Artikel von Dr. Firpo Carr

[Brigitte 58]

The King of Pop & Perfume?

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Elizabeth Taylor Transitions

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by Firpo Carr

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.Los Angeles Sentinel & Online Sentinel International

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March 31, 2011 - April 6, 2011

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Legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor, who was a very close friend of Michael Joseph Jackson, transitioned last week at age 79. "Gorgeous Liz Taylor last performed as an actress approximately 10 years ago," says one Internet source, "but she created a line of fragrances that will leave her scent lingering for many, many years to come." Have many savored her scents? "White Diamonds is one of her signature scents that is still a best seller, and together with her other brands Passion and Passion for Men, in 2010, brought in about $69 million retail, globally."

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Among the stellar parts she played Liz Taylor is notably famous for her role as Egyptian queen Cleopatra in a movie bearing that name (Cleopatra, 1963). Intriguingly, Ms. Taylor represents the nexus of "perfume," "Egypt," and the most famous "king" in history. Two different women--considerably more popular than Ms. Taylor--purchased Egyptian perfume and used it on the King far greater and infinitely more important than the King of Pop. (Lu 11:31) This King is Jesus Christ.

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Soothing Tears: Early in his earthly ministry Jesus visited a Pharisee. "Now a certain one of the Pharisees kept asking [Jesus] to dine with him. Accordingly he entered into the house of the Pharisee and reclined at the table. And, look! a woman who was known in the city to be a sinner learned that he was reclining at a meal in the house of the Pharisee, and she brought an alabaster case of perfumed oil, and, taking a position behind at his feet, she wept and started to wet his feet with her tears and she would wipe them off with the hair of her head. Also, she tenderly kissed his feet and greased them with the perfumed oil."--Lu 7:36-38, NWT.

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Although all major Bible translations accurately state that the weeping woman approached Jesus with "an alabaster case of perfumed oil," the African origin of the exotic product is not readily discernible. The Bible encyclopedia Insight on the Scriptures notes that alabaster is the "name of small perfume vaselike vessels originally made of a stone found near Alabastron, Egypt." It was much more expensive than Liz Taylor's line as just a small amount was roughly equivalent to a year's wage of a common laborer!

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Perfumed Oil: Near the end of his earthly ministry Jesus visited Bethany, the hometown of his close friends Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus. This "certain village" was "about two miles" from Jerusalem en route to Jericho. (Lu 10:38; Jo 11:1, 2, 5, 18, New World Translation) In fact, Jesus was "in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper when a woman [Mary] approached him as he was laying stretched out in a relaxed position at the table. She had costly perfumed oil with her, held in a small expensive stone jar imported from Alabastron, Egypt, in Africa. She began pouring it upon his head. Upon catching sight of this the disciples became incensed and said: ‘What a waste! This could've been sold for a lot of money to help poor people.'

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"Aware of this, Jesus said to them: ‘Why are you guys giving this woman a hard time? Her action toward me was a good thing. Poor people will always be around for you to assist. This is not so with me. Understand that when this woman applied perfumed oil upon my body, which is stretched out here and now, she was preparing for when it's stretched out for burial in the future. You can believe what I'm about to say as if it's already happened, Wherever this good news is preached in all the world, the story of what this woman did will be memorialized along with it.'"--Matt 26:6-13, Carr's Christian Bible.

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Both the weeping woman at "the house of the Pharisee" (Lu 7:36) and Mary of Bethany at "the house of Simon the leper" (Matt 26:6) used African oil on Jesus. In the first scenario the Pharisee quietly denounced both Jesus and the woman to himself (Lu 7:39), while in the second situation "the disciples became incensed" at Mary (Matt 26:8), further validating that these were two separate events.

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Conclusion: Michael loved the fragrant smell of Bible prophecy; a forecasting which has been described as history written in advance. He also recognized that Jehovah savors true worship as "a sweet-smelling odor." (Eph 5:1, NWT; Php 4:18; 2 Co 2:15) Peace, blessings, and sweet scents to all of you. Amen.

und vom Deal von Joe mit dem Parfüm hat er nichts zu sagen? Schade.

[tatiana thumbtzen]

Hi
Da mann hier ja nicht so gerne meine meinung über taitna und michael sehen will hallte ich mich kurz ich hab zwei dinge gelsen und möchte sie mit euch teilen

ich hab gelesen dass taitana und michael sogar in einem zimmer geschlafen haben während der tour aber ich halte dass für ein gerücht weil michael extrem scheu war
dann hab ich gelsen dass michael nach dem rauswurf von tatiana 3 tage mit keinem mehr gesprochen hat

wenn jemand sich mit mir über tatii und michael austauschen möchte dann schickt mir doch bitte ne pm

lg
Nina

[Steffi0711]

Hallo Hippo,

erst mal - ich möchte dir keine Verurteilung unterstellen.! Ich liess mich nur spontan von deinem Beitrag beeinflussen und als ich den Artikel las, konnte ich diese Einmischung der Eltern nicht so direkt feststellen. Es ist ja nun die Frage, ob diese Romanze die PResse durch die Eltern erfahren hat. Es war ja ein öffentlicher Kuss und vllt wusste die PResse ja auch schon etwas und sprach die Jacksons darauf an...?! Für Mama Katherine mit ihrem strengem Glauben war es möglicherweise wichtig, dass die Öffentlichkeit (und die war den JAcksons ja immer sehr wichtig..) weiss, dass Michael nicht irgendwen küsst, sondern eine Frau, die er liebt.

Daher kann ich das mit der Einmischung nicht so ganz verstehen. Ich hätte es schlimmer gefunden, wenn sie Michaels Liebe zu Tatjana geleugnet hätten, weil dadurch ja Michael Fans verlieren könnte. So war mein letzter Satz gemeint. Verstehst du, wie ich das meine?

Im übrigen schwankt mein Bild, die Eltern betreffend auch immer so hin und her. Mal ist es etwas besser, dann wieder nicht... Kürzlich sah ich wiedermal - Jetzt rede ich, wo Joe sagte, Bashit hätte ihn als Schläger dargestellt. Katherine sagte dann auch, Joe hätte nicht geschlagen, sondern gestraft. Schon in der Bibel steht, wer sein Kind liebt, bestraft es....

Ohne Worte...diesen Part hätte Michael bei der Doku lieber rauslassen sollen, denn es macht seine eigenen Worte unglaubwürdig....

Andererseits gibt es dann wieder Aussagen von den Eltern, die ich ganz ok finde. Es ist wirklich nicht leicht, hier objektiv zu sein, bei Menschen, die man nicht kennt....ÜBrigens das ging nicht gegen dich, sondern es ist echt nicht leicht, die Waage zu finden und vllt finden wir sie ja in der gemeinsamen Diskussion pro und contra.....

[Hippolytos]

Ich muss jetzt mal nachfragen, ob du weisst, wie sich Michaels Eltern hier eingemischt haben? Ja, sie haben es der PResse mitgeteilt, aber deshalb ist die Beziehung glaube ich nicht gescheitert. Soviel ich mich erinnere, war das wohl Dileo, der Tatjana nach diesem öffn.Kuss gefeuert haben soll...?!
Danach hat sich Tatjana wohl auch eigenartig in der Presse geäussert und Michael fühlte sich benutzt und zog sich zurück...?! So habe ich die Geschichte in Erinnerung....

Aber es ist wie immer, wir wissen auch hier nichts Genaueres und daher möchte ich nicht einfach die Jacksons verurteilen. Im Gegenteil, ich denke in dieser Branche ist so ein Mann um so lukrativer, wenn er noch allein ist.....

Hallo Steffi!
WIE sich Michaels Eltern eingemischt haben, hast Du doch selbst in Deinem nachfolgenden Satz geschrieben: Sie haben es der presse mitgeteilt.

Wenn da gar nichts lief zwischen Michael und Tatiana, dann ist es umso schlimmer, wenn Michaels Eltern der presse etwas erzählen, was nicht stimmt.

Ich habe jetzt dass, was Dr. Carr geschrieben hat seinem Artikel, als wahr unterstellt: Hier im Forum ist bekannt, dass er ein praktizierende Zeuge Jehovas ist und Herausgeber eines ZJ-Wochenblattes ist.
Ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, dass Carr als promovierter Irgendwas auf die Idee kommen könnte, dieses Wochenblatt auf Tabloid-Weise für seine Leser attraktiv gestalten zu müssen, indem er Liebesgeschichtchen erfindet. Auf solchem Niveau siedle ich den Dr. Carr für mich nicht an....
Und deshalb denke ich einfach, dass da was Wahres dran ist.

Du würdest mir auch Unrecht tun, wenn Du meinen Beitrag oben als "Verurteilung" von Michaels Eltern interpretierst! (dieser Begriff wird hier im Forum leider immer wieder als Allzweck-Abwehr-Waffe eingesetzt, wenn sich jemand gegenüber bestimmten Personen erlaubt, eine andere Meinung zu haben. Es ist eben eine andere Meinung, eine andere Sichtweise...schlimmstenfalls Missbilligung. Aber "Verurteilung" ist ein Begriff, der hier im Forum allzu oft nac Belieben kurzerhand einem User mit abweichender Meinung vorgehalten wird....ein beliebtes Mittel, um jemanden mundtot zu machen....)
Also: ich verurteile katherine und Joe nicht und schwinge mich nicht zur Richterin auf.....aber eine meinung habe ich, und ich nehme das Recht in Anspruch für mich, sie auch zu äußern.

jetzt bekomme ich aber den Borgen nicht mehr zu dem letzten Satz Deines Beitrags und frage nach:
Weil wir nichts Genaues wissen und Du die Jacksons nicht einfach verurteilen möchtest, denkst du im Gegenteil, dass ein Mann in der (Show-) Branche umso lukrativer ist, wenn er noch allein ist??????
Sehe den Zusammenhang nicht, wo ist das Gegenteil von was?????

Noch ein Nachtrag:
Ob da tatsächlich was mit zwischen Michael und Tatiana lief oder zu laufen sich anbahnte, warum das dann beendet wurde, Kuß auf der Bühne, DiLeo.....all das ist hier für mich nicht relevant, denn es geht nur um dieses Vorgreifen seitens Michael Eltern in einer Angelegenheit, die nur alleine Michael betraf.....es ging sie einfach nichts an.
meine Meinung - keine Verurteilung.

[Steffi0711]

Ich muß ehrlich sagen, dass ich in letzter zeit langsam verrückt werde weil ich immer wieder lese, wo und in welche persönlichsten Sachen Michaels sich seine Eltern wahrlich nicht zu seinem Besten eingemischt haben!

Ich muss jetzt mal nachfragen, ob du weisst, wie sich Michaels Eltern hier eingemischt haben? Ja, sie haben es der PResse mitgeteilt, aber deshalb ist die Beziehung glaube ich nicht gescheitert. Soviel ich mich erinnere, war das wohl Dileo, der Tatjana nach diesem öffn.Kuss gefeuert haben soll...?!
Danach hat sich Tatjana wohl auch eigenartig in der Presse geäussert und Michael fühlte sich benutzt und zog sich zurück...?! So habe ich die Geschichte in Erinnerung....

Aber es ist wie immer, wir wissen auch hier nichts Genaueres und daher möchte ich nicht einfach die Jacksons verurteilen. Im Gegenteil, ich denke in dieser Branche ist so ein Mann um so lukrativer, wenn er noch allein ist.....

[ulla]

Könnt Ihr Euch vorstellen,wie groß seine Entäuschung war, als er feststellte, dass er von der Familie nur ausgenutzt wurde.
Und das gleiche, jetzt, nach seinem Tod, mit seinen Kindern gemacht wird.
Ich verabscheue deren Verhalten zutiefst und hoffe das eines der Kinder von Michael begreift was da abläuft.

[Christine3110]

Michael told the world: "I didn't think any woman could affect me like this. I'm really in love with her."

das ist wohl damals an mir vorbei gegangen...lol

So kommt mir das vor: Als hätten sie Michael immer und bis zu seinem letzten Tag wie ein unmündiges Kind gesehen.

Ich würde sagen, eher wie einen nützlichen Gebrauchsgegenstand, universell einsetzbar... u.a. zur Geldbeschaffung.

[Hippolytos]

Love Interrupted: Michael told the world: "I didn't think any woman could affect me like this. I'm really in love with her." Joseph and Katherine Jackson, Michael's parents, phoned into The Maury Povich Show to state that Michael was indeed in love with Tatiana. So, what happened? As Tatiana states on the back cover of her book, "The genesis of a fairytale love affair began slowly transforming into a nightmare. The Hollywood script would read: ‘The exuberant bride-to-be morphed into the lovelorn queen denied her crown.'"

Das kann man sich wirklich fragen, Christine.....Aber nach meinem Eindruck ist der von mir fett markierte der Satz, den Dr. Carr mal laut aussprechen wollte.

Ich muß ehrlich sagen, dass ich in letzter zeit langsam verrückt werde weil ich immer wieder lese, wo und in welche persönlichsten Sachen Michaels sich seine Eltern wahrlich nicht zu seinem Besten eingemischt haben!

Das ist ja nun kein Tatjana-Thread, aber stellt Euch mal vor, diese Geschichte mit den beiden hätte sich entwickeln können: Damals war Michael noch völlig unbeschwert und offen.
Ich füge Euch hier mal 2 Fotos bei von den beiden. Sicher, sie posieren....aber seht Euch an, wie Michael Tatjana anschaut....bilde ich mir ein, dass es etwas über "Pose" hinausging?

Ich verstehe das nicht: Ihr Sohn war erwachsen, er hatte ein eigenes Leben....wie kann man bloß auf so einen Gedanken kommen, so eine ureigenste Angelegenheit von Michael einfach der Presse mitzuteilen....in damit in die Enge zu treiben, damit über ihn hinweg einfach etwas auszuplaudern?
Michael war doch kein kleiner Junge mehr, von dem die Mütter stolz berichten konnte "Er geht jetzt schon aufs Töpfchen"!

So kommt mir das vor: Als hätten sie Michael immer und bis zu seinem letzten Tag wie ein unmündiges Kind gesehen.

Kann da gar nicht drüber nachdenken....

[Christine3110]

Wieso macht er Werbung für Tatiana's Buch

[Brigitte 58]

[Url] http://www.firpocarr.com/article.html [/ url]
Michael & Tatiana

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The untold story of love interrupted

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by Firpo Carr

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.Los Angeles Sentinel & Online Sentinel International

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March 24 - 30, 2011

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Global fans of the video The Way You Make Me Feel (1988) starring Michael Joseph Jackson and Tatiana Yvonne (then Thumbtzen) wish they could be here in Los Angeles when the reclusive Tatiana signs her long-awaited paperback, Michael & Tatiana--The King of My Heart ($24.95) at Eso Won Books (323.290.1048) on Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at 6:30 pm. Are people really interested in the pair? The video has scored over 26 million hits and counting! Noting that Michael's famous first kiss in public was with Tatiana, one British newspaper quoted him as saying, "I'm really in love with her." Not only did the paper call Tatiana MJ's "new love," it went on to say that he "flipped for 25-year-old Tatiana the moment she showed up to audition for his video The Way You Make Me Feel nine months ago." But who was Tatiana before she met Michael?

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Ballerina Fame: It may come as a surprise to some that Tatiana enjoyed "stardom" long before she ever met Michael. For instance, as a budding ballerina at age 10 she caught the eye of international superstar ballerina Viollete Verdy, who eventually offered her a Ford Foundation scholarship to attend The School of American Ballet at Julliard in New York. There she danced before the great George Balanchine. Tatiana learned ballet from Alexandra Danilova and also attracted the attention of the incomparable Mikhail Baryshnikov.

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Michael and his people knew none of this when he selected her out of 200 females who auditioned to play his opposite in The Way You Make Me Feel. Once he heard she was a ballerina in her youth he excitedly asked, "You wore point shoes and danced on your toes?" "Yes, I did," she answered. His simple response? "Wow!"

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Modeling & More: As if her ballerina "fame" weren't enough, renowned photographer Barry Lategan (he discovered Twiggy, and photographed the likes of Princess Anne, Paul and Linda McCartney, Iman, Calvin Klein, John Major, Margaret Thatcher, Salman Rushdie and others) chose Tatiana for a special layout of Modern Brides Magazine. And not only did Harry Belafonte rave over her and subsequently cast her in a movie, he sent her to an exclusive audition before Sidney Poitier in his office. Herbie Hancock chose her to star in his Hard Rock video, the one he made before his record setting MTV award-winning Rockit video.

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As a model she became one of "Antonio's Girls." As she says in her book: "Antonio Lopez was a very famous fashion illustrator whose illustrations regularly appeared in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle', and the New York Times." Who else qualified to be among "Antonio's Girls"? Well, he discovered Jerry Hall, Jessica Lange, Tina Chow, Pat Cleveland, and Grace Jones. Years before she met Michael Tatiana appeared in People magazine with Antonio and some of his famous models.

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Enquiring Minds: What happened when Tatiana and Lisa Marie Presley came face to face? What did Jermaine Jackson tell BET about Michael and Tatiana? What does 2010 Dancing With The Stars champion Jennifer Grey have in common with Tatiana? What did Mick Jagger discuss as Tatiana sat across from him in the studio? What did Paula Abdul say about Tatiana? What did Sylvester Stallone say to Tatiana when in a restaurant together? What did Tatiana own that Rod Stewart wanted so badly he offered her money for it? Did Brooke Shields and Tatiana have a confrontation when they met? What was said between Diana Ross and Tatiana when they met backstage with Michael? Finally, after one of her accomplices fought with security, Tatiana and her friends were hauled off to jail in a pattywagon! While they were under surveillance, they tried to make a run for it! What happened? The answers to all these questions are in her new book!

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Love Interrupted: Michael told the world: "I didn't think any woman could affect me like this. I'm really in love with her." Joseph and Katherine Jackson, Michael's parents, phoned into The Maury Povich Show to state that Michael was indeed in love with Tatiana. So, what happened? As Tatiana states on the back cover of her book, "The genesis of a fairytale love affair began slowly transforming into a nightmare. The Hollywood script would read: ‘The exuberant bride-to-be morphed into the lovelorn queen denied her crown.'"

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It was particularly painful to learn that Michael had discussed her with a close friend shortly before he passed. To purchase the exciting new book online go to http://firpocarr.com/michaelandtatianabook.html.

[Brigitte 58]

http://www.firpocarr.com/article.html

Earth Song? Earth Quake!

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The precision of prophecy

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by Firpo Carr

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.Los Angeles Sentinel & Online Sentinel International

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March 17 - 23, 2011

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On Thursday, March 10, 2011, the Earth sang a deadly dirge as an eerie gloom casted it ominous shadow on "The Land of the Rising Sun," the island nation of Japan. When a record 8.9 earthquake rocked the country thousands of lives were unceremoniously snuffed out. It has been described as being ‘hundreds of times worse' than the earthquake that rocked Haiti.

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The "Ring of Fire" that includes Japan not only strangled our dear Japanese brothers and sisters, but it also spread its noose around the globe as the news of the earthquake placed a stranglehold on the world's attention. Disturbingly, experts say "Japan's ‘great' quake may be yet to come." This echoes seismologists' sentiments about California. Could a collective mega quake be what the inspired apostle John saw in a vision relative to our day when he said "a great earthquake occurred such as had not occurred since men came to be on the earth, so extensive an earthquake, so great"?--Re 16:17-21, New World Translation.

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Enemy Earth?: Though some well-meaning organized protesters take extreme measures to protect the environment (measures so drastic that some protesting groups, along with certain anti-abortionists groups, have ended up on the government's domestic terrorist list), it seems Mother Earth is fully capable of ‘defending' herself. Instead of The Empire Strikes Back, maybe it should be The Earth Strikes Back! Imagine that. The very terra firma itself, which has been supporting you all your life, suddenly becomes your enemy through "natural disasters."

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Liquid Earth: Unimaginably, any major earthquake can ripple into even more earthquakes (commonly called "aftershocks"), and in some cases, eventually terminate in terrifying tsunamis. Since planet earth is mostly water, an "earth" quake, in reality, can easily translate into a "water" quake (or the previously mentioned tsunami with its destructive ebb and flow of the shoreline, preceded by a gargantuan wave that traveled in excess of 500 miles per hour, leaving in its wake vortexes, or mid-ocean underwater tornadoes near Japan.)

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While the earth also "quakes" in landslides, an "iced" earth "quakes" whenever an avalanche occurs. And then there's earth in the form of hot liquid rock or magma. Indeed, we have vicious volcanoes that spew lava hundreds of feet in the air!

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A Resilient Earth: "There is abundant proof of the earth's ability to restore itself," says Awake! December 22, 1975. "For instance, have you heard of the island of Krakatoa, near Java? It was blown up by a volcanic explosion equal to a 10,000-megaton H-bomb. What remained was just sterilized land covered by ashes and pumice. But would Krakatoa remain a heap of lifeless ash? Biologists watched to see. Within three years, twenty-six species of plants reestablished themselves. Ten years more brought coconut trees, wild sugarcane and orchids. And twelve years more found 263 species of animals there. Even without man's help it became once again a tropical paradise of forests and lovely birds."

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Faith Firmly Grounded: As one of Jehovah's Witnesses, Michael Joseph Jackson, who sang Earth Song (1995), preached that an unusual series of "earthquakes" would be part of a composite sign marking the "last days." (Matt 24:7; 2Ti 3:1) Incredibly, the Bible links "natural disasters" like earthquakes to mankind's wickedness. That this correlation is sound can be seen from the fact that in the future paradise earth such catastrophic events won't occur.

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Cindy Preller, a scientist at the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, says that seismology is "a young science," and thereafter candidly admitted that "every event teaches us something new." Verifying this is this recent letter from Japan. "Japan is very used to [tsunamis] but nothing like this tsunami ever happened before. Japan is used to earthquakes but nothing like this has ever happened before ... Many people who did have ... survival food supplies still lost everything because their entire house floated away. It seems the people in the hills are the ones who have more supplies so it is good to think WHERE or with whom some emergency supplies can be stored safely."

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Despite tsunami surges leading to heart-wrenching dirges, standing firm in the faith is essential. (Ac 16:5; 1 Co 16:13; Php 1:17; 1 Thess 3:7, 8; 1 Pe 5:8-11) Psalm 46:1, 2, reminds us: "God is for us a refuge and strength, a help that is readily to be found during distresses. That is why we shall not fear, though the earth undergo change and though the mountains totter into the heart of the vast sea." Peace and blessings to all. Amen.

[Brigitte 58]

http://www.firpocarr.com/article.html

[Brigitte 58]

http://firpocarr.com/article.html

[Brigitte 58]

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[Brigitte 58]

[Url] http://firpocarr.com/article.html [/ url]
The King of Pop & the Police

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Law enforcement and public dis-trust?

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by Firpo Carr

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.Los Angeles Sentinel & Online Sentinel International

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February 17 - 23, 2011

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Michael Joseph Jackson greatly admired police officers, proudly posing with men and women of law enforcement wearing dark shades as wave after wave of camera flashes captured frozen moments in time. The stash of photos with cops from Detroit, Michigan, to Bucharest, Romania, attests to the King of Pop's lively curiosity of the police. Of course, as one of Jehovah's Witnesses he was taught to respect duly constituted authority as did Christians in the first century. (Ro 13:1-5) Centuries prior, God's faithful servant Nehemiah acted as a law enforcer. To person's breaking God's Sabbath law he warned: "If you do this again, I will arrest you!" (Ne 13:21, New Living Translation) With others, more acute measures were taken in order to save lives that were notably endangered spiritually: "And I took up the cause against them, cursing them and giving blows to some of them and pulling out their hair."--Ne 13:21, Bible in Basic English.

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Police Brutality?: It's doubtful that former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge had the spirituality of Black men in mind when he brutalized and tortured them. For decades African American males arrested by Burge charged him and his "Midnight Crew" of detectives with abuse. All the while, "Burge denied that officers ever abused suspects in custody," says Courthouse News Service, "but evidence at a 2003 trial showed that he suffocated suspects with plastic bags, shocked them with electrical devices and put loaded guns to their heads."

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"I'm a white boy from the suburbs who has no idea what living on the South Side of Chicago in the 1970s felt like," writes Matt Kelley, the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project. But he acknowledges that Burge played a "role in torturing more than a hundred suspects, almost all of them black, and many of them completely innocent." In fact, Burge tortured "dozens of people into false confessions that sent them to prison for life." Anthony Holmes, 64, served 10 years after Burge electric-shocked and smothered him before he confessed to murder, and Mark Clements did 28 years after similarly being tortured. Both feel Burge, now serving 4.5 years in federal prison, got off light.

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Smoke Screen?: Locally, a Black officer with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) killed Reggie Doucet Jr., also Black. "Whenever officers use deadly force," explains LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck, "the LAPD's Force Investigation Division (FID) conducts an extensive and thorough investigation. Next, a Use of Force Review (UOFR) Board is convened ... The Board submits its findings and recommendations to me, the Chief of Police, and I review the case. I have to decide whether the force was within Department policy and the law, and present my findings and recommendations to the Board of Police Commissioners. The L.A. County District Attorney's Office independently investigates the use of force, as does the Inspector General (IG), which monitors the ongoing investigation and conducts its own independent review. Both are totally separate from the LAPD." But, regrettably, the LAPD has taken steps to hamper past IG investigations.

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"While both Mr. Doucet and the officer involved in this incident are African-American," notes Beck, "some have alleged race played a role." The Chief says this is unlikely. However, I caution him to eschew fallacious reasoning. You don't have to be White to promote racist causes on a national scale no more so than you have to be American to champion America's agenda on a global scale. The deeply entrenched grip of systemic, institutionalized racism can easily be the force behind the Black finger that squeezes the trigger of the gun that kills a Black suspect.

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And more often than not, city, county, state, and federal investigations are a matter of the fox guarding the hen house. Los Angeles, like Chicago and most other cities, largely defends officers' actions in court, especially during the current fiscal downturn. For example, though Burge, a 23-year veteran, was fired in 1993 because of abuse allegations, the City of Chicago backed him for years, consistently denying liability. This reality does not inspire public trust and confidence.

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Michael also charged police with misconduct. But he took courage in knowing that Jehovah warned wayward authority figures claiming to serve him: "Learn to do good; search for justice; set right the oppressor; render judgment." (Isa 1:17, New World Translation) Ultimately, good will prevail over evil. Peace and blessings to good cops, innocent Black men, and everyone ‘searching for justice.' Amen.