Income Tax Declared Illegal

The Internal Revenue Service has lost a lawyer's challenge in front of a jury to prove a constitutional foundation for the nation's income tax, and the victorious attorney now is setting his sights higher. "I think now people are beginning to realize that this has got to be the largest fraud, backed up by intimidation and extortion and by the sheer force of taking peoples property and hard-earned money without any lawful authorization whatsoever," lawyer Tom Cryer said just days after a jury in Louisiana acquitted him of two criminal tax counts. And before you consign him to the legions of "tin foil hat brigades" who argue against paying taxes, and then want payment to explain how to do that, he addresses the issue up front.

The truth, he said, is where he comes in, with the launch of a new Truth Attack website that is intended to build on his victory, and create a coalition of resources to defeat – ultimately – the income tax in the United States. "The Founding Fathers intentionally restricted the taxing powers of the new federal government as a measure of restraint on its size. By exceeding that limited taxing authority the federal government has been able to obtain resources beyond its intended reach, and that money has enabled the federal government to exceed its authority," he said. For example, he said, the Constitution does not empower the federal government to regulate education, or employment, and agriculture, yet it does so.

• JJ Commentary: Read the Constitution. It never authorized an income tax nor most of the things the federal government now takes for granted.

Avian Excuses

A multinational business agenda is driving the upcoming summit meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, according to a document obtained through an Access to Information Act request in Canada. The memo shows a secondary focus of the leaders' meeting in Montebello, Quebec, Aug. 20-21, will be to prepare for a continental avian flu or human pandemic and establish a permanent continental emergency management coordinating body to deal not only with health emergencies but other unspecified emergencies as well.

President Bush, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexico's President Felipe Calderon will attend the third SPP summit. The memo noted the ministers agreed at their Feb. 23 meeting to finalize by June a plan to create a coordinating body to prepare for the "North American response to an outbreak of avian or pandemic influenza." The leaders are expected to finalize the plan at the August summit.

• JJ Commentary: The New World (Dis)Order will use issues like bird flu and global warming to hasten their agenda of establishing regional governments (first the European Union, next the North American Union ) on their way to the one-world government prophesied by the Bible in Revelation 13.

False Peace

JERUSALEM (AP) — Arab League envoys paid a historic visit to Israel on Wednesday to present a plan calling for a comprehensive regional settlement, saying they were extending "a hand of peace" on behalf of the Arab world. The visit by the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan marked the first time the 22-member group has sent representatives to Israel. The Arab League peace plan envisions full recognition of Israel in return for an Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

"We are extending a hand of peace on behalf of the whole region to you, and we hope that we will be able to create the momentum needed to resume fruitful and productive negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world, Jordan's foreign minister, Abdul-Ilah Khatib, said at a news conference with Israeli President Shimon Peres. The visit, a day after the maiden voyage of new Mideast peace envoy Tony Blair, is part of a flurry of diplomatic efforts meant to restart peace talks after a seven-year lull.

• JJ Commentary: Seemingly a praise report. However, God is still not in favor of Israel trading His land for illusory peace. In the end, Islam demands the total destruction of Israel and the taking of all her lands.

Reason Over Truth

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush's nominee to become the next surgeon general said Thursday he would resign rather than allow politics to push aside science. At his Senate confirmation hearing, Dr. James W. Holsinger sought to offered assurance that he would be a strong voice for public health, unswayed by political ideology, and to answer criticism of his past writings. He said a controversial 1991 paper about homosexuality and health no longer represents his views.

Committee Chairman Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said he was worried that if confirmed, Holsinger would let his own ideological beliefs cloud his scientific judgment. He referred to the paper that Holsinger wrote on homosexuality for a study committee of the United Methodist Church. "Dr. Holsinger's paper is ideological and decidedly not an accurate analysis of the science then available on homosexuality," Kennedy said. "Dr. Holsinger's paper cherry picks and misuses data to support his thesis that homosexuality is unhealthy and unnatural."

• JJ Commentary: Sad. The worship of reason over God’s absolute truth prevails once again.

The Church Abandons its Roots

A Geneva-based church body said Monday it would launch a global initiative to have churches worldwide rally for an end to Israel's occupation of Arab lands seized in the 1967 Mideast war. The World Council of Churches said in a statement that it designated Jordan as a venue for its initiative, which would enlist support from religious groups worldwide. "The initiative aims at calling on all churches to work seriously for putting an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands," the statement said. The World Council of Churches, founded in 1948, groups 347 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing over 560 million Christians in more than 110 countries.

• JJ Commentary: How can such an un-Biblical viewpoint be expounded by Christian groups??

States' Rights Over Partental Rights?

The Maryland State Board of Education has ruled that the right of the state supersedes the rights of parents in teaching children about homosexuality. The Board said the "right (of parents) is not absolute. It must bend to the State's duty to educate its citizens." The ruling means that the teaching of homosexuality as an accepted and approved lifestyle in Maryland public schools can move forward. Very important! Some professionals feel that the Maryland curriculum could become the model for promoting the homosexual lifestyle in public schools across the nation.

The new policy prohibits any unfavorable view of homosexuality from being presented. A video for use with eighth-graders instructs students on how to put on a condom. The Board has been trying to incorporate the promotion of homosexuality into their sex-education classes. A federal judge overturned a previous attempt to include the promotion of homosexuality because of the curriculum's expressed hostility toward Christianity. But in approving the new curriculum, the Board refused to hear arguments from those who oppose the promotion of homosexuality in the classroom.

• JJ Commentary: It is a very dangerous precedent for states’ rights to trump parental rights. The loss of individual freedom in America continues to accelerate down this slippery slope.

Slippery Slope

LONDON (Reuters) — World oil demand will rise faster than expected to 2012 while production lags, leading to a supply crunch, the International Energy Agency said Monday. The outlook, which updates an IEA forecast from February, coincides with a jump in oil prices to more than $75 a barrel, closing in on a record high near $79, on concerns of a tightening market. The Paris-based IEA also said additional global refining capacity over the next five years will lag earlier expectations as rising costs and a shortage of engineers delay construction.

The report points to a greater reliance on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the source of more than a third of the world's oil. While foreseeing higher demand, the IEA expects less supply to come from producers outside OPEC and the agency also trimmed a forecast for the 12-member group's unused production capacity. Lower supply from non-OPEC countries and rising demand will boost the requirement for OPEC oil.

• JJ Commentary: Oil will be one of the primary Islamic weapons in the months and years to come.