Merry Christmas - Hope all survived the Ice Storm better than us

Winter has hit hard and awful here in Michigan.  We are victims of the ice storm and have been without power since Sunday morning.  There were downed wires along with downed trees in our Southeast Michigan subdivision.

Given what happened to others, including the Tennessee - Arkansas tornados, we still can't complain.  I am praying that God will spare us other extreme weather during this holiday season, especially for those traveling.

And, I am shamelessly praying that our power is soon restored.  Hotels here are filled with refugees from the county to the north of ours which caught the ice storm far more severely than us -- and we caught it bad enough.  A generous spirited client loaned us a generator which has warmed the house today along with the one lamp.  I have Verizon 4 g portable internet which is what is enabling me to post now in our one lamp outlet along with the furnace connected.   I had to make a rare use of my health club to take a badly needed shower and hair wash today.   I'm not opening the deep freeze which hopefully will remain that during the power outage.  Our turkey has been thawing since Saturday  and is in the refrigerator which is not reconnected.  I pray our power is restored as predicted, before 11:30 p.m. Christmas Eve.

At any rate, we are thankful for Jesus Christ and his birthing family enduring far more onerous and primitive conditions than those of which I complain today.

Merry Christmas to all and good night!

Constance

Javier Solana and Global Governance -- Back Again??!!

Read the rest of the article by going to http://tinyurl.com/lddtlul  Another link carrying it also is http://www.mareeg.com/globalizing-european-security/

Well, I was really starting to suspect that Dr. Solana had decided that he was through with global politics, except in a professorial role.  My "google alerts" brought this to my attention within the past 15 minutes of writing this to my readers.   It appears to me from this and reading of his current roles in European Security organizations that he may have been carefully biding his time.    He is suddenly making strong calls for "global governance" with a rearmed Europe being in a predominant role in his hoped for structures.

Now, I don't know what his motives are.  It appears from my current perspective that Catherine Ashton may have been underestimated by those who may have perceived her job as a sinecure.  Catherine Ashton has been given much credit for helping to achieve at least an interim international agreement with Iran over its nuclear development.  That was a goal that had been elusive to Dr. Solana during his tenure which started with his representation of virtually the rest of the world to Iran which was announced by President George W. Bush on the rather auspicious date of June 6, 2006.

Catherine Ashton, it has been reported, has gone from "zero to hero."  When she entered her job, it was not expected by her critics that she would long survive in the position.  She retorted to them, "I'm a stayer, not a quitter."   This past April Javier Solana was recently on a panel with the Brookings Institution relative to the Iranian nuclear crisis.   He had lots of explanations as to why it fell through and expressed pessimism as to the efficacy of future negotiations with the Iranian foreign minister Jalili.  Apparently Catherine Ashton had her successes with him and his successor.  Many many former Solana aides (e.g. Robert Cooper) and applauders (e.g. the London Financial Times) have decided that now it appears that Catherine Ashton deserves the credit she was formerly and long denied.

I suspected that the "High Representative" position with the very high salary and combined military and foreign policy powers had been created for the benefit of Javier Solana who was expected to be the super-powerful European Union Foreign Minister prior to the referendum failures.  Only after Solana announced he would retire and not seek the post did Ireland finally reluctant approve the Treaty.  That was in 2009.  Now 2014 is nigh and that will be the last year of Catherine Ashton's 5 year term.  Does Javier Solana perhaps still want the job that had initially been created for him?  Others who have aspired to jobs Mr. Solana wanted eventually went down to relative political obscurity.  Witness Tony Blair and Joschka Fischer.

How will all of this sort out?  I don't know, but watching it is sure fascinating.

Stay tuned!

CONSTANCE

Cliff Kincaid My radio guest Saturday morning 12-14-2013

Cliff Kincaid, Political Commentator

Cliff Kincaid phoned the other day.  We started discussing current world and Church affairs and decided to continue the conversation on the air which will be tomorrow morning, Saturday, December 14, 2013.  That will be 10 a.m. Eastern time, 9 a.m. Central Time, 9 a.m. Mountain time, and 7 a.m. Pacific time.  Cliff has concerns about the universalism of the "Mandela" factor which could be a huge step, Cliff says, in the direction of "global governance," "New World Order" and/or "World Federalism."  Cliff has also articulated some serious concerns about the apparent direction of the new papacy.  Please join us in the chatroom at chatroom.themicroeffect.com and/or website www.themicroeffect.com.  Call in with your questions to Cliff (or myself) by calling the toll free number of 888-747-1968.

Tune in and stay tuned!

CONSTANCE