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Bank of America Becomes Bank of Asia as Deals Resume

By Cathy Chan

Bank of America is headed for its best year advising on mergers and acquisitions in Asia-Pacific since 2005, and arranging initial public offerings since 2007, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg

A black leather couch in Jayanti Bajpai’s 17th-floor Hong Kong office bears witness to Bank of America Corp.’s turn of fortune in Asia.

Twenty months ago, Bajpai sat on the sofa with discouraged Merrill Lynch & Co. colleagues, asking them one at a time to focus on the benefits of the firm’s merger with Bank of America, the largest U.S. lender by assets, he said. By the end of last year, conversations held on the same couch, which overlooks Hong Kong Park, had turned to deals.

Bank of America is headed for its best year advising on mergers and acquisitions in Asia-Pacific since 2005, and arranging initial public offerings since 2007, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The combined companies have generated 30 percent more revenue from traditional investment-banking businesses in the region than they did as separate entities, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because the figures aren’t public.

“It’s basically getting the focus back,” said Bajpai, 45, a 23-year Merrill Lynch veteran named co-head of Asia-Pacific corporate and investment banking in March 2009. “We spent five months stabilizing the ship, and then it turned. People were worried about the bank’s future, rather than worrying about the bank’s business.”

Winning Market Share

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank is winning market share for equity underwriting at the expense of UBS AG, Citigroup Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG after hiring almost 400 staff in Asia since early 2009 and focusing on integrating Merrill Lynch’s investment-banking business with Bank of America’s corporate-banking platform. In M&A, the company has gained market share from Citigroup and Nomura Holdings Inc.

The acquisition of Merrill Lynch helped the lender establish a global footprint in such businesses as advising on deals, sales and trading and wealth management. It also deepened corporate-client relationships by providing a wider range of products and more conduits for raising capital.

Bank of America is ranked sixth advising on M&A and fifth on IPOs in the region this year, rising from 10th place in 2008 when the merger with Merrill Lynch was announced, Bloomberg data show. The bank is trailing Zurich-based UBS, Morgan Stanley, Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in Asia-Pacific M&A advisory work this year and the latter four in IPOs. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Citigroup are all based in New York.

‘Obvious Improvement’

“They’ve made obvious improvement this year, as the whole team in Asia has solidified after key management was in place,” said Ambrose Chang, who helps manage $3 billion at Daiwa SB Investments HK Ltd. in Hong Kong. “Right after the merger was announced, I barely received calls from their brokers, who were uncertain about their future. Things have now normalized, and they’re doing more IPOs and share placements.”

Bank of America, which didn’t have an investment-banking team in Asia, has benefited from Merrill Lynch’s strength in the Asia-Pacific capital-markets business. The U.S. brokerage was one of the top five IPO arrangers in the region from 2001 to 2007, except in 2003 and 2005, Bloomberg data show.

“While they’ve started climbing from the bottom of the ladder, there is still room to grow,” Chang said of Bank of America’s investment-banking operation in Asia. “It’s uncertain how much synergy the two firms can create because banks are more conservative about risk-taking and that could hinder the expansion of a pure brokerage firm like Merrill.”

Trailing in China

One key country where Bank of America trails investment- banking rivals is China: Unlike such firms as Goldman Sachs and UBS, the company still lacks a partner in the world’s fastest- growing major economy that would allow it to underwrite share and bond sales.

The bank hired former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner Peter MacDonald as vice chairman for Asia-Pacific in July to help speed up its expansion in China. Hong Kong-based MacDonald spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs, including a stint as chief operating officer of the firm’s Chinese venture partner.

Bank of America derived 9 percent of its total revenue from Asia for the year ended Dec. 31, 2009, the first since the merger, up from 2.4 percent in the previous two years, according to the company’s annual reports.

Net income from Asia surged almost sevenfold to $5.1 billion at the end of last year, in part because the bank sold a portion of its stake in China Construction Bank Corp., the nation’s second-biggest lender.

“There had not been enough investment in the Bank of America platform, and the Merrill operation was distracted over the past couple of years,” Brian Brille, 50, Bank of America’s Asia-Pacific president, said in an interview. “Now, with the successful integration, what happened in the last 12 to 18 months is extraordinary.”

Banker Departures

When Bajpai was asked to move to Hong Kong from London to run Asia-Pacific investment banking by Andrea Orcel, 47, then president of international global banking and wealth management, morale was at a low point, following a flurry of senior departures and cost-cutting, Bajpai said. He held his first group meeting in March 2009.

“My message was very clear: ‘I have no doubt we will win. We will go through an incredibly tough time, but we will come out of this as a leading franchise,’” he said he told 400 investment bankers. “People were wondering if we were going to survive.”

Merrill began losing bankers before Bank of America completed its takeover on Jan. 1, 2009. Damian Chunilal, former Asia-Pacific head of investment banking, left in November after 19 years with the firm. His exit was followed by that of Jason Brand, president of Asia-Pacific operations, and Raymundo Yu, chairman of the region.

Treasury Hires

Nelson Chai, appointed by John Thain to replace Brand in December 2008, quit two months after the former chief executive officer was ousted. Chai was replaced in February 2009 by Kim Hong, who was in the job for seven months. Jim Forbes, named Asia-Pacific head of corporate and investment banking in November 2008, returned to New York four months later and was replaced by Bajpai and Jiro Seguchi, who focuses on Japan.

To boost the integration of corporate and investment banking, the company this year hired Citigroup’s Ivo Distelbrink to run global treasury services and Charles Alexander, 53, from Standard Chartered Plc as head of corporate banking. The bank has hired more than 120 people since the start of 2010 for corporate banking and treasury services in Asia, a 30 percent expansion of those operations, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter who declined to be identified.

‘Multiplier Effects’

The expansion is led by Thomas Montag, 53, president of global banking and markets, who has traveled to Asia four times this year, according to Jessica Oppenheim, a spokeswoman in New York for the bank. He was based in Tokyo and Hong Kong from 1998 through 2006 as a Goldman Sachs executive, including five years as co-president of Japan. Merrill hired Montag in May 2008, five months before it agreed to be purchased by Bank of America.

The bank secured an advisory role this year from Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s largest mobile-phone operator, after it participated in arranging $7.5 billion of loans to the company for its acquisition of the African assets of Mobile Telecommunications Co., the Kuwaiti phone operator known as Zain. That’s something it couldn’t have done without the Bank of America platform, Bajpai said. The $9 billion transaction was the bank’s biggest M&A advisory job in Asia-Pacific this year.

“One plus one doesn’t equal two -- it does equal three in the sense that there are multiplier effects you’re getting from having a corporate-banking platform,” said Bajpai. “Our ability to compete has been significantly enhanced, and our revenue streams have diversified.”

Reliance Industries

In October, the bank helped Reliance Industries Ltd., owner of the world’s biggest oil-refining complex, arrange a $1.5 billion sale of senior notes, after advising the Mumbai-based company on its $1.7 billion purchase of shale-gas assets from Atlas Energy Inc. The sale was the biggest year-to-date corporate bond offering from India. Citigroup, HSBC Holdings Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc also handled the sale.

“Their debt-market capabilities in the U.S. were important to us for the bond issue,” Alok Agarwal, Reliance’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. “If you look back over a period of three years, other firms had built a stronger franchise in India than either Bank of America or Merrill Lynch. They have been able to catch up rapidly by offering a full suite of products.”

Bank of America also advised Irving, Texas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co. on the sale of its Eagle Ford shale formation to Reliance Industries in June.

Risk Analysis

Alexander, who worked for 10 years at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. until March 2008, said he and Bajpai are on regular calls with New York-based Marisa Harney, head of international risk-strategy development; her team in Asia led by Singapore-based Barbara Taylor; and Rahul Singhal, chief risk officer in Hong Kong, to make decisions on deals, loans and strategy after what he called a “thorough” risk analysis.

“We’re moving the needle in Asia, so we want to do more by working closely with our risk partners,” Alexander said.

In Australia, the bank made more than 35 hires in the third quarter of last year, including a team of 10 real estate bankers lured from UBS. It also recruited Craig Drummond from Goldman Sachs’s Australian securities unit as country CEO.

‘Top House’

Now Bank of America is having its best year in M&A in the country in a decade, Bloomberg data show. It ranks sixth after advising Newcrest Mining Ltd. on its A$9.2 billion ($8.9 billion) purchase of Lihir Gold Ltd. and helping Carlyle Group and TPG Capital buy Melbourne-based Healthscope Ltd. for A$2 billion. The bank, the third-biggest M&A adviser in the country in 2000, slumped to 24th in the past two years, the data show.

In China, Bajpai brought back Liu Erhfei, 52, one of the most veteran Chinese bankers in Asia, this year from the firm’s private-equity unit to lead the country’s investment-banking business. He also hired Zhang Xiuping, 40, who helped boost Deutsche Bank’s China M&A ranking to seventh place this year from 12th when she joined the German lender in 2008.

“I’m happy with the progress, but it’s not where we want to be,” said Bajpai. “We want to be a consistently top house.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Cathy Chan in Hong Kong at kchan14@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Philip Lagerkranser at lagerkranser@bloomberg.net Read more at www.bloomberg.com

 

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Federal Reserve May Be `Central Bank of the World' After UBS, Barclays Aid

By Bradley Keoun and Hugh Son

UBS was the biggest borrower under the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, with $74.5 billion overall, more than twice as much as Citigroup Inc., the top U.S. bank recipient, according to the data released yesterday. Photographer: Reto Andreoli/Bloomberg

Federal Reserve data showing UBS AG and Barclays Plc ranked among the top users of $3.3 trillion from emergency programs is stoking debate on whether U.S. regulators bear responsibility for aiding other nations’ banks.

UBS was the biggest borrower under the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, with $74.5 billion overall, more than twice as much as Citigroup Inc., the top U.S. bank recipient, according to the data released yesterday. London-based Barclays Plc took the biggest single amount under another program that made overnight loans, when it got $47.9 billion on Sept. 18, 2008.

“We’re talking about huge sums of money going to bail out large foreign banks,” said Senator Bernard Sanders, the Vermont independent who wrote the provision in the Dodd-Frank Act that required the Fed disclosures. “Has the Federal Reserve become the central bank of the world? I think that is a question that needs to be examined.”

The first detailed accounting of U.S. efforts to spare European banks may add to scrutiny of the central bank, already at its most intense in three decades. The Fed, which released data on 21,000 transactions, said in a statement that its 11 emergency programs helped stabilize markets and support economic recovery. The Fed said there have been no credit losses on rescue programs that have been closed.

The growth of the U.S. mortgage-backed securities market and the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency enticed overseas banks such as Zurich-based UBS to buy assets in the country before 2008. They paid for the holdings with U.S. dollars, and when funding seized up, the Federal Reserve refused to take the risk that European firms would unload the assets and further depress markets for housing-related investments.

‘Much Worse’

“Things would have been worse if they hadn’t lent to foreigners,” said Perry Mehrling, senior fellow at the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law at Boston University and author of “The New Lombard Street: How the Fed became the Dealer of Last Resort.” “We’re finally getting to understand the role of the Fed in the world.”

Fed spreadsheets showed the central bank became the world’s lender of last resort as dollars flowed to European banks as well as Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co., among top borrowers from the Term Auction Facility at $45 billion each.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which posted record profit last year, borrowed more than $24 billion from another program. Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson Inc. and Fairfield, Connecticut- based General Electric Co. sold commercial paper, a form of short-term debt, to the Fed under a program that lent as much as $348.2 billion at its peak.

Sanders, the Vermont senator, said yesterday he plans to investigate whether banks profited by borrowing from the Fed and investing the funds in Treasuries, benefiting from the difference in interest rates.

‘Bailout Protection Act’

U.S. Representative Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican, said he planned to introduce a “European Bailout Protection Act” to restrict the flow of International Monetary Fund loans to European countries. He said he was responding to reports that U.S. officials might bolster a European fund designed to deal with this year’s debt crisis, which has spread from Greece to Ireland.

Edwin Truman, a former Fed official who is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said any push to confine the Fed’s role to U.S. banks would create a “massive exercise in financial protectionism.”

“It would lead to retaliation, so U.S. banks in London or Tokyo would expect the same kind of treatment,” Truman said. William Poole, senior economic adviser to Merk Investments LLC and a former Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis president, said he was surprised by the extent of non-U.S. bank borrowing.

Commercial Paper

“I was under the impression that each country bore the responsibility for supervising the banks headquartered in their borders,” Poole said in an interview.

The $74.5 billion received by UBS through the CPFF, which bought short-term debt, represents total borrowings by UBS over the life of the program. The total outstanding at any point in time never exceeded about half that sum, said Karina Byrne, a UBS spokeswoman.

Byrne said the bank’s tapping the Fed fund “should be seen in the context of our overall desire to maintain flexibility and diversification in our funding sources.”

The loan to a Barclays unit came from the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, created to make sure U.S. securities firms and foreign firms’ U.S. affiliates had cash to satisfy clients’ financing demands.

Barclays took the loan the week in September 2008 that it acquired the U.S. operations of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Mark Lane, a spokesman for Barclays, declined to comment.

‘A Big Operation’

Paris-based Natixis borrowed $27 billion under the commercial paper program. “We’ve got a big operation in the U.S.A.,” Victoria Eideliman, a spokeswoman for the bank said. “It was, for us, natural that we participate in this program like all the banks. When we participated, the liquidity situation was very tense.”

The $182.3 billion rescue of American International Group Inc. spared European banks that traded with the New York-based insurer from having to raise as much as $16 billion in capital, according to a June report from the Congressional Oversight Panel, which reviews bailout spending.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke addressed questions in a 2009 Congressional hearing about why non-U.S. banks benefited from the AIG rescue.

‘The Obligation’

“I would point out that the Europeans have also saved a number of major financial institutions, and the issue of whether those institutions owed American companies money has not come up,” Bernanke said. “So I think that there is a sense that we all have the obligation to address the problems of companies in our own jurisdictions.”

Three of the top seven borrowers under the CPFF program were private firms. New York-based Hudson Castle received $53.3 billion in aggregate, BSN Holdings took $42.8 billion, and Liberty Hampshire Co., a unit of Guggenheim Partners LLC, drew $41.4 billion, Fed data show.

Hudson’s website says it develops “customized debt products.” A person who answered its phone said no one was available to comment. A Guggenheim spokesman didn’t return phone calls.

BSN Capital Partners Ltd., which was associated with BSN Holdings according to a 2006 Standard & Poor’s note, was founded by John Burgess, a former Deutsche Bank AG managing director. Burgess declined to comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Bradley Keoun in New York at bkeoun@bloomberg.net; Hugh Son in New York at hson1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net Read more at www.bloomberg.com

 

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Applicants Battle Cold For Govt. Help

(WSB Radio) -- Despite the freezing temperatures, hundreds fought for a place in line in Marietta to apply for federal aid to help pay their heat and power bills this winter.

Only 30 people were being let in at a time at the assistance center in Marietta.  "It was freezing," applicant Linda Benefield told WSB-TV. "I was in line for three hours and 15 minutes, but I needed the help." Some needed even more help just to deal with the cold. Ambulances were cold in and took at least two people to the hospital because of the freezing temperatures . "People just couldn't stand the cold," said applicant Deandre Marshall. "They were not letting people in fast enough." Marshall said people in line were crying, afraid they would not even get a chance to apply. "I never thought I would be in the line," Marshall said. "It's almost like being in a soup line during the great depression." The money is offered through a network of agencies in Georgia. Read more at wsbradio.com

 

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BlueCava to ‘Fingerprint’ One Billion Internet Enabled Devices by 2012

By QualityStocks

Cookies have long been used to track web user’s browsing activities for advertising purposes. However, they can easily be blocked, and with the rising popularity of cell phone web browsing, it is becoming more difficult to effectively track browsing habits.

David Norris, founder of start-up company BlueCava, Inc., is on a mission to collect the digital equivalent of fingerprints from every computer, cellphone and TV set-top box in the world. The fingerprints will be used to track online behavior, shopping habits and demographics. He plans to sell this information to advertisers willing to pay top dollar for detailed data about people’s interests and activities.

According to Norris, it’s “the next generation of online advertising.” His timing couldn’t be better as ad companies are looking for new techniques to heighten their surveillance of Internet users. BlueCava says the information it collects about devices can’t be traced back to specific individuals and that it will offer people a way to opt out of being tracked.

As controversy grows over intrusive online tracking, regulators are looking to address the issue. Later this week, the Federal Trade Commission is expected to release a privacy report calling for a “do-not-track” tool for Web browsers. As of right now, device fingerprinting is perfectly legal.

Norris’ idea will allow advertisers to build profiles of the people using the devices it has identified. For instance, BlueCava will know that a fingerprint registered at a game website is from someone who likes virtual-reality games. BlueCava plans to link the profiles of various devices—cellphones and laptops for instance—that appear to be used by the same person.

“I think cookies are a joke,” Mr. Norris recently stated. “The system is archaic and was invented by accident. We’ve outgrown it, and it’s time for the next thing.”

Source: “Race Is On to ‘Fingerprint’ Phones, PCs” by Julia Angwin and Jennifer Valentino-Devries from WSJ Read more at www.ibtimes.com

 

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Wikileaks source: A homosexual advocate

According to the New York Times, Private Bradley Manning lip-synched to “Lady Gaga as he copied hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables.” That’s a fitting image for an America in decline under Barack Obama.

Obama said again this week that the introduction of an openly homosexual culture into the military poses no threat to its discipline, even as his administration reeled from a blatant instance of it. Manning, a homosexual resentful of the military’s constraints, is the source for the WikiLeaks scandal. Naturally, the media is downplaying that aspect of the story, lest it complicate the left’s relentless propaganda in favor of abolishing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

One might have thought an administration massively compromised by a homosexual soldier would have chosen another week to rev up its gays-in-the-military agenda. But, no, that is a vital priority of this administration during the lame-duck session, according to Obama’s press secretary Robert Gibbs. Who knows, perhaps the Obama administration will even end up citing Manning’s conduct in its convoluted case for abolishing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

The New York Times’ August profile of Manning rehearsed that argument:

He spent part of his childhood with his father in the arid plains of central Oklahoma, where classmates made fun of him for being a geek. He spent another part with his mother in a small, remote corner of southwest Wales, where classmates made fun of him for being gay.

Then he joined the Army, where, friends said, his social life was defined by the need to conceal his sexuality under “don’t ask, don’t tell” and he wasted brainpower fetching coffee for officers.

Read More: By George Neumayr, American Spectator Read more at www.westernjournalism.com

 

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VAN JONES ON FOX NEWS: ‘SATAN IS EVERYWHERE’

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Did Homeland Security spy on Drudge Report?

A Freedom of Information Act request filed by former Georgia congressman Bob Barr aims to discover whether the Department of Homeland Security has kept tabs on the popular political website Drudge Report. The request demands the Transportation Security Agency release all information related to Matthews Drudge and the Drudge Report. The request comes after a leaked document indicated that DHS may have information on popular media sites. The department memo says the agency may have information on individuals opposed to, or engaged in the disruption of the implementation of the enhanced airport screening procedures as ‘domestic extremists’. The request also follows an announcement from TSA saying all individuals flying into the United States will be checked against a terrorism no-fly list. Read more at www.thestatecolumn.com

 

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TSA Theme Song

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What are the Feast days, and is God's remnant required to observe these days?

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What are the Feast days, and is God's remnant required to observe these days?

Dionne Sabbay Thompson

"Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace" (Ephesians 2:15)

During a study at  New York City's  Truth for the Final Generation church, topics emerged regarding the Feasts Days.  Is God's remnant required to keep the Feast days today unto the Second Advent?

The following verse emphasizes the completion of the law of commandments in the ordinances, but, what are the ORDINANCES?  It remains clear that God's remnant MUST keep the Ten Commandments, as it reveals God's nonnegotiable, eternal, "Character Transcript":  and, they are binding eternally, as Yeshua did not come to destroy the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20, Psalms 111:7-10, Matthew 5:17).  The Prophet EGW within a vision saw the Ten Commandments in the Holy of Holies (Early Writings pages 32-33).

Ephesians 2:15  "Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace"

EGW, a Prophet of God directs God's remnant to: " Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I can not away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood" (Review and Herald April 24, 1913).   What does this mean, as we sort out TRUTH regarding this serious matter of OBEDIENCE?

The following verse points to the cessation of OBLATIONS, but what are OBLATIONS, scripturally? The Merriam Webster dictionary defines "Oblations" as a gift, sacrifice or offering, but dictionaries are man's creation and they are uninspired.  The Mosaic law was inspired and written by Moses, containing the ceremonies and sacrificial services that were given from God.  Conversely, the Ten Commandments were written with the finger of God (Exodus 31:18).

Daniel 9:27  "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate".

What is "EVERLASTING RIGHTEOUSNESS"?

"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy" (Daniel 9:24) .

"Yeshua, Christ Jesus, provided mankind with everlasting righteousness as a free gift. His greatest expression of love is embodied in His suffering, death, resurrection and victory over the world and sin, achieved at Calvary—Emmanuel identified fully with mankind,“God with us” (Matthew 1:23, John 19:30, 1Corinthians15:45). 'These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world' (John 16:33)" [A Soul Sealed at Character Perfection page 60].

"Christ’s gift of imputed righteousness permits His remnant to continually advance in sanctification (2Peter 3:18). Proverbs 4:18 edifies that“… the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (A Soul Sealed at Character Perfection page 33).

What are the Feast days? See below list of Feast Days:

1.  Passover or Pesach (Leviticus 23:5)

2.  Unleavened Bread or Chaghamatzot (Leviticus 23:6-8

3.  FirstFruits or Chaghabikurim (Leviticus 23:9-14)

4.  Pentecost or Weeks (Shavuoth) Leviticus 23:15-21)

5.  Trumpets (Yom T' ruah) Rosh Hashanah (Leviticus 23:23:-25)

6.  Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur (Leviticus 23:26-32)

7.  Tabernacles or Booths (Ingathering) (Leviticus 23:33-44)

Joel clearly illustrates that the Feast of Trumpets and its antitypical sounding is now, directing the "watchmen" to blow the trumpet, but, what does this all mean?

As a directive from the fourth angel's message or "loud cry", sincere believers must evacuate spiritually from Babylon, following God without compromise (Revelation 18:1-4).  The Seven Steps to Character Purity and Victory over sin can help us reach Character Purity, by way of God's Eternal Love (Romans 5:5)

Mankind has been in the ANTITYPICAL DAY OF ATONEMENT since October 22, 1844 (Great Controversy chapter 24), as Hebrews 8:3-4, 9:12-28 points to Yeshua's work in the Most Holy apartment of the Heavenly Sanctuary or Holy of Holies.  And when Christ returns, He will gather up and reap the wheat that are "ripe" or fully developed in Christian character (Matthew 13:25-30, Mark 4:26-29, Revelation 14:14-15).

It appears obvious that the Feast days, "Ordinances" and Sacrifices are done away with, but wait here are two final quotations, making a clear distinction between Christ's work and that of the Pharisees during His life course on planet earth (from 4BC to 31 AD):

"The Pharisees were dissatisfied with the teachings of Christ. The practical godliness which he enjoined condemned them. They desired him to dwell upon the external observances of the ceremonial law, and the customs and traditions of the fathers. But Jesus taught the spiritual nature of the law and made clear its far-reaching claims. Love to God and to men must live in the heart and control the life, as the spring of every thought and every action" (Signs of the Times September 4th, 1884).

"But there is a law which was abolished, which Christ "took out of the way, nailing it to his cross." Paul calls it "the law of commandments contained in ordinances." This ceremonial law, given by God through Moses, with its sacrifices and ordinances, was to be binding upon the Hebrews until type met antitype in the death of Christ as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. Then all the sacrificial offerings and services were to be abolished. Paul and the other apostles labored to show this, and resolutely withstood those Judaizing teachers who declared that Christians should observe the ceremonial law" (Signs of the Times September 4th, 1884).

Book on Sale!  A Soul Sealed at Character Perfection

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Make flying fun with a TSA striptease

Don't be intimidated by the naked airport security scanners and protest like me – by giving them everything they want

Furry Girl

Under new US rules, air passengers must submit to the 'naked' scanner or undergo an intimate 'pat down' by a TSA agent. Photograph: David Mcnew/Getty Images

I once had a conversation with an activist who had been arrested many times over the years. He told me his secret to staving off despair and stress during the whole process. "When you're in jail, and the police strip-search you, their goal is to humiliate you into obedience, so it's your job to turn the tables on them. I do a sexy striptease, spin around like a ballerina, and tell them how hot the whole thing makes me. It takes away their power and makes them the uncomfortable ones."

I had a chance to put that lesson to good use last week when I went through my first airport security screening since the US's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) started getting very intimate with passengers.

Under the new regulations, passengers have the prospect of submitting to a security scan that allows TSA staff members to see them naked. Alternatively, you can "opt out" of these new naked scanners if you submit to a groping, which many people consider a form of sexual assault – or, at the very least, creepy and uncomfortable. The TSA's goal is to use the "pat down" to coerce the public into submitting to a scan, which scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, consider could be a cancer risk.

Here's where I differ from your average flyer: I'm a sex worker. My main porn site gets about 3 million unique visitors a year, and clients pay $4 a minute to see me naked on my webcam. Normally, I would charge for a service such as the one TSA was requesting of me, but this one was on the house.

For my voyage, I donned a sexy, see-through chemise and sheer panties under normal clothes. My parts are all plainly visible through this ensemble. The TSA needed to make sure that I wasn't concealing any errant al-Qaida operatives under my labia, after all.

I got in line for security, put my bag in a bin, removed my shoes, and then proceeded to remove my pants and jacket, too, revealing the sheer underthings. Two large male TSA agents quickly moved in and demanded that I put my pants and jacket back on, to which I pointed out that I was only trying to help. They needed to see that I wasn't hiding anything! After begrudgingly putting my clothing back on, I was detained while the TSA waited for a police officer to talk to me. The officer didn't seem to know what the TSA expected him to do, since I had broken no laws. I got a polite and vague warning to not do this where children can see – which I already planned for by choosing a security line without any kids. The whole process took about 10 minutes, and then I was free to catch my flight.

I used a cheap digital camera (in case it got seized) to record my experience. Here's the video; only the first three minutes are worth watching.

The sad thing is, the American outcry over this issue is only because it's about genitals and nudity. No one cares if their phone calls are being recorded or if the government detains people for years without trials, they just know they don't want another dude touching their "junk". I'm hoping that people will use this particularly titillating aspect of increasing government intrusion into our lives as a springboard to thinking about other, more important, civil liberties issues. Overall, though, it's a positive sign that so many people – across party lines – are insisting upon their right to privacy and telling the government, "enough is enough".

Don't be scared like the TSA wants you to be. Be fierce! Protesting in such a way won't change TSA regulations overnight, but it adds to the dissent and public conversation, flips around a demeaning dynamic and, for bold travellers, getting this transparent just might be the only way these days to enter an airport with a smile on your face and your dignity intact. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

 

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