In politics, a moderate is an individual who holds the middle position between those generally classified as being right-wing or conservative and those seen as left-wing or liberal. Currently, there are a significant number of members in both houses of Congress that can be classified as moderates. Whether they are affiliated with the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, their ideals and objectives tie them closer to one another than their own party affiliation.

The moderation or movement to a more centrist approach by these members, has become more apparent in the wake of 911 and the war in Iraq; where as some Democrats have opted to support a more military approach to the ongoing conflict, while some Republicans have favored a more diplomatic approach.

Many moderates now have ideologies that are a blend of what has traditionally been considered Republican and Democratic notions.

Another reason for their increased transparency is the fact that segments in both the Republican and Democratic Party have moved further away from one another to the extent that they can be easily identified and classified as either being far-right or far-left. This shift away from a more centrist approach to party politics has created the perfect opportunity for a genuine and viable third party to emerge and take root in America.

The moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans need only to come together around this idea and unite under a new platform, establishing a new political party, powerful enough to rival both the Republican and Democratic Party.

The stock market experts coined a new word. TERRORIST PREMIUM. They say that terrorist premium on oil prices is as much as 15 dollars per barrel or about 20% of the price of Oil. More than the terrorists or terrorism, this premium is killing people silently. Terrorist threats and actions can cause temporary set back. They never succeeded so far in achieving any of their aims. The terrorist outrages in the world are drawing condemnation from all quarters even from those who sympathize with their causes. Only to grab world headlines they plan some dastardly acts. They can neither break the will of people or the governments.

Support to terrorists is on the wane and they are on the run. No nation has the courage to own up the terrorists or their causes however much fanatic its mindset is. The world is at peace as like never before with foes turning into friends i.e. USA, RUSSIA, CHINA mainly. All the powers in the world vow to fight the menace of terrorism.The oil producing nations are not threatening with disruption of supplies at all. The sea-lanes carrying oil are safe and secure.Therefore the surge in oil prices for what is called as terrorist premium is shameful exploitation and extortion by those in oil trade. We must discount the so-called premium on terror in respect of oil prices completely. If need be trading in futures in oil and commodities must be banned till so called premium turns into discount and the oil prices or commodity prices are dictated by demand and supply considerations and not based on the perceived threat perception of oil traders to oil supplies. Let us understand that there is no danger to Oil or commodity supplies at all. There is no threat from oil producing nations to stop oil exports nor any threat exists for the near future.

All the countries have powerful resources at their disposal to ward off any terrorist threat to disrupt the Oil supplies. It is a mere figment of imagination of the traders who want to benefit from the slightest tensions any where in the world. Let us not pay a hefty premium on oil and let us evolve methods and means that ensure fair prices for oil based on actual demand /supply conditions and not on terrorist threats.This surge in oil prices is terrorizing people much more than the terrorists or their threats. Once we evolve mechanisms that safeguard us against such premiums, the oil prices will automatically fall to realistic levels and give relief to the people around the world.Leaders around the world must act immediately to cool the oil markets and make them see the reason. Ban the futures trading in Oil immediately for some time

Issue joint declarations with oil producing countries that there is no threat to oil supplies.

Send the message clear and wide that the sea-lanes are well protected and the terrorists have no means to disrupt the oil supplies.

Encourage dialogue process without taking sides and help the parties to settle the disputes amicably.

Make all out efforts to discount the terrorist threat by all means

Make it clear to the traders that profiting from premiums on such perceived threats is not correct.Let the common man and nations not bleed.

How good was the Budget-2007 presented yesterday by Mr. P Chidambaram? This was the question that was running all over the place yesterday. The final verdict came down to a great Thumbs Down to the Finance Minister. The main reason for these thumbs down from the middle class is the fact that there was no tax exemption method added. The media is more concerned with the lack of Reforms and the slight increase in Taxation on the BPO and IT industry.

This puts in effect the core question about Budget Any budget which does not decrease my Tax Burden is a bad budget? The majority answer seems to be a rousing YES to this question. I have some conversation (maybe you can call it as debates) with my friends about this. In my opinion any Budget which does not drastically increase my Tax Burden is a Good Average Budget . My friends and majority of the public in India seems to disagree strongly with this. One of the points raised against paying the taxes is the lack of facility provided by the Government for the ordinary Man. Another point which is more constantly raised is the corruption in the system, because of which the end user (the poor of this country) does not get benefited by the all measures that are announced in Budget. Yesterday I was watching a program in CNBC-TV18; there also the earlier mentioned two points came into discussion. I have to say I was very much satisfied by the answer given by the FICCI chairman in the second concern s context. The bottom line is that we cannot stop spending because our delivery system is corrupt to the core; moreover it s not the Finance Minister s job to tackle corruption especially in Budget. There is no doubt that the corruption in this country is reaching alarming proportion, is the Government the only person to be blamed? No absolutely not. Every one of us has to be blamed for this. Why we always take the option of bribing officials to get our things done. Why can t we follow the more honest path?

Everyone points to Japan and West to shows how things have to be done. The major difference between people in those countries to us is the attitude of the people. Indian media has an addiction to the word Reforms and yesterday they especially CNBC were more concerned with that. Even one of their reporters raised this question to the Finance Minister. His answer was more from a Man who was rightly irritated. The point he raised where Why the main stream Media not consider anything done in Agriculture and Public Health department as a part of Reforms? Why only the things that are concerned with the Corporate World qualify under the word Reforms? These questions were absolutely right but were addressed at the wrong media. Today s Media belongs to the corporate world and they report the events from their own perspective, not from an ideal perspective. Major concerns were raised about the FM s inability to include public Health and Education in the so called Reform platter. Public Health department provide the cheapest means of health care for a wide variety of people in this country. Most of those hospitals are having minimum facility or no facility and the Budget should have tackled that. Bring private participation to Health may solve the facility problem but then those hospitals will become mostly unaffordable to the large lower class public.

One major concern before the budget was presented was the rate of inflation. In the budget the tax on diesel was decreased to tackle this. But believe me this is not going to make any change. Inflation is driven by the disparity of the goods available to the goods consumed. Inflation does not go up overnight and it does not come down overnight. Like cancer the only way out of Inflation going up, is detecting it earlier. This government is a total failure in identifying the factors which drives the inflation and tackling it. So unless we increase our agricultural products drastically inflation may go up (the only short term method is import essential goods). Last budget FM talked about another Green Revolution in agriculture. But no concrete steps were taken for that.

The corporate houses of the country will have to pay more taxes by the inclusion of ESOPs in FBT and MAT. One of my friends raised a fear that this will cause the corporate houses to shift the operation from India to China. If the corporate houses behave like that then serious doubt has to be raised about their commitment to country s growth ahead. Corporate Houses in this country are enjoying serious tax exemption and its time for them to contribute a little further for development of country. Creating jobs are the by product of their growth as we have that many resources (technically qualified persons). I don t think Corporate Houses in this country will migrate for this silly reason, but in 5-10 years time we can see heavy migration to China. This will not be because of tax exemption but because of the vast local Chinese hardware industry. In 5-10 years time the Global service industry will be catering more to the needs of the Local Chinese industry.

All in all, this budget was not a breakthrough budget, but it was not that bad either. Many of you people will not agree with what I have written above. You may be thinking why this stupid is wasting so much precious blog space. Then in a democracy, even idiots like me have a voice.

As you probably have not come across my writings before as I have never posted in this subject before let me give you some insight into myself as a Christian firstly so you can get a handle on what is making me up and why I might say some of the things I am going to say in the article below.

Joel a prophet in the Bible prophesied/predicted that in the last days that men would see visions and prophesy.

I have told people things about themselves when the people were unknown to me and brought people a personal relevant message from God in person and via the net on hundreds of occasions in the past few years. I have the gift of prophecy and can not only receive and share personal messages from God with people, but I can have two way conversations with God and Jesus in my mind that can sometimes last for hours.

I have met Jesus on earth in visions no less then forty times where He has joined me and chatted to me and I have been taken to heaven five times and seen and experienced things up there that will forever light my spirit with joy and happiness. I have met God on His throne in heaven as a big ball of light and He has sat me down and spoken to me about my life and future.

In Christian circles I find it rare to meet other people who have experienced what I have experienced and I have to praise God that He really is a God that is not backward in rewarding His servants that give Him their whole life and a lot of their money and time.

I only have to pick up the Bible for half an hour and I have four passages that I can write 2500 word sermons/articles on and when I write I write at about 25 words per minute as fast as I can type with no pre thinking and no editing save trying my best to get all the spelling and grammar right before posting. When I read the Bible in most instances I understand what is being said as the Holy Spirit teaches me and enlightens the hidden and deeper meanings to the text. When I read the prophets of the Old Testament I often see a message for the earth today and individual countries.

This world is wicked in God s sight and the Christian church is a very long way from what it should be and could be, and used to be in the early days of the church and so why the policies and practices of the major parties in the West are so scripturally bankrupt is that the modern church is not powerful anymore and is too afraid to stand up and be counted when justice is not being done in the world.

Let me look at some issues

The third world

If the Christians of this world could simply unite over eradicating poverty in the third world it would be done as there are 1 billion people in the Christian faith. But the problem with the Christian church is that they are so divided by man s doctrines and theology that they cannot agree on many things.

Nations like China for instance produce so many things we buy in the West but the workers in the factories get paid a pittance. It is multi national Western companies in many instances that run these factories with cheap labour and instead of paying a fair wage make mega bucks selling them in the West. It would only take the Christians in the West to tell one of the multi nationals to double the labour rate of their foreign workers or we will boycott their products to see one of these huge firms do so.

Christians could have a lot of power, but few of them have it because they serve money and greed themselves. Jesus taught that a person cannot serve two masters and said that the person will love one and despise the other. Then He went on and said you cannot serve mammon and God. Mammon is said to be money in one translation of the Bible, and yet I translate it more as the things of this world.

The problem with the modern church and therefore the politics and policies of the USA is that people in the church like to try and love the best of Jesus and the best of the pleasures of this world also where Jesus clearly taught that you cannot do that. Jesus said that the road to His sort of life is narrow and difficult to traverse and that few people find it. Few Christians walk the talk and obey the commands of Jesus.

In China there are 60 million Christians in a church that is underground and illegal that do not have their own personal Bible. These Bibles cost $7 Australian dollars. If the West wanted to the Christians in the West could afford to buy all of these Bibles in two weeks.

The reason that they don t is that they generally don t know about the need and when they do they simply don t care.

Every one it seems thinks that free enterprise and a market driven economic system of capitalism is best for the world and if these 60 million Christians had a Bible in China the Christian faith would grow there at an exponential rate and soon communism would fall in that country, yet the easy way to kick start that growth in the country some $420 million dollars is too hard for the millions of us in the West.

Besides it suits us to have poor workers so that we can get cheap products and we couldn t really force multinationals to double the pay rate as we all have shares in those companies and it would decrease our yields and profits.

And that is just China. I haven t spoken about India or Africa.

Both sides of government have been in power in the last twenty years in our countries and the plight of the third world remains the same. We are simply too greedy and we really do not care about our common man when it hampers the lifestyle that we are used to Many might be thinking that Jesus said, There will always be poor among you. And use that as a reason to justify themselves but the fact of the matter is that the Christian church in the USA only tithe on average 2% of their income and they can t even give God His dues let alone their fellow man.

Gay Marriage

All I seem to hear from the Christian church is this is the biggest sin in the world. We have plenty of gays living with each other in a sexual relationship and it seems that is fine with us but no marriage is sanctioned as something between a male and a female in the Christian church and Bible and so in no uncertain terms the Christian right is dead against it becoming law.

Well folks have you ever considered putting your arms around a gay male and giving him a great big hug and telling him you love him no mater what his sexual orientation is?

At least 80% of male gays have been molested as children and this is almost four times the rate of the totals for sexual abuse in the male population as a whole.

Sexual abuse and the breakdown of a father son relationship are the biggest two contributing factors to becoming gay, gene theories aside.

Gay males need good healthy non gay male friends and father figures that will hug them and restore some healing in them, they don t want half the Christian church condemning them to hell and saying they can t be a legally married couple.

I am not saying I am condoning gay marriage here, but the Christian church do not seem to know by in large how a gay person feels, much less love them and share genuine love of Jesus with them in sufficient measure to bring them to a change in their lifestyle.

Many men in the church sleep with men as I used to in the years between 14 and 23 when I stopped sleeping with men.

The Christian right like to shout but what they do in shouting is lack compassion and understanding.

IRAQ

I heard a press story over here that Hillary Clinton has promised that she will have troops withdraw from Iraq if she is elected in a couple of years. The same promise is happening here with our left.

It might interest you to know that in the Clinton years children in the tens of thousands were dying of treatable diseases in Iraq but requests for medicine under the food for oil deals were being rejected by the USA as the doctors were being told that the chemicals in the medicines could be used to develop chemical weapons.

Since sanctions in Iraq under both your parties over one million people have died of diseases that could have been cured.

Since the coalition occupation of Iraq over 650,000 Iraq citizens have died.

This is the most injustice I have ever seen in my life. It is appalling and we the coalition are responsible for these deaths.

Only a few thousand people died in the twin towers and what is that compared to 650,000 or 1,650,000 if you count the sanctions.

The West has blood on their hands and this article is my way of washing the blood from mine. The church is guilty and the bloody Christian right supporting this war are wicked.

What ever happened to turning the other cheek and loving your enemies?

More ranting

This world stinks. How can a Christian nation allow such sex scenes in pre marital sex on movies go all around the world through Hollywood? Fornication isn t even a sin anymore and Christians get excited and turned on just as much with the sex scenes in movies.

The homeless don t get invited to parties and given spare change anymore off Christians as they say that they don t want to contribute to their drug problems.

Abortion happens in the church and sexual abuse is rife with no less happening in church families then non church families.

The world is wicked and all the church is doing is getting rich and living it up and preaching a gospel that you can be happy and rich and live a great life and still serve God.

You won t see me post here often. I have no time for politicians. Both George W Bush the war monger and John Howard our leader are both self professed born again Christians and it seems the whole church is being led by blind guides or they are busy sticking their heads in the ground or else wicked themselves.

If you have an interest in spiritual matters I encoruage you to read one of my 140 plus articles, a lot of which are Biblical.