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It has been a busy week in Babylon, in
both the literal and figurative sense. Last Sunday was Pentecost as
celebrated by many Christian denominations. It was on this day that
Francis, the pope of the Roman Catholic Church, and Bartholomew the
Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople met at the Vatican for an interfaith prayer for peace with the president of Israel, Shimon Peres and the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
There are, of
course, major interfaith issues with having a Jew and a Muslim
praying at a place like the Vatican. But the Roman Catholics don't
seem upset by this. They have more than likely become desensitized
to such things by similar meetings like the interfaith prayer service in Assisi. And the Vatican didn't seem to have a problem with the
reading of the Quran despite the reading requesting that Allah give them victory over the infidels. I guess infidels still includes the
Roman Catholic Church...right? From Sura 2:286 -
“You alone are our protector. Give us victory over the unbelievers”
Also from the Vatican this week; After
firing the board of the Vatican Bank, the Pope was in a mood to talk
economics. On Monday in an interview with a Spanish language
magazine, he said that the world's economy can't hold up much longer.
According to the pontiff, there is to much economic inequality in the
world and something needs to be done to level things out. This is not
a new policy for the Vatican. In 2011 the Vatican officially called
for a global financial authority to oversee the fair distribution of
wealth. And last month Vatican officials listened to a 90 minute
presentation by a group calling for international jubilee debt forgiveness.
While we are on the subject of buying,
selling and the coming mark of the beast, Barclays Bank is issuing a
pay by wristband. There is a chip in the wristband that contains the
users account information. The appeal of the device is that one is
less likely to lose a wristband while drunk than a cellphone or a
credit card. In Sweden a developer is working on a pay by hand scheme. This system uses the palm vein biometric to identify the
user. If the goal is to encourage drunken spending sprees, then I
would go with the pay by hand. While I suspect that people have lost
their hand while drunk; I'm sure that it is rare.
But the most shocking mark of the beast
news is that The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is going to begin
marking their children. They are going to take the child's biometric
information and give them a tracking device which will be linked to a
mapping system.
Now on to the situation in Babylon
(Iraq). The group The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
which is also known as The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
swept down the Euphrates Valley from Syria into Iraq and very
rapidly have become a threat to Baghdad. They have taken control of
Mosul in the Nineveh province. Mosul is the second largest city in
Iraq and sits on the Tigris River across from the ruins of the
ancient city of Nineveh.
Iran is offering to send republican guard troops to support the Iraqi army against the Islamists. It's
not that the Iraqi army is to weak to defeat ISIS. It's just that
many of the Iraqi soldiers are sympathetic to the Sunni Islamists
over the Shiite government. The semi-autonomous Kurdish area of Iraq
has pretty much become a fully independent state as a result of the
chaos caused by ISIS. They have defended their territory and control
the leading city of Kirkuk. So Kurdistan, Iran and ISIS are the big
winners of this conflict at this point in time. It is looking like Iraq will be divided into a Sunni area in the west, a Shiite area in
the east and south and Kurdistan in the northwest. Iraq, Iran, Syria
(with ISIS) and Kurdistan on a map are beginning to to look like the
ancient kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Assyria and Media. The United
States is moving a carrier into the Persian Gulf. Obama has been
wanting to blow something up since last year and it looks like he is
finally going to get his chance.
Many things seem to be going Iran's way
lately. They are negotiating with the G5+1 on the operation of their
nuclear weapons program. As mentioned they are making inroads with
their old rival, Iraq. On June 1, the Emir of Kuwait visited Iran for
the first time, showing that relations between Iran and the GCC are
improving. And the President of Iran, Rouhani visited Turkey. It is
the first time in 18 years that a head of state of Iran has visited
Turkey.
The rest of the world meanwhile
continues its tobaggon ride into depravity. In Berlin, they are going
to build a 3 in 1 “church”. It is being called the House of One
and will have a mosque, a church and a synagogue. The name brings to
mind Genesis 11:6; And the Lord said, “Behold, the people is one”.
Of course He was talking about the Tower of Babel a monument to man's
pride. And speaking of pride, Tel Aviv seems to be pulling out all
the stops to win the moniker Sodom by the Sea. This past weekend they
hosted a gay pride event with over 100,000 participants.
It is said that insanity is doing the
same thing over and over and expecting different results.
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