World (begins to) end on Thursday.....and other news. Plus a song.

I haven't read any newspapers this morning, so I'm probably missing a HUGE story.

I do know Sir Doug Graham has resigned as Chair of the failed finance company Lombard Finance. I have a lot of respect for Graham as he was the Minister of Justice in the last National government who oversaw the move to MMP and also the Treaty Settlements minister who moved the treaty settlements process into a higher gear.

On to the real news: The world begins to end on Thursday.

Yes. You've (probably) heard it here first. "Church of God" pastor, Ronald Weinland is telling anyone who will listen that the end time is here and now. In fact, in this radio interview with a UK Sports station last week, he declares that the first of the "Seven Trumpets" heralding the end times will occur in the Middle East on April 17th. Day after tomorrow. As I write this post, Mr. Weinland is likely on board a jet making his way there to bear witness. Now I'm not sure which one of the 400-ish "Church of God" fragments Weinlands leads. After Worldwide Church of God founder, Herbert W Armstrong, died in 1986 and his son, Garner Ted Armstrong, was discredited through gambling and sex romps with co-eds at the church's "Ambassador College", the church sort of fell apart.

Anyway, Weinland says we will see the first of the "Seven Trumpets" day after tomorrow, then the proverbial will REALLY hit the fan in 2008 and by the end of this year we will see the "the demise of the United States and beginning of man's final war." Ultimately, I think he says there are supposed to be maybe 3,000 people who will go forward into the new world after the apocalypse to come. I may be a bit hazy on the details here as these "Noah's Ark" earth-cleansing apocalypses tend to blur one into the other. You can download Robert Weinland's book here. It's in English, Dutch, Spanish and Italian, so presumably these folks will have an edge as the lights go out. You best get to it or you may not have time to finish it unless you're among the 3,000 in which case it will be history not prophecy, so why bother.

The YouTube version:



Savage Teen Beating and Aftermath

The other news item that got me this weekend comes from the United States. Eight teenagers (6 females / two males) invited a girl they all knew over to one of their grandparents home then proceeded to beat the living daylights out of her in a sustained attack over a 30-minute period. She suffered concussion and bruising over her entire body. They could have killed her. They videoed the whole thing so they could upload it to YouTube or whatever later. This Fox News item on Youtube is one of the better overviews I've seen of this horrifying crime. (Fox? Yeah...I know). Don't watch if you're squeamish. It's not pretty.



The US public is outraged and some are baying for more blood - this time the perps'. The parents of the perpetrators are defensive and obviously shell-shocked. This article on Tampa Bay Online is fairly comprehensive with respect to the response. If you've been following it, you've seen the court appearance and the circus surrounding the release of each on bail. The parents of the victim, understandably and justifiably distraught, blame the Internet for what happened.

It gets worse. A US-based talk-show host known as "Dr. Phil" has apparently paid for or otherwise secured the bail of one of the girls charged in return for an exclusive on her story. The video of a Dr. Phil minder blocking access to the girl by other media is eye-opening on several levels.

I'm hoping this whole episode of teenage rage doesn't become a political football. Gangs of kids have been beating on other kids since forever. It's not right. Never was right. The media circus around this story is bad enough without the additonal dimension of cheque-book pseudo-journalism causing more damage to all concerned - perps, victim, the parents of both, while the "blame the internet" knee-jerk mantra gets more tuneless utterance.

Zimbabwe

Looks like the expected partial recount in the presidential election in Zimbabwe will give the Mugabe regime one more opportunity to stuff the ballot boxes enough to see their man win. Voters are already being softened up by a preliminary campaign of violence and intimidation. The opposition has called for a general strike to begin today. Mugabe's forces are mobilising to meet the challenge, setting up police checkpoints.

South African President, Thabo Mbeke, who had attempted to mediate and been ignored by Mugabe, has proven himself yet again to be an impotent apologist for Mugabe. It is damaging Mbeke's reputation at home

What would you do if you lived there? Would you have yet reached the point where you could no longer afford to be beaten down? Would you be at the point where you felt you had nothing to lose?

I guess we'll find out over the next several days.

...and now the song....

Meanwhile, this song intruded into my world today and I decided I really like it. Have a listen if you haven't already. The band is Opshop and the song is "One Day".