The following articles are compiled by:

Leo Wong

Leo@WatchmenWatching.com

 

 

 

Environmentally friendly burials latest trend

Source: Canadian Press

 

May 1, 2007 -- Cycling to work, using energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs, eating organic food -- Canadians are trying harder these days to be conscientious consumers.  But amid all this green living, just how green a legacy will we leave in death?

 

When pondering the spectre of death, generally the environmental impact of one's burial is not top of mind. But several companies and groups in Canada are banking on the hope that it soon will be.

 

Few people realize the harm traditional burials, and even cremations, do to the environment, says Caley Ferguson, vice-president of Northern Casket.

 

Ferguson displayed his company's nature-friendly "Enviro-Casket" line at the Green Living Show in Toronto over the weekend.

 

He says, "It's sort of one last way to thank Mother Nature."   

Traditional caskets use metal hinges and fastenings, several layers of varnish and lacquer, and fancy fabrics for the interior -- all of which are left in the earth to seep into groundwater once the body and wood decompose.

 

And with cremation, those materials -- right down to the mercury in dental fillings -- are burned up into the atmosphere. The process of cremation itself is not very energy-efficient, with mass amounts of fuel needed to burn a body at high temperatures for a considerable length of time.

 

Enviro-Caskets use wooden hinges and braces, undyed and unbleached cotton fabric and are finished with either natural walnut oil or beeswax. All the products used will completely degrade in 30 to 60 years.

 

"They're not going to be leaving anything behind once they're dead and gone," Ferguson says.

 

"(The environment) is a huge issue and it's on the front of a lot of people's minds now, so we're trying to offer a product that suits those people."

 

Comments:  Give thanks to Mother Nature?  For what?  God created man, not some pie in the sky pagan entity.  This just shows how ignorant and atheistic mankind has become.  He worships the creation rather than the Creator (see Romans chapter 1).  Even at death’s door, the fool refuses to acknowledge God and goes into eternity kicking and cursing God.  You can usually tell whether a person is unsaved by their conversation.  It’s about Mother Nature sending a hurricane or blowing up a volcano.  The real Christian knows that God controls the environment and He allows flooding and famines.

 

Enviro-Caskets are a groovy innovation.  Save the earth even after you’re gone.  How commendable to do your part.  Everyone is on the Green Plan these days.  It feels good to be part of the Team pulling together to ensure that Mother Earth doesn’t expire due to our rampant irresponsibility in destroying this planet.  Even well meaning Christians have been caught in the enviro-whirlwind.  Environmental action supplants the preaching of the Gospel.  The love for souls extends only to the physical body forgetting that the spiritual soul is in grave (pun intended) danger of ending up in Hell.  What good is being planted 6 feet under turning back into natural dust and ashes when your immortal soul is eternally dammed.  It’s ironic that mankind is basically self-serving in almost all facets of life expect the most important one, the fate of one’s soul.

 

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Syria’s Assad predicts failure of U.S. vision for 'new Middle East'

Source: Associated Press

 

May 1, 1007 -- Syrian President Bashar Assad predicted Monday that the US vision for a "new Middle East" would fail as the region's conflicts continue to escalate.

 

His comments come days ahead of a conference on reducing violence in Iraq that will bring together Iraq's neighbors - including Syria and Iran - and representatives of the big five UN Security Council members, including the U.S.

 

Comments:  Mr. Assad may have read the Bible or he consulted with an astrologer.  Like him, I don’t believe the U.S. will mediate Middle East negotiations leading to an eventual regional peace.  America isn’t specifically mentioned in Bible prophecy.  It could be due to the Rapture event that takes the U.S. out of the equation altogether.  With the U.S. Democrats poised to usher in the next U.S. president, the winner may bring the troops home from Iraq and invoke the Monroe Doctrine of American isolationism.  Foreign affairs have never been a strongpoint for the Democrats.

 

What about the Israeli-Arab conundrum?  If Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, two of the hardest working mediators, couldn’t get it done, what makes you think Clinton’s significant other will succeed?  Hillary’s preference is let the Europeans take the peace baton from America and run with it.  She has better things to do like promote abortion, women’s rights, gay and lesbian rights, universal ID, etc.

 

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Ground broken for Carol Shields labyrinth: Construction starts on tribute to author

Source: Winnipeg Free Press Online

 

May 1, 2007 -- She spent hours wandering around one with her husband near London, skipped through one with her grandchildren, and wrote an acclaimed novel about a man who designed them.  And on Monday, the late Carol Shields was one step closer to having a labyrinth made in her honour.

 

More than 100 family members, students and dignitaries gathered in King's Park near the University of Manitoba in a downpour Monday afternoon for the ceremony to mark the start of construction of the Carol Shields Memorial Labyrinth.

 

Family members walked through a dewy chalk outline where the structure will be built and reflected on how the award-winning author would've enjoyed the outdoor maze.

 

"If she were here she would've danced around it," said her husband, Don Shields. "I could see her leading the pack."

 

Carol Shields lived in Winnipeg for 20 years, where she taught at the University of Manitoba and penned some of her most recognized novels, including The Stone Diaries, for which she won a Pulitzer Prize and the Governor General's Award. She died in 2003.

   

The 45-metre-by-45-metre-wide circular structure will be constructed using greenery and flowers and will have benches for sitting and reading at its centre. It will be wheelchair-accessible, free of charge and the only labyrinth to honour an author in the world.

 

Catherine Shields, one of Carol's daughters, brought one of her mother's scarves to decorate the ceremonial shovel and said the afternoon was filled with happy and teary moments. Catherine said her children already visit their grandmother's bronzed bust in Assiniboine Park and will now have a chance to race around the labyrinth like she would've done.

 

"She would've loved it," Catherine said.

 

University of Manitoba chancellor Emöke Szathmáry, who knew Shields from her time teaching at the U of M, said part of the reason Shields loved labyrinths was because they were a metaphor for life and all its struggles. She said the memorial is a way the entire community can remember Shields' contribution and affection for family, nature and writing.

 

"Perhaps that's why Carol Shields loved mazes," she said. "They're complicated and represent the possibilities that each path poses as you're trying to find that mystery core."

 

Comments:  What was Carol Shields’ contribution to her children?  She left them still lost and in their sins just like she was when she left this world.  The mystery core is God, but then God isn’t a mystery anymore for believers in Jesus Christ.  Men and women search all their lifetime for the meaning of life and most never find the answer.  Their university education fails them at the worst possible time. They try TM, Yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism, Greek mythology, anything, but open the Bible for in is the answer to their quest.  The Devil’s sway over the multitude of lost souls just indicates how pervasive his control over them is.  You want to take hold of a person and shake some sense into him/her with “Wake up, man!  Can’t you see you’re his slave and you can’t see the truth that’s in Jesus?”  I’ve been in Gospel halls where the preachers would boom their voice into the crowd with “Why are you so spiritually blind?  You’re a sinner!  Come to Jesus who will liberate you from the Devil’s prison.  You need to come to Christ!”  I look into the audience and I could sense that there was a shroud enveloping the unsaved almost like they were the walking dead, i.e. a zombie.

 

You hear a lot about labyrinths these days, a maze that puzzles people.  The emerging church dabbles in labyrinths.  Go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth for labyrinth:

 

In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (Gk. λαβύρινθος labyrinthos) was an elaborate structure constructed for King Minos of Crete and designed by the legendary artificer Daedalus to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half man and half bull and which was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus. Daedalus had made the Labyrinth so cunningly that he himself could barely escape it after he built it.[1] Theseus was aided by Ariadne, who provided him with a fateful thread to wind his way back again.

 

The term labyrinth is often used interchangeably with maze, but modern scholars of the subject use a stricter definition. For them, a maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage with choices of path and direction; while a single-path ("unicursal") labyrinth has only a single Eulerian path to the center. A labyrinth has an unambiguous through-route to the center and back and is not designed to be difficult to navigate.

 

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EU and US building trade links but split on climate

Source: EUObserver

 

May 1, 2007 -- The EU and US signed a new deal on a trans-Atlantic economic partnership at their summit in Washington on Monday (30 April) but remained unable to agree steps for tackling climate change, despite an increase in positive rhetoric on the issue.

 

The economic deal is aimed at increasing trade and investment by harmonising business standards between the two blocs - with trade in goods and services across the Atlantic accounting for more than $2 billion every day.

 

As part of the agreement, a transatlantic economic council is to be set up - to be chaired by EU industry commissioner Guenter Verheugen and US National Economic Council director Al Hubbard - to overcome regulatory barriers in 40 areas, including intellectual property and financial services.

 

"It is recognition that the closer that the United States and the EU become, the better off our people become," US president George W. Bush said, referring to the deal. German chancellor Angela Merkel, currently chairing the EU, called it a "significant step forward."

 

Comments:  Separated by an ocean and global warming issues, but the money won’t stop in Washington and in Brussels.  Global warming is a conservative party denial, but eventually, the right-wingers will see things the same way as the liberals.  Let not “save the Earth” not divide mankind.  Pull together in the same direction.  President Bush’s days are numbered anyway.  When Hillary becomes the first female president of the USA, the great divide will be bridged.  The EU is brimming with hope for the present and for the immediate future.  This new trade pact means more euros in the pockets of Europeans and greenbacks for the Yankees (as if George Steinbrenner needs it).  The US and the EU selling and buying.  Can you hear the cash registers chime?  The late Sam Walton (founder of Wal-Mart) would be beaming in his grave.

 

The globalists are inching nearer and nearer to their ultimate dream, worldwide trade and commerce at an unprecedented rate.  The Revived Roman Empire is casting its tentacles far and wide and it just caught a big tuna, the US.  Reel the big fish in and bring out the champagne for the partying has just begun.  How about smoked Atlantic salmon on the side?  Why not?  Fatty fish is loaded with Omega-3 which is good for one’s health.

 

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Israel’s PM Ehud Olmert admits: I am not sure I will get through this

Source: Jerusalem Post

 

May 1, 2007 -- The current political crisis might force him out of office, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted as saying in a Channel 2 report Tuesday evening.

 

I am not convinced that I will succeed in getting through this, Olmert said to his associates. He added that if he had to go, there would be no coalition left to any of his successors.

 

Comments from Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni also showed her doubting Olmert's ability to remain in office, Channel 10 reported.

 

According to the report, Livni told her associates that she thought Olmert should resign from his position. In addition, the report stated that Livni planned political action, but what kind of action remained uncertain.

 

Earlier, coalition Chairman Avigdor Yitzhaki spoke with several members of the Kadima party on Tuesday, regarding the future of the party's leardership - namely the replacement of Olmert in light of the Winograd report on the Second Lebanon War.

 

Comments:  “Hang in there, baby” was a poster about a cat hanging on a branch as a firefighter was about to rescue it.  Too bad for Mr. Olmert, he is being cast as the fall guy for the failed Second Lebanon War.  He claimed he did everything humanly possible to defend Israel, but the results said otherwise. Hezbollah is still a terrorist entity that wasn’t wiped off the face of the earth and in fact, Hezbollah is once again armed to the teeth readying itself to take another bite out of Israel.  Olmert directed the ill conceived counterattack.  The buck stops at the PM’s Office.  He must accept responsibility and judging by the pained expression on his cragged face, he should either get some Botox injections or resign ASAP.  His credibility and popularity rating is in the one digit figure range.

 

His once loyal Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is bailing out of the sinking ship.  It’s taking on water and she has her life jacket on securely and lowering herself into the lifeboat built for one.  She’s waving to her boss, Captain Olmert, and singing “La La La La La La La Hey Hey Goodbye!”  The captain will go down with his ship.  It has been good knowing you, Ehud.

 

 

 

Andy:
There is much to this article!  Israeli's want him OUT (many of them) but he refuses to leave.  There is something called the Winograd Report that is now available translated in English - this is quite fascinating reading!

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/world/17158268.htm?source=rss&channel=krwashington_world

 

 

 

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Keep watching (Matt 24:42)!

 

Until next time,

Shalom!

 

 

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