Italian film and opera director Franco Zeffirelli is offering his services to Pope Benedict as an image consultant, saying the German pontiff comes across as cold and needs to review his wardrobe.
Zeffirelli, acclaimed for movies such as "Romeo and Juliet" and "Jesus of Nazareth," said in an interview with la Stampa daily on Saturday the 80-year-old pope did not have "a happy image." "The Pope does not smile much, but he is an intellectual. He has a very rigid Bavarian structure."
President Sarkozy will go to the Vatican next week for talks with Pope Benedict XVI. Sarkozy's spokesman described the Vatican as "extremely active and influential" in diplomacy. "It's a partner that counts, and it's a heavyweight ally on a great number of subjects," such as on Lebanon and the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, he said.
Sarkozy will meet with the Pope on the morning of December 20. That afternoon he will also meet with the Italian premier and the Spanish prime minister to discuss a union of Mediterranean countries.
In reflecting on the meaning of the Christmas tree, Benedict XVI affirmed that Christmas is a Christian holiday, and that its symbols make important references to the Incarnation and Birth of Christ. The fir tree, which will stand next to the Nativity scene through Christmas, "is an important symbol of Christ's Nativity because with its evergreen leaves it recalls the life that does not die. The fir is also a symbol of the popular religiosity in your valleys, which finds particular expression in processions."
"Christmas is a Christian feast and its symbols, especially the nativity scene and the tree hung with gifts, are important references to the great mystery of the Incarnation and the Birth of Jesus, which are constantly evoked by the liturgy of Advent and Christmas."
[WAR: The "incarnation" is a great mystery because it didn't happen! The Word did NOT "incarnate" himself into Yahshua - whether as a separate entity (gnosticism) or having dual-but-unified natures (paganism/Catholicism/Protestantism). The Word emptied himself and became flesh - 100% human and 0% divine.]
As Christmas draws near, the Rev. John Foster of Charleston, W.Va., won't be decorating a tree, shopping for last-minute gifts or working on a holiday sermon for his flock. After all, it's been 50 years since Christmas was anything more than a day of the week to him.
He's one of very few American Christians who follow what used to be the norm in many Protestant denominations — rejecting the celebration of Christmas on religious grounds.
That's partly why Christians like the United Church of God reject the holiday: They say divine instruction, rather than culture and society, should determine whether the holiday is appropriate. "It's common knowledge that Christmas and its customs have nothing to do with the Bible," said Clyde Kilough, president of the UCG. "The theological question is quite simple: Is it acceptable to God for humans to choose to worship him by adopting paganism's most popular celebrations and calling them Christian?"
(Paranoid Protestant: Merry C-----mas)
Acknowledging "a growing confusion about the Church's missionary mandate," the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has released an important 19-page document strongly defending the right and duty of all Catholics to spread the faith.
The CDF document - accompanied by an unusually strong publicity effort - responds to criticisms of Catholic efforts to bring new believers into the Church. The document states at the outset (quoting Pope John Paul II), "Every person has the right to hear the Good News." For Catholics, the CDF adds, "This right implies the corresponding duty to evangelize."
(Also: Vatican presentation of document)
Germany is responsible for many of the traditions which comprise the modern idea of Christmas around the world, most famously the Christmas tree which was popularized in the United Kingdom in the 19th century by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Other countries too have their version of Christmas markets, including France, Spain, Finland, the US and Canada.
Up to this day, propagandistic efforts have not ceased to strike dead this most important revolution of the 20th century. The German magazine Der Spiegel supplied the most recent contribution to a long list of such vituperative attacks. It appeared last weekend with the headline, "The Bought Revolution: How Emperor Wilhelm II Financed Lenin's October Revolution."
The authors sensationally announce the discovery of "hitherto unknown documents," which allegedly prove "the extent of the secret cooperation" between Lenin and Germany. Lenin, of course, knew that the German general staff had reckoned it could benefit from his presence in Russia, otherwise it would not have allowed him to travel through Germany. He knew that a success for the revolution in Russia would also bring about an end to the German empire. He was to be proven correct.
The question arises as to why Der Spiegel invests so much of its time and energy in order to slander the October Revolution, which took place 90 years ago. Has it not endlessly been declared that the break-up of the Soviet Union 15 years ago meant not just the end of the Stalinist bureaucracies, but also socialism and Marxism? This is obviously not the case. Against a background of increasing social crisis, a rapidly expanding gulf between rich and poor and the return of war and militarism, the ruling class once again fears the spectre of revolution.
Gordon Brown set himself on a collision course with Nicolas Sarkozy last night as they set out competing views on the future of the EU.
European leaders yesterday agreed to send up to 1,800 police, judges, and administrators to Kosovo in its biggest foreign policy gamble, aimed at nurturing the breakaway Balkan province towards full statehood. "The Kosovans and the Serbs no longer want to live together," said President Sarkozy. "Our goal is that Europe does not explode."
Senior European government officials said the EU was responding to strong pressure from Washington, which has signalled that it will wait until February before recognising an independent Kosovo, but no longer. Balkan experts at the US state department are drafting Kosovo's declaration of independence.
(Also: EU nears clash with Russia)
The BBC reports on Russia's view of the outside world after its foreign minister accuses Britain of deliberately sabotaging relations with Moscow.
Russia's top military officer today accused the US of seeking direct confrontation with Moscow and warned again that US plans to deploy missile defenses in Europe would destabilize the continent. "We plan and, depending on the situation, will take appropriate and asymmetric measures aimed at preventing the deterioration of our defense capability. The question of confrontation with Russia, mildly speaking, including direct confrontation, unfortunately has not been struck from the agenda by my colleagues at the Pentagon."
Large numbers of Turkish fighter jets have bombed suspected Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq, reports say. Turkey's deputy prime minister said more strikes against "terrorists" were possible in the coming weeks. "We, as the government, are resolute to remove this trouble from the agenda of our country."
President Musharraf has lifted a state of emergency and restored the country's constitution. The move will be welcomed by Western nations ahead of national elections on 8 January, but domestic opponents gave it a cautious welcome. Two former prime ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, have returned to Pakistan from exile recently and plan to contest January's elections.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard will conduct naval exercises in the northern region of the Gulf waters today. A commander said that "hundreds of marine units of this force, including rocket launchers and Frigates and torpedo launchers and commando units and divers and air units and troops will be involved in the naval maneuver."
Is China preparing to export its J-10A fighter aircraft to Iran? Most likely, say military observers in Moscow and Tehran, UPI reported. Allowing this information to surface at this time appears intended to embarrass, and warn, the US. China is sending the message that it too can play the arms export game.
Iran is also sending messages, in the midst of the tussle over its nuclear intentions, that it has strong non-Western allies and shouldn't be trifled with. Iran is taking advantage of US-China friction to cozy up to Beijing and warn the US and Israel not to take any reckless action.
[WAR: Yet another reason - in the minds of the neocons - to hurry up and bomb Iran, before they receive delivery of these jets.]
Israel's public security minister warned Saturday that a US intelligence report that said Iran is no longer developing nuclear arms could lead to a regional war that would threaten the Jewish state. He cautioned that a refusal to recognize Iran's intentions to build weapons of mass destruction could lead to armed conflict in the Middle East.
Israel has dispatched an unscheduled delegation of intelligence officials to the US to try to convince it that Iran is still trying to develop nuclear weapon - contrary to the findings of a recent US intelligence report, security officials say.
The delegation, which set off last week on its unscheduled mission, will wind up its visit this week, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media. It was not clear what type of material the Israeli delegation - for the most part military intelligence officers - presented to US officials.
[WAR: If they can't prove their propaganda to the US, then they will provoke the US into action.]
Those who advocated for military action against Iran swiftly jumped to discredit or downplay the new NIE. Bush's neoconservative allies in the media have proven far more aggressive than the president.
Their criticisms of the NIE took 2 basic approaches: one set of critics have attacked US intelligence agencies for "politicizing" the report, which is code for reaching conclusions that are inconsistent with neoconservative ambitions; the second set of commentators has ascribed all kinds of Bush-hating psychological motives to the career intelligence officers who created the report.
What assets and weapons systems would the US military likely use in any strike against Iran's nuclear program, and what targets would it seek to use them against?
Wouldn't doubt it...
Best-selling author and Bilderberg sleuth Daniel Estulin says he has received information from sources inside the US intelligence community which suggests that people from the highest levels of the US government are considering an assassination attempt against Congressman Ron Paul because they are threatened by his burgeoning popularity.
Estulin, whose information has unfortunately proven very accurate in the past, went public with the bombshell news during an appearance on The Alex Jones Show. "I am getting information from my sources that there are people involved from a higher level of the American establishment who are seriously considering - this has not been confirmed - but assassination is definitely on the agenda."
With just a year to go in his Presidency, it increasing appears that Bush-43's [42's] chief legacy may be the liquidation of our empire, accumulated during the so-called American Century.
The Pentagon chief Robert Gates flew into a passion at a recent Congress session – he decided to say everything he wanted about the NATO peacemaking mission in Afghanistan.
It turned out that the defense secretary does not think much of US allies, since the Old World does not seem to be willing in helping America in its "righteous deed" of bringing peace to Afghanistan. However, no matter how angry Gates is, this problem is not easy – there is real shortage of the USA allies in the modern world.
[WAR: "Among all her lovers there is none to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies." (Lam 1:2). "You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! Every prostitute receives a fee, but you give gifts to all your lovers ("foreign aid"), bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors." (Eze 16:32,33)
German press on...
Tensions have been high at the UN climate conference on Bali as the EU and US faced off over emissions cuts. German commentators assess the roles of Germany and the US at opposite ends of the climate divide.
Has the tipping point arrived when the dollar ceases to be the pre-eminent reserve currency in the global economy - a status it has held for 60 years? Such conjecture has been triggered by the recent dip in the dollar against the euro, following on the Federal Reserve's three interest rate reductions - that reinforced a 2-year slide in the dollar against the euro by 40%.
Seen from Asia, the Middle East or Russia, those in charge of reserve portfolios must be asking themselves: Is it prudent to place new surpluses in dollars at the same rate as in the past, or should we diversify further into euros?
Further interest rate reductions by the Fed will only hasten the dollar's decline as a reserve currency; continuing trade deficits do the same. Restoring confidence in the US as a 21st-century nation is of the highest priority and not just for global financial reasons. There is an inflection point, we know not where, when the cost of holding dollars exceeds the cost of jettisoning them.
On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve announced plans to lend $40 billion to banks. By my count, it's the 4th high-profile attempt to rescue the financial system since things started falling apart about 5 months ago. Maybe this one will do the trick, but I wouldn't count on it. This time the magic isn't working. Why not? Because the problem with the markets isn't just a lack of liquidity - there's also a fundamental problem of solvency.
How will it all end? Markets won't start functioning normally until investors are reasonably sure that they know where the bodies - I mean, the bad debts - are buried. And that probably won't happen until house prices have finished falling and financial institutions have come clean about all their losses. All of this will probably take years.
The British government must suspend a set of key banking regulations at the heart of the current financial crisis or risk seeing the economy spiral towards a future that could "make 1929 look like a walk in the park", one of Britain's leading economists has warned.
He warned that, if London's money markets remained frozen and the authorities retain the strict Basel regulations, the full scale of the eventual credit crunch and economic slump could be "disastrous". "If these funding routes are not reopened it will have massive consequences for the economy as a whole."
When the bubble eventually bursts, as it did with the implosion of America's subprime mortgage market, the damage is hard to contain. The gullible are swept away with the greedy. As casualties mount, there is a natural inclination to hunker down and hoard precious resources. This, in effect, is what caused the financial system to freeze: banks stopped lending to each other.
One wonders what fast-growth countries in the Middle East and Asia are making of these extraordinary events. They are, I suspect, laughing with satisfaction, as Old World governments and consumers try in vain to kid themselves that they can continue indefinitely to spend more than they earn, while filling the gap with other people's savings.
While western consumers have been dancing the night away, China has been working round the clock, accumulating a vast stockpile of foreign currency reserves, mainly greenbacks. Asian countries now have enough dollar assets to buy a controlling interest in every company in the Dow Jones index.
Asian Tigers can afford to prowl the world in search of industrial and financial prey. So, too, Middle East oil producers, who recognise that they squandered their riches from the energy boom of the 1970s and are determined not to make the same mistake again. Their game plan appears simple: buy blue-chip assets, be patient, collect rewards.
Sovereign wealth funds from the Far East and the Gulf now own an impressive portfolio of stakes in flagship businesses in America, Britain, Japan, Switzerland and elsewhere.
From The Economist...
Google has kicked off a project to create an authoritative store of information about any and every topic. The search giant has already started inviting people to write about the subject on which they are known to be an expert.
Google said it would not act as editor for the project but will provide the tools and infrastructure for the pages. Many experts see the initiative as an attack on the widely used Wikipedia communal encyclopaedia.
By indexing the web, Google strives to make information more easily accessible. However, wrote one of the heads of engineering at Google, not all the information on the web was "well organised to make it easily discoverable". By getting respected authors to write about their specialism Google hopes to start putting some of that information in better order.
[WAR: "But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. (Google) will go here and there to increase knowledge." (Dan 12:4) ... ;-)]
Carbohydrates that cause blood sugar levels to spike and fall rapidly could be a risk factor for central vision loss with aging. Diets high in carbohydrates that are quickly digested and absorbed, such as white bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, sugars and corn syrups are also suspected of being involved in the vision loss that sometimes accompanies diabetes. The type of damage to eye tissue produced by these "fast" carbs could be similar in both AMD and diabetic eye disease.
Survival of the fittest?...
A bizarre row about evolution versus creationism led to an English backpacker fatally stabbing a Scottish backpacker during a fruit-picking trip to earn money for their travels.
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee speculated in a interview this weekend whether Mormons believe Jesus and Satan were brothers. It is causing quite a controversy, as you can imagine. I am a big believer in lively and spirited theological debates. I don't think it is a matter of bigotry to ask tough questions of people.
Church shootings are on the rise across the US, even though they're not yet at epidemic proportions. "Churches used to be sanctuaries that were regarded as sacred, now all church leaders must be prepared to effectively defend themselves and use deadly force if necessary to protect their congregations from violent acts."
[WAR: Another reason not to attend organized churches.]
The magazine of Christian unrest
Yesterday in Scripture
"In the 4th year of King Darius, the word of YAHWEH came to Zechariah on the 4th day of the 9th month..." (Zech 7:1-8:23)
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