* Bernard Madoff: stole billions upon billions of dollars through his Madoff Investment Securities hedge fund Ponzi scheme which paid out suspiciously high returns. Funds actually stolen from investors may top $17 billion, with some wealthy individuals, banks, universities, hospitals, other funds, and charities losing as much as hundreds of millions each. Other massive Ponzi schemes have been dwarfed by Madoff's Ponzi scheme which in turn is dwarfed by the U.S. government's Social Security Ponzi scheme. While part of Madoff's business was regulated and the larger part unregulated, that still, government insurance of investments and regulations erases the healthy marketplace pressure that would otherwise exist if tens of millions of families and businesses did their due diligence to be sure that their banks, investment firms, etc., were fiscally sound. The SEC ignored the complaints about Madoff it received over the years partly because it was regulating other peoples' financial interests.
* LA Times Quotes Mormon Prophet: six years ago Bob Enyart debated polygamist Leland Freeborn, the "prophet" now quoted in the LA Times predicting that a disaster will prevent Barack Obama from taking office. Bob talks about the unscriptural phenomena of modern-day prophets. Over the years Bible students eager to understand the scriptural basis for Christianity's modern prohibition of polygamy have greatly appreciated the Enyart/Freeborn Polygamy Debate.
* The Al Gore Effect: reminiscent of something said by John Zyrkowski, author of It's the SUN not your SUV, the Associated Press reported on Al Gore's warning Barack Obama about global warming, the AP report being issued in the midst of one of the most severe deep freezes to hit the country in decades, and the AP claims the fact that "2008 is on pace to be a slightly cooler year... actually illustrates how fast the world is warming. :) "We're out of time," the AP quotes Stanford University biologist Terry Root as saying. Yes, the colder it gets, the harder it'll be to foist their global warming scare on people. Meanwhile, here in Denver, the National Weather Service established a new record low temperature, -18, for Dec. 14 breaking the old record of -14 degrees set in 107 years ago. And mean, meanwhile, New England is on the verge of another ice age :) . And mean, mean, meanwhile our BEL friends listening in Montana are also cold! The Great Falls Tribune reports a temperature of 29 degrees below zero in White Sulphur Springs, way below the last record low of -17 degrees set in 1922. And by the way, did you hear about the new Global Positioning System weather gathering technology that obtains sophisticated weather data from the interference in the GPS signals that blanket the earth? Cool! That'll turn up the heat on the global warming end-of-the-world doomsayer prophets.
* Madonna You Hypocritical Pig Update: On Oct. 20 BEL characterized Madonna as a hypocritical pig for criticizing her husband in divorce papers alleging that he looks at waitresses, this from a woman who has made millions enticing the husbands of other women to watch her parade around naked. Apparently, even she realized she didn't have much of a case and settled her divorce with some guy named Ritchie for $76 million.
* Anti-kidnapping expert kidnapped: A well-known anti-kidnapping expert has been kidnapped in Mexico. The FBI and Mexican police are working the case, but would not say whether any ransom demand has been received. Word on the street is that in lieu of a ransom, the kidnappers are demanding that Felix Batista retire :)
BEL Indiana Seminars: Bob Enyart is coming to Indiana, Goshen in the evening of Jan. 29th and Indianapolis on Saturday January 31st, to present a brand new BEL Seminar titled Hermeneutics: Tools for Studying the Bible. Learn how to use tools of interpretation as you study the Bible. And as importantly, Bob will discuss the principles involved for prioritizing these hermeneutics and how to decide which tool to use in which instance. You'll love it! Click for more info and to register please call 1-800-8Enyart!
Today's Resource: You might enjoy reading Bob's book-length debate, Does God Exist? Remember, unlike virtually any other publisher, BEL offers a money-back guarantee if not satisfied! However, we're usually perfectly satisfied with your money :) Actually, if YOU are not satisfied, you can return any particular BEL resource for a full refund! Do you hope to move someone from unbelief to trusting in Christ? That typically involves breaking down both pride and misconceptions. You do NOT need anything from BEL to accomplish this! You can use prayer and the Scriptures. But if you would like some help from BEL, you could consider how the five powerful titles in the BEL Evangelism Pack can help someone decide to convert to Christianity! Also through January 2009, please request our thank you Walt Brown gift set for a donation of $100 or more to BEL, and we will send you:
- the BRAND NEW hardcopy 8th Edition of Walt's watershed book, In The Beginning (for you to keep)
- the hardcopy 7th Edition of Walt's book (for you to give as a gift to someone, it's FABULOUS TOO)
- and the Walt Brown Week CD so you can hear Dr. Brown talk through the key concepts of creation!