Barackobamun to be Initiated at Obelisk

Obama Camp Chooses Site for Berlin Speech

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign said today that his speech in Berlin on the future of trans-Atlantic relations will be delivered in front of a Prussian war monument, rather than the Brandenburg Gate.

Pope Calls for "New Age"

Pope Calls for a ‘New Age’ in Final Australia Mass

SYDNEY, Australia — In his final address to hundreds of thousands of young Catholics gathered in Australia on Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI attacked the violence and materialism of the modern age, and called on his audience to build a “new age.”

"In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair," the pontiff said.

The 81-year-old pope said it was up to a new generation of Christians to build a world in "which God's gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished — not rejected, feared as a threat and destroyed."

The aim was "a new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption which deadens our souls and poisons our relationships," he said. - IHT

Absolutely fascinating. Again, remember who this man is. When he uses that term he knows exactly what connotations it has.

Who's Minding the Store?

The Pope- who wrote the Vatican's policy of coverup and denial of child sexual abuse - apologized again for the scandal Friday in a special mass in Sydney. That's an issue for another day- and maybe for another blog. What interests me here is that this very meticulous Pope, this man who is highly cognizant of symbolism and ceremony, is wearing the Knights Templar cross on his yoke. Not just the Maltese cross, mind you. He's wearing the red-on-white cross- the brand logo - of the recently-absolved ancient order during a very high-profile mass.

This is not insignificant by any stretch of the imagination.