We begin with a few articles covering President Obama’s acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Financial Times utters the opinion that the Nobel committee made fundamental misjudgments; the left-liberal Huffington Post chides the President for confusing war with peace in his acceptance speech; and the Israeli paper, Haaretz, strongly condemns the award and feels that the world needs a leader–but that it isn’t President Obama. (When one may think the decision regarding the Peace Nobel Prize was controversial enough, Time magazine just announced that they chose Mr. Bernanke as the “person of the year.” While Mr. Bernanke denied for over a year that we were in a recession, the editors of “Time” congratulate him for having averted a depression.)
The health-care debacle continues, with political maneuverings, changed positions and disappointed players. The Wall Street Journal wonders about the reasons for the Obama Administration’s disdain for Britain, while Britain angers Israel due to breached promises to repudiate an antiquated law. It also appears that the EU wants to accept a plan to establish East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.
While Iran accelerates the production of powerful weapons and while the debate of the spread of Islam in Europe continues, the German paper, Die Tageszeitung, rejects the decision of Germany’s constitutional court to generally ban shopping on Sundays, and asks this pointed question: “How is it that Switzerland’s recent prohibition on minarets can be seen as an affront to religious freedom, but in Germany we allow churches rather than a democratically elected government [to] tell us what to do with our Sundays?” (We have posted a German StandingWatch program on the Web, Sonntagsverkauf unchristlich? discussing this decision and its ramifications; as well as the fact that Sunday is NOT the Biblically-commanded seventh day of rest, but an “invention” of the Roman Catholic Church, adopted from worship of pagan sungods.)
The Catholic Church is beginning to lay down the ground rules for non-Catholic priests [such as members of the Anglican clergy] to join the Church of Rome as priests, and the requirements are not as “liberal” as some might have thought. We also report on Germany’s tradition to celebrate “Nikolaus’ day” on December 6, and conclude with an article in the Daily Mail that Prince William–and not Prince Charles–could be the next King of England.
