- lots of wiggle room so we can have our wars about something else -- & don't have to worry about a takeover of the church as in the Third Reich. Or laws about how many Sundays you can skip services. Jefferson and others talked about a "wall of separation" -- so I'm always puzzled by statements like that.

That got me to wondering who decided the inscription -- and I never realized all the drama in the construction process!
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/62wash/62facts3.htm

And, if these accounts are accurate, I hadn't realized that the capitol's and this monument's cornerstones were laid with Masonic honors. A Scottish Rite Journal article says about the monument: "One of the principle [sic!] addresses of the occasion was given by Benjamin B. French, Grand Master, 33, later Lieutenant Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite, S.J., who wore the Masonic apron Washington wore at the laying of the cornerstone of the United States Capitol."
http://srjarchives.tripod.com/1997-06/Scott.htm

In fact, I was surprised that a good bit of our email is very close to the wording of a Tuckahoe Lodge's "Masonic Stones Within the Washington Monument." 
http://www.tuckahoelodge347.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=uEl3x1Xl4pc%3D&tabid=60&mid=423

I've never known much about the Masons -- except that the Shriners do amazingly good things!!!

Thanks again and lotsa love!





********************
Very interesting!


----- Forwarded Message -----
From:
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Sent: Fri, 21 May 2010 23:32:29 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Fw: "LAUS DEO"

----- Original Message -----

Subject: Fw: "LAUS DEO"

wonderful !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Subject: Fw: "LAUS DEO"

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 2:15 PM
Subject: Fw: "LAUS DEO"

LAUS  DEO

Do you know what it means?

                           One detail that is never mentioned is that in
                           Washington, D.C., there can never be a building of
                           greater height than the Washington Monument.

      With all the uproar about removing the ten commandments,
                           etc., this is worth a moment or two of your
                           time. I was not aware of this amazing
                           historical information.

                           On the aluminum cap, atop the Washington Monument
in Washington, D.C., are displayed two words: Laus Deo.

                           No one can see these words. In fact, most
                           visitors to the monument are totally unaware they
                           are even there and for that matter, probably
                           couldn't care less.
 
                           Once you know Laus Deo's history, you will
                           want to share this with everyone you know.
                          These words have been there for many years; they are
                           555 feet, 5.125 inches high, perched atop the
                           monument, facing skyward to the Father of our
                           nation, overlooking the 69 square miles which
                           comprise the District of Columbia, capital of the
                           United States of America.

                           Laus Deo!
                           Two seemingly insignificant, unnoticed words. Out of
                           sight and, one might think, out of mind, but very
                           meaningfully placed at the highest point over what
                           is the most powerful city in the most successful
                           nation in the world.

                           So, what do those two words, in Latin, composed of
                           just four syllables and only seven letters, possibly
                           mean? Very simply, they say 'Praise be to
                           God!'

                           Though construction of this giant obelisk began in
                           1848, when James Polk was President of the
                           United States , it was not until 1888 that the
                           monument was inaugurated and opened to the
                           public. It took twenty-five years to finally
                           cap the memorial with a tribute to the Father of our
                           nation, Laus Deo 'Praise be to God!'

                           From atop this magnificent granite and marble
                           structure, visitors may take in the beautiful
                           panoramic view of the city with its division into
                           four major segments. From that vantage point,
                           one can also easily see the original plan of the
                           designer, Pierre Charles l'Enfant - a perfect cross
                           imposed upon the landscape, with the White House to
                           the north, the Jefferson Memorial to the
                           south, the Capitol to the east, and the Lincoln
                           Memorial to the west.

                           A cross you ask? Why a cross? What about
                           separation of church and state? Yes, a cross;
                           separation of church and state was not, is not, in
                           the Constitution. So, read on. How interesting
                           and, no doubt, intended to carry a profound meaning
                           for those who bother to notice.

                           Praise be to God! Within the monument itself
                           are 898 steps and 50 landings. As one climbs
                           the steps and pauses at the landings the memorial
                           stones share a message. 

                           On  the 12th Landing is a prayer offered by the City
                           of Baltimore ; 

                           On the 20th is a memorial presented by some
                           Chinese Christians; 


                           On the 24th a presentation made by Sunday School
                           children from New York and Philadelphia quoting
                           Proverbs 10:7, Luke 18:16 and Proverbs  22:6. Praise be to God!

                           When the cornerstone of the Washington
                           Monument  was laid on July 4th,
                           1848 deposited within it were many items
                           including the Holy Bible presented by the Bible
                           Society. Praise be to God! Such was the
                           discipline, the moral direction, and the spiritual
                           mood given by the founder and first President of our
                           unique democracy 'One Nation, Under God.'

      When  one stops to observe the inscriptions found in
                           public places all over our nation's capitol, he or
                           she will easily find the signature of God, as it is
                           unmistakably inscribed everywhere you look. You may
                           forget the width and height of 'Laus Deo ', its
                           location, or the architects but no one who reads
                           this will be able to forget its meaning, or these
                           words: 'Unless the Lord builds the house its
                           builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord
                           watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in
                           vain.' (Psalm 127: 1)

                           It is hoped you will send this to every child you
                           know; to every sister, brother, father, mother or
                           friend. They will not find offense, because
                           you have given them a lesson in history that they
                           probably never learned in school. With that,
                           be not ashamed, or afraid, but have pity on those
                           who will never see this because someone failed to
                           send it on.

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EMAILS - # 7 "ALERT: Your Retirement Accounts in Obama's Crosshairs"

[I'm collecting the viral emails I receive]


To: Friend 1
From:
Subject: Re: Fwd: ALERT: Your Retirement Accounts in Obama's Crosshairs

Hi FRIEND 1!

Interesting issues!

I think Teresa Ghilarducci's "Shared Prosperity" ideas are pretty interesting, tho doesn't sound like they're going to be adopted --

Wall Street Journal, "MarketWatch":
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=FF439A12-96C6-443B-8CDF-A8F142E7489B

San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/13/BURU1DDHOI.DTL

Ghilarducci:
http://www.sharedprosperity.org/bp204.html


I dunno about Bellinger's "Wealth Protection Library" -- The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch -- or AARP or Consumer Reports -- would "protect more of my wealth" subscription-wise!   and I think I'd trust them more.

Hurray again for the xxxxxxx!!!!!!!!

Friend 1, how did your xxxxxxxx?

Lotsa love again!



***************
----- Forwarded Message -----

From:
To:
Sent: Fri, 21 May 2010 12:01:07 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: ALERT: Your Retirement Accounts in Obama's Crosshairs
ALERT: Your Retirement Accounts in Obama's Crosshairs
You have been a subscriber since xxxx

Dear Friend 1,

   My trusted friend Lee Bellinger, publisher of Independent Living, has uncovered some extremely disturbing information about what the cash-strapped Washington Establishment has in mind for your retirement accounts.

The following exclusive report cannot be found anywhere else. It's vital you read this time-sensitive bulletin immediately.

Sincerely,

Bob Livingston
Editor, Personal Liberty Alerts
Editor, The Bob Livingston Letter™

Critical Briefing:
Nationalizing your medical care is just the beginning.
Here's the untold story of how "Team Obama" plans to gain control
over $15 Trillion in all privately-held 401(k)s, IRAs, and 403(b)s.
Read This to Learn How Cash-Strapped Politicians Are
GUNNING FOR YOUR
RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS
and They Are HELL-BENT to Make Them THEIRS!

Dear Fellow Sitting Duck:

If you or anyone in your family owns an IRA, 401(k), or other tax-preferred savings instrument, you are at GROUND-ZERO of the biggest rip-off of private wealth in United States history.

Of all the current threats to your liberty, health, privacy, and financial independence, this is one you had better heed....
...and frankly, THERE ISN'T A MOMENT TO LOSE!
In the blink of an eye, your hard-earned retirement accounts may soon be whisked off and dumped into the black hole of federal government debt, leaving you to grovel before bureaucrats to give you back the money you need to live.
Hard to believe? This briefing names names and provides all the shocking inside details. It is critical must-read information about a major asset confiscation threat you won't find anywhere else.

A new regulatory and tax scheme to bail out our bankrupt federal government is forming with two basic goals: restrict and, ultimately, NATIONALIZE tax-advantaged retirement funds -- including IRAs, 401(k)s, and 403(b)s.

Sure, it's finally starting to dawn on people that the Obama Administration and its Congressional allies desperately need a plan to fund their massive new spending. Especially as state and federal tax revenues are crashing and buyer demand for federal debt is tanking.
But the solution the Washington elite have in mind is almost unthinkable: a double-crossing of American savers and investors on a truly MASSIVE scale.

He Insulted Then Ripped off
 General Motors Bond Holders:
Now Obama Gears Up to Nationalize
the Private Savings of Millions

A mere 15 months into Barack Obama's term, there is already disturbing precedent for the nationalization of retirement accounts.
"A mere 15 months into Barack Obama's term, there is already disturbing precedent for the nationalization of retirement accounts."
For example, shortly after Obama publicly chastised General Motors' bond-holders for being "greedy" because they wouldn't give up their legal rights, he suddenly nationalized their investments and showered the ill-gotten booty over his allies, the top bosses at the United Auto Worker union.

Ominously, the mission of herding private retirement savings into government-approved "investments" is now being spearheaded by the very same leftist who was working for the United Auto Workers during the Obama Administration's rip-off of General Motors bond holders.
Worse, establishing federal control over privately-held tax-advantaged savings accounts held by 60 million+ U.S. households enjoys a shockingly high level of political support. Including the White House, top left-wing think-tanks, key Capitol Hill liberals, and powerful institutions such as the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations.

This is One of the Most Important Briefings
 You've Ever Gotten

The disturbing details -- and the information you need to protect yourself -- can all be accessed through this time-sensitive CODE RED ALERT BULLETIN. Please read it as though your personal retirement security depends on it. Because it very likely does.

My name is Lee Bellinger, publisher of the nation's fastest-growing financial intelligence and self-reliance advisory, Independent Living. After I give you some of the specifics you need to side-step this terrible danger (and many others), I want to rush you my critical FREE report, The Obama Administration's Secret Plan to Hijack Your 401(k)s and IRAs.

It's all part of a bundle of MUST-HAVE, hot-off-the-presses intelligence briefings known as the Wealth Protection Library for the Obama Era of Rising Socialism. These 7 time-sensitive action briefs are specifically designed to help my subscribers anticipate and side-step the overwhelming new government threats to their liberty, health, and prosperity.

Special Reports Designed for Navigating
 This Era of Rising Socialism

Other reports I want to send you FREE from my best-selling Wealth Protection Library give you the very latest on how bureaucrats peer into your personal life and finances and what you can do right now to reduce your profile; the smartest ways to acquire gold easily, avoiding shocking new capital controls designed to restrict your investment options, how to cut your medical expenses by 60%, and MUCH, MUCH more!

Plus, with all the new traps Congress has quietly set for the unsuspecting taxpayer, you are very much going to need my newly-minted report, 10 New Tax Ambushes to Avoid At All Costs. Obama's 2,700-page healthcare takeover is filled with hidden and dangerous new tax traps -- and that's just ONE piece of legislation!

At the end of this briefing I will tell you how to get the FULL COLLECTION of ALL 11 of the must-read reports contained in my Wealth Protection Library.
As for the danger of 401(k) confiscation, there is not a moment to lose.
When this emergency bailout of bankrupt government retirement and other entitlement programs is sprung on an unsuspecting public, it will be a power-grab that will dwarf Barack Obama's recent forced nationalization of health care.

Here's How Obama Plans to
 Get His Hands on YOUR Retirement Money
Let me start at the beginning. At the height of the 2008 financial crisis, Congressional leftists on the House Education and Labor Committee held hearings on "overhauling" the nation's $15 trillion private savings retirement system (a.k.a. "retirement security reform").
"Retirement security reform" is being carried forward in Congress by ultra-liberal California Rep. George Miller. Hailing from the Berkeley, California, area, House Education Committee chairman Rep. Miller is a top Capitol Hill potentate and unflinching critic of private-sector retirement programs -- not to mention a tireless advocate of big-government schemes.
Miller's hearings vetted and developed legal language and regulatory directives designed to eliminate some $80 billion in annual tax-advantages for 401(k)/IRA holders (in exchange for "free" payouts of $600 per year to millions of non-taxpaying Americans). Their "free money" would come in the form of a government-controlled "Guaranteed Retirement Account" (GRA) annuity fund.
Teresa Ghilarducci, the Obama Administration's unofficial 401(k) nationalization czar and a star witness at the Miller hearings, admitted on the October 27, 2008, Kirby Wilbur radio show:

"I'm just rearranging the tax breaks that are available now for 401(k)s and spreading – spreading the wealth..."

The Plan to Convert Private Retirement Funds
 is Backed By the Woman
 Who Helped Obama
 Nationalize General Motors for the UAW

Of course, many refuse to accept that the federal government would ever seize or try to control private investment decisions. Such skeptics need only take a closer look at the high-powered political coalition determined to bail out dangerously-under-funded government-run entitlement programs.
Let's start with the Miller committee's top advocate for sweeping 401(k)/IRA rule changes, academic Teresa Ghilarducci -- a rising star of the left.
Ghilarducci is hardly an isolated left-wing crank with a bad idea.
She was appointed to the now-insolvent Pension Benefit Guaranty Board during the Clinton era. Ghilarducci was also a "public trustee" to United Auto Worker retirees of General Motors at the very time that "Team Obama" nationalized the auto giant, ripped off its private investors, and doled the spoils to her thuggish clients, UAW union bosses.

Ghilarducci is director of the highly influential, Rockefeller Foundation-funded Schwartz  Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA). SCEPA and its 401(k) nationalization drive is also a significant funding project of the all-powerful and secretive Ford Foundation -- the specific goal is to establish federally-managed Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) to replace private savings systems.

Ghilarducci's group SCEPA and its plan to eliminate 401(k)s in favor of government-controlled retirement funding (GRAs) enjoys top-level political support. SCEPA's website brags "The White House Middle Class Task Force (chaired by Vice President Joe Biden) and the Government Accountability Office recognize the GRA plan as a viable option to provide retirement security."
Oh, Yes, the Feds Do Indeed
 Want Your Retirement Money
Following the Miller hearings on 401(k) "reform," a follow-up 2009 Ghilarducci research paper was music to the ears of cash-strapped Congressional big spenders:

"Guaranteed Retirement Accounts are like universal 401(k) plans except that the government, as befits a large and enduring institution, will invest and manage the pooled savings."

You see, right now individuals get to control the monies within their own 401(k)s and IRAs. What Ghilarducci and other leftists want to change is for 401(k)s and IRAs to become part of a larger Congressionally-managed capital pool.
"Millions of American investors are poised to become 'shotgun investors' in risky government bonds, whether they want to or not."
Under the "phase-in" stage of Ghilarducci's Plan, 50% of your GRA automatically goes to the government upon your passing, not your heirs.
And that's just for starters. All future tax deferments to 401(k)s and IRAs would be scrapped in exchange for a "guaranteed" 3% annual return based on government-directed "investments" (which Ghilarducci herself admits will include -– yep, you guessed it -- HUGE swaths of U.S. government bonds whose value continue to be inflated away).

As Ghilarducci admitted in a Money magazine interview:
"The only answer, and this is after 25 years of looking at it, is to make people save; a mandatory, universal savings plan on top of Social Security... for those in top brackets, income tax will go up -- but so will their retirement security, because even if you are tempted to stop saving, the government is saying, 'you can't.'"

Forcing people to save is controversial enough. Ripping them off is quite another thing. And that's exactly what's going on when hapless investors are forced to pay for government debts in return for paper coupons that will just be inflated away.
The bottom line is millions of American investors are poised to become "shotgun investors" in risky government bonds, whether they want to or not.
New Federal Regulations "Encourage" You to "Convert" Your Retirement Money into a Government-Managed Mega-Fund
Early stages of the Ghilarducci 401(k) confiscation plan are already unfolding.
The U.S. Treasury and Labor Departments just opened up a regulatory process (CFR, Part 1, RIN 1545-BJ04) to alter investment incentives for fund managers to begin pumping money into government-approved "investments."
As the March 9 edition of Businessweek notes, new federal regulations designed to "promote the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams" includes government-run entities such as the American International Group (AIG), which was bailed out to the tune of $182.3 billion.
Of course, as Businessweek observed, the government-run AIG will almost certainly direct any private retirement monies it receives into "safe" government-approved investments. Put another way, once AIG and other government entities have control of private investment monies, they will "flip" those assets into U.S. Treasury bonds, which are becoming harder and harder to sell to skeptical buyers.
It's all part of a sinister "cattle drive" to herd trillions of dollars in private retirement funds into government-approved "investments" that just so happen to fund cash-strapped federal programs.

Ghilarducci and other 401K-grabbers stress that tax-advantaged private savings programs will still be "legal" under her plan. Clearly, though, Ghilarducci and her Capitol Hill allies don't want voters to realize that once 401(k)/IRA tax advantages are removed, employers will no longer have a financial incentive to offer them at all.
Coming Soon: A Forced March of Private Investments into Social Security
The forced march of private investment dollars into public debt instruments is being pushed forward on other fronts. Buried deep in the recently-enacted Obamacare, for example, is a 3.9% tax on investment transactions -- which applies to private-sector companies only. The upshot? Government Treasuries which are not subject to the investment tax suddenly become far more "attractive."
By altering 401(k) and IRA rules to make them far more "unattractive" investments, the government is setting things up to make "converting" over to a government-run Guarantee Retirement Account your best "choice."
As Karl Denninger of the Market Ticker Website warns: "Choices have a funny way of turning into mandates, and this looks like a raw admission that Treasury knows it will not be able to sell its debt in the open market -- so they will effectively tax you by forcing your 'retirement' money to buy them."
White House Twists Terminology to
 Hide This Coming Massive Theft
So as Businessweek noted, it's far more than a coincidence that the Obama Administration is suddenly urging more Americans to "invest" in annuities. Unfortunately, when Obama refers to "annuities," he isn't talking about a normal private-sector financial instrument -- he is referring to the politically-manipulated Social Security Ponzi system.
Let me explain. Just as Bill Clinton twisted the word "investment" to mean increased public spending, Team Obama are transforming the terms "annuity" and "retirement security" to mean your personal savings are to be "managed" by bureaucrats who ration your money back to you in the form of meager, strings-attached monthly increments which are steadily frittered away through inflation.

Obama's Insolvency Crisis Makes
 401(k)s and IRAs a Tempting Target

Every crime has a motive and taking control of private citizens' savings is no exception. So far as the bureaucrats who are trying to hold together the government's fragmenting finances are concerned, gaining control of the nation's $15 trillion in private retirement accounts is an absolute necessity, not a "policy option."
Here's the rub: Gigantic financial pressures are driving federal officials to desperation. Yes, desperate enough to seize every private retirement dollar in America and then some. Consider just this one slice of the government's little-understood funding pickle:
On the state-level alone, Uncle Sam is looking at a multi-trillion-dollar bailout of public employee pensions.
More specifically, federal bureaucrats know that a major bailout of total state-level pension obligations is coming. That's because there are an astronomical $5.7 trillion pension obligations against only $1.94 trillion in actual holdings.
Northwestern University economist Joshua Rauh recently calculated 50 states' pension obligations by removing the rigged statistics governments use to make their pensions appear solvent. Rauh learned that in addition to horrific operating deficits, state government pension obligations are (on a national level) a whopping three times greater than their rapidly-collapsing reserves.
Desperation moves by states foreshadow what is to come. Cash-strapped Colorado just tried, unsuccessfully, to grab $500 million from a newly-privatized pension fund. Connecticut has tried to issue creative new accounting rules to camouflage its insolvency.
And the State Supreme Court of New Hampshire recently ordered state officials to return $110 million they "borrowed" from a medical malpractice insurance pool. It goes on and on.
As the old saying goes, the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. Now that horrific moment has arrived. Bottom line: Uncle Sam needs your retirement savings IRA or 401(k) in a big way.
The Next Crisis Will Usher in the Ghilarducci
 401(k) Takeover Plan
So here's what you need to know: When the next financial "episode" strikes (probably a federal cash-flow crisis), the Obama-backed Ghilarducci Plan will be ready to implement, at a moment's notice.
I am writing you today so you are not among the millions of Americans who've worked hard to save for retirement -- only to be reduced to standing in line, hat-in-hand, waiting for government bureaucrats controlling "your" GRA to dollop out your monthly portion.
Don't Worry, You Can Come Out Ahead
 If You Are Prepared for It!
Now let me get to some GOOD NEWS. If you take me up on the exclusive offer to try a trial subscription to my publication Independent Living at a STEEPLY-DISCOUNTED TRIAL RATE, you will NOT BE CAUGHT OFF-GUARD by the coming nationalization of 401(k)s and IRAs. In fact, you can be among the lucky few who come out ahead!
That's because I will rush you my red-hot report, The Obama Administration's Secret Plan to Hijack Your 401(k)s and IRAs. In ADDITION, you get all SEVEN MUST-READ Subscriber Briefings that make up my Wealth Protection Library for the Obama Era of Rising Socialism. Each of these hot-off-the-presses Special Reports were developed specifically for the crisis window we are in right now.
So in addition to sending you FREE Report #1, The Obama Administration's Secret Plan to Hijack Your 401(k)s and IRAs, you get all the rest of the great reports in my Wealth Protection Library. Let me now explain each report I want to send you in turn. And why it is vitally important I rush them to you immediately – not just for your sake, but for your family and friends as well.

Critical Must-Read Report #2:
Capital Controls "Team Obama" Can Impose without Warning
to Corral Citizens in Dollar Denominated Assets
A major reason you need ALL the FREE reports listed in this letter AND a subscription to Independent Living is because Uncle Sam is moving so fast and so covertly to restrict how you can invest your capital.
"This new power to 'freeze and seize' your money market cash happened completely under the radar screen!"
For example, less than six months ago, the Obama Treasury Department issued new regulations giving the Treasury Department broad authority to "freeze" money market funds without warning or notice.
This new power to "freeze and seize" your money market cash happened completely under the radar screen – without any attention whatsoever from the so-called mainstream financial media.
Just this past March, Congressional activists slipped a dangerous new capital control into the so-called Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act. It establishes that going forward, the feds now have the power to "divert" 30% of any transmission of money abroad greater than $50,000.
This sneaky new wealth trap is a telling escalation of federal power to "discourage" capital from fleeing the country. And it is also a warning of confiscatory taxation and political shenanigans with private investment to come.
This astounding, brand-new report gives you the shocking lowdown on the freedom-stealing, investment-destroying provisions of "emergency" legislation, including:

Sweeping new IRS powers that encourage them to go after small businesses and individuals, especially those who dare to flee the dollar.
New hidden energy taxes gas stations and utility companies will soon be passing on to you.
A jump of $17,064 in new Federal debt per U.S. family.

New Investment Regs Will Sucker-Punch
Millions of Unsuspecting Households

My report Capital Controls "Team Obama" Can Impose Without Warning to Corral Citizens in Dollar Denominated Assets also gives you the latest inside skinny on frightening new capital controls that could:

Prevent you from evacuating your precious retirement assets from the dollar and harboring them in more fundamentally sound overseas investments and currencies.
Discourage, and all but ban, investment and trading in precious metals.
Force gold exchange-traded fund investors to accept "cash" for their share in precious metals.
Partially (or totally) restrict 401(k)s and IRAs to inflation-lagging bonds and certain other dollar-denominated assets decreed to be "safe."
URGENT: A key revelation in this report is how to secure your cash in fundamentally strong currencies by using five strategies that may soon be illegal.
This could become very important as access to your own money in the bank may be restricted as well -- in the form of a federally imposed "banking holiday" I just mentioned. Customer withdrawals could at times be suspended to prevent further bank runs or simply restricted by limits and regulatory hamstrings.

The Political Blame-Game is Afoot:
Millions of Retirees Will Take the Fall
You need to be ready for all the surprise financial controls soon to come down the pike (most of which will be buried deep in thousands of pages of legislation that no one but a few Congressional aides have ever read).
You can't get this information anywhere else, because most of the dangerous capital controls Congress has in the pipeline haven't been enacted yet. You can only find this information in my report. It spells out what is likely to come and how you can protect yourself. Details on how to get your hands on this information can be found at the end of this letter.
Critical Must-Read Report #3:
22 Cutting-Edge Strategies for Reclaiming
Your Privacy
from Snoops, Corporations,
and Newly-Unleashed Government Busybodies
Learn how to hide in plain sight. Using the fully-updated, hands-on information in this cutting-edge report, you can reduce your personal and financial "profile" to a point that is lower than 99% of the general public.
Its simple check-list format gives you lots of small, easy-to-implement steps you can take now to significantly reduce your visibility to snoops, bureaucrats, IRS audit fishing expeditions, identity thieves, aggressive marketers, and greedy lawyers and their would-be clients.
Among its most alluring features: It fully exposes the sordid alliance between government bureaucrats and their trained crony capitalists to zero in on your assets, lifestyle, and political convictions. This great hands-on, how-to report is your very best protection!
My 22 Cutting-Edge Strategies for Reclaiming Your Privacy is a critical installment in Independent Living's Wealth Protection Library. You need to get and read this one right away -- because there are critical new developments on this EVERY COUPLE OF MONTHS!

Critical Must-Read Report #4:
New Tax Ambushes to Avoid At All Costs
The newly-enacted 2,700-page Obamacare legislation contains at least 17 additional hidden tax hikes, in addition to new job-crushing mandates for already-beleaguered small employers. Worse, a read of the "fine-print" in Obamacare shows that despite official denials, the IRS is planning to hire at least 17,000 health care enforcement auditors.
This must-read report covers ten of the worst new hidden taxes being thrust upon the American people without warning or notice. From new levies directed at medical device innovators to massive new IRS-imposed penalties aimed at small employers, there are so many moving parts and trap doors hidden in new legislation that this must-have report is an essential addition to your reading list.
Another monstrosity is a 3.9% "investment tax" that is not indexed to inflation -- which means this cut into your personal income will continue to grow and grow and grow.
My report selects the 10 worst tax traps the Obama Administration has secretly pumped into large pieces of legislation enacted by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
And it's yours FREE as a new subscriber to Independent Living.

Critical Must-Read Report #5:
Insiders Talk Out of School: Eight BIG Hidden Financial Incentives
Your Broker Has to Steer You to Mediocre Investments
This report is a must. It spells out the MANY perverse incentives Wall Street interests have put into place to sink YOUR money into crummy financial stocks and other underperforming companies which are dangerously dependent on easy credit, cheap energy, and debt-driven consumerism.
Learn how most brokers are financially and politically compromised. You will be red-faced with anger when you see how the system is rigged, for example, to pawn off lousy U.S. banking and finance stocks onto corporate 401(k) plans, pension plans, and private clients.
If in the past you talked with your broker about getting out of U.S. dollar-denominated financial equities or "mainstream investments," it is very likely you were told to "stay put." Maybe you are even being told that now. This report tells you why. Millions of Americans are waking up to the harsh reality that their brokers have steered them straight over a financial cliff.
How to Avoid Politically-Compromised Investment Advice
As this report shows, financial "reporting" networks such as CNBC are funded by the very politically-corrupted banking interests that are seeking to unload underperforming assets on unsuspecting investors.

I warn you, this report is both jarring and a rude introduction to the real world of how investment has come to work in this country. You will never see Wall Street the same after you have read it.

Critical Must-Read Report #6:
How Smart Americans Are Getting Steeply-Discounted
First-Rate Medical Care Overseas
and How You Can Cash in on the Flight of Medicine Abroad
At the height of Obamacare's forced enactment into law, a Canadian cabinet minister fled the jurisdiction of his country's socialized medical system. He quietly flew into the United States to get critical surgery at a private facility. You need and deserve this same option now that Obamacare has become a reality in the United  States!
Under Obamacare, the masses face a grim future of overpriced, piddily, cookie-cutter medical care. Yet long before Obama formally politicized medical decision-making, I had already been clueing my Independent Living readers in on how to take full advantage of a little-understood, disturbing trend: The flight of medical research, investment and top-notch services from American shores to more business-friendly countries from Israel to India.
Even before Obamacare, overreaching, dangerously-ignorant political meddling had made a complete hash of U.S. medical innovation. The government's own self-serving numbers even acknowledge it now costs more than $800 million to introduce a new drug in U.S. markets – due to frivolous class-action lawsuits, high tax rates, power-mad FDA bureaucrats, and ignorant, hostile politicians.
Greater Medical Self-Reliance is a MUST: Here's How to Get Started
This investigative Special Report shows you how smart Americans are going abroad to save 90% on heart surgery, 70% on knee operations, 80% on major dental work, and even getting liver transplants for a fraction of the cost (and, let me stress, these procedures are being done in first-rate, fully-certified cutting-edge medical facilities with top-notch, mostly U.S. doctors).
You Need This Medical "PLAN B,"   Just In Case
 Obamacare is a Disaster

Typical "high dollar' medical cost
 comparison between the US and India

    U.S.A.
    India

Bone Marrow Transplant:
$400,000
$30,000
Liver Transplant:
$500,000
$40,000
Open Heart Surgery:
$ 50,000
$ 4,400
Neurosurgery:
$ 29,000
$ 8,000
Knee Surgery:
$ 16,000
$ 4,500

By getting this report, you are putting into your hip pocket some very important information on how to get Senate-level medical care abroad. You or someone in your family can benefit hugely from this report, which shows you how smart expatriates are saving big money on necessary medical procedures.
Get this report now. Even if you or your loved ones never need access to cutting-edge medicine for a fraction of the cost, this report shows you how smart Americans are investing in the growing trend toward expatriate medicine. This is information you won't find anywhere else.

Critical Must-Read Report #7:
Gold Confiscation Alert: 6 Ways to Own
Precious Metals Securely
If a worst-case dollar collapse scenario unfolds, this report could ultimately be the most important item in my entire Wealth Protection Library for the Obama Era of Rising Socialism. In 1933, the Roosevelt Administration ripped off millions of people who had the foresight to buy gold. Today, our government is far more ruthless, far more powerful, and far more financially desperate.
Learn what CNBC will never tell you: Little-known laws and executive orders already in force giving the president the power to confiscate gold simply by declaring an emergency.
My report gleans critical insights from Capitol Hill and Treasury Department insiders who know the most probable methods by which the government will try to save the U.S. dollar by ripping off holders of precious metals. Crucial reading – especially if you own gold in the form of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or other gold-backed paper instruments.
Under certain conditions explained in this report, federal bureaucrats have the power to confiscate gold or precious metals held by ETFs, and simply issue "cash" payments to the owners. It is VERY important you know what signs to look for in advance of this form of asset confiscation.
You need this important information right away because once confiscations begin, there will be no stopping them or getting out of the way at the last minute. You must think these risks through in advance! There is LOTS of new information contained in this hot-off-the-presses report. I want to get it to you right away.
Don't Be Blindsided By Dangerous Plots
 to Seize Your Wealth

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We warned readers that even after the initial plunge of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS) in summer '07, they were still grossly overvalued. REIT values fell by HALF in the ensuing 24 months.
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While a panicky Wall Street (along with a slew of investment newsletters) told people to sell stocks at the very bottom of the crash, Independent Living readers were urged in early 2009 to snap up mining stocks, gold, silver, energy, and other prime assets that had been thrown out with the bathwater. Most of the sectors we picked went up more than 100% in the following 12 months!
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EMAILS - #6 "Semper Fi"

[I'm collecting the viral emails I receive]



To: Friend 3
Date: April 29, 2010
From: 
Subject: Re: Fw: Semper Fi

Hi Friend 3 !

A prayer chain for the military is a good thing!

Howsomever, Snopes, etc., say this email isn't factual -- that it started around 2003 -- that the names quoted are unknown to the military and the ACLU, and that the ACLU position is exaggerated.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_aclu_marines_praying.htm
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/marines.asp

Just for curiosity, I looked around and found this 2008 letter from the Maryland ACLU to the Naval Academy about compulsory prayer at lunch -- & here's a piece of it:

http://www.aclu.org/files/pdfs/religion/2008may05_lettertonavy.pd

"....Let me make clear at the outset that this request is not motivated by any hostility to voluntary religious exercises by Academy midshipmen, nor do we fail to recognize the important place religious faith holds among many in the military. Indeed, the ACLU has long defended the fundamental right of religious communities, families, and individuals -- including those in the armed services -- to practice their faith freely and openly. Rather, our objection is to compulsory religious services mandated by the government. As the Fourth Circuit put it in the Mellen case, this is 'precisely what the First Amendment forbids.'  Id. at 375.

" 'Put simply, [the Naval Academy's noon meal prayer] exacts an unconstitutional toll on the consciences of religious objectors. While the First Amendment does not in any way prohibit [midshipmen] from praying before, during, or after [lunch], the Establishment Clause prohibits [the U.S. Naval Academy] from sponsoring such a religious activity....'

"The midshipmen who have contacted the ACLU object to, and feel coerced against conscience by, the Academy's continued requirement that they stand in attendance during an official noon prayer. Plebes, in particular, find themselves in a difficult position during the noon prayer, if, as a matter of conscience, they do not wish to join in prayer. As you know, it is important for plebes to adhere as strictly as possible to official practices at the Academy, and not to 'stand out' as nonconformists. Yet, if a plebe fails to move from parade rest, to attention, to a position with head bowed head and hands folded, it is evident to all that he or she is not joining in the prayer. The situation is undeniably a coercive one for younger midshipmen, who are implicitly pressured into prayer by the senior midshipmen around them, as well as by the presence of a commissioned officer at the anchor. But even First Classmen have told us that it can be awkward and uncomfortable for them to remain at parade rest during the noon prayer....."


Lots to think about!!!! ....I wonder what the outcome was -- homework for tomorrow!

Thank you very much for the call to prayer! God bless the whole world!!!!!!!

Thanks for keeping me thinking!





************************************

----- Original Message -----
From:
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Subject: Fwd: Semper Fi


From:
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2010
Subject: Fwd: Semper Fi
To:
CC:


From:
To:
Subject: Semper Fi
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010

Semper Fi

ACLU vs. US Marines
THIS NEEDS TO GO AROUND THE USA MANY TIMES SO KEEP IT GOING

What's wrong with this picture? 
[See http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_aclu_marines_praying.htm Looks a little photoshopped....?]

If you look closely at the picture above, you will note that all the Marines pictured are bowing their heads. That's because they're praying.

This incident took place at a recent ceremony honoring the birthday of the corps, and it has the ACLU up in arms. "These are federal employees," says Lucius Traveler, a spokesman for the ACLU , "on federal property and on federal time..
For them to pray is clearly an establishment of religion, and we must nip this in the bud immediately."

When asked about the ACLU's charges, Colonel Jack Fessender, speaking for the Commandant of the Corps said (cleaned up a bit), "Screw the ACLU." GOD Bless Our Warriors. Send the ACLU to France !

Please send this to people you know so everyone will know how stupid the ACLU is getting in trying to remove GOD from everything and every place in America. May God Bless America , One Nation Under GOD!

What's wrong with the picture? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

GOD BLESS YOU FOR
PASSING IT ON!I am sorry, but I am not breaking this one....Let us pray

Prayer chain for our Military...please don't break it
THIS NEEDS TO GO AROUND THE USA MANY TIMES SO KEEP IT GOING

marriage

A denominational task force asked for 1000-word inputs about civil unions and Christian marriage. I sent this:


I strongly support marriage for faithful, monogamous people who are gay.

It’s part of the story of Jesus, who was continually in trouble for moving beyond the letter of the ritual purity laws:

~ "Go and learn what this means: 'I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.' "[Hosea 6:6] -- defending the disciples' plucking grain on the Sabbath [Mtt.12:7].
~ "The Sabbath was made for humans, not humans for the Sabbath" -- similar situation [Mk.2:27].
~ "He looked around at them in anger... deeply grieved at their hardness of heart" -- preparing to heal the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath. [Mk.3:5].

He continually pushed beyond religious taboos:

~  His hometown synagogue tried to throw him over a cliff for pointing out that God sent a prophet to help unclean Gentiles although many Israelites needed help. [Lk.4:26-27]
~  He declared all things clean. [Mk.7:19]

He alerted us to be open to new understandings:

~ "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth." [John 16:12-13]


Paul passionately defended us Gentiles from being forced to observe the purity laws:

~ "You senseless Galatians! You were running a good race! Who cut in on you? What matters is faith, working itself out by love!" [Gal.5:7,6]
~ "The commandments...are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself’.... Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." [Rom.13:9-10]

I believe the church is living an Acts 10-11 moment -- like Peter, shocked to see “unacceptable” people exhibiting the gifts of the Spirit:

~  “...the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning....So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" [11:15-17]

I believe the exegetical case against the marriage of faithful, monogamous Christians who are gay is extremely weak.

1. Sodom is profoundly inapplicable. Applying the principle of scripture interpreting scripture, the 60-some accusations against Sodom include "grinding the face of the poor," "arrogance," etc. The lone mention of sexual sin is that of going after different flesh -- the flesh of angels -- "sarx hetero" [Jude v.7], with zero hint of "same" flesh, "sarx homo." When Jesus mentions Sodom, the subject is towns that do not welcome the disciples. Sodom is a story of male gang rape, not by the wildest stretch of imagination a story of our members who are gentle, constructive members of their communities -- and gay.

2. “Man-bedders.” “Arsenokoitai” is not known in Greek prior to Paul [I Cor.6:9, I Tim.1:10]. Some think it coined from the Greek translation of Leviticus 18:22 (next). It is quite a stretch to call a gay woman a "man-bedder." More, it is deeply incongruous to place the inspirational people I know, who are gay, in the list of "idolaters, thieves, greedy, slanderers...." More realistic possibilities are “prostitutes” or “pederasts.” Applying the "rule of faith": Chrysostom, who vehemently opposed homosexual acts, does not mention them when treating these passages.

3. "With a male you shall not lie the lyings of a woman" [Lev.18:22 & 20:13] This pair of verses belongs with either the surrounding purity laws or the surrounding moral laws. Anthropologist Mary Douglas details how, in ancient Israel, purity distinctions between "clean and unclean," acceptable and "abominable," make sense from the perspective that everything must be totally one thing or the other. No fuzzy boundaries -- like no garment with two kinds of thread. Further, for a male to "lie the lyings of a woman" would be thought degrading. (I remember boys' rituals at elementary school to prevent getting "girl germs"!)

4. Paul’s language in Romans 1:26-7 supports a purity meaning, because he does not use his many terms for moral sin, but terms for uncleanness -- "dishonor" and "shamelessness." Here occurs the only mention of females in all these arguments -- they act “against nature,” meaning "contrary to custom" in Paul's day; and historically, non-procreative sexuality. Later in Romans, God too is said to act “against nature,” in grafting us Gentiles onto the root of Israel. Ironically, 1.26-7 is part of Paul's rhetorical device to convince Jewish and Gentile Christians to respect one another’s consciences on questions of ritual purity like food -- or, I believe, the gender of one's spouse. Further, this passage has the feel of lust and orgy, not the chaste, monogamous, productive lives of the same-sex couples I know.

Please study Calvin on clerical celibacy, as he argues passionately
[Institutes II.viii.42-3 etc.]:
~ “It is not good for the human to be alone.” [Gen.2:18]
~ “It is better to marry than to burn with desire.” [I Cor.7:9]

Genesis 1 speaks of male and female procreation: “Be fruitful and multiply.” (We have succeeded!) Genesis 2 shows companionship is the basis of marriage. A plain reading shows God first turned to the animals to find a helper for Adam, “but no suitable helper could be found.” When God presents Eve, Adam does not exclaim At last! someone different from me! -- but exclaims over her humanity: “This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh!”

An inspiring gay couple graced my ordination service. A dear and gifted 20-something cousin just let the family know she is gay.

May PC(USA) refuse cover to extremists who could say to her, as a churchman did to that couple: "We should take you out in the field and shoot you!" When we see people full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, may the word be: "...if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?"


....Elizabeth


Minister Member-at-large
Served as chaplain in hospice and long-term care before family caregiving intervened.

~~~~~~~
To: civilunion.marriage@pcusa.org
Date: August 16, 2009
Subject: Support faithful, monogamous marriage for people who are gay