Universal Wealth - Jun 17th news...

"If what is used as a Medium of exchange is fluctuating in its Value it is no better than unjust Weights and measures, both which are condemned by the laws of GOD and Man, and therefore the longest and most universal Custom could never make the Use of such a Medium either lawful or reasonable."

-Roger Sherman, a delegate from Connecticut and author of the gold and silver coin provision of the Constitution, wrote a scathing condemnation of paper money entitled "A Caveat Against Injustice" [Read All Coins Are Not Created Equal by Craig Smith ]

FATHER'S DAY PRAYER
By Jesus Christ

"I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy true: thy word is true. As thou have sent me into the world, even so have I also send them into the world. And for their sake I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That they all may be one; as thou Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou has sent me. And the glory which thou gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou has loved them, as thou has loved me."

-John 17:15-23

MARKET NEWS DIGEST

Gold shoots to 7-week high of $440/oz -Reuters
Attracting buying in other currencies
Jun 17, 2005

NEW YORK, June 17 (Reuters) - U.S. gold futures stretched up to new seven-week highs on Friday morning, with the market challenging a key area of resistance, fueled by further fund and dealer buying, traders and analysts said.

Bullion's de-linking from the U.S. dollar also supported prices as investors moved into gold, helping it appreciate broadly against other currencies such as the euro.

In platinum, futures hit their highest since January on a spot continuation basis, and palladium firmed as prior fund selling evaporated.

Gold for August delivery was up $2.70 to $440.60 an ounce by 9:44 a.m. EDT on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, trading between $437 and $441.40 -- a high last seen in futures back on April 27.

Futures were right up against key resistance here, while in spot gold, prices ate up ground above an important resistance mark around $437, where a trendline and a high from April sit.

"There's a lot of fund buying and gold is strong as can be right now," said Scott Meyers, analyst at Pioneer Futures in New York, who added some players felt there could be supply issues for the market down the road.

"If it takes out $441.70, the high from April 26, I don't see why we can't go to $450."

Prices then would still have a way to go, however, before taking out the high set in December 2004 near $460 an ounce.

http://www.reuters.com

Related Stories:
Rare old coins more than pocket change: Since new quarters, market for collectibles booms -Cin. EnquirerBy Annie-Laurie Blair -- Holding a 1794 Liberty dollar in your hand is seductive. The weight of the silver feels substantial - so unlike today's coins, much less a debit or credit card. The Liberty dollar transports you to the era of George Washington's presidency, the founding of the first U.S. bank and the Whiskey Rebellion.

Malasia To Convince More OIC Countries To Use Gold Dinar ... KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 (Bernama) -- Second finance minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop says Malaysia is working hard to convince member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to use the gold dinar for bilateral trade and reduce their dependence on the US dollar.

Stocks slip as oil prices jump -MW
Oil tops $56 a barrel after drop in weekly crude supplies
By Mark Cotton, MarketWatch
June 15, 2005

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - U.S. stocks turned lower Wednesday as a spike in oil prices following a fall in weekly crude supplies offset a round of solid economic data and better-than-expected earnings from Bear Stearns.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was last down 45 points at 10,501.

The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 13 points to 2,055.

The S&P 500 Index fell 5 points to 1,199.12.

"The economic news was a little bit better than expected but the market seems to be wanting other catalysts," said Robert Pavlik, portfolio manager at Oaktree Asset Management. "But stocks do look positive. It's just we're in a holding pattern."

On the broader market, decliners outpaced advancers by an 18 to 11 score on the New York Stock Exchange, and by a two to one margin on the Nasdaq.

Volume was 423 million on the Big Board and 586 million on the Nasdaq.

Inflation report leads slew of data

Investors cheered a consumer price report showing inflationary pressures in the economy remained subdued.

Falling energy prices pushed U.S. consumer prices lower for the first time since last July, the Labor Department reported. The consumer price index decreased an unexpected 0.1% in May while core CPI, excluding food and energy costs, was up just 0.1%. See full story.

The tame retail inflation data comes just one day after a producer price report showing the biggest one-month drop in wholesale inflation in over two years.

The Commerce Department meanwhile reported a 0.3% rise in inventories in April, falling slightly from the month-ago level of 0.5%. See full story.

There was positive news on the manufacturing front. Factory activity in the New York area posted a stronger-than-expected rebound in June, reversing most of the decline seen since March, the New York Federal Reserve Bank said.

Also, U.S. industrial production rebounded in May after a decline in April, the Federal Reserve report. Capacity utilization also edged higher. The rise in both numbers was above economist expectations. See full story.

And in a further boost to sentiment, foreign capital flows rose to $47.4 billion in April as foreign central banks bought more Treasury bonds, the Treasury Department said. However, private purchases of Treasury bonds and equities slowed in April to $42.1 billion from $73.3 billion in March. See full story.

Bonds, dollar, oil

After the data, Treasury prices initially moved higher, pushing down yields, on the unexpected drop in inflation. The bond market abhors inflation because it eats up the value of fixed-income instruments.

At last check however, bonds had turned around, with the yield on the 10-year benchmark note standing at 4.132%, up from 4.127% in late trading Tuesday.

The dollar slipped against its major counterparts as the tame inflation data deflated hopes the Federal Reserve would adopt a more aggressive policy of raising interest rate hikes. See currency report

Crude-oil futures climbed back above $56 a barrel for the first time since the end of April after the Energy Department said U.S. crude supplies fell 1.8 million barrels in the week ended June 10.

http://www.marketwatch.com

Related Story:
CPI RIGGED, "REAL" INFLATION IS HERE! -- 5-16-05 -- Is the CPI index rigged? By Craig R. Smith -- It's nonsense to say that we live in a world of 2 to 3 percent inflation today, because the government has systematically stripped out of their CPI virtually all of the "real world" indicators ...

Six Years, Stuck at 10,000...? -EW
6/13/2005
Elliotwave.com

The stock market closed slightly lower on Monday, June 13.

More than six years have passed since the Dow Jones Industrial Average first closed above 10,000 (March 1999). In the time since, the index has mostly stayed within a few percentage points of that nice round figure.

Six-plus years is a long time to linger in a trading range, especially when you recall what the Dow had done in the six years before it hit 10,000 -- namely triple in size, from around 3,400 in March 1993. Humor my saying so, but that was the time to be bullish. Still, I do have a reason for stating the obvious.

The Dow's initial arrival at 10,000 roughly parallels the start of another noteworthy epoch: The unprecedented period when, according to Investors Intelligence, the percentage of bullish advisors exceeded bearish advisors for 339 of 348 weeks.

As Bob Prechter puts it in his just-posted Elliott Wave Theorist, "Nothing like this has ever happened." It is, he explains, "The biggest orgy of investment optimism of all time."

This one mega-indicator reflects what many other long- and near-term indicators now show. The Friday (June 10) Short Term Update considered several of these, including Google's stock price/valuation, price action in the IPO Index, and a closely followed daily sentiment measure showing that traders are actually more bullish now than they were at the all-time highs of 2000.

http://www.elliotwave.com

Related Story:
24K LOGIC: Conquer the Crash By Robert Prechter - Book Review & Summary- 7/29/2002

Morgan Stanley CEO surrenders -CNN
Embattled chief Philip Purcell says he'll step down before the firm's next annual meeting.
June 13, 2005

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Morgan Stanley said Monday that embattled CEO Philip Purcell will retire as soon as his successor is named, but no later than by the firm's next annual meeting in March 2006.

Purcell informed the company of his decision via a letter that was sent to all Morgan Stanley employees Monday morning, the brokerage firm said, also announcing that second-quarter earnings will fall short of Wall Street forecasts.

Morgan Stanley (up $1.24 to $51.12) stock -- which has taken a beaten in recent years -- jumped about 3.5 percent on the news and was the most active issue on the New York Stock Exchange.

"It has become clear that in light of the continuing personal attacks on me, and the unprecedented level of negative attention our firm -- and each of you -- has had to endure, that this is the best thing I can do for you, our clients and our shareholders," Purcell said in the letter released by the company.

http://www.cnnmoney.com

OPEC says oil price spike beyond its control -Reuters
Mon June 13, 2005
By Barbara Lewis and Yara Bayoumy

VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC producers, considering lifting oil output limits, said on Monday they had little left in their armoury to rein in prices now above $54 a barrel.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is struggling to contain prices that it worries are too high for sustainable fuel demand growth. It is operating close to full crude production capacity and can do nothing to combat a global squeeze on refined products, notably diesel.

Ahead of a Wednesday meeting, leading producer Saudi Arabia, backed a proposal for an increase in cartel crude supply limits of 500,000 bpd, 2 percent.

But Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said Riyadh was already pumping as much as it could sell and blamed refinery bottlenecks for keeping the heat under energy costs.

"You know and I know that what is driving the price is not supply -- it's the lack of refining capacity worldwide," Naimi told reporters in Vienna, home to OPEC headquarters.

"Everybody is concerned about middle distillates," he said in reference to the refined products diesel, jet fuel and heating oil.

"Diesel prices have been sustained by several factors including strong global demand, extended refinery maintenance on upgrading units, and refinery disruptions in the Caribbean," said Goldman Sachs.

Market concerns about oil product supply pushed up U.S. light $2.21 at $55.75 a barrel. That takes the average price for the year so far to nearly $51 a barrel, up from $41.47 on average in 2004 and $30.99 on 2003.

Last year's Chinese-led demand boom took producers and refiners by surprise after years of slow investment in capacity across the upstream production and downstream refining industry sectors.

Iran, OPEC's second biggest producer, said the group was already at full stretch.

"OPEC members are already pumping at full capacity and can do nothing about prices," said Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh in Tehran.

http://www.reuters.com

Related Stories:
6-17-05 --Oil Rises Above $58 on Signs Demand May Strain OPEC Capacity -Bloomberg... Crude oil in New York surged above $58 a barrel for the first time since reaching a record in April on signs that producers will struggle to meet growing fuel demand during the second half of the year.

6-15-05 --OPEC Raises Production Quotas for Fifth Time in a Year as Oil Price Surges -BL ... ``The quotas have become meaningless,'' said Julian Lee, an analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies, a London-based consulting company founded by former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani. ``The only likely way out of $50 to $55 a barrel oil is a dramatic slowdown in oil demand. There's no new source of supply that's going to come on stream.''

PROTECTING ASSETS FROM THE NEXT OIL-GAS SHOCK - Special Report

G8 Agrees to Debt Relief for Poor Nations -AP
By Ed Johnson
The Associated Press
June 11, 2005

LONDON -- Finance ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations agreed Saturday to a historic deal canceling at least $40 billion worth of debt owed by the world's poorest nations.

Britain Treasury chief Gordon Brown said 18 countries, many in sub-Saharan Africa, will benefit immediately from the deal to scrap 100 percent of the debt they owe to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the African Development Bank.

As many as 20 other countries could be eligible if they meet strict targets for good governance and tackling corruption, leading to a total debt relief package of more than $55 billion.

"The G8 finance ministers have agreed to 100 percent debt cancellation for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries," Brown told a news conference in London.

Aid agencies welcomed the deal, saying it would save the 18 countries a total of $1.5 billion a year in debt repayments that could now be used for health care, education and infrastructure development.

Finance ministers from the United States, Britain, Japan, Canada, Russia, Germany, Italy, and France agreed to the package during a two-day summit in London.

"A real milestone has been reached," U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said. "President Bush's commitment to lift the crushing debt burden on the world's poorest countries has been achieved. This is an achievement of historic proportions."

Nations in sub-Saharan Africa alone owe some $68 billion to international bodies. Rich nations had long agreed the debt must be relieved but the international community could not agree on a formula for tackling the problem.

http://www.sp.org

Gold rallies in euro terms to 2-1/4-year high -Reuters
Mon June 13, 2005
By Clare Black

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold prices denominated in euros struck their highest since February 2003 on Monday and also gained in other currencies as uncertainty in foreign exchange markets attracted buyers.

Bullion prices have recently loosened a tight relationship with the dollar/euro, showing independent strength despite a stronger U.S. currency.

"I actually think that for the first time during this entire rally, you could argue that gold is genuinely benefiting from concerns people have about currencies," said Kamal Naqvi, precious metals analyst with Barclays Capital.

"The euro, which has benefited the most from the anti-dollar movement, has clearly got all sorts of major issues."

A firmer U.S. currency would normally put pressure on dollar-denominated gold as it becomes more expensive for overseas investors.

Gold in euros was last at 353.34 a troy ounce by 0926 GMT, just off an earlier peak of 353.62.

Although gold has seen a near 80 percent rally in dollar terms since 2001, prices in euros have been contained in a familiar range for the past four years.

Analysts say a true bull market is when a commodity rises in all currencies.

Spot gold retreated from Friday's one-month peak of $427.70 to $425.60/426.30 an ounce, compared with New York's late quote on Friday of $427.00/427.70.

"We've also seen buying interest in Japan this morning in yen gold, which moved up towards 1,500 yen per gramme. Gold in other currencies seems to be back in favour," Naqvi said.

http://www.reuters.com

Related Stories:
NEW: FUTURE OF GOLD & SILVER CD -IFN...Based on what our work at GATA shows, the price of gold right now should be $750, if gold were just to keep pace with inflation. What the manipulators have done is the equivalent of keeping a balloon under water and this thing is going to explode as the manipulators lose control. Then I believe the price of gold will go well over $2,000 per ounce.

Which Way Next for Gold? - Aden Sisters...Gold remains bullish, despite the drop in gold shares and the rising U.S. dollar. This alone is unusual and it raises an important question... Could gold shares be leading the way down for gold, or will gold's firmness eventually pull the shares back up?

To Infinity - And Beyond! -The Mogambo Guru ... For those of you who want me to give you tips on what the "small investor" should do, here is a tip: Buy an asset whose value, in dollars, will go to infinity. If you are not familiar with the subtleties of an infinite amount of dollars, it is more than a jillion dollars, it is more than a gazillion dollars, it is more than a trillion, zillion, bazillion flabgobble splendillion dollars...

COMMENTARY

Aiding & Abetting Terrorists: The New Focus of Old Media -J.B. Williams
Mensnewsdaily.com
June 15, 2005

The old media is on the ropes. Newspaper circulations are at an all time low and still slipping. Network news is having trouble competing with PBS for ratings, having lost many of their viewers to cable news, notably - the much hated and loved Fox. Once respected news journals like Time and Newsweek now share rack space with other sensationalized headline merchants like The Globe and The Enquirer, which sell better because their headlines are more reliable.

Even the household term old media itself describes the fading glory of a once mainstream news establishment turned tabloid rag, now permanently engaged in the perpetual art of sensationalized disinformation.

The impending death of the old media is a completely self inflicted demise. It was only a matter of time before the average American would stop hopelessly waiting for an honest unbiased reporting of simple facts from the old media. After years of endless politically motivated fraudulent stories intended to manipulate public opinion in favor of the editor’s personal views, followed by angry mob-like establishment-wide defenses of the obviously indefensible, the American people simply tuned out.

Why not? We live in the information age where anyone can log onto a computer and access endless unfettered information and view points at their finger tips. We are able to do our own research in minutes, review all sides of any issue and draw our own conclusions. We no longer need an elitist newsroom full of bloated self-aggrandizing windbags shaping our news and views. We can shape our own, thank you very much, and we are.

In an increasingly desperate attempt to reach out and reclaim audience, they use the only tool available in their arsenal, sensational headlines. In their feverish scramble for survival, they rush to print with unchecked unreliable stories from un-named sources, to only in the end, follow almost every story with a redress or full retraction and apology.

Once busted on a story, they scramble to generate a similar headline that they can support in order to justify the one they couldn’t. But it’s too late… The credibility is gone, the story is compromised.

The recent Newsweek blunder concerning an alleged Koran flushing GI at Gitmo is a perfect example. Like Rather-gate, the story turned out to be totally untrue. After it ignited a firestorm of death and destruction in the terror hotbed of the Middle East, Newsweek has worked around the clock to develop a similar headline, in order to justify the bad one. Time Magazine has decided to lend a hand, since all establishment news sources have been equally compromised.

Time has now gone so far as to place in print, the interrogation log books from Gitmo in an attempt to paint a particularly horrifying picture. While it doesn’t confirm any earlier claims, it achieves the goal of raising more unanswered questions concerning interrogation practices. Why? - Because a story like this leads to the desired result. It creates doubt in the mind of the reader, as in “maybe there was something to that original Newsweek story that is being covered up?”

It also causes left-wing half-wits to turn up the volume on their chant for a kinder, gentler interrogation process, shifting the administration, our military and our intelligence community from defending our nation to defending themselves. It isn’t important that any of it be true, only that it create the doubt needed to shift the focus off of the bogus news reporting and onto the brutal treatment of terrorists by an administration with an alleged Gulag mentality.

Now we have half-wit has-beens like Jimmy Carter calling for the closing of the terrorist detention camp in Cuba. Why not full amnesty, US citizenship and reparations too? Come on…

Admittedly, the interrogation practices have been very fruitful, leading to the capture or death of the majority of Al Qaeda’s leadership and the discovery of countless sleeper cells in the US and around the globe. But these headline hungry old media journalists are not presently concerned with truth or security, only with that which sells papers and creates dissention in the audience they no longer control.

These same journalists once blamed the administration and our intelligence community for not doing enough to stop the events of September 11th, 2001. These are the same folks that stirred the American pot of dissention and fear resulting in the Patriot Act, and then immediately after, wrote headlines attacking the Patriot Act.

These are the same folks who repeatedly run headlines on Abu Graib prison and Gitmo on every cover in America, but have yet to run a story on the millions in mass graves in Iraq or Iraqi prisons full of grade school aged children who had been kidnapped from their families, later liberated and returned home by American GI’s.

The shaping of public opinion via bogus or at a minimum, slanted headlines is a very effective practice. The current outcry to close the terrorist detainee camp at Gitmo is a direct knee-jerk reaction to more bogus sensationalized headlines by the old media. Few bother to read the details, if they did, there would be no such outcry. The headlines alone drive the public perception of Gulag styled handling of detainees, even though American tax dollars are in use providing free Koran’s, prayer rugs and room and board to people who want us dead. Not a single beheading has taken place at Gitmo, yet Gitmo is the new home of terror against terrorists according to the old media.

If asked in the privacy of his own home, what we should do to terrorists to extract information needed to save American lives, every average American would respond the same, “what ever it takes, just don’t tell us about it”. It’s called getting the job done, while maintaining plausible deniability. The current policies in effect at Gitmo are far more politically correct than mine would be if extracting the information meant life or death for my own child. Well, it does… or have we already forgotten?

There is no way for the old media to save itself at this point. We just don’t need them anymore and most of us are tired of being lied to and manipulated.

But what’s really concerning about the current circumstance is - how far are they willing to go in their unrestrained efforts to resurrect an industry gasping its last breath? You don’t have to be a terrorism expert to know that anti-America headlines are of great help to terrorists everywhere. They have come to rely upon the useful idiots in the old media to do their bidding in the war for public opinion and old media journalists on the edge of unemployment consistently oblige.

It amounts to aiding and abetting the enemy. We all know it and we will all pay a price for it sooner or later. In the end, the old media will wither away into obscurity regardless. But how many American lives will be expendable in the eyes of those who help the other side?

The ability to shape public opinion is powerful. Intentionally shaping it against one’s own national security interests is an act against one’s own country. Where is the public outcry about that?

http://www.mensnewsdaily.com

HEALING FATHERLESSNESS -Craig Smith, WND
'Real Men' tackle the "daddy hunger" pandemic -- as a tribute to Ed Cole
By Craig R. Smith
WorldNetDaily.com
Monday, June 13, 2005

"The lack of effective, functioning fathers is the root cause of America's social, economic and spiritual crises." -DR. EDWIN COLE, Author, Founder, Christian Men's Movement

Americans celebrate "Father's Day" on Sunday, yet modern culture acts as if fathers were the root of all evil on the other 364 days a year. Fathers have been called a "biological necessity, but a social accident." Given the problem society has with absent fathers (physically, emotionally and spiritually) over the last few decades, I can see why.

Getting fathers involved with their children today is not easy because:
· Our society tells men their primary purpose is to bring home a paycheck.
· Mothers left in full charge of children don't know why dads should be involved.
· Most of today's moms and dads didn't have an active father, so they don't know what a dad is supposed to do.

Way back in the Garden of Eden, man and woman were commanded to share the parenting responsibilities and be joint caretakers of their family and of planet earth. When God said "to be fruitful and multiply" he wasn't speaking only to the man and directing him to be a "biological necessity" for reproduction.

Unfortunately, many children today only get to experience one side of that divine commandment, as seen in the single parent statistical climb.
· One in two children now grow up without a father in the United States
· In our inner cities only one in five children live with their father.

Fulfilling "Daddy hunger"

The fallout of this reality, for children, is "daddy hunger," according to therapist Ron Huxley. "Daddy hunger refers to unconscious craving of a child for male connection. Unfortunately, children may try and feed that hunger in unhealthy ways. And when they do get attention in unhealthy ways, they are left feeling as hungry, if not more, than before. What they got wasn't true fathering."

Yes, today we have a new mission field in America: Fathering fatherless kids. I believe it's the primary responsibility of the believing community to be mothers and fathers to the fatherless, sisters and brothers to the lonely, and to support and strengthen each other in body, soul and spirit - instead of relying on government programs.

Dr. Ed Cole's passion for mentoring men today lives on in a new faith-based outreach called The Shiloh Foundation. Shiloh is focused on mentoring men in small groups with a leadership curriculum that addresses core relational issues with one's self, spouse and children.

Shiloh's success is measured by the increased maturity with the husband and father relationship in the men who participate. Dr. Cole aptly put it like this: "Maturity does not come with age, but with the accepting responsibility for one's actions."

Shiloh actually fathers the fatherless with their program "Breakout" which is a lifeskills curriculum for fatherless young men and women. It is taught by men and women from the small groups. Why? Fatherlessness is a pandemic in our country today.

Fatherlessness creates lawlessness because without the fathers providing a godly vision, the restraint from doing evil is cast off. Shiloh's "Breakout" provides a vision for life that is a door to a path of value for the fatherless.

Why does the Shiloh approach work? Because the statistics are dramatic when there's a strong faith-based family. "Today 1 in 2 marriages fail. But if a man prays and communicates his heart with his wife, only 1 in 1,152 marriages fail!" says Shiloh.

Yes, Dr. Ed Cole had a thoroughly Christian worldview of the critical mission that a godly man has in today's ungodly world - to stand in the gap -- on behalf of the next generation. May we all seek our place of service to Father God with the same zeal and tenacity as ole' Doc Cole did.

10 Practical Ways Men Can Impact Fatherless Kids

1. Mentor to a boy without a father through Mentor Kids USA or Shiloh Foundation
2. Contact your local junior or senior high school to tutor a needy kid
3. Consider teaching kids in Sunday School
4. Meet one-on-one weekly, with a fatherless boy in your church or neighborhood
5. Become a leader in Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts or perhaps Little League coach
6. Get involved in a Promise Keepers event or small group.
7. Volunteer to work with needy kids in an inner city ministry
8. Hire a potentially "at risk" kid for yard work or in your business
9. Lead a Bible study in a juvenile detention center or group home
10. Make a charitable contribution to Shiloh or another "fathering" ministry.

As Dr. Cole once told me, "Prosperity is not a goal, it is always a byproduct."

Hello Mr. Smith,

I appreciated your article on Healing the Fatherless. Truly too many children in this country are experiencing the pain and helplessness of fatherlessness. May I share with you what I am doing. I am starting a ranch for homeless children. It is called Covenant Ranch, and will through a Christ-centered program give love, healing, and hope to many hurting children. I have a special burden for homeless inner city children. We are just getting started, so if you know of those who have a burden for such children, we need all the help we can get right now to get this ministry off the ground. We are 501c3 exempt under Grace Through Faith Ministries. Our contact info is:
Covenant Ranch, Inc.
1308 River Ave.
Cumberland, MD 21502
301-707-5334
slc4kids@fastmail.fm

God Bless,
Sherry Curry
CEO, Founder

I read your ten things men can do to help fatherless kids. All were great suggestions, but unfortunately I believe you let men off the hook a little too easily.

I would add that the number one thing a man can do to help the fatherless is to take in (and/or adopt) a foster child.

There are over 500,000 foster kids in the United States today. Over 130,000 are currently available for adoption. Until God's people take seriously His mandate to care for the orphans, those numbers will continue to grow.

Great article...

God bless,
Johnston Moore

Sir, it may sound strange, but I believe that fatherless children also lack mothers. I am not sure how far I have to explain my feeling in order to defend my viewpoint.

Children who lack fathers is a significant problem that can be documented and studied. However, I would argue that the attempt to make our daughters grow up to be synthetic men is part of the problem. You did mention that the elitist view of society considers fathers to be simply a biological necessity. But, which sex is being forced into the mold of the other? Mothers are being forced to become the fathers that they have been conditioned to expel from the family as though there non-paternal role was completely disposable.

When a family loses its father, the mother tries to take his place. Who takes her place? I doubt that anybody even considers that question. It is as though mothers are so insignificant that anything else a woman does with her time is an improvement. One of the most significant and least acknowledged things that a father does for his family is to allow his wife the latitude to be a mother. He sets her free to be who she was created to be.

God Bless You,
--Robert Coeyman
http://www.dotguy.net

Special Offer:
What's Your Worldview? -- Free CD featuring Dr. Ed Cole and 150 top Christian Leaders

Money for nothing: scaring the gold market -CHRIS POWELL, GATA
Le Metropole.com June 11, 2005

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The Group of Eight industrialized nations agreed today simply to cancel $40 billion in debt owed by poor nations and to do it without reference to the gold held (or supposedly held) by the International Monetary Fund, which Britain long had been proposing to sell to compensate the lenders for writing off their bad loans to the poor nations.

But since the lenders were really only the industrialized nations themselves, acting through international organizations, the IMF's gold would have been sold -- if it really hasn't long been sold off surreptitiously anyway -- only to compensate its own owners, and so any such transaction would have been, in effect, simply a wash.

As GATA and others long had observed, the industrialized nations, if they wanted to, could just as well cancel the debts of poor nations without any IMF gold sales or compensating transaction at all. After all, it's all only fiat -- infinite imaginary money created effortlessly by printing press or computer entry, simply an instant tax claim on the true wealth of the world, so much of which has been flushed down the rat holes of poor nations only to turn up in the numbered Swiss bank accounts of their dictators and their bankers.

Thus the tedious years of talk of IMF gold sales turns out to have had only one effect, which well may have been its only purpose anyway: scaring the gold market to depress the gold price, the inverse of the price of fiat currency, so as to prop up fiat currency and maintain the power of the central banks that issue it.

The G8's writing off the poor nations' debt presumably will terminate the IMF gold sales threat, and this stands to improve the gold market's morale. But of course the central banks will look for something else to scare the gold market with -- perhaps new alchemy, research in physics that promises to turn lead into gold.

In any case, the G8's solution to the unpayable debt of poor nations -- write it off and just crank up some new money -- suggests that what the songwriter said about the rock 'n' roll business just as well could have been said about central banking:

... Now look at them yo-yo's, that's the way you do it.
... You play the guitar on the MTV.
... That ain't workin', that's the way you do it.
... Money for nothin' and chicks for free.

GATA.org

Related Story:
NEW: FUTURE OF GOLD & SILVER CD -IFN...Craig Smith interviews Bill Murphy and discusses what the gold price manipulators would do if the REALLY cared about helping the poor of sub-Saharan Africa (hint: stop suppressing the gold price!)

The Trillion-Dollar Bet -NYT
By DAVID LEONHARDT and MOTOKO RICH
June 16, 2005
The New York Times

American homeowners have made a trillion-dollar bet that mortgage rates will remain near record lows for at least a few more years. But with some interest rates already rising, economists worry that the bet could turn bad.

The problem is that new types of mortgages that hold down monthly payments for families - helping many buy homes that they would not otherwise be able to afford - also require potentially far higher payments in future years.

The bill will soon start to come due in a serious way, as the initial period of fixed payments, typically set at artificially low rates, expires for millions of homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages.

This year, only about $80 billion, or 1 percent, of mortgage debt will switch to an adjustable rate based largely on prevailing interest rates, according to an analysis by Deutsche Bank in New York. Next year, some $300 billion of mortgage debt will be similarly adjusted.

But in 2007, the portion will soar, with $1 trillion of the nation's mortgage debt - or about 12 percent of it - switching to adjustable payments, according to the analysis.

FULL STORY

What Happens If Real Estate Goes Bust -WSJ
By GREG IP
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 12, 2005

Five years ago, the bull market for stocks came crashing to a halt after a glorious run. Now, many worry that the roaring housing market may be headed for a train wreck as well.

What's the likelihood this could happen? For his part, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said last week that a nationwide housing bubble was improbable, while warning of "froth in some local markets." He said a broad price decline in the housing market was unlikely to happen or to have much economic impact.

Housing once again is a greater part of Americans' wealth than stocks.

While house prices aren't likely to deflate as quickly as a hot Internet stock during the dot-com bust, the consequences have the potential to be far more devastating.

Here's how the stock and housing booms look similar -- but differ in several important respects.

The key difference is that stocks are purely financial investments. You can sell a stock on a whim, and you don't have to run out and buy another. By contrast, people live in houses, and if they sell they have to move -- which is both costly and time-consuming.

"How could you have a housing crash?" asks Ted Aronson, managing partner at Aronson Johnson Ortiz, a Philadelphia money manager. "We all just sell our houses and move into a trailer park?"

Houses are also much more expensive to sell. Mr. Greenspan says commission and other transaction costs approach 10% of the price of a home. By contrast, Mr. Aronson says big institutions typically incur transaction costs of 1% to 2% on their stock purchases.

The cost of moving is why homes change hands much less than stocks. Sales of new and existing homes in the U.S. in 2003 were equal to about 6% of total housing units in the U.S. By contrast, annual turnover on the New York Stock Exchange is about 100% of all shares outstanding. A home normally sits on the market for several weeks before selling; a stock usually sells in seconds.

Stocks also move as a single market more than houses do because they are subject to many of the same influences and often are bought and sold as part of a broad portfolio. Houses are more subject to local influences. Stocks can also be sold "short" by people who don't own them, or via derivatives. You can't bet on declining housing prices the same way. That means when houses appear overvalued, it's harder for contrarians to nudge them the other way.

For all these reasons, stocks show much bigger swings than housing values. Inflation-adjusted housing prices and inflation-adjusted stock prices have both declined about a third of the time since 1976, using quarterly averages compared to the same quarter a year earlier. (Stocks are represented by the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index and houses by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight index.)

But the biggest decline in real housing prices was only 6% in 1980. Real stock prices have fallen more than 20% at least eight times, year over year, since 1976. The steepest was 29% in the third quarter of 2001.

http://www.wsjonline.com

How Houses Eat Money -JONATHAN CLEMENTS, WSJ
June 12, 2005

How hot is the real-estate market? Try reading my mail.

A few years ago, I could offer warnings on the actual costs of homeownership and I would hear hardly a peep. But lately, when I offer similar comments, I am inundated with blistering emails that belittle my intelligence with language unfit for publication.

Along the way, some readers -- based on what, I don't know -- have accused me of being a sore loser smoldering in a Manhattan rental. In fact, for the past 13 years, I have owned the same home in Middlesex County, N.J. And if I were delusional, I would claim I have tripled my money.

But instead, I crunch numbers. My discovery: Despite owning a house in an extremely buoyant real-estate market, I have -- by one measure -- made almost no money. And I don't think I am unusual.

No Improvement

I bought my house in late 1992 for $165,000. Today, it might fetch $500,000, giving me roughly a 200% gain. By contrast, over the same stretch, U.S. homes are up an average 101.7%, according to home-finance corporation Freddie Mac.

Time to celebrate? Maybe not. I have an unfortunate tendency to keep good records, so it is relatively easy for me to calculate how much I have spent over the past 13 years on home improvements, property taxes and mortgage interest. And believe me, it isn't pretty.

For starters, one reason my home has increased so much in value is because I have spent a ridiculous amount of money fixing it up. The house I bought in 1992 was fairly rundown, and I have ended up revamping the kitchen, adding a bathroom, putting in air conditioning, enclosing the porch, putting on a new roof, replacing the boiler, finishing the attic and goodness knows what else.

Tote up the cost of all these projects, both large and small, and the tab comes to some $130,000. It's an embarrassingly large number, and I wince whenever I think about it. Add that $130,000 to my home's $165,000 purchase price and my cost is up to $295,000.

I could kid myself that this $130,000 is an investment. And while it is true that these home improvements have boosted my home's value, there is no way I will recoup the full cost when I go to sell. My "new kitchen" is now nine years old and it is showing its age. Nobody in his or her right mind is going to pay me full price for a second-hand kitchen.

In retrospect, I would probably have been better off purchasing a house that had already been fixed up, thus buying somebody else's improvements at a steep discount. The problem, of course, is finding a seller who has the same taste. Shag carpeting? I don't think so.

http://www.wsjonline.com

Millennium event: Muslims follow Jesus, Pt. 2 -FridayFax
Jun 16, 2005

Some things only happen every couple of hundred years, others only every couple of thousand. This Friday Fax completes our report on one of these millennium events.

When Muslims throw the Koran in the river

"One morning in May 1999, I read a report in Bangladeshi national newspaper, quoting a Member of Parliament who stood before his colleagues and asked 'What is happening to our religion? Muslims in the capital are throwing their Koran in the trash, and in one district, they even throw the Koran in the river.' What was going on? One day, an Imam held the Koran up in the Mosque, saying 'This book has done nothing to improve our lives.' Then he threw the book in the river. The congregation of around 4,000 men followed their leader's example, throwing their Korans in the river too."

What comes after resignation?

Kevin Greeson's report shows something of the inner erosion happening in Islam. But many adherents of other religions and religious subsystems are just as resigned. Just as traditional Constantine churchianity, Animism or Buddhism, the core of Islam does not help people live their lives, but generally just preserves the status quo of poverty, difficulties, uncertainty and illness for most and riches for a privileged minority. On top of all that, religion can only superficially answer the questions every person faces: why am I here, what am I supposed to be doing, where am I headed? The Bangladeshi Imam spoke for many in his recognition of the truth. In this phase of religious resignation, most people simply perform religious rites perfunctorily, outwardly going with the flow, inwardly questioning. Many Muslims, for example, wonder about Allah's secret 100th name...

The camel knows

Every Muslim knows that Allah has 99 names, and many know of a tradition which says that only a camel knows his 100th name. That name is 'Isa'! The Koran, the Muslims' holy book, does not answer the question directly, but gives enough clear hints. Many experienced missionaries start a conversation with Muslims with the words "I have discovered an amazing truth in the Koran, which gives hope of eternal life in paradise. Would you please read me Sure Al-Imran 3:42-55?"

The Koran teaches that Jesus knows the way to heaven

This Sure says three things about Isa (Jesus) which clearly lift him above the status of a prophet: Isa is holy (3:42-48), has power over death (49-54) and knows the way to heaven (55-56). This is a shock for many Muslims, because what does the Koran say about Mohammed? The surest answer is to say that Mohammed is what he said of himself; in Sure 46:9-10, he says "I am nothing new among prophets; I do not know what will become of me or my followers. I am just a voice of warning."

If Mohammed is nothing different or more than all the prophets before him, and did not claim to be the greatest prophet of all, did not know where he or his followers would go after death, and professes to simply be a voice of warning, the contrast with Jesus' statements about himself (for example John 6:47 and 14:1-7) could hardly be greater. If you then ask a Muslim "I want to go to heaven when I die. Which prophet can help me get there?", the result is often a process leading them to read the Injil (New Testament) and find Jesus.

Information from the Koran (very important for Muslims) reveals Jesus to be clearly more than just a prophet, and endows him practically with saviour status. "The Koran does not contain enough light to show someone the way to salvation, but enough small candles to guide seekers the right way," says Greeson.

For God's sake, don't bring Muslims to church!

Greeson sees four aspects which are decisive in helping Muslims find Christ and remain in him:

1.Speak in a way that Muslims understand. 'Canaanite' language is as much a hindrance as calling yourself a Christian, which is so culturally and historically laden that Muslims understand "A person with Western culture, ungodly and immoral." The word 'Isahi' (follower of Isa) is far better.

2.Cultural conformity is not a hindrance, but builds important bridges. Paul became a Jew to the Jews, and a Greek to the Greek. Followers of Jesus must learn to overcome their fear of the unknown and foreign cultures through love.

3.Send out early. Where Muslims who become Isahis are taught and sent out early, they win others to Christ and plant new churches, thus starting a movement with church multiplication as one of its basic principles. Christians who do not understand this and claim that these things need significantly more time are a serious hindrance, and should be avoided.

4."Please do not bring newly-saved Isahis to existing traditional churches!" advises Greeson. That tears them out of their cultural surroundings, and causes them to be rejected by their friends and family - exactly the people which a church planting movement should reach. A far better strategy is to start culturally relevant Jamaats (meetings). House churches provide an ideal structure. "So if Muslims do not come to church, we take the church to the Muslims!"

Source: Kevin Greeson, "Camel Training Manual", available from churchplantingmovements.com.
A summary of the CAMEL training is available at simsonwolfgang.com

http://www.bufton.net/fridayfax

Related Story: Millennium event: Muslims follow Jesus, Pt. 1 ... in case you missed it.

Welcome to the 21st century paradigm shift
-- from a "stock-driven era" to a new "commodity-driven era."
In "Economic Solutions for the 21st Century" you'll discover ...
* SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM ... A plan to unify America
* WHY YOU MUST OWN assets that offset a DECLINING DOLLAR
* WSJ SAYS: "You don't have to be rich to invest in COINS."
* WHY SILVER could rise to $50, $75 or even $100 per ounce.
* "ATOMIC IRAN" spells the beginning of a new U.S. "Dirty War"

David M. Bradshaw is Editor of REAL MONEY PERSPECTIVES, a new, syndicated daily financial/cultural news digest. In 2001, he published REDISCOVERING GOLD IN THE 21ST CENTURY: The Complete Guide to the Next Gold Rush and has been an economic commentator since 1987, when he produced the World Economic Perspectives radio show. In 2004, he produced "A CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO COUNTER-TERRORISM" a free-to-the-public educational resource on DVD and CD. In 2005, he released a new CD, "WHAT'S YOUR WORLDVIEW?" a one-hour CD sample from his 24-hour series, "THE BIG PICTURE: The Shape of Things to Come" discussing geopolitical, economic and spiritual trends in the 21st Century. MORE ... PERSONAL NOTE: Youngest daughter Braida Zoe (age 16 mo.) is now feeding herself, running, and yes, climbing everything. Shown with her mom (and loving wife) Micki among some bright Spring flowers!