Vatican hosts Hizballah top dogs, Maronite Patriarch declares support for jihad against Israel

A very interesting post from www.jihadwatch.org about the Vatican (?!) leaning toward Muslim terrorists. This follows this post about Jerusalem in the Gaza war. This follows this article about American energy independence and preventing money from going to hostile countries such as Iran . For more about what is happening in the nation now click here and you can read a very interesting book HERE!

Vatican hosts Hizballah top dogs, Maronite Patriarch declares support for jihad against Israel


As I said here, the Vatican has entered a very, very dark age. It is understandable, if not forgivable, for the Maronite Patriarch, Bechara Boutros Rai, to play the dhimmi and appease Hizballah, since he lives in Lebanon. However, the Vatican in entertaining Iranian envoys (the second largest diplomatic corps at the Holy See) and tacitly supporting the jihad against Israel has less excuse. The crocodile may indeed eat the good cardinals last, but eat them it will.



"Op-Ed: Exposé: the Vatican Welcomes Iran," by Giulio Meotti in Israel National News, November 25:



Iran has a large diplomatic corps at the Vatican, considering that it is a Moslem country. And that is not all.

Hizbullah's officials, the Shiite terrorist group based in Lebanon, were hosted in Rome by the Vatican during the recent ceremony for the election of six new cardinals. Among the new cardinals is the Lebanese [Maronite] Patriarch, Bechara Boutros Rai.



As head of Lebanon’s [Maronite] Catholic Church, Rai recently sent his envoy, Father Abdo Abou Kassem, to Teheran to attend a conference in support of the Palestinian Arab Intifada and of a “Zionist-free middle east”. The conference was attended also by Hizbullah ideologue, Mohammad Raad, and by the Hamas’ leader Khaled Meshaal.



Cardinal Rai recently said in Paris that he supports Hizbullah's war against Israel: "Only when the international community exerts pressure on Israel to vacate the occupied Lebanese territory and Israel allows Palestinians in Lebanon to return to their homes, can Hizbullah be asked to hand over its arms because they will no longer be needed". It is not clear from the Cardinal's remarks to which Lebanese territory he was referring, since Israel, in compliance with the UN, had withdrawn from its Lebanon buffer zone years earlier. Rai said his statements reflected the policy of the Vatican.



The coming of an Hizbullah delegation in Rome these days is part of a strong friendship that the Vatican is building with Iranian authorities. It might also be an explanation why during his trip in Austria, Pope Benedict chose not to address the Iranian nuclear question in a key speech to world diplomats in Vienna, which is the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency.



Cardinal Rai recently said in Paris that he supports Hizbullah's war against Israel.

The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Organization for Culture and Islamic Relations just held their eighth meeting in Rome, under the joint chairmanship of the Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Iranian Mohammad Bagher Korramshad. The theme of the meeting was "The Catholic and Muslim cooperation to promote justice in the contemporary world".



An official note says that "the participants were pleased and honored to be received at the end of the meeting by Pope Benedict XVI, who greeted and encouraged them to continue on the path of authentic and fruitful dialogue".



A delegation of clergy members of Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly also visited the Vatican in Rome. They met with top Catholic officials. “We held talks with the Vatican’s culture minister over the conditions and the popular uprisings in the region and the Vatican minister said that popular uprisings are inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Iran”, a member of the parliament’s Clerics Commission, Hojjatoleslam Hossein Ebrahimi, told Fars News Agency.



Iran has a surprisingly large diplomatic corps at the Vatican (only the Dominican Republic has more diplomats accredited to the Holy See) who have a monthly meeting with the Pope's advisers. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a high-level delegation to Rome, headed by Mahdi Mostafavi, the president of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization in Tehran, a former foreign minister and one of Ahmadinejad’s trusted men and “spiritual advisers”, with whom he meets “at least twice a week”....



Posted by Robert

Constraints Facing the Next Mexican President

A very interesting post from www.Stratfor.com  about Mexico's new President. This follows this post about guns in Mexico.  This follows this article about American energy independence and preventing money from going to hostile countries such as Iran . For more about what is happening in the nation now click here and you can read a very interesting book HERE!


Constraints Facing the Next Mexican President



Stratfor

By Scott Stewart

Vice President of Analysis



Enrique Pena Nieto will be sworn in as Mexico's next president Dec. 1. He will take office at a very interesting point in Mexican history. Mexico is experiencing an economic upturn that may become even more pronounced if Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party administration is able to work with its rivals in the National Action Party to enact needed reforms to Mexico's labor, financial and energy laws.



Another arrestor to further expanding Mexico's economy has been the ongoing cartel violence in Mexico and the dampening effect it has had on outside investment and tourism. Pena Nieto realizes that Mexico's economy would be doing even better were it not for the chilling effect of the violence. During his campaign, he pledged to cut Mexico's murder rate in half by the end of his six-year term, to increase the number of federal police officers and to create a new gendarmerie to use in place of military troops to combat heavily armed criminals in Mexico's most violent locations.



According to Mexico's El Universal newspaper, Pena Nieto is also proposing to eliminate the Secretariat of Public Security and consolidate its functions, including the federal police, under the Secretariat of the Interior. This move is intended to increase coordination of federal efforts against the cartels and to fight corruption. The federal police are under heavy scrutiny for the involvement of 19 officers in the Aug. 24 attack against a U.S. diplomatic vehicle in Tres Marias, Morelos state. This incident has long faded from attention in the United States, but the investigation into the attack remains front-page news in Mexico.



Of course, there are also commentators who note that Pena Nieto's election is a return to power for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which held power in Mexico for some 70 years prior to the election of Vicente Fox of the National Action Party in 2000, and Felipe Calderon in 2006. This narrative claims that Pena Nieto will quickly return to the Institutional Revolutionary Party policy of negotiating with and accommodating the cartel organizations, which will solve Mexico's violence problem.



Unfortunately for Mexico, neither law enforcement reforms nor a deal with the cartels will quickly end the violence. The nature of the Mexican drug cartels and the dynamic between them has changed considerably since Pena Nieto's party lost the presidency, and the same constraints that have faced his two most recent predecessors, Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon, will also dictate his policy options as he attempts to reduce cartel violence.



Constraints

As George Friedman noted about the U.S. presidential election, candidates frequently aspire to institute particular policies when elected, but once in office, presidents often find that their policy choices are heavily constrained by outside forces. This same concept holds true for the president of Mexico.



Fox and Calderon each came into office with plans to reform Mexico's law enforcement agencies, and yet each of those attempts has failed. Indeed, recent Mexican history is replete with police agencies dissolved or rolled into another agency due to charges of corruption. The Federal Investigative Agency, established in 2001 by the Fox administration, is a prime example of a "new" Mexican law enforcement agency that was established to fight -- and subsequently dissolved because of -- corruption. Pena Nieto's plans for law enforcement reform will be heavily constrained by this history -- and by Mexican culture. Institutions tend to reflect the culture that surrounds them, and it is very difficult to establish an institution that is resistant to corruption if the culture surrounding the institution is not supportive of such efforts.



Another important constraint on the Pena Nieto administration is that the flow of narcotics from South America to the United States has changed over the past two decades. Due to enforcement efforts by the U.S. government, the routes through the Caribbean have been largely curtailed, shifting the flow increasingly toward Mexico. At the same time, the Colombian and U.S. authorities have made considerable headway in their campaign to dismantle the largest of the Colombian cartels. This has resulted in the Mexican cartels becoming increasingly powerful. In fact, Mexican cartels have expanded their control over the global cocaine trade and now control a good deal of the cocaine trafficking to Europe and Australia.



While the Mexican cartels have always been involved in the smuggling of Marijuana to the United States, in recent years they have also increased their involvement in the manufacturing of methamphetamine and black-tar heroin for U.S. sale while increasing their involvement in the trafficking of prescription medications like oxycodone. While the cocaine market in the United States has declined slightly in recent years, use of these other drugs has increased, creating a lucrative profit pool for the Mexican cartels. Unlike cocaine, which the Mexicans have to buy from South American producers, the Mexican cartels can exact greater profit margins from the narcotics they produce themselves.



This change in drug routes and the type of drugs moved means that the smuggling routes through Mexico have become more lucrative then ever, and the increased value of these corridors has increased the competition to control them. This inter-cartel competition has translated into significant violence, not only in cities that directly border on the United States like Juarez or Nuevo Laredo but also in port cities like Veracruz and Acapulco and regional transportation hubs like Guadalajara and Monterrey.



Cartels Evolve

The nature of the Mexican cartels themselves has also changed. Gone are the days when a powerful individual such as Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo could preside over a single powerful organization like the Guadalajara cartel that could control most of the drug trafficking through Mexico and resolve disputes between subordinate trafficking organizations. The post-Guadalajara cartel climate in Mexico has been one of vicious competition between competing cartels -- competition that has become increasingly militarized as cartel groups recruited first former police officers and then former special operations soldiers into their enforcer units. Today's Mexican cartels commonly engage in armed confrontations with rival cartels and the government using military ordnance, such as automatic weapons, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades.



It is also important to realize that government operations are not the main cause of violence in Mexico today. Rather, the primary cause of the death and mayhem in Mexico is cartel-on-cartel violence. The Calderon administration has been criticized for its policy of decapitating the cartel groups, which has in recent years resulted in the fragmenting of some cartels such as the Beltran Leyva Organization, La Familia Michoacana and the Gulf cartel -- and thus an increase in intra-cartel violence. But such violence began in the 1990s, long before the decapitation strategy was implemented.



Because the struggle for control of lucrative smuggling routes is the primary driver for the violence, even if the Pena Nieto administration were to abandon the decapitation strategy and order the Mexican military and federal police to stand down in their operations against the cartels, the war between the cartels would continue to rage on in cities such as Monterrey, Nuevo Laredo, Guadalajara and Acapulco. Because of this, Pena Nieto will have little choice but to continue the use of the military against the cartels for the foreseeable future. The proposed gendarmerie will be able to shoulder some of that burden once it is created, but it will take years before enough paramilitary police officers are recruited and trained to replace the approximately 30,000 Mexican soldiers and marines currently dedicated to keeping the peace in Mexico's most violent areas.



One other way that the cartels have changed is that many of them are now allied with local street gangs and pay their gang allies with product -- meaning that street-level sales and drug abuse are increasing in Mexico. Narcotics are no longer commodities that merely pass through Mexico on their way to plague the Americans. This increase in local distribution has brought with it a second tier of violence as street gangs fight over retail distribution turf in Mexican cities.



Finally, most of the cartels have branched out into other criminal endeavors, such as kidnapping, extortion, alien smuggling and cargo theft, in addition to narcotics smuggling. Los Zetas, for example, make a considerable amount of money stealing oil from Mexico's state-run oil company and pirating CDs and DVDs. This change has been reflected in law enforcement acronyms. They are no longer referred to as DTOs -- drug trafficking organizations -- but rather TCOs -- transnational criminal organizations.



With the changes in Mexico since the 1990s in terms of smuggling patterns, the types of drugs smuggled and the organizations smuggling them, it will be extremely difficult for the incoming administration to ignore their activities and adopt a hands-off approach. This means that Pena Nieto will not have the latitude to deviate very far from the policies of the Calderon administration.





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OK, Election 2012 Was A Disaster For The GOP—But For Immigration Patriots, There Was Some Good News

A very interesting post from www.Vdare.com about the 2012 election. This follows this post about the movie "Red Dawn."   This follows this post about a race hoax at U.T. Austin.  This follows this post about Emmit Till. In the meantime, you can read a very interesting book HERE.

OK, Election 2012 Was A Disaster For The GOP—But For Immigration Patriots, There Was Some Good News




http://www.vdare.com/articles/ok-election-2012-was-a-disaster-for-the-gop-but-for-immigration-patriots-there-was-some-goo

By James Kirkpatrick
Conservatism Inc. snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2012 election. And it is even now hastening to make sure the movement it preys upon, and the US, completes slow-motion suicide.

But immigration patriots should take heart from unreported news around the country showing that common sense on mass immigration is emerging as a winning political issue.



In Arizona, despite a brutal Main Stream Media assault, Sheriff Joe Arpaio once again cruised to a re-election victory. Amidst the wailing and lamentations from the likes of the Phoenix New Times (the kind of “independent publication” that reads the same no matter where you are in the country), Arpaio won with 53% of the vote.

Liberal Republican Jeff Flake managed to reinvent himself as a restrictionist, backing Arizona’s SB 1070 law and thereby securing his own election. Of course, John McCain also did the same thing in Arizona in 2010. Immigration patriots will have to watch Flake very closely. But hypocrisy is, proverbially, the homage that vice pays to virtue.

While not a victory in its own right, state Senator Jerry Lewis, the turncoat Republican who provided the essential “respectable conservative” cover for the recall of Russell Pearce, was easily defeated. His Democratic opponent, Ed Ableser, smeared Lewis as a “tea party puppet”-- showing that, even when Republicans stick to MSM-approved issues and attack their own side, they receive no credit.

Other top Treason Lobby targets also survived:



In Iowa, Congressman Steve King overcame a redistricting process that weakened the traditional conservative majority of his Iowa district, and managed to secure reelection with almost 53% of the vote. Liberals smeared Congressman King continuously as a white nationalist for holding such “extreme” positions as questioning diversity and believing English should be the official language. MSM reportorials have already focused on King as an unreconstructed holdout against the conventional wisdom that the GOP should immediately surrender on illegal immigration. King’s solid victory in the face of difficult circumstances strengthens his position in the upcoming amnesty battle. (Note: in perhaps his most disgraceful performance, Romney lost Iowa 52-46, receiving only a 51% white share).

In Pennsylvania, Congressman Lou Barletta cruised to re-election in a former Democratic stronghold that redistricting painted a deeper shade of red.

Significantly, Barletta shows the effectiveness of the “inreach” that could save the GOP, and the historic American nation…if Conservatism Inc. would allow it. Congressional districts do not neatly follow county lines so it is difficult to make a perfect comparison, but Barletta won a greater share of the vote than Mitt Romney in all but one county in his district. The exception: Perry County, where Congressman Barletta took 67.6% of a smaller voting pool, compared to Romney’s 68.6%.

Romney lost Pennsylvania 52-47, receiving only a 42% white share. But in this critical swing state, where Democrats have a one million registered voter advantage, Barletta proves that the Republicans have a potential blue-collar path to victory--if they will take it.



As former Congressman Tom Tancredo has noted, Reps. Matt Salmon of Arizona and Tom Cotton of Arkansas have both been elected. Both candidates used immigration as a centerpiece of their campaigns. Tancredo informed patriots in an email: “Remember those names—I promise you, they are all rising stars.”

Salmon is a former Congressman who has reclaimed now Senator Jeff Flake’s old seat. Cotton is a young Harvard-educated former Army Ranger heavily promoted by the Establishment conservative movement. (NRO's Jay Nordlinger did a four-part series of columns on him.) He has been endorsed by Tancredo and Team America PAC and is saying the right things--but it will be interesting to see how this rookie Congressman will react to the push for amnesty by both Establishment Republicans and Conservatism Inc.



Almost unremarked in the MSM, the South continued its transition to a one-party Republican stronghold. Arkansas is now Republican territory for the first time since Reconstruction: the GOP captured the state Senate and installed a Republican speaker in the House. Republicans also won a supermajority in Tennessee in both chambers of the legislature. And Republicans won another decisive victory in the swing state of North Carolina, where they expanded their majority in the general assembly and won the governor’s race.

In Kansas, Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s endorsed candidates won over half of their races, as the state GOP maintained its majorities and pushed further to the right. Even the Treason Lobby mouthpiece Imagine2050, which sneered that Kobach was somehow hurt by the election, conceded that general view in Kansas was that the patriotic immigration reform community’s rising star had his hand strengthened in the state.

Around the country, most members of State Legislators for Legal Immigration (SLLI), a group of state legislators opposed to illegal immigration, won re-election. Thus Daryl Metcalfe, the current leader of the group, was elected with 100% of the vote, running unopposed.

Another example: Kieran Michael Lalor, an immigration patriot who attracted VDARE.com’s attention particularly because of his eloquent denunciation of New York State Democrats’ use of taxpayer money to help undocumented Democrats through the Obama Administrative Amnesty process (undenounced, needless to say, by Mitt Romney), was elected in New York’s 105^th State Assembly district. Wikipedia’s entry on Lalor (which, curiously, had not been updated at presstime to reflect his election) does report that he published a book, This Recruit, about his experiences going through U.S. Marine Corps basic training in Parris Island.

There was other positive news in referendums from the states.



In Oklahoma, anti-white racial preferences took a hit, with voters approving a ban on Affirmative Action in state government hiring, education, and contracting. The ban passed by 59%-41%.

In Montana, patriotic immigration reformers won a crushing victory when Referendum 121 dramatically restricted certain state services from illegal immigrants, including the ability to acquire state licenses, employment, welfare, or aid for university students.

The Montana ACLU predictably opposed the measure, using the “no human being is illegal” slogan (in Spanish). Some state legislators were also opposed, claiming that referendum 121 somehow was an expansion of government bureaucracy, even though it was an attempt to limit the use of government programs. Montana’s own low-rent $PLC, the “Montana Human Rights Network,” also condemned the measure as a “right wing legislative referenda undermines our shared values of dignity, security, and fairness.”

But Referendum 121 passed with a greater measure of support than any other initiative in the state. Almost 80% of voters in the state voted for it.

Significantly, this far surpassed the less than 55% of voters who supported Mitt Romney--in a state that is supposedly solid red.

Generally, because of the donor-driven decision of the Romney campaign consultants to dial down primary themes like “self-deportation,” immigration played little role in the 2012 general election.

But immigration patriots certainly suffered painful defeats in this election cycle. One of the worst: the referendum passage of the so-called DREAM Act in Maryland, guaranteeing discounted tuition for illegal immigrants while denying it to actual Americans from out of state. (Needless to say, this referendum was a grass-roots initiative, the state GOP having run away).

But the DREAM Act’s margin in the occupied Old Line State was less than President Obama’s margin--only 58% of voters supported the DREAM Act, while Obama won 61.7%. (It should also be noted, amidst the cries for “moderation,” that same -ex marriage only squeaked to victory in Maryland by 4%.)

Immigration patriots should draw three lessons from the 2012 elections.



First, Peter Brimelow and Edwin S. Rubenstein’s 1997 prediction of “electing a new people” is coming true--but it has not taken over the entire country (yet). Conservatism Inc. is rushing to surrender, but some conservative writers are recognizing what patriotic activists have been trying to tell them for decades. This opens up intellectual space for patriotic immigration reformers.

Second, regardless of what the Beltway Right tries this cycle or next, the immigration battle will continue in the states.

Patriotic immigration reformers are winning at the state level and are performing better than the national party as a whole. Unlike tax cuts for billionaires, common-sense immigration reform has the ability to draw Reagan Democrats and split the “progressive” coalition. Regardless of the party line, state legislators want to win. They will continue to pursue this issue as long as they continue to receive pressure (and votes) from their constituents.



Third, and perhaps most important: the transformation of the GOP into the “Generic American Party” is continuing--regardless of what the Beltway Right has to say about it.

In areas of Republican strength, notably the South, the GOP has become the “white party.” There are entire states where every white state elected official is a Republican and every black is a Democrat. [Southern White Democrats Face End of Era in Congress, By Naftali Bendavid, WSJ, August 8, 2012]

Even if the Beltway GOP completely switches sides on amnesty, there is no evidence to suggest that their surrender will do anything to win over minority voters---and it will simply hasten Republican decline.

The good news for patriotic immigration reformers: it is now clear that the only way to create a Republican Party that “can win again” is to focus on “inreach” to the white base, work hard to court working class voters, stand for economic fairness and protection of American jobs, and boldly proclaim an immigration moratorium.

The bad news: Conservatism Inc. would rather lose than be accused of being Politically Incorrect.

James Kirkpatrick [Email him] travels around the United States looking for a waiter who can speak English.

Europe's Troubles: Setting the Stage for Prophecy's Fulfillment

An interesting article from http://www.ucg.org/ about the European Union in the background of the news. This follows this post about Thanksgiving.   This follows this post about "shop till you drop."   For a free magazine subscription or to get this book for free click HERE! or call 1-888-886-8632.

Europe's Troubles: Setting the Stage for Prophecy's Fulfillment




article by John Ross Schroeder





In 1933 Winston Churchill chillingly warned, "No one can watch the events which are taking place in Germany without increasing anxiety about what their outcome will be." With an economic crisis now plaguing the eurozone, will Berlin's troubled history repeat itself? What is Germany's destiny? Does Bible prophecy give us any indication of where events in Europe are leading?







Source: Mountain High Maps/Shaun VenishThe late British author John Stott summed up the mindset of many this way: "Most of us feel demoralized by the heart-rending tragedy of this chaotic world. Our very survival is in doubt. The ordinary citizen often feels a helpless victim of the tangled web of politics, or a faceless unit in the machine of modern society" ( Basic Christianity, 2008, p. 152).



The apostle Paul foretold that conditions would be like this during the last days of this age of man (2 Timothy 3:1-5 [1] This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

[2] For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

[3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

[4] Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

[5] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.





See All...). That's why our articles about regional and world trends ultimately focus on the good news guaranteed by the prophecies of the Bible.



But the Bible itself makes it very plain that the wonderful world to come will first be preceded by devastating conditions of a magnitude never before seen by the human race (see Matthew 24:21-22 [21] For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

[22] And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.





See All...; Daniel 12:1And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.



See All...; Jeremiah 30:7Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.



See All...). The state of the world will be so dire that human survival will be at stake!



Our news headlines show that prophecies written in the Bible many centuries ago are now beginning to be fulfilled in a major way. Nowhere is this truer than in Central Europe and the Middle East. This article focuses on Europe (though you can gain an understanding of the other region's prophetic role by reading our free booklet The Middle East in Bible Prophecy and articles about Israel and the Middle East that appear regularly in this magazine).



What does Bible prophecy tell us about the future of Europe? The biblical books of Daniel and Revelation both show that a new and dictatorial superpower will emerge at the time of the end, centered in Europe. In this article we'll see how the stage is apparently being set for the fulfillment of these prophecies.



Europe as a unified entity

Europe is a key player in the global economy. In spite of all the talk about the economies of the United States and China, the European Union (EU) is the world's largest and wealthiest economic power bloc.



Europe has also been the battleground for countless wars over the millennia and the flashpoint for two devastating world wars in the first half of the 1900s. At the heart of those two world wars for control of Europe was Germany, now politically and economically immersed with other European nations in seeking a United States of Europe.



The global intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting, Inc., better known as Stratfor, is highly respected for its analysis of global and regional trends. Months ago it noted that "the future of Europe [is] bound to the decision-making process in Germany" and that "Europe cannot function as a unified entity unless someone is in control."



It went on to explain that "at present, Germany is the only country with a large enough economy and population to achieve that control" ("Germany's Choice: Part 2," July 26, 2011, emphasis added throughout). In recent months we have seen this demonstrated again and again as Germany has positioned itself—sometimes openly, sometimes behind the scenes—to take the lead in the future direction of Europe.



Currently two basic scenarios exist for the future of Europe. One view, the most popular, holds that the present generation of Germans have become staunch defenders of freedom and democracy, being fully aware of the dangers of repeating Berlin's troubled history during the first half of the 20th century—when its ambitions twice led to world wars.



A second view is that a long-lingering euro crisis, initially spurred by runaway Greek debt but then spreading steadily to other troubled European economies, will eventually result in the emergence of an economic powerhouse that can step in and resolve the crisis—a new German-led empire.



Proponents of this projection of current trends believe that the nations of southern Europe are slated to come under Berlin's thumb and that, in the long run, even the enormous bailouts by Germany will be well worth the huge costs incurred. In other words, Germany will be successful at attaining through its economic might what it was unsuccessful at attaining through military might twice in the last century.



Do history and the Bible indicate which view will eventually prevail?



"It's all about Germany"

The two world wars started by Germany have often dominated the anxious postwar thoughts of other European countries. In 1997, then French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing cautioned that a failure of efforts to integrate Europe economically (leading to today's euro) would lead to "a preponderant influence of Germany" in European affairs (Celestine Bohlen, "Euro Unity? It's Germany That Matters," The New York Times, March 9, 2010).



A basic rationale by other European nations in recent decades was to encase Germany well inside the European Union to prevent its previously notorious nationalistic tendencies from threatening their sovereignty and territorial integrity. This was a powerful motivator behind the steady drive for European integration into an eventual united Europe.



But is this strategy really going to work out as hoped in the long run, considering Europe's disparate peoples and cultures? With Europe confronting a painful and divisive economic crisis, will Berlin eventually wind up virtually directing the activities of the EU anyway?



It appears the answer is now becoming clearer. The article cited above states: "Ten years after the euro, it's still all about Germany, which isn't the way it was supposed to be. . . President Nicolas Sarkozy of France can come and pledge all the support to Greece he wants, but in the end, it's Germany that matters" (ibid).



Newsweek magazine recently pointed out: "Who is the greatest beneficiary of the existence of the euro? The answer is Germany . . . The rest of the euro zone absorb[s] 40 percent of German exports. . ." (John Eatwell, "Euro Vision," Sept. 5, 2011).



The Stratfor report cited earlier also noted: "Despite its flaws, the system that currently manages Europe has granted Germany economic wealth of global reach without costing a single German life. Given the horrors of World War II, this was not something to be breezily discarded. No country in Europe has benefited more from the eurozone than Germany. For the German elite, the eurozone was an easy means of making Germany matter on a global stage without the sort of military revitalization that would have spawned panic across Europe and the former Soviet Union. And it also made the Germans rich."



Moving to exert control

Germany is clearly taking steps to exert control in the current economic crisis. The Stratfor report also noted that Germany was for a long time content to take a backseat in the European leadership arena, but no longer.



With the economic crisis spreading among the countries of southern Europe, Germany is the only European power with enough financial muscle to bail them out—and has quietly maneuvered behind the scenes to put themselves in the driver's seat.



Germany has created a new bailout mechanism that, as Strafor observes, "takes its orders from the Germans. The mechanism is not enshrined in EU treaties; it is instead a private bank, the director of which is German. . . In order to get the money, distressed states merely have to do whatever Germany—the manager of the fund—wants. . .



"Accepting EFSF [European Financial Security Facility] assistance means accepting a surrender of financial autonomy to the German commanders of the EFSF. For now, that means accepting German-designed austerity programs, but there is nothing that forces the Germans to limit their conditions to the purely financial/fiscal.



"For all practical purposes, the next chapter of history has now opened in Europe. Regardless of intentions, Germany has just experienced an important development in its ability to influence fellow EU member states—particularly those experiencing financial troubles. It can now easily usurp huge amounts of national sovereignty.



"Rather than constraining Germany's geopolitical potential, the European Union now enhances it; Germany is on the verge of once again becoming a great power. This hardly means that a regeneration of the Wehrmacht [military force] is imminent, but Germany 's re-emergence does force a radical rethinking of the European and Eurasian architectures."



"A real opportunity to achieve a political union in Europe"

The British newsmagazine The Economist recently observed: "All of a sudden . . . Berlin is abuzz with talk of remaking the European Union: issuing joint eurobonds, renegotiating the EU's treaties, even creating a federal Europe" ("Germany's Euro Question," Sept. 10, 2011).



Redesigning the European Union's institutions has suddenly become all the rage in Germany!



Of particular interest is the revival of federalism. The Economist piece continued: "German Euro-federalists have woken up after a long slumber. It is no surprise that Joschka Fischer, the Greens' elder statesman [who served as foreign minister and vice chancellor under former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder], should call for the 'United States of Europe.'"



According to a Sept. 4, 2011, Reuters article, Schroeder himself also called for the creation of a "United States of Europe," stating: "The current crisis makes it relentlessly clear that we cannot have a common currency zone without a common fiscal, economic and social policy. . . We will have to give up national sovereignty . . . And that means the United States of Europe ... In the crisis lies a real opportunity to achieve a political union in Europe."



Strengths and weaknesses in eurozone nations

According to The Wall Street Journal: "The Greek statistical office reported that the economy shrank 7.3% in the second quarter, down from an initial estimate of 6.9% contraction last month. The Greek economy has been contracting for three years" ("Greece Slips Further," Sept. 9-11, 2011).



Recently Athens has been only weeks from running out of euros and facing a critical debt default. In response the Greek government has promised to levy a property tax to address a 2 billion euro revenue shortfall. But will this measure send yet more Greek citizens to the streets, demonstrating and rioting in protest? Some observers still feel that a Greek default is inevitable.



Discussions with EU and International Monetary Fund officials recently broke down over the terms of loans Greece desperately needs to avoid economic collapse. Several other southern European nations are only slightly better off than Greece.



How is it that, as the Newsweek article cited above states, "the entire national debts of Greece, Portugal, and Ireland amount to less than 5 percent of euro-zone debt," and yet the entire eurozone can be seriously shaken by their debt problems? This clearly points to major structural flaws in the way the euro was originally constructed as a new currency beginning in early 1999.



This probably has some bearing on why, just prior to the establishment of Jesus Christ's future rule on earth, the Bible speaks of a future European-centered superpower where the component countries are symbolically described as iron mixed with clay, "partly strong and partly fragile" (see Daniel 2:40-44 [40] And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

[41] And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

[42] And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

[43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

[44] And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.





See All...).



The troubling future of Europe

Hitler's Nazi regime (1933-1945) was made possible only by a severe economic crisis in Germany during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Under normal economic conditions the Nazis could never have come to power. Of course, the details are different today. So far it's not Berlin that's experiencing economic crisis, but other eurozone nations, principally in southern Europe. Germany remains the principal paymaster of Europe. But there may yet be financial consequences for Germany.



Today the European Union countries are experiencing serious political differences and a troubling degree of divisiveness and disunity due in significant measure to severe economic problems. Bible prophecy indicates that the European Union will not continue in its current form.



Some members may opt out of the EU, or perhaps even be forced out as the prophesied end-time entity takes shape (Britain, for instance, has often been at odds with the European Union almost from its inception in 1958).



Ultimately a new and powerful European superstate, labeled in symbol as "the Beast," will astonish a largely unsuspecting world. An imposing bloc of nations will coalesce as one final revival of the ancient Roman Empire (Revelation 13:1-8 [1] And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

[2] And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

[3] And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

[4] And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

[5] And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

[6] And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

[7] And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

[8] And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.





See All...; 17:8-18; Daniel 2:37-45 [37] Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

[38] And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.

[39] And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

[40] And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

[41] And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

[42] And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

[43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

[44] And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

[45] Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.





See All...; 7:15-27).



Ten member nations (or groups of nations) will relinquish their own national sovereignty to become part of this astonishing end-time superpower. "These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast" (Revelation 17:13These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.



See All...).



These disturbing events will affect the whole world—including setting the stage for the devastatingly dangerous times in which human extinction would happen without God's intervention (Matthew 24:21-22 [21] For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

[22] And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.





See All...). Since all that Bible prophecy foretells is sure to happen, we should all heed the words of the apostle Peter. He asked in light of the impermanence of the world around us: "What manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?" (2 Peter 3:11Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,



See All...).



Seeing the stage set for the fulfillment of end-time prophecies should motivate each of us to examine our spiritual condition in the light of God's Word. An understanding of prophecy ought to lead us to repentance and to dedicate our lives to seeking God and serving Him. Mere academic Bible knowledge is far from enough!



Jesus Christ plainly tells us in Luke 21:36Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.



See All...: "Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man"!



To Learn More...

This article has touched on the highlights of what Bible prophecy foretells is to come in Europe. To understand the overall significance of the ongoing prophetic picture, request or download the free booklets You Can Understand Bible Prophecy and Are We Living in the Time of the End?

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Ten Reasons the Pro-Life Movement is Winning on Abortion

An interesting story from http://www.lifenews.com/ about Pro-Life momentum. This follows this post about pro-life victories at the state and local level.  For more that you can do to get involved click HERE and you can also get a very interesting book HERE.

Ten Reasons the Pro-Life Movement is Winning on Abortion


by Fr. Frank Pavone
Washington, DC
LifeNews.com

 We are closer to achieving our goal of winning the fight to end abortion and restoring protection to children in the womb than the mainstream media is reporting.



To help you see the truth of that statement and to inspire you to renew your commitment to the fight, here are ten signs that point to the fact that the end of abortion in America will come sooner than you may think. Of this much I am certain, we will not have to wait for the next generation to plan and carry out victory

celebrations. That will be our task.



This does not mean that you can relax or take anything for granted. Just the opposite, in fact.



The closer we get to victory, the harder the other side will fight to keep abortion legal and the more hostile they will become. Still, we now know the key weaknesses of the abortion movement … as well as the pro-life dynamics that the other side can do nothing to stop. So be of good cheer and stout heart! We have the devil of abortion on the ropes. And here are ten signs that point to our eventual victory.



Sign 1: The survivors



The surest sign of our ultimate victory is the strong and ever-growing involvement of young people in all aspects of the fight to end abortion. And if you ask them why they’ve joined our fight, they will tell you: “It could have been me!” In speaking up for the unborn, the youth of America are also speaking up for themselves. This is an awareness and motivation that abortion advocates can do nothing to stop. And as a result, our pro-life movement receives a new strength and motivation each day from these survivors.



Sign 2: The flow of conversions



Another reason for confidence is simply to look at the flow of conversions. In which direction does it go? It goes from pro-abortion to pro-life. There is, for example, an international organization of former abortion providers called the Society of Centurions. These men and women – to whom I have the privilege of ministering – once served as doctors, nurses, technicians, security guards, and other roles to operate abortion mills. Now they have repented of their killing and become pro-life. Some of them – like Dr. Bernard Nathanson and Norma McCorvey – have high-profile testimonies. But most of them try to get on with more normal lives in the privacy of their own communities.



Since when, however, have you heard of an organization of former pregnancy resource center directors who have repented of saving babies and are now pro-abortion? It just doesn’t happen. With the notable exception of politicians – individuals notorious for abandoning their principles in exchange for votes or praise from media elitists – the flow of conversions is in one direction … and that is from death to life.



Sign 3: I regret my abortion



Another clear sign of progress is the wave of women and men across the world who are speaking out about how they regret having their child killed by abortion. The “Silent No More Awareness Campaign” – a joint project of Priests for Life and Anglicans for Life – provides these women and men an opportunity to share their testimonies in public gatherings, before the media, in pulpits, and in legislative hearings. As Jennifer O’Neill, the campaign’s National Celebrity Spokeswoman

says, “Experience trumps theory.” These men and women are living testimony that abortion doesn’t work. Instead of “solving” a problem, abortion creates more problems of its own. Best of all, there is nothing abortion advocates can do to stop this tidal wave. In fact, it puts them in quite a dilemma. For decades now they have been saying, “Listen to the voices of women!” Now, if they practice what they preach, they hear those women’s voices repudiate the lie of abortion.



Sign 4: Few doctors … fewer mills



Over half of America’s freestanding abortion clinics have closed since 1993 … from over 2,000 at that time to roughly 740 today. That’s because, no matter how much money, political strength, and media access the abortion movement has built up, they have not succeeded in removing the indelible stigma that is attached to abortion. In fact, the abortion industry’s greatest fear is not that Roe v. Wade will be reversed. Rather, it is that abortion will remain legal but there won’t be any doctors to do it. About 86% of counties in America do not currently have an abortionist. Fewer and fewer doctors – even if they consider themselves pro-choice – want to perform the procedure. They consider abortionists to be the losers of the medical profession, and they are right. Abortionist Herbert Hodes summed it up in Glamour magazine in September of 1991 when he said: “That’s how the anti’s are going to win. They are going to win by attrition, because fewer and fewer doctors will perform abortions.”



Sign 5: Legal evidence mounts



In Constitutional history, the rights of groups that have been oppressed – such as African Americans, children, women, and workers – have eventually been vindicated. As Courts heard more evidence of the harm that was done to these groups, they reversed prior Court decisions. From slavery to workers’ rights to segregation to child labor laws, eventually the Courts get it right. Now it is time for the “embryonic moment” … the recognition that the rights of the Constitution apply to the unborn child. In various cases, the evidence of the unborn child’s humanity, as well as of the harm abortion does to women, is being introduced in court. And even if a particular court decision is not favorable, the evidence that is introduced into the record becomes material that future cases can invoke. As the body of scientific evidence continues to mount, one day in the not too distant future the Courts will be forced to recognize the personhood of the unborn child and accord him with the rights and protections of our U.S. Constitution.



Sign 6: Abortion research



Another motive for confidence is the growing mountain of medical, psychological, and sociological evidence that abortion harms women, men, and families. Websites like www.AfterAbortion.org  provide an excellent starting point for surveying this growing mountain of evidence. Most telling of all is the fact that even those researchers who identify themselves as pro-choice are coming to this conclusion … and publishing their research despite the objections and criticism of the abortion industry. This growing body of evidence is one of the ways that abortion will eventually destroy itself. The more abortion continues, the more it reveals itself as an enemy of the human family.



Sign 7: No more arguments



Another sign of victory is that the other side has run out of arguments. In the years leading up to Roe vs. Wade, abortion advocates assured everyone that legalized abortion would reduce child abuse, strengthen family life, and improve society. But all the evidence shows that after three decades of legal abortion, all these problems have gotten worse. Moreover, all the arguments from medicine, science, psychology, sociology, law, ethics, and religion support the pro-life view.

Finally, supporters used to call abortion a decision “between a woman and her doctor.” Now they say it’s a decision “between a woman and her God.” When abortion supporters run out of arguments, they appeal to God in order to end debate. We in the pro-life movement also appeal to God … not as the substitute for other arguments, however, but rather as their foundation.



Sign 8: Even in politics…



We even see evidence of pro-life progress in the political arena. Voters for whom abortion matters in their decision vote in favor of pro-life candidates by a two to one margin. Even the 2006 election shows this. In a political climate that was hostile to many pro-life candidates, the data shows that it was so for reasons other than abortion. Some 36% of voters said that abortion affected their vote. Within that group, 23% voted pro-life and only 13% pro-abortion. Voters’ behavior on the abortion issue continues to be an advantage to our pro-life side as surveys show that the intensity of motivation for the pro-life side is stronger. Opinion polls also show that newer, younger voters are more pro-life and want to see abortion eliminated or more highly restricted.

Sign 9: Legislation galore



The last several years have seen unprecedented legislative progress on behalf of the unborn child. Look at the evidence. On the federal level, for the first time, an abortion procedure – so-called “partial birth abortion” – has been declared illegal. The “Born-Alive Infants Protection Act”protects the unborn from being killed after a failed abortion. The “Unborn Victims of Violence Act” protects the unborn from acts of violence other than abortion. And on the state level, laws are in

place that have reduced the numbers of abortion. These include parental involvement laws, informed consent laws, and abortion clinic regulation laws. Our lawmakers are making progress!



CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!









Sign 10: Corruption uncovered



A key reason we are winning is that abortion destroys itself. The evil inner workings of abortion are being exposed for all to see … and as more and more crimes become visible, the abortion movement loses supporters. These crimes include medical malpractice, sexual abuse, injury and death that routinely occur in so-called “safe and legal” abortion clinics, doctors not sterilizing instruments, “anesthesiologists” who have no training in anesthesia, “abortions” committed on women who were not pregnant, falsifying medical records, and much more. What’s more, the abortion industry creates a safe haven for sexual predators. Details are available at

www.ChildPredator.com . Beyond the abuse of the patients, abortion clinics are rampant with violations of OSHA standards and other employment laws. A long list of details can be seen at www.ClinicWorker.com. What all this means is that the abortion industry is highly vulnerable to negative public opinion and to legal action having nothing to do directly with the legality of abortions. Clinics can be closed – and are closing – and abortionists being jailed for reasons having nothing to do with what people think about abortion … but rather for reasons related to malpractice, abuse, and other illegal activity.



The fundamental reason why we’re winning Above all else, the reason why we are winning the fight to end abortion is because we have already won! There is one among us who holds the keys of death and of hell. Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead! Although thought to be overwhelmed by the agents of death … He trampled death by His death. As a result, death has been robbed of its power. “O death, where is thy sting?” Because of Christ’s Resurrection, death no longer has the final word in the human story. Our final destiny is heaven … not the grave!



This means that the power of abortion – which takes more life than anything else – has also been broken. Our pro-life movement does not simply work for victory …

we work from victory! Victory is our starting point. We joyfully proclaim to the world that Christ is Risen, and that for this reason, we must choose life. We then work to apply that victory to every sector of society.



LifeNews.com Note: Father Frank Pavone is the national director for Priests for Life.

Thanksgiving Box Office: Red Dawn, Silver Linings Playbook, Life of Pi, The Flat, Rise of the Guardians

Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/ reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post about some of the movies from last week and THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed! This all follows this post about guidelines to chosing good movies to watch yourself!


Thanksgiving Box Office: Red Dawn, Silver Linings Playbook, Life of Pi, The Flat, Rise of the Guardians


By Debbie Schlussel



No MARXES for any of the new movies at theaters today for Thanksgiving. All of them were decent, some of them good.


>



* “Red Dawn“: While this was better than I expected, it’s still somewhat schlocky and isn’t nearly as good as the original 1984 “Red Dawn”, which was much panned by liberal mainstream media movie critics but was actually a very good movie that stands the test of time. As you may know, this was filmed in Michigan and heavily subsidized by the Michigan Film Tax Credit. (A former trainer from my gym, Michael Knight, plays a Russian military figure.) It also sat on the shelves for about two years and wasn’t even going to be released except on video. But that changed, when its stars, particularly Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, became big stars. So, now, it’s a Thanksgiving movie, even though it doesn’t deserve that slot. And, as you’ve probably heard, this originally featured the Chinese invading America, but for international ticket sales reasons was changed to North Koreans (the movie used Detroit-based Asians of all varieties, many of whom look Chinese to me, not Korean).



The story: North Koreans invade America, particularly Spokane, Washington, the setting of this movie. Several teens (Hemsworth, Hutcherson, and several lesser knowns) form “The Wolverines,” a group of rebels who fight the North Koreans.



My reservations with this movie, as I’ve noted before on this site: our major enemies are Muslims and Chi-Coms, NOT the North Koreans, although they are bad. So the plot is absurd. It’s not even plausible that the North Koreans could afford to carry out such a major scale invasion of America. And all of the Wolverines in this movie wear keffiyehs, the Islamic scarf of death. Um, since when did the keffiyeh become the symbol of American freedom? The movie would have been far more credible had the movie been about an invasion of Muslims. But Hollywood would NEVER have the cojones to present Muslims as the invaders. Not politically correct. Plus, they have tickets to sell to Arab and Muslim moviegoers around the wrold. Back in 1984, Soviet Communism was the major threat we faced. Now, it is Islam and the Chinese. And the Chinese are doing it financially, not through a military invasion. So, this movie seems kind of comical.



It’s an entertaining movie with giant holes in it, and silliness, such as plenty of North Korean planes suddenly invading our airspace with zero response from the U.S. military. Then, there are thousands of HumVees, suddenly on the streets of America with North Korean military emblems on them. How did that suddenly happen without anyone knowing.



I liked that it shows a Marine who served in Afghanistan (Hemsworth) in a positive, patriotic light. But this movie is a cubic zirconium imitation of the original “Red Dawn.” Nothing too objectionable about it. But you should see the original, instead. There was absolutely no reason to remake it, other than that Tom Cruise’s son needed a gig, and Hollywood can’t come up with anything new.



ONE REAGAN


* “Silver Linings Playbook“: This movie is strictly for adults because of language and themes. It’s rated “R” for a reason. But it’s absolutely hilarious. I laughed and laughed. And, while I found it depressing at the beginning, it turned into a very happy, entertaining–if weird–movie.



Bradley Cooper plays a crazy guy who is released from a mental hospital to freedom, after severely beating his then-wife’s lover, after he walks in on the two of them taking a shower together. Cooper is delusional and still thinks his now-ex-wife still loves him and he wants to go see her. But there’s a restraining order out on him. Cooper’s parents are Robert De Niro (who, in a novel role for him, plays an Italian bookie) and Jacki Weaver (who looks and sounds like a dead ringer for Sally Struthers in this movie). Cooper drives his parents crazy, and soon his friends try to set him up with a mysterious woman (Jennifer Lawrence) whose husband cheated on her. She wants Cooper to dance with her in a dancing competition, and she and the dance practice are getting in the way of his obsession with finding his ex-wife.



Like I said, this is very funny, after being extremely depressing at first. But there is a lot of yelling and melodrama, which I could have done without. If you want a movie that is completely relaxing, this isn’t it. But it ends with a relaxing, happy conclusion.



TWO-AND-A-HALF REAGANS



* “Life of Pi“: After a storm kills most of his family and other passengers on an ocean liner, an Indian teenaged boy gets marooned on a boat in the middle of the ocean. He must endure and survive nearly a year of little food, plus he must find a way to live with a hungry tiger who is also on the tiny boat.



This is a lot like “Castaway,” but set on a boat and with a tiger instead of a volleyball. It was a good adventure and definitely thrilling, but most of it takes place on the boat in the ocean. And the ending is very annoying and a silly attempt to philosophize and play with your mind (which doesn’t work too well). The movie was a little slow and long, but it was entertaining. While it’s aimed at families and also kids, I wondered if kids might be scared by some of the violent animal attacks in a few scenes. It’s not a spectacular movie, but it’s okay.



ONE-AND-A-HALF REAGANS




* “The Flat“: It’s difficult to review this documentary without giving away the whole thing and engaging in spoilers. So, I’m limited in what I can say about it. I thought it was a fascinating, interesting movie, which made me think. At first, it blew my mind. But after I saw it and did some research into the object of criticism in the movie, I found that things were a little different than portrayed.



An Israeli Jewish director, Arnon Goldfinger, goes with his mother and other relatives to clean out the apartment of his maternal grandmother’s apartment after she passes away. His grandparents were proud German citizens who left Germany as the Nazis came to power, but despite living in Palestine and then Israel, they still thought of themselves as Germans. But, while going through his grandmother’s things, he notices something odd and disturbing, which he looks into further. And the more he looks, the more disturbing it gets. Goldfinger finds out some disturbing things about his grandparents and their friends, having to do with the Holocaust and the Nazis. With this movie, he’s opened a hornets’ nest. And after the research I did after the movie, I’m not entirely sure that Goldfinger is entirely fair to his grandparents. Plus, they aren’t around to answer.



I believe that part of this documentary was staged because, I wondered, did Goldfinger really have the cameras rolling, just in case they found something interesting in his grandmother’s apartment . . . or did they re-enact that part, once they did find that “something interesting?” It’s something I always wonder with these documentaries in which the cameras are already rolling when something “just comes up” that becomes the basis of the documentary.



Go see this movie and let me know what you think.



TWO-AND-A-HALF REAGANS



* “Rise of the Guardians“: This animated movie is aimed at kids and families with kids. The animation and 3D are fabulous and amazing. Can’t say as much for the story, which was fine and not objectionable in any way. It’s just that it was dull, and I felt like I’d seen it a million times before. Also, beware that uber-liberal maniac Alec Baldwin voices the Santa character (called “North” in this movie).



The story: when the bogeyman (called “Pitch”) turns kids’ dreams into nightmares and makes them stop believing in Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and other imaginary characters. Those characters, including Jack Frost, are the “Immortial Guardians” of children, and Jack Frost leads them to stop this and fight off Pitch.



Fine for kids and families.



ONE REAGAN

“I Would Have Done It About Mexico.” American Hero John Milius Denounces RED DAWN Remake

A very interesting post from www.Vdare.com about the movie "Red Dawn." This follows this post about the electoral college for future Presidential elections. .   This follows this post about a race hoax at U.T. Austin.  This follows this post about Emmit Till. In the meantime, you can read a very interesting book HERE.

“I Would Have Done It About Mexico.” American Hero John Milius Denounces RED DAWN Remake




http://www.vdare.com/articles/i-would-have-done-it-about-mexico-american-hero-john-milius-denounces-red-dawn-remake

By Paul Kersey

A new, Politically Correct remake of the iconic 1984 Red Dawn is being released today (November 21). John Milius, writer-director of the original and a true American Hero, is reportedly very ill with pancreatic cancer at the age of 68, but that hasn’t stopped him denouncing the whole thing in no uncertain terms. This article is dedicated to him.

It wasn’t for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s sake that I picked up his autobiography, Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story. It was for anecdotes about the man who wrote such famous movie lines as “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” (Apocalypse Now), “Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" (Dirty Harry), and who directed Arnold in the iconic Conan the Barbarian.

Arnold has made hundreds of millions from his films, hundreds of millions more from savvy investments in real estate, and become one of the most recognizable people on earth. But Conan stands alone as the movie that made and still defines his career.

I  refer, of course, to John Milius, who both directed and wrote Conan. A self-professed “Zen fascist” and a long-time member of the National Rifle Association board, Milius was the true star of Arnold’s book.

In Total Recall, we learn that Milius defended Arnold when he was accused of being a Nazi by producer Dino De Laurentiis:



“I don’t like Schwarzenegger,” he told Milius. “He’s a Nazi.” Milius had already decided Arnold was perfect for the role and told Dino, “No, Dino. There is only one Nazi on this team. And that is me. I am the Nazi.”



And after finishing Arnold’s book, it is Milius (who is Jewish, in case you’re getting worried) that you want to know more about—whose life seems more authentic and more in line with the Nietzsche quote that accompanies the start of Conan the Barbarian: “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.”

Alas, we’ll probably never get an autobiography from Milius, a man who tried to volunteer for the Marines during Vietnam but was rejected because of health problems.

Laurence Leamer’s biography of Arnold Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger offers a few tantalizing snippets:



Milius was a rudely spoken, vulgar, literate, obsessive, burly, bearded, proud, gun-toting anachronism… Milius had been so weak and sickly that he was turned down by the military service he so admired, and had become a troubadour of lost traditional manhood.

There’s an atavistic, self-consciously primate quality expressed in much of Milius’s work, as if only by stripping away the shoddy veneer of civilization can the manly life be reborn.



Conan The Barbarian, which came out in 1982, helped cement Milius as one of the top directors in Hollywood. But he has a long record of powerful scripts and is famous for writing crisp, sometimes uncredited, dialogue. He came up with the famous monologue about the USS Indianapolis for Jaws; he helped George Lucas get his start as a director; and he was only individual who dared direct Red Dawn.

The late Patrick Swayze fondly recalled, in his 2009 autobiography The Time of My Life, the time he spent filming Red Dawn:



“You can call me the General,” Red Dawn director John Milius announced. “Swayze, you are my Lieutenant of the Art, and I’ll direct these little [expletive deleted by VDARE.com] through you.” With those words, Milius put me in charge of the cast of Red Dawn—Tommy Howell, Jennifer Grey, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson and others—for the grueling shoot in the mountains of New Mexico.

Red Dawn was a controversial movie right from the start. Five minutes into the film, Soviet and Cuban paratroopers float down to a small Colorado town and open fire with machine guns, launching World War III with an invasion on American soil. In the early 1980s, when we made Red Dawn, the Cold War was raging and fears of a Soviet attack ran high across America. But nobody would touch it as a movie plot—except Milius, who was just the man for the job.”



You can see why. New York Magazine’s David Denby sneered:



Red Dawn is an American fascist movie, a banana-cake fantasy for the far right. This is a film in which World War II is fun… Red Dawn is a call to self-discipline: The boys repress their tears and go out and die; they even learn to kill their own when necessary. The girls aren’t allowed to lighten things up and Milius won’t let any outsiders near the sacred fire: No black, Hispanic, or American Indian is going to drink his deer’s blood.

The Nicaraguans are coming! August 20, 1984



Doesn’t it sound great?

Well, don’t worry: in the upcoming remake of Red Dawn, the cast has the Politically Correct mandated diversity that we’ve come to love and expect from Hollywood.

More significantly, and ignominiously, the original story of the Chinese invading America—standing in for the now defunct USSR from the first film—was scrapped after filming was finished, with the North Koreans (!!) digitally interpolated...so as not to offend our Chinese overlords. [‘Red Dawn’ Villains Switched from China to North Korea, ScreenRants.com, November 21, 2011]

Milius had already blasted the upcoming remake, which he deemed completely unnecessary. 24 Frames’ Rachel Abramowitz reported:



"I think it’s a stupid thing to do. The movie is not very old," says Milius, who’s not involved in the new film but was given a chance to read the new script. "It was terrible. There was a strange feeling to the whole thing. They were fans of the movie so they put in stuff they thought was neat. It’s all about neat action scenes, and has nothing to do with story."

In the original film, the Soviet Union has invaded the continental United States, and a group of young men and women (Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey) band together as a guerrilla group, nicknamed the Wolverines, to fight off the occupiers. In the 2010 edition, directed by Dan Bradley and starring Chris Hemsworth and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the villains are the Chinese.

While the new baddies might tap into American fears about a rising China, to Milius it makes little political sense. “There’s only one example in 4,000 years of Chinese territorial adventurism, and that was in 1979, when they invaded Vietnam, and to put it mildly they got their [butts] handed to them,“ says Milius, noting that China built a wall to separate itself from invaders. “Why would China want us? They sell us stuff. We’re a market. I would have done it about Mexico." [ Original 'Red Dawn' director takes aim at the remake, March 26, 2010]



Mexico, eh? Judging by the state of California, Arizona, Texas and, increasingly, the entire United States, Milius might be onto something.

Milius has gone even further, confirming the political style that James Kirkpatrick wishes would represent America:



For example, here's Milius on stopping murderous drug traffickers in Mexico: "We need to go down there, kill them all, flatten the place with bulldozers so when you wake up in the morning, there's nothing there," he said in a phone interview. "I do believe if you have a military, you use it."

Or Rush Limbaugh: "I was watching Rush Limbaugh the other night, and I was horrified. I would have Rush Limbaugh drawn and quartered. He was sticking up for these Wall Street pigs. There should be public show trials, mass denunciations and executions."

[Apocalypse' writer: Most scripts today 'are garbage', CNN, by Thom Patterson, March 9, 2009]



In Milius’ version of Red Dawn, Patrick Swayze’s character is preparing to execute a captured Russian officer. Asked by one of the guerrillas he leads what is the difference between us and them, he coldly responds:“Because we live here.”

That is exactly what American patriots need to be prepared to say in America today.



Paul Kersey[Email him] is the author of the blog SBPDL, and has published the books SBPDL Year One, Hollywood in Blackface andEscape From Detroit, and, Opiate of America: College Football in Black and White.