Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a “punch” that will stun world powers during this week’s 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

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Jerusalem

“As birds flying, so will the LORD•Strongs 3068: Yhwh; from 1961; (the) self-Existent or Eternal; name of God:—the Lord. Compare 3050, 3069.
•Strongs 1961: hayah, haw-yaw; a primitive root (compare 1933); to exist, i.e. be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary):—beacon, x altogether, be(-come), accomplished, committed, like), break, cause, come (to pass), do, faint, fall, + follow, happen, x have, last, pertain, quit (one-)self, require, x use. of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.”
—Isaiah 31:5

“For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.”
—Zechariah 2:8

“The Iranian nation, with its unity and God’s grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned,” Khamenei, who is also Iran’s commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.

The country’s top cleric was marking the occasion when Iran’s air force gave its support to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a key event which led to the toppling of the US-backed shah on February 11, 1979.

His comments came as Iran said it would begin to produce higher enriched uranium from Tuesday, in defiance of Western powers trying to ensure the country’s nuclear drive is peaceful.

This year’s anniversary is expected to become a flashpoint between security forces and supporters of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who charge that the June re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged.

Opposition supporters are expected to stage anti-government protests on Thursday when the traditional regime-sponsored marches to mark the revolution take place across the country.

Mousavi renewed his call for demonstrations on the February 11 anniversary.

Just over a week ago, he and Karroubi had implicitly called for a gathering of their supporters.

“The 22nd of Bahman is upon us, truly it should be called the day of gathering,” Mousavi said on his Kaleme.org website Monday.

“I feel we have to participate while maintaining the collective spirit as well as our identity and leave an impression,” Mousavi said.

“Anger and bitterness should not take our control away.

“The clerics should know that since imprisonment, beatings, and other confrontational methods are done in the name of Islam and the Islamic regime, it is hurting Islam and we all should try to stop,” he added.

Anti-government protests were first triggered after the June 12 presidential election won by Ahmadinejad.

Over the past eight months, several thousand people were arrested. Some were released and others were given hefty prison terms, among them politicians, journalists and human rights activists.

Two protesters were tried, convicted and hanged in the aftermath of the election.

Khamenei told the air force personnel the “most important aim of the sedition after the election was to create a rift within the Iranian nation, but it was unable to do so and our nation’s unity remained a thorn in its eyes.”

We are incentivizing financial unsustainability.

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Perplexity

“…upon the earth distress•Strongs 4928: sunoche, soon-okh-ay´; from 4912; restraint, i.e. (figuratively) anxiety: — anguish, distress. of nations, with perplexity•Strongs 640: aporia, ap-or-ee´-a; from the same as 639; a (state of) quandary:—perplexity.
•Strongs 639: aporeo, ap-or-eh´-o; from a compound of 1 (as a negative particle) and the base of 4198; to have no way out, i.e. be at a loss (mentally):— (stand in) doubt, be perplexed….”
—Luke 21:25

At the National Prayer Breakfast, Barack Obama singled out for praise Navy Corpsman Christian Bouchard. Or as the president called him, “Corpseman Bouchard.” Twice.

Hey, not a big deal. Throughout his life, the commander-in-chief has had little contact with the military, and less interest. And, when you give as many speeches as this guy does, there’s no time to rehearse or read through: You just gotta fire up the prompter and wing it. But it’s revealing that nobody around him in the so-called smartest administration of all time thought to spell it out phonetically for him when the speech got typed up and loaded into the machine. Which suggests that either his minders don’t know that he doesn’t know that kinda stuff, or they don’t know it either. To put it in Rumsfeldian terms, they don’t know what they don’t know.
Which is embarrassingly true. Hence, the awful flop speeches, from the Copenhagen Olympics to the Berlin Wall anniversary video to the Martha Coakley rally. The palpable whiff given off by the White House inner circle is that they’re the last people on the planet still besotted by Barack Obama, and that they’re having such a cool time starring in their own reality-show remake of The West Wing they can only conceive of the public — and, indeed, the world — as crowd-scene extras in The Barack Obama Show: They expect you to cheer and wave flags when the floor-manager tells you to, but the notion that in return he should be able to persuade you of the merits of his policies seems entirely to have eluded them.

But, since Obama’s mispronunciation is a pithier summation of the State of the Union than any of the dreary 90-minute sludge he paid his speechwriters for, let us consider it: Is America a Corpseman walking?

Well, we’re getting there. National Review’s Jim Geraghty sums up Obama’s America thus: “Unsustainable is the new normal.” Indeed. The other day, Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, described current deficits as “unsustainable.” So let’s make them even more so. The president tells us, with a straight face, that his grossly irresponsible profligate wastrel of a predecessor took the federal budget on an eight-year joyride, so the only way his sober, fiscally prudent successor can get things under control is to grab the throttle and crank it up to what Mel Brooks in Spaceballs (which seems the appropriate comparison) called “Ludicrous Speed.”

Obama’s spending proposes to take the average Bush deficit for the years 2001–2008, and double it, all the way to 2020. To get out of the Bush hole, we need to dig a hole twice as deep for one-and-a-half times as long. And that’s according to the official projections of his Economics Czar, Ms. Rose Colored-Glasses. By 2015, the actual hole may be so deep that even if you toss every Obama speech down it on double-spaced paper you still won’t be able to fill it up. In the spendthrift Bush days, federal spending as a proportion of GDP average 19.6 percent. Obama proposes to crank it up to 25 percent as a permanent feature of life.

But, if they’re “unsustainable,” what happens when they can no longer be sustained? A failure of bond auctions? A downgraded government debt rating? Reduced GDP growth? Total societal collapse? Mad Max on the New Jersey Turnpike?

Testifying to the House Budget Committee, Director Elmendorf attempted to pull back from the wilder shores of “unsustainable”: “I think most observers expect that the government will act, that the unsustainability will be resolved through action, not through witnessing some collapse down the road,” he said. “If literally nothing is done, then eventually something very, very bad happens. But I think the widespread view is that you and your colleagues will take action.”

Dream on, you kinky fantasist. The one thing that can be guaranteed is that a political class led by Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, a handful of reach-across-the-aisle Republican accommodationists, and an economically illiterate narcissist in the Oval Office is never going to rein in unsustainable spending in any meaningful sense. That leaves Director Elmendorf’s alternative scenario. What was it again? Oh, yeah: “Some collapse down the road.”

Speaking of roads, I see that, according to USA Today, when the economic downturn began, the U.S. Department of Transportationhad just one employee making over $170,000. A year and a half later, it has 1,690.

Happy days are here again!

Did you get your pay raise this year? What’s that, you don’t work for the government? Yes, you do, one way or another. Good luck relying on Obama, Pelosi, Frank, and the other Emirs of Kleptocristan “taking action” to “resolve” that. In the last month, the cost of insuring Greece’s sovereign debt against default has doubled. Spain and Portugal are headed the same way. When you binge-spend at the Greek level in a democratic state, there aren’t many easy roads back. The government has introduced an austerity package to rein in spending. In response, Greek tax collectors have walked off the job.

Read that again slowly: To protest government cuts, striking tax collectors are refusing to collect taxes. In a sane world, this would be a hilarious TV comedy sketch. But most of the Western world is no longer sane. It’s tough enough to persuade the town drunk to sober up, but when everyone’s face down in the moonshine, maybe it’s best just to head for the hills. But where to flee? America is choosing to embrace Greece’s future when even the Greeks have figured out you can’t make it add up. Consider the opening paragraph of Martin Crutsinger, “AP Economics Writer”: “WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama sent Congress a $3.83 trillion budget on Monday that would pour more money into the fight against high unemployment, boost taxes on the wealthy and freeze spending for a wide swath of government programs.”

What language is that written in? How can a $3.83 trillion budget “freeze spending”? And where’s the president getting all this money to “pour” into his “fight” against high unemployment? Would it perchance be from the same small businesses that might be hiring new workers if the president didn’t need so much money to “pour” away? Heigh-ho. Maybe we can all be striking tax collectors. It seems a comfortable life . . .

If unsustainable is the new normal, it should also be the new national anthem. Take it away, Natalie Cole:
“Unsustainable
That’s what you are
Unsustainable
Though near or far
Like a ton of debt you’ve dropped on us
How the thought of you has flopped on us
Never before
Has someone spent more . . . ”

It’s not the “debt” or the “deficit,” it’s the spending. And the only way to reduce that is with fewer government agencies, fewer government programs, fewer government employees, lower government salaries.

Instead, all four are rocketing up: We are incentivizing unsustainability, and, when it comes to “some collapse down the road,” you’ll be surprised how short that road is.

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Sunday vowed to stand by Lebanon’s side against any Israeli “aggression,” in an escalating war of words between Damascus and Jerusalem.

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Syria and Damascus

“The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous•Strongs 4654: mappalah, map-paw-law´; or mappelah, map-pay-law´; from 5307; something fallen, i.e. a ruin:—ruin( ous). heap.”
—Isaiah 17:1

Assad made the remark to the speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Beri, in Damascus, according to the official Syrian news agency, Sana.

Assad’s statement followed that of Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem, who last Wednesday warned that all-out war would result if Israel “starts a war in Southern Lebanon or Syria.”

Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to calm the war of words, telling his cabinet that Israel aspired to peace with all its neighbors, and that he was open to fresh talks with Syria.

At the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu told the ministers that Israel had made peace “with Egypt and Jordan and we aspire to do so with Syria and the Palestinians. We can achieve this with two conditions: The first is that we hold negotiations without preconditions. We will not accept the notion that Israel makes major concessions in advance. We will not enter negotiations for which everything is decided in advance.”

Until last Wednesday, Syria had been careful not to specifically connect the conflict in Lebanon to fighting Israel.

And while Assad stopped short of saying that Syria would attack Israel in case of war with Hezbollah, his statement, released in Syria’s official media outlet, creates expectations in the Arab world, particularly in Lebanon and Syria, that Syria would actively join the fight rather than just send arms to Hezbollah.

However, Prof. Eyal Zisser, head of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, said there was nothing new in Assad’s recent statements.

“Experience of the past 40 years shows that Syria is willing to have the Palestinians and the Lebanese to fight Israel to their last drop of blood, as long as the Syrians don’t have to be involved,” he said.

Same old rhetoric

Zisser said Syria has always intended to help to some degree, but not to fight. “When you compare the rhetoric of past statements, there is practically no difference,” he said.

Meanwhile, Syrian Minister of Information Mohsen Bilal said Sunday that Syria is ready to respond to Israeli “aggression.” Speaking at a seminar near the border with the Golan Heights, Bilal said his country “would stand in the face of Israeli ambitions,” and that the Golan Heights “will not remain under occupation.”

According to Bilal, Syria is “working tirelessly toward true and lasting just peace, in which the occupation ends and the land is returned,” dismissing Israel’s 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights as “worthless.”

Meanwhile, the leader of Lebanon’s Maronite Christians, Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, said recently that the possibility of war exists as long as Hezbollah continues to try to take on the role of the state. “The party that has the weapons tries to force itself on the others,” he said in a newspaper interview.

Experts who worked on the IPCC report say the error by social and biological scientists has unfairly maligned their work

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Days of Noah

“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
—Matt 24:37

“These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just•Strongs 6662: tsaddiyq, tsad-deek´; from 6663; just:—just, lawful, righteous (man). man and perfect•Strongs 8549: tamiym, taw-meem´; from 8552; entire (literally, figuratively or morally); also (as noun) integrity, truth:—without blemish, complete, full, perfect, sincerely (-ity), sound, without spot, undefiled, upright(-ly), whole. in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt•Strongs 7843: shachath, shaw-khath´; a primitive root; to decay, i.e. (causatively) ruin (literally or figuratively):—batter, cast off, corrupt(-er, thing), destroy(-er, -uction), lose, mar, perish, spill, spoiler, x utterly, waste(-r). before God, and the earth was filled with violence•Strongs 2555: chamacç, khaw-mawce´; from 2554; violence; by implication, wrong; by meton. unjust gain:—cruel(-ty), damage, false, injustice, x oppressor, unrighteous, violence (against, done), violent (dealing), wrong
•Strongs 2554: chamacç, khaw-mas´; a primitive root; to be violent; by implication, to maltreat:—make bare, shake off, violate, do violence, take away violently, wrong, imagine wrongfully..”
— Genesis 6:9-11

Perilous Times — Lies — And Their Source

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it“.
—John 8:44

Climate scientists who worked on the UN panel on global warming have hit out at “sloppy” colleagues from other disciplines who introduced a mistake about melting glaciers into the landmark 2007 report.

The experts, who worked on the section of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that considered the physical science of global warming, say the error by “social and biological scientists” has unfairly maligned their work. Some said that Rajendra Pachauri, the panel’s chair, should resign, though others supported him.

The IPCC report combined the output from three independent working groups, which separately considered the science, impacts and human response to climate change, and published their findings several months apart.

The report from working group two, on impacts, included a false claim that Himalayan glaciers would melt away by 2035, which was sourced to a report from campaign group WWF. The IPCC was forced to issue a statement of regret, though Pachauri and senior figures on the panel have refused to apologise for the mistake.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, several lead authors of the working group one (WG1) report, which produced the high-profile scientific conclusions that global warming was unequivocal and very likely down to human activity, told the Guardian they were dismayed by the actions of their colleagues.

“Naturally the public and policy makers link all three reports together,” one said. “And the blunder over the glaciers detracts from the very carefully peer-reviewed science used exclusively in the WG1 report.”

Another author said: “There is no doubt that the inclusion of the glacier statement was sloppy. I find it embarrassing that working group two (WG2) would have the Himalaya statement referred to in the way it was.”

Another said: “I am annoyed about this and I do think that WG1, the physical basis for climate change, should be distinguished from WG2 and WG3. The latter deal with impacts, mitigation and socioeconomics and it seems to me they might be better placed in another arm of the United Nations, or another organisation altogether.”

The scientists were particularly unhappy that the flawed glacier prediction contradicted statements already published in their own report. “WG1 made a proper assessment of the state of glaciers and this should have been the source cited by the impacts people in WG2,” one said. “In the final stages of finishing our own report, we as WG1 authors simply had no time to also start double-checking WG2 draft chapters.”

Another said the mistake was made “not by climate scientists, but rather the social and biological scientists in WG2 … Clearly that WWF report was an inappropriate source, [as] any glaciologist would have stumbled over that number.”

The discovery of the glaciers mistake has focused attention on the IPCC’s use of so-called grey literature: reports that do not appear in conventional scientific journals, and are instead drawn from sources such as campaign groups, companies and student theses. The IPCC’s rules allow such grey literature, but many people have been surprised at the scale of its inclusion.

The report from WG2 cited the erroneous WWF report again, though not the glacier claim, in a separate section on human health, and also referenced reports from Greenpeace, the World Resources Institute, wildlife trade group Traffic as well as insurance companies Swiss Re and Axa. Working group three draws extensively on grey literature, including a newspaper article from the Asia Times.

Most WG1 scientists contacted by the Guardian defended the use of grey literature. “In many cases these reports have to use grey literature and anecdotal evidence because there is nothing else available, for example reports of sea level rise on small island states.”

Another author said: “Part of the problem is that WG2 largely involves the social science community. They are more used to referring to a diversity of sources, in fact, expert opinion is also an important analysis tool in the social sciences.”

Several authors defended Pachauri and the IPCC process. “The IPCC is not a hierarchical, top-down organisation. The chapter authors have great freedom in writing their assessment without interference from the top, and so it should be.”

The IPCC correction combined with the release of private emails from global warming scientists at the University of East Anglia has raised suggestions of a crisis in climate science.

“This is a transient and manufactured crisis and will likely go away with time,” one IPCC author said. “What the science community needs is a few huge donors to throw millions of dollars behind PR campaigns to counter the propaganda out there. We are being attacked through baseless smear campaigns and we are not PR experts.”

They added: “The sad reality is this whole manufactured climate controversy is like arguing over the dinner menu on the Titanic as it sinks. The fact is, the climate is warming. Do we want to deal with this problem or not? Do we owe anything to future generations who are not here today to be part of the decision-making process. Science and the IPCC cannot answer these questions.”

TEHRAN (AFP) – Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi opened two new missile production plants on Saturday, just three days after Iran fired a rocket carrying live animals into space, state television reported.

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Moving Towards Ezekiel 38-39

“Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:”
—Ezekiel 38:5

Editors note about the word Persia•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe Persia is the area of present day Iran.

The plants will produce a ground-to-air missile dubbed the Qaem (Rising) and a surface-to-surface missile dubbed Toofan 5 (Storm), the broadcaster said.
The Qaem is designed to target helicopters at low and medium altitudes, it added.
“Toofan 5 is one of the most advanced missiles. It has two warheads which can destroy tanks and other armoured vehicles,” Vahidi was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.
He said the Qaem was a “missile which can destroy targets in the air travelling at low speed and at low altitude, especially assault helicopters.”
Iran unveiled the new plants as part of its celebrations for the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution later this month.
On Wednesday, it launched a capsule carrying turtles, rats and worms aboard a Kavoshgar 3 (Explorer) rocket in its first experiment in sending living creatures into space.
Iran’s missile and space programmes have sparked mounting alarm in the West amid fears that a command of advanced ballistics technologies combined with the nuclear know-how acquired from its declared civilian programme may enable it to produce an atomic weapon.
Iran has also regularly boasted of having missiles that can target arch-foe Israel.
In December it tested the Sejil 2 (Lethal Stone) missile, describing it as a faster version of a medium-range missile that could allow it to strike arch-foe Israel.
The United States and its regional ally Israel have not ruled out a military option to stop Tehran’s controversial nuclear drive.
Tehran has in the past threatened to target US bases in the region and to block the strategic Gulf Strait of Hormuz waterway for oil tankers if its nuclear sites are attacked.
Iran is under three sets of UN sanctions for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.

Iran has begun making ‘advanced’ unmanned drones capable of carrying out ‘assaults with high precision’.

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Moving Towards Ezekiel 38-39

“Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:”
—Ezekiel 38:5

Editors note about the word Persia•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe Persia is the area of present day Iran.

The drones would be able to carry out “surveillance, detection and even assaults with high precision”, the report said.

US Predator drones have killed hundreds of suspected terrorists in Pakistan in recent years. Iran’s sworn enemy Israel uses drones for reconnaisance. But it was not immediately clear what purpose the Iranian drones would serve.
In the past week Iran has announced a spate of technological advances and military achievements in the run up to the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution on Feb 11.
On Sunday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad deepened tensions with the West over Iran’s atomic programme when he ordered scientists to enrich stockpiles of uranium to the higher level needed to produce nuclear power.
The West fears Iran harbours ambitions to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran insists it is seeking only to produce electricity for civilian purposes.

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran said it will start making higher-grade reactor fuel on Tuesday and will add 10 uranium enrichment plants over the next year in a nuclear expansion sure to stoke tensions with the West.

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Moving Towards Ezekiel 38-39

“Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:”
—Ezekiel 38:5

Editors note about the word Persia•FYI: Many Bible teachers believe Persia is the area of present day Iran.

The statement by Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi followed orders from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday for work to begin on producing atomic fuel for a Tehran research reactor.

It may increase Western suspicions that Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at making bombs, a charge Tehran denies.

Iran informed the U.N. nuclear agency in a letter on Monday about its decision to enrich uranium at its Natanz plant to a level of 20 percent for use in the reactor producing medical isotopes, compared with the 3.5 percent it now makes.

“Today we handed over the letter,” Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told Iran’s Arabic-language al Alam state television.

The letter said 20 percent enrichment would start on Tuesday with the aim of later converting it into fuel and it invited U.N. inspectors to monitor the process, Soltanieh told Reuters.

Salehi earlier told al Alam: “Iran will set up 10 uranium enrichment centres next year.” The Iranian year starts in March.

Iran mooted such a plan late last year but gave no time frame.

The announcements raise the stakes in Iran’s dispute with the West, although experts doubt Tehran has the technical ability to launch 10 new plants so soon and believe it is finding it harder to obtain crucial components due to U.N. sanctions.

Analysts say it may be a negotiating tactic to prod the West into accepting Iranian terms for a nuclear fuel swap.

But it could backfire if it only serves to make Western powers determined to push for more sanctions against Iran, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, over its refusal to suspend enrichment.

TURMOIL

Ahmadinejad said Iran remained open to a proposed nuclear fuel exchange with world powers, which they hope would minimize the risk of Iran developing atomic bombs. Iran says it wants only to generate electricity from low-level enrichment.

Salehi suggested production of the material would be halted if Iran could import 20 percent uranium, the degree of purity required for conversion into special fuel needed to run a Tehran nuclear medicine reactor, Iran’s stated goal for the move.

Tehran has voiced readiness to send low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad in a swap for fuel for the reactor, due to run out of it later this year. Such a deal would remove the bulk of potential nuclear bomb material Iran has stockpiled.

But amendments Iran has demanded to the U.N.-drafted plan have been rejected by the United States, France and Russia because they would allow Iran to keep much of its LEU reserve.

“Iran would halt its enrichment process for the Tehran research reactor any time it receives the necessary fuel for it,” Salehi said.

Germany said on Monday Iran’s announced intention to crank up nuclear work showed it was not cooperating with the IAEA, which has called for a nuclear suspension and more inspections.

Ahmadinejad’s contradictory signals over the last week — first expressing readiness to send LEU abroad and then announcing that Iran would start producing 20 percent fuel itself — also could be a sign of Iran’s political turmoil.

Analysts believe Ahmadinejad may want to secure a swap deal with the international community to boost his legitimacy after a disputed election last year but is hampered by political rivals who oppose any LEU export as a threat to national security.

“PUSHING DIRT AROUND”

Opposition supporters are expected to try to revive their protests over the June election on Thursday, when Iran marks the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, despite repeated warning of a firm response by the authorities.

“The Iranian nation will show on (February 11) how it will punch the faces of all the world’s arrogants — America, Britain and Zionists — with its unity,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday, state television reported.

Iran’s move to make 20 percent fuel itself may heighten suspicions that its real aim is higher-enriched uranium for atom bombs, since only France and Argentina — not Iran — are known to have the technology to yield fuel for medical isotopes.

A senior diplomat close to the IAEA said enrichment to 20 percent was legal under Iran’s non-proliferation accord with the agency.

“Natanz would need less than a few months to start making the 20 percent enriched uranium, (although) Iran will face significant technical hurdles in manufacturing it,” said David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security.

The bigger question was whether Iran planned to make a small amount of enriched uranium for its research reactor or was trying to convert most of its 3.5 percent stock of enriched uranium into 20 percent material.

“By doing so, it would be going most of the rest of the way to weapon-grade uranium,” Albright told Reuters.

Mark Fitzpatrick, a proliferation expert at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the plan for 10 more enrichment sites in short order was “a farcical bluff.”

“It is hard-pressed today even to keep the centrifuges installed at Natanz running smoothly,” Fitzpatrick told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Reza Derakhshi and Hashem Kalantari in Tehran and Madeline Chambers and Paul Carrel in Berlin; Writing by Mark Heinrich; Editing by Michael Roddy)

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — Two men ministering on the streets of Boynton Beach were allegedly gunned down by an 18-year-old man.

“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.”
—Matthew 24:9

Police say 24-year-old Tite Sufra and 23-year-old Stephen Ocean were preaching to Jeriah Woody for about 15 minutes, until he got a phone call.

Woody left, but then allegedly started walking toward the two. When Sufra approached, Woody allegedly shot him in the head. Ocean ran, and police say Woody shot him in the back, then walked up and shot him again — this time in the head at point-blank range.

Police said a witness identified Woody, who is known by the street name “Plug.” He surrendered Wednesday on two counts of first-degree murder charges.

It could not be determined if Woody had an attorney.

Boredom could be shaving years off your life, scientists have found.

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Lovers of the Truth

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly•Strongs 4053: perissos, per-is-sos´; from 4012 (in the sense of beyond); superabundant (in quantity) or superior (in quality); by implication, excessive; adverbially (with 1537) violently; neuter (as noun) preeminence: — exceeding abundantly above, more abundantly, advantage, exceedingly, very highly, beyond measure, more, superfluous, vehement(-ly)..
—John 10:10

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
—Hebrews 4:12

Researchers say that people who complain of boredom are more likely to die young, and that those who experienced ‘high levels’ of tedium are more than two-and-a-half times as likely to die from heart disease or stroke than those satisfied with their lot.

More than 7,000 civil servants were studied over 25 years – and those who said they were bored were nearly 40 per cent more likely to have died by the end of study than those who did not.

The scientists said this could be a result of those unhappy with their lives turning to such unhealthy habits as smoking or drinking, which would cut their life expectancy.

Specialists from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London, looked at data from 7,524 civil servants aged between 35 and 55 who were interviewed between 1985 and 1988 about their levels of boredom. They then found out whether they had died by April last year.

Researcher Martin Shipley, who co-wrote the report to be published in the International Journal of Epidemiology this week, said: ‘The findings on heart disease show there was sufficient evidence to say there is a link with boredom.

‘It is important that people who have dull jobs find outside interests to keep boredom at bay, rather than turn to drinking or smoking.’

Psychologist Graham Price added: ‘It is important to distinguish between cause and effect. Are these people turning to drink and drugs because they are bored or because they have certain characteristics?

‘For many people who are unmotivated or uninspired by life, or maybe have a tendency towards depression, the way out of it is to change their focus away from themselves and on to other people.

‘From being all me, me, me, they should be thinking, what can I do for my family, my friends, my colleagues, even my boss.’

The original survey found that one in ten civil servants had been bored within the past month, with women more than twice as likely than men to suffer. Younger employees and those with more menial jobs were also found to be more prone to boredom.

Those who reported feeling a great deal of boredom were 37 per cent more likely to have died by the end of the study.

Anti-dumping tariff of 105 percent to start Feb. 13

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Perplexity

“…upon the earth distress•Strongs 4928: sunoche, soon-okh-ay´; from 4912; restraint, i.e. (figuratively) anxiety: — anguish, distress. of nations, with perplexity•Strongs 640: aporia, ap-or-ee´-a; from the same as 639; a (state of) quandary:—perplexity.
•Strongs 639: aporeo, ap-or-eh´-o; from a compound of 1 (as a negative particle) and the base of 4198; to have no way out, i.e. be at a loss (mentally):— (stand in) doubt, be perplexed….”
—Luke 21:25

New World Order

“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.”
—Revelation 16:12

China, the largest market for U.S. chicken exports, plans to impose anti-dumping tariffs of up to 105.4 percent on U.S. broiler chicken imports, starting Feb. 13, that country’s Ministry of Commerce said Friday.
In a statement on its Web site, the ministry said the poultry products had been dumped at unfair prices onto the China market, causing “substantial damage” to the domestic chicken industry.
The statement said importers of U.S. broiler chicken products will be required to pay penalties after an investigation showed they had caused “material damage” to local producers by selling at below-market prices. Broiler chickens are those raised primarily for meat.
The investigation began in September, two weeks after the United States imposed tariffs on Chinese tire shipments. The ruling will further strain trade relations between the two countries.
The ruling will cut deeply into U.S. reeferized export volumes to China. Over the first six months of 2009, the United States exported 359,000 tons of chicken to China, or about 90 percent of the total 407,000 tons of chicken that China imported.
Relations have also been strained by the proposed U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and by President Obama’s plans to meet the Dalai Lama later this month.
Beijing started the probe in response to the Obama administration’s decision to impose tariffs on imports of Chinese tires and a decision by Congress that effectively bans imports of cooked poultry, James Sumner, president of the poultry export council, said Sept. 14.
Those U.S. producers of broiler chickens who comply with China’s anti-dumping probe into their sales could face punitive damages of 43.1 percent to 80.5 percent, while those who don’t comply would see their shipments face the top tariff, the ministry said.
The U.S. and China, with $409 billion in annual two-way trade, have been engaged in a spat over allegations of dumping and subsidies. China says U.S. complaints are signs of protectionism while the U.S. says it’s enforcing trade rules. World Trade Organization judges agreed last month to probe whether the decision to impose tariffs on Chinese tires violates global trade rules.