This year, Hanukkah is from 8 December to 16 December (that’s 25 Kislev to 2 Tevet 5773 on the Jewish Calendar). That is, it started tonight at sundown. Save some of the latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (doughnuts) for me, y’ hear…
BMD
Click here, and you’ll go to a page with a two-minute vid on Christmas lights all over the world. Now, that’s something to cheer about!
BMD
2006
Willard Romney tried to present himself as an ethical and moral Christian… I DO beg your pardon! This is what that poseur believes:
…the Church [LDS] proclaims the eternal truth: “As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become”.
Articles of Faith, Chapter 24
It is the first principle of the Gospel [of Mormonism] to know for a certainty the character of God… and that he was once a man like us.
Joseph Smith, Journal of Discourses, Volume 6, Page 3
God the Father is a perfected, glorified, holy Man, an immortal Personage. And Christ was born… in the same personal, real, and literal sense that any mortal son is born to a mortal father…
Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, page 742
In short, if you voted for Romney, you voted for a consciously anti-Christian deceiver and charlatan. What does that tell you about James Paffhausen, Patrick Reardon, Rod Dreher, Terrence Mattingly, Matthias Moriak, Victor Potapov, and Michael Dahulich? It tells you that they either don’t care that a man is a confessor of satanic untruth or that they didn’t know what the Mormon sect teaches (not very likely, but it’s a possibility (slight)). That’s why the konvertsy and those who agree with them aren’t really one with us or one of us. Either they’re drooling ignoramuses who can’t see the truth in front of them, or, they’re votaries of Almighty Mammon, who bow before the Almighty Dollar, NOT Almighty God. Remember, Our Lord Christ drove the fatcat merchants out of the temple… He didn’t drive out the old, the weak, and the poor. I think that the people I named would do the opposite… in the name of Christ! Now, that’s a meaty bone to gnaw upon. Keep it focused, the Orthodox rightwingers voted for a godless sectarian who denies everything that we stand for as Christians… his “niceness” and “morality” were nothing but slick exterior packaging to fool the superficial. Satan has many traps; he baits them with apparently-good things. If I had one thing to say to you, I’d say:
Stay away from the pro-lifers… they believe in capital punishment, wink at perpetual warfare, and support a rapacious economic system where the rich prey on all others (whereas HH teaches that the Free Market‘s a fraud). Give anonymously to single moms and support politicians who’ll keep the social safety net whole (even if they’re unbelievers). Stand for what’s good for all… not for “what’s good for you”.
Do reflect on the difference…
Barbara-Marie DrezhloSaturday 8 December 2012
Albany NY
Voices from Russia 
Brouhaha Over SPC Stance on Kosovo
Tags: EU, European Union, Hashim Thaçi, Ivica Dačić, Kosovo, Patriarch Irinej, Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, Petar Stambolić, political commentary, politics, President of Serbia, Serbia, Serbian Orthodox Church, SPC, Tomislav Nikolić
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A report in the Belgrade-based weekly Nedeljnik claimed that the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) “requested the Serbian President and Prime Minister to reject the agreement on integrated crossings management” and that it presented its own plan to solve the Kosovo problem. In the meantime, a spokesman for the SPC Holy Synod specifically branded this report as false.
Nedeljnik wrote that the proposal has eight points that range from the “abolishment of Petar Stambolić‘s borders to a request to remove US Camp Bondsteel“. In the letter, the SPC Synod reportedly called on the state officials “not to take part in the country’s suicide. We expect the current government and parliament to reconsider all agreements of the previous government about the ‘crossings’ that haven’t been approved by parliament, instead of accepting ‘integrated border management’”. The SPC “requests state organs to demand guarantees from the international community for the return of thousands of expelled [Serbs] from Kosovo, restoration of houses and churches, and to pass a law on restitution of the state and church property in Kosovo before any other talks”. According to the weekly, the letter was sent to President Tomislav Nikolić, Prime Minister Ivica Dačić, First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, and opposition leaders.
The weekly published the letter a day after Dačić met with Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi in Brussels, where they discussed the implementation of the integrated crossings management. However, Bishop Irinej Bulović of Bačka denied that the letter is authentic. Today, a delegation of northern Kosovo Serbs will meet with Nikolić, and Dačić and top Serbian officials met late last night. The prime minister said after the meeting that the state leadership fully agreed on a policy towards Kosovo. Nikolić met with Patriarch Irinej Gavrilović in June, July, and November; he asked for the patriarch’s support and blessing for the state policy towards Kosovo.
6 December 2012
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Patriarch Irinej Gavrilović denied that the SPC Holy Synod sent a letter to the state leadership regarding the situation in Kosovo. He told Blic that the Synod didn’t write the letter, which strongly criticises state policy towards Kosovo, saying, “This letter didn’t come from us, and the Church distances itself from the written and released letter”. When asked who the author of the letter was and who’d sent it to the media, Irinej said that he didn’t know, emphasising, “I don’t know who the author was, or, who forwarded it, as the alleged position of the SPC, to the media”. The patriarch said that he’d already presented his position on the situation in Kosovo. Earlier, he stated that Serbia should work towards EU membership, but that it shouldn’t renounce Kosovo for the sake of the EU membership. At the time, Irinej said, “If we have to renounce (Kosovo), thanks for the invitation, we’ll continue to live our difficult and hard lives as we’ve lived in the past 500 years”.
Nedeljnik reported that the SPC Synod requested the state leadership to reject the agreement on integrated crossings management. However, the weekly also published an interview with Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović of Montenegro and the Littoral and Archbishop of Cetinje, who said, “President (Tomislav) Nikolić surely knows the opinion of the Church, and that its position hasn’t changed. Recently, the Synod informed him about the position in writing as well”. Amfilohije didn’t say whether that was in reference to the letter published by Nedeljnik.
6 December 2012
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For now, Patriarch Irinej said that the SPC wouldn’t release a letter sent to President Tomislav Nikolić. He also added that the SPC’s position on Kosovo was well-known. He told Večernje Novosti, “I don’t see any reason why it’d be necessary to release the letter that was given to the President or what would be achieved by it”. Irinej repeated that he didn’t know who wrote and released a letter that claims that the SPC Synod was opposed to state policy on Kosovo and denied that it was authentic, adding, “The position of the Serbian Church on Kosovo’s future is well-known and this letter wouldn’t change anything. We’ve submitted our perspective to the state leadership, so, the release of the letter’s content doesn’t depend on us anymore”.
8 December 2012
B92
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=12&dd=06&nav_id=83513
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=12&dd=06&nav_id=83517
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=12&dd=08&nav_id=83553