| Wishing all a very merry Christmas from The Orate Fratres!
James Mary Evans |
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Monthly Archives: December 2009
Pope Benedict Attacked: Video/Story/Pics
Pope is fine…
Attacker: Susanna Maiolo, a Swiss-Italian national with psychiatric problems.
AMERICAN PAPIST: VIDEO/STORY/PICS
Report: French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, 87, broke hip as he tried to stop the woman reaching the Pope…
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray
CNN UPDATE: The woman who dragged the Pope down Thursday night during Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica is the same woman who tried to attack the Pope at the same function last year, the Vatican said.
The woman, described by a Vatican spokesman as “mentally disturbed” jumped a barrier at the start of the event and toppled Pope Benedict XVI as onlookers gasped.
Screams erupted from worshippers when the woman ran toward Pope Benedict XVI and grabbed onto his vestments as he walked down the main aisle of the Rome church, video footage showed.
He was quickly helped to his feet by his aides — prompting cheers from the crowd — and the service was resumed, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told CNN.
The Pope was not hurt in the incident, Lombardi said.
“Unfortunately that is not the same for Cardinal [Roger Etchegaray] who was nearby; he fell and broke his femur,” said Lomabardi.
MSNBC — VIDEO/STORY/PICS
TELEGRAPH.co.uk. — VIDEO/STORY
CNN — STORY/PICS
RIANOVOSTI — STORY/PICS/VIDEO (INTERVIEW)
TIMESONLINE — STORY/VIDEO(S)
BREITBART — VIDEO
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NORAD TRACKS SANTA WORLDWIDE (VIDEOS)
Children will like this…
TRACK SANTA TO YOUR TOWN ON THE OFFICIAL SITE:
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INTERPOL in America: We await an explanation Mr. President…
President Obama’s Executive Order amending President Ronald Reagans’ 1983 EO 12425 and placing INTERPOL above the United States Constitution…
EDITORS NOTE: I pinched this information from ThreatsWatch because it bears repeating to every American who values his/hers freedoms under the Constitution of the United States of America. I agree with the conclusion of authors Steve Schippert and Clyde Middleton:
” [Ultimately,..] A detailed verbal explanation is due the American public from the President of the United States detailing why an international law enforcement arm assisting a court we are not a signatory to has been elevated above our Constitution upon our soil.”
Here’s the article:
Wither Sovereignty
Executive Order Amended to Immunize INTERPOL In America – Is The ICC Next?
By Steve Schippert, Clyde Middleton | December 23, 2009
Last Thursday, December 17, 2009, The White House released an Executive Order “Amending Executive Order 12425.” It grants INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) a new level of full diplomatic immunity afforded to foreign embassies and select other “International Organizations” as set forth in the United States International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945.
By removing language from President Reagan’s 1983 Executive Order 12425, this international law enforcement body now operates – now operates – on American soil beyond the reach of our own top law enforcement arm, the FBI, and is immune from Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
For Immediate Release December 17, 2009
Executive Order — Amending Executive Order 12425EXECUTIVE ORDER
- – - – - – -
AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 12425 DESIGNATING INTERPOL
AS A PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION ENTITLED TO
ENJOY CERTAIN PRIVILEGES, EXEMPTIONS, AND IMMUNITIESBy the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 1 of the International Organizations Immunities Act (22 U.S.C. 288), and in order to extend the appropriate privileges, exemptions, and immunities to the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 12425 of June 16, 1983, as amended, is further amended by deleting from the first sentence the words “except those provided by Section 2©, Section 3, Section 4, Section 5, and Section 6 of that Act” and the semicolon that immediately precedes them.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,
December 16, 2009.After initial review and discussions between the writers of this analysis, the context was spelled out plainly.
Through EO 12425, President Reagan extended to INTERPOL recognition as an “International Organization.” In short, the privileges and immunities afforded foreign diplomats was extended to INTERPOL. Two sets of important privileges and immunities were withheld: Section 2© and the remaining sections cited (all of which deal with differing taxes).
And then comes December 17, 2009, and President Obama. The exemptions in EO 12425 were removed.
Section 2c of the United States International Organizations Immunities Act is the crucial piece.
Property and assets of international organizations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless such immunity be expressly waived, and from confiscation. The archives of international organizations shall be inviolable. (Emphasis added.)
Inviolable archives means INTERPOL records are beyond US citizens’ Freedom of Information Act requests and from American legal or investigative discovery (“unless such immunity be expressly waived.”)
Property and assets being immune from search and confiscation means precisely that. Wherever they may be in the United States. This could conceivably include human assets – Americans arrested on our soil by INTERPOL officers.
Context: International Criminal Court
The importance of this last crucial point cannot be understated, because this immunity and protection – and elevation above the US Constitution – afforded INTERPOL is likely a precursor to the White House subjecting the United States under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). INTERPOL provides a significant enforcement function for the ICC, just as our FBI provides a significant function for our Department of Justice.
We direct the American public to paragraph 28 of the ICC’s Proposed Programme Budget for 2010 (PDF).
29. Additionally, the Court will continue to seek the cooperation of States not party to the Rome Statute and to develop its relationships with regional organizations such as the Organization of American States (OAS), the Arab League (AL), the African Union (AU), the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), ASEAN and CARICOM. We will also continue to engage with subregional and thematic organizations, such as SADC and ECOWAS, and the Commonwealth Secretariat and the OIF. This will be done through high level visits, briefings and, as appropriate, relationship agreements. Work will also be carried out with sectoral organizations such as IDLO and INTERPOL, to increase efficiency.
The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute – the UN treaty that established the International Criminal Court. (See: Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court)
President George W. Bush rejected subjecting the United States to the jurisdiction of the ICC and removed the United States as a signatory. President Bill Clinton had previously signed the Rome Statute during his presidency. Two critical matters are at play. One is an overall matter of sovereignty and the concept of the primacy of American law above those of the rest of the world. But more recently a more over-riding concern principally has been the potential – if not likely – specter of subjecting our Armed Forces to a hostile international body seeking war crimes prosecutions during the execution of an unpopular war.
President Bush in fact went so far as to gain agreement from nations that they would expressly not detain or hand over to the ICC members of the United States armed forces. The fear of a symbolic ICC circus trial as a form of international political protest to American military actions in Iraq and elsewhere was real and palpable.
President Obama’s words have been carefully chosen when directly regarding the ICC. While President Bush outright rejected subjugating American armed forces to any international court as a matter of policy, President Obama said in his 2008 presidential campaign that it is merely “premature to commit” to signing America on.
However, in a Foreign Policy in Focus round-table in 2008, the host group cited his former foreign policy advisor, Samantha Power. She essentially laid down what can be viewed as now-President Obama’s roadmap to America rejoining the ICC. His principal objections are not explained as those of sovereignty, but rather of image and perception.
Obama’s former foreign policy advisor, Samantha Power, said in an early March (2008) interview with The Irish Times that many things need to happen before Obama could think about signing the Rome Treaty.
“Until we’ve closed Guantánamo, gotten out of Iraq responsibly, renounced torture and rendition, shown a different face for America, American membership of the ICC is going to make countries around the world think the ICC is a tool of American hegemony.
The detention center at Guantánamo Bay is nearing its closure and an alternate continental American site for terrorist detention has been selected in Illinois. The time line for Iraq withdrawal has been set. And President Obama has given an abundance of international speeches intended to “show a different face for America.” He has in fact been roundly criticized domestically for the routinely apologetic and critical nature of these speeches.
President Obama has not rejected the concept of ICC jurisdiction over US citizens and service members. He has avoided any direct reference to this while offering praise for the ICC for conducting its trials so far “in America’s interests.” The door thus remains wide open to the skeptical observer.
CONCLUSIONS
In light of what we know and can observe, it is our logical conclusion that President Obama’s Executive Order amending President Ronald Reagans’ 1983 EO 12425 and placing INTERPOL above the United States Constitution and beyond the legal reach of our own top law enforcement is a precursor to more damaging moves.
The pre-requisite conditions regarding the Iraq withdrawal and the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility closure will continue their course. meanwhile, the next move from President Obama is likely an attempt to dissolve the agreements made between President Bush and other states preventing them from turning over American military forces to the ICC (via INTERPOL) for war crimes or any other prosecutions.
When the paths on the road map converge – Iraq withdrawal, Guantánamo closure, perceived American image improved internationally, and an empowered INTERPOL in the United States – it is probable that President Barack Obama will once again make America a signatory to the International Criminal Court. It will be a move that surrenders American sovereignty to an international body who’s INTERPOL enforcement arm has already been elevated above the Constitution and American domestic law enforcement.
For an added and disturbing wrinkle, INTERPOL’s central operations office in the United States is within our own Justice Department offices. They are American law enforcement officers working under the aegis of INTERPOL within our own Justice Department. That they now operate with full diplomatic immunity and with “inviolable archives” from within our own buildings should send red flags soaring into the clouds.
This is the disturbing context for President Obama’s quiet release of an amended Executive Order 12425. American sovereignty hangs in the balance if these actions are not prevented through public outcry and political pressure. Some Americans are paying attention, as can be seen from some of the earliest recognitions of this troubling development here, here and here. But the discussion must extend well beyond the Internet and social media.
Ultimately, a detailed verbal explanation is due the American public from the President of the United States detailing why an international law enforcement arm assisting a court we are not a signatory to has been elevated above our Constitution upon our soil.
By Steve Schippert, Clyde Middleton | December 23, 2009
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Fratres Daily Catholic News 12.22.09
Shooter: 35-year-old David E. Crable
SEATTLE AGAIN: 2 OFFICER’S DOWN — CRITICAL CONDITION…
Two Pierce County sheriff’s deputies were in critical condition early today after they were “ambushed” while responding to a domestic-violence call, according to the Sheriff’s Department. The shooting suspect, identified as 35-year-old David E. Crable, was shot and killed in the Monday night shootout, sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.
ACORN qualifies under heath care bill
Carter apology to Jews: ‘I offer an Al Het’
Global warming, or just hot air?
Mexico City Marriage: ‘the free uniting of two people’
Irish Theologian: Faithful should elect their bishop
Anglicanorum coetibus no solution?
Winter Solstice: Pagans and Druids at Stonehedge
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Billboard Theology: NZ Church Challenges the Virgin Birth (Video/Homily/Pic)
St. Matthew-in-the-City, Auckland, New Zealand, Archdeacon Glynn Cardy:
ED. NOTE: As you read the following consider these: Ignorance of Divine Mysteries – God is Spirit – The Power of God – Holy Fear – Divine Wisdom – The Fullness of Time – Full of Grace – Raparation…
My Emphasis/My Comments
Billboard Theology Homily
To make the news at Christmas [?] it seems a priest just needs to question the literalness of a virgin giving birth. [Billboard advertising helps.] Many in society mistakenly think that to challenge literalism [Divine mysteries revealed by God...] is to challenge the norms of Christianity. What progressive interpretations try to do however is remove the supernatural obfuscation and delve into the deeper spiritual truth of this festival. [Try, and fail... The problem is exactly the opposite of what's stated: progressive interpretations of delving into spiritual truth--that is, concrete experience of divine mysteries, or, "literal" spiritual truths if you prefer--are often obscured to these by ignorance of the very divine things of which they speak. There is lacking the necessary Divine Wisdom, which, requires holy fear to acquire, and all, according to the will of God to reveal them. It's hard to imagine that proud statements and billboards offending such sublime mysteries of faith and His chosen instruments are an incentive to do so. And the cause of obfuscation is bad spirits.]
Christian fundamentalism believes a supernatural male God who lived above sent his sperm into the womb of the virgin Mary. [You know neither the Father or the Power of God, the Full of Grace, or the Incarnation and Conception of the Word made flesh; and thus, there is ignorance concerning the Nativity carried out in the fullness of time. Open your heart to the mystery of the holy night and the seed of your Mother will crush the head of the enemy who prevents your seeing...] Although there were a series of miraculous events surrounding Jesus’ birth – like wandering stars [The Morning Star still rises in the East after having first risen within the hearts of those rescued and redeemed.] and angelic choirs [Luke 2: 10-11] – the real miracle was his death and literal resurrection 33 years later. The importance of this literal resurrection is the belief that it was a cosmic transaction whereby the male God embraced humanity only after being satiated by Jesus’ innocent blood. [You can have no part of Him unless you are washed by the Blood and Water of the Lamb... The only Savior of the world.]
The Christmas billboard on a local fundamentalist church sums up this thesis. It reads: “Jesus born 2 die 4 u!” His birth was just an h’orderve before the main Calvary course.
No doubt on Christmas Eve when papers print the messages of Church leaders a few of them will serve up this fundamentalist thesis wrapped in a nice story.
Progressive Christianity believes the Christmas stories are fictitious accounts designed to introduce the radical nature of the adult Jesus. [?]They contrast the Lord and Saviour Caesar with the anomaly of a new ‘lord’ and ‘saviour’ born illegitimate in a squalid barn. At Bethlehem low-life shepherds and heathen travelers are welcome while the powerful and the priests aren’t. The stories introduce the topsy-turvy way of God, where the outsiders are invited in and the insiders ushered out.
Progressive Christianity doesn’t overlook Jesus’ life and rush to his death. Rather it sees the radical hospitality he offered to the poor, the despised, women, children, and the sick, and says: ‘this is the essence of God’. His death was a consequence of the offensive nature of that hospitality and his resurrection a symbolic vindication. [Death for sin first, eternal hospitality second.]
The Christmas billboard outside St Matthew-in-the-City lampoons literalism and invites people to think again about what a miracle is. Is the miracle a male God sending forth his divine sperm, or is the miracle that God is and always has been among the poor? The billboard has a sombre Joseph and a consoling Mary, with the caption “Poor Joseph. God is a hard act to follow.” [As horrible and evil as this statement is, my prayer is that you don't go further and blaspheme the Holy Spirit.]
On Christmas Eve when papers print the messages of Church leaders one or two of them will offer up this progressive thesis, encouraging laughter, generosity, and maybe even controversy.
Fundamentalism believes that Christianity is essentially about individual salvation and admission to an after-life off the planet. What one believes rather than how one behaves is paramount. This planet is merely a testing ground. [Actually, Christianity awaits New Heavens and New Earth. Belief and behavior are both important. Some people come to believe in, or, allow themselves to be taught by false teachers about a Jesus who really is not Jesus at all, but instead, a Jesus that suits their own sinful behavior or lifestyles. The Truth is not in them.]
Progressive Christianity however emphasizes behaviour above belief. How one treats ones neighbours, enemies, and planet is the essence of faith. The celebration of the birth of Jesus is a celebration of God in every birth and every person.
For fundamentalist Christians the incarnation is about the miraculous arrival of a baby soon to die and by his blood save us. For progressive Christians the incarnation is about the miracle of this planet earth and all life that exists here.
Although fundamentalist and progressive Christianity stand in marked contrast to one another there are many other distinct and interesting theologies on Christmas. Yet the culture of the Church is such that differences are downplayed and commonality extolled. Variety is synthesized into a supposed unity creating a mushy middle way. Most church leaders follow this middle mush approach, trying to say something pertinent without offending anybody.
Progressive Christianity is distinctive in that not only does it articulate a clear view it is also interested in engaging with those who differ. Its vision is one of robust engagement. If every Christian thought the same not only would life be deadly boring but also the fullness of God would be diminished.[What? I should think that only faith and trust in the eternal plan of the Father can be diminished...] This is the consequence of its incarnational theology: God is among us; even among those we disagree with or dislike. [Yes, we all live, move, and find being in Him.]
One billboard that expresses middle mush reads, “I miss hearing you say ‘Merry Christmas’, and its signed ‘Jesus’. No one can take offense because no one is being asked to do or think anything particularly different, except say ‘Merry Christmas’.
No doubt on Christmas Eve when papers print the messages of Church leaders most of them will serve up this middle mush. Jesus will be born in a palatial sanitized barn and every king and crook, religious and irreligious, will be surrounding him saying ‘Merry Christmas my friends!’ No reader will be asked to do or think anything risky, no reader will be offended, and no reader will write a critical response. They’ll just yawn and turn the page.
And now, some prayer of reparation…
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(Video/Pics) Greenpeace vessels tagged: ‘Ship of Lies’ is the new Artic Sunrise
CFACT – BY LAND AND BY SEA…
Story:
Activists tag Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior with “Propaganda Warrior” banner; Arctic Sunrise hit with “Ship of Lies” banner earlier in the day…
(Copenhagen, Denmark, December 16, 2009) Global warming skeptics from CFACT yesterday pulled off an international climate caper using GPS triangulation from Greenpeace’s own on-board camera photos to locate and sail up long-side of the infamous Greenpeace vessel, Rainbow Warrior. Then in Greenpeace-like fashion, the CFACT activists unfurled a banner reading “Propaganda Warrior” which underscored how the radical green group’s policies and agenda are based on myths, lies, and exaggerations.
Earlier in the day the activists daringly boarded Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise with neither stealth nor force, but by baffling the crew with doughnuts, and unfurled a banner that read “Ship of Lies” off the starboard side.
“Greenpeace has been using these kinds of tactics for decades, and now they can find out what it’s like to have a little taste of their own medicine, “ said CFACT executive director Craig Rucker who masterminded the operation.
CFACT unfurled the banners for two reasons, CFACT president David Rothbard explained. “Greenpeace ships, like the Rainbow Warrior and Arctic Sunrise, have become global symbols for radical environmentalism, and we wanted to call attention to the harm these groups are causing. And second, it seemed appropriate to use one of Greenpeace’s favorite tactics to make this point.”
Here’s the Video/pics below:
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The mad testing the sane…
”The cross”: let him carry it, for nothing is so necessary, so beneficial, so agreeable, or so glorious as to suffer something for Jesus Christ.
– St. Louis de Montfort
This drawing, released by Chester Johnson, of Taunton, shows a sketch of Jesus on the cross created by his son as part of school work, in Taunton, Mass. on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009. The 8-year-old boy was sent home from school and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation after he was asked to make a Christmas drawing and came up with what appeared to be a stick figure of Jesus on a cross, the child’s father said Tuesday…
Read this report from Jim Hoft on Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings, and then come back and tell me whose in need of the psychological evaluation…
Most relevant passage from Sacred Scripture: U.S. School System 1-20
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‘Honey, I think the tree’s leaning again…’
We’re on it…
During his Angelus audience on December 19, 2004, Pope John Paul II discussed the rich symbolism of the Christmas season, concentrating on the meaning of the Christmas tree that was then on display in St. Peter’s Square.
The Christmas tree, John Paul said, is “an ancient custom that exalts the value of life,” because the evergreen tree remains unchanged through the harshness of winter. When gifts are arranged under the tree, the Pope continued, it becomes a symbol of “the tree of life, a figure of Christ, God’s greatest gift to all men.”
The Holy Father made a point of saying that the gifts exchanged at Christmas should not be purely material and commercial. The “tree of life,” he said, points the way toward an exchange of spiritual goods: of brotherhood and love…
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Climategate: the video everyone should see
Seasons Change…
From James Delingpole:
Next time you’re in an argument with someone who is totally convinced that global warming is a) man made and b) unprecedented, why not show them this brief video from Watts Up With That? Game over! (Hat tip: Plato Says)
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