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Pope Francis Is The World's Most Influential Agent Of Ukrainian Nationalism
Vatican clergy and Ukrainian nationalism (I)
By Andrew KORYBKO (USA)
The Catholic pontiff does more than just spread the Vatican's word across the world, as he also spreads the 'gospel' of Ukrainian nationalism and victimhood, too. Francis made headlines when he said the mass killing of ethnic Armenians in the last days of the Ottoman Empire was "the first genocide of the 20thcentury". Largely lost amidst the ruckus is his previous statement that "the remaining two (genocides) were perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism", which was a strong allusion to Ukrainian nationalists' decades-long campaign to have the Golodomor recognized as genocide, to which the Vatican, and especially Francis himself, are ardent proponents. President Putin remarked in his annual Q&A session that "Attempts to put [Nazism and Stalinism] in the same basket are absolutely baseless…As ugly as the Stalin regime was, with all its repressions and ethnic deportations, it never attempted to eradicate [an ethnic group] completely", and although his words were likely in response to recent Ukrainian legislation that ludicrously equates the two, his comments are just as relevant to the Pope as they are to Poroshenko.
Part I of the article begins with an overview of the Vatican's historic geopolitical antagonisms against Orthodox Russia, including the role that Catholicism and its Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth proxy played in the external construction of the Ukrainian state. It then explores how and why Ukraine is still a battlefield in this epic saga, as well as detailing the US' geopolitical designs for the country in its quest to transform it into a forward-operating base against Russia. Part II dispels the "genocide" myth surrounding the Golodomor and shows how a handful of radical states have seized control of the conversation to further their Russophobic aims. The series then climaxes with an in-depth examination into Pope Francis' claim that the Golodomor is "genocide" and his statements of inferred support for the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, both of which serve historically revisionist anti-Russian ends and make Pope Francis poised to become one of the New Cold War's most notorious actors.
The First Rome vs The Third Rome
Making The Move From Rome To Moscow:
Throughout the ages, the center of Christianity has shifted from West to East as result of certain geopolitical tectonic movements. Beginning with thefall of the Roman Empire in 476, the Byzantine Empire (or Eastern Roman Empire) centered on Constantinople took up the torch of worldwide Christian leadership, hence its designation as the "Second Rome". Throughout the subsequent centuries, the differencesbetween Western (Roman) and Eastern (Byzantine) Christianity widened to the point of a spiritual chasm, and when Rome unsuccessfully tried enforcing its views on Constantinople, the Schism of 1054 occurred. Since then, the Vatican has been consistently antagonist against the Orthodox Church, and it's highly recommended that the reader reference Fort Russ' epic examination on the topic, "The West against Russia: The Vatican against the Orthodox Church", to gain a deeper understanding of the events that henceforth transpired.
To sum up events over next millennium (as difficult as it is to do so in brief), after Constantinople fellto the Turks in 1453, the center of Christianity once more shifted, albeit this time to Muscovy. Ever since the Baptism of Vladimir the Great in Crimea and the Christianization of Kievan Rus in 988, this civilizational sphere had vehemently ascribed to Orthodox Christianity, owing to its cultural and political affiliations with the Byzantine Empire. Following the fall of Constantinople, Moscow carried on the Christian torch and became the "Third Rome", which created a major inferiority and sectarian complex back in the Catholic "First Rome".
The Polish Proxy:
From thenceforth, the Vatican redirected its aggressive geopolitical calculus from the Sea of Marmara to the State of Muscovy, even going as far as supporting its Catholic client state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in its militant proselytization eastward. Other than having previously occupied and forcibly converted the historically Orthodox territory of the former Kievan Rus, Warsaw took its campaign all the way to Moscow during the Time of Troubles, even briefly occupying the Russian capital from 1610-1612 and imprisoning the Orthodox Patriarch, who they would later starve to death as a martyr. It wasn't long after the Polish occupation began that the Russian people banded together (as they so often have during their most troubling historic periods) and began the campaign to purge the Poles from their land, in a moment of glory that is nowadays commemorated as National Unity Day every 4 November.
The Catholic Construction Of Modern-Day Ukraine:
The liberation of Muscovy from the Poles began the nearly two-centuries-long struggle that would see the Russians pushing the invading menace all the way back to its home territory (an historical prelude to what would later happen to Napoleon and Hitler, although in much shorter timeframes), all the while working to restore the civilizational heritage of Kievan Rus that the Polish occupiers had spent centuries trying to dismantle. Part of the Polish plan had been to spiritually partition the western reaches of this land from its central core, which led to the imposition of Catholicism over the Orthodox people that had originally inhabited modern-day Belarus and especially Ukraine.
One of the most novel forms that this took was the creation and promotion of the Uniate Church (also known as "Greek Catholicism"), an artificial religious construct created by Rome which fused many Orthodox practices with loyalty to the Catholic Pope. The effect of this religious manipulation served to de-facto spread Catholicism amongst the remaining Orthodox 'holdouts' in the region, thus fostering the myth of "identity separateness" among the population which could be strategically activated to increase resistance to Russia and aid in slowing down Moscow's prolonged counter-offensive in liberating Kievan Rus from the Poles. In the coming centuries, the spiritual separateness of parts of modern-day Ukraine would be used as the foundation for the external construction of the "Ukrainian nation" by the German General Staff in 1918. Lenin's recognition of a so-called Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1922 provided ex post facto legitimacy to this Vatican-Polish-German creation.
Battlefield Ukraine
Lenin's Fallacy:
The greatest legacy of Lenin's mistake was that he grouped together the Catholic-adhering /pro-Polish/"Ukrainian"-identifying western areas with the reawakened Russian- and Orthodox-affiliated east, which consequently created an unstable entity whose externally influenced western reaches could be used to destabilize the entire thing. Had he kept both parts separate and perhaps designated only the western portion of modern-day Ukraine as "Ukraine" owing to its foreign peculiarities, then the situation could have been dramatically different. Nonetheless, ever since the geopolitical designation of Ukraine (roughly translated as "borderland") was unilaterally birthed by Lenin's decree (only to grow under Stalin and Khrushchev), the entire territory has become a focal point of Western aggression waged by its associated political and spiritual powers.
Political and Spiritual Aggression:
A perfect example of political weaponization over the territory of Ukraine was the Polish-Soviet War, whereby Moscow attempted to finally liberate the last vestiges of Kievan Rus from foreign occupation (having switched from Polish to Austrian then back to Polish control). Warsaw refused to peacefully withdraw from the territory due to its understanding that centuries of Polonization and Catholic proselytization (political and spiritual factors) intrinsically made it a separate entity than it historically used to be, and the Poles were able to successfully extend their control over the region until 1939. Prior to that, Polish leader Josef Pilsudski preached the policy of Promtheism, whereby the Polish state encouraged ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union (especially Ukraine) to rise up against the central authority as a 'celebration of their separateness' and secede into a constellation of what would then become pro-Polish satellite states. It ultimately failed to achieve its ambitious goals, but the legacy of separating Ukraine from Russia continues into the present day via Zbigniew "without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an 'empire'" Bzezinski and his Grand Chessboard strategies.
Enter the Vatican, which has made a concerted effort to pluck converts out of the confused Ukrainian territory since the end of the Soviet era and extend its reach ever eastward into originally Orthodox lands. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk visited the Vatican last year with a scheme for souls that amounted to an alliance proposal, but due to the fragility of the Kievan regime and the associated dim prospects for the partnership's success, Francis turned it down. It's not to say that he wouldn't have accepted it had it been proposed on more solid political grounds, since the Vatican's goal has always been to proselytize Catholicism eastward at the expense of the Orthodox Church. Not only that, but the Vatican has been opposed to Moscow in geopolitical manifestations as well, as can be seen by Pope John Paul II's Cold War "Holy Alliance" (in the words of Time Magazine) with Ronald Reagan against the USSR. There is thus clearly an established precedent set in modern times for using the spiritual authority of the Catholic Church as a front to advance geopolitical objectives, meaning that, as it will later be argued, it's not unreasonable to link Pope Francis' support for the Holy Grail of Ukrainian nationalists, the Golodomor as "genocide", to larger geopolitical plans directed from Washington.
Geopolitical Designs:
Let's look at what these aforementioned plans entail:
1. Decouple Ukraine From Russia
The first step is to prevent the reintegration of Ukraine into the Russian fold, be it economically through the Eurasian Union (as then-Secretary of State Hillary threatened one year before EuroMaidan) or militarily through the CSTO, by highlighting artificially imposed Ukrainian 'separateness' (Polish-enforced Catholicism and Vatican-constructed "Uniates") and selectively emphasized victimhood (Golodomor as "genocide"). The Western idea is that if Ukraine, a fraternal and religiously related entity, can be made to hate Russia and turn against it, then so too can less intimately affiliated ones like Kyrgyzstan, or, as Brzezinski's Eurasian Balkans asymmetrical attack plan suggests, even Tatarstan and Chechnya one day (again).
2. Eliminate Russia's Strategic Depth
The second stage expands upon the 'success' of the first one in turning large segments of the population against Russia, but this time it includes a tangible military dimension. The concept here is to make Ukraine either a de-jure or de-facto (shadow) member of NATO, which in effect would eliminate the valuable strategic depth that Russia has through the country's neutrality. It needs to be mentioned at this point that the Color Revolutionary authorities in Kiev already revised the country's constitution in order to eliminate its previous references to neutrality, thus meaning that NATO membership (be it de-jure or de-facto) can continue moving forward at full speed. The more strategic depth that NATO is able to successfully chip away from Russia, the more likely it is to tip the military balance away from parity and towards a first strike scenario, which would then place Russia in a position of nuclear blackmail.
3. The Reverse Brzezinski
The final phase of the US' weaponization of the Ukrainian state is to have Kiev stage provocative actions that would elicit a Russian military response, preferably rash, hurried, and not thought out to the end. The Reverse Brzezinski, as the author calls it, sees the Polish-American strategist reverting back to his Afghan War roots in goading Moscow into a quagmire, but thankfully, President Putin appears to have caught on to the ruse and reaffirmed during his Q&A session that he war between the two states is "impossible". No matter the President's intention, however, the US will certainly continue trying to create the tempting pretext for a Russian military intervention, hoping perhaps that yet another slaughter of Russian-affiliated Eastern Ukrainians might be the tripwire for tricking Moscow into conventionally responding one of these days.
To be continued … below.
Vatican clergy and Ukrainian nationalism (I)
By Andrew KORYBKO (USA)
The 'Good' That Comes From A Golodomor "Genocide"
The 'glue' that holds the US' plans together is the ability to rally Ukrainians against Russia, and this is where the Golodomor [Holodomor in Ukrainian spelling – OR] "genocide" myth is absolutely pivotal. It provides the underpinning of popular support and 'legitimacy' for rabid Ukrainian nationalism (the modern-dayideology of the state) and its anti-Russian authorities, as well as altering Ukraine's natural trajectory away from Russia and diverting it towards the West. If the myth can be deconstructed, then the entire Western plan is endangered, but so long as it's believed, propagated, and even 'legitimized' via the 'authority' of the Pope, then it presents the single-greatest obstacle to Ukrainian-Russian reconciliation and serves as the fuel for forwarding the US' grand strategy against Russia vis-à-vis Ukraine. This is the ultimate strategic benefit that the politicization of the 1930s famine and its nationalist focus on solely one victim demographic attains, hence why it's so heavily promoted in the Western world.
Inventing 'Genocide':
Russia has never refuted the fact that the Golodomor tragically occurred, but it has refused to label the events as genocide because many other groups besides Ukrainians were also adversely affected. Kirill Frolov, head of the Ukraine Department at the Institute of CIS Countries, explains:
"Russia shares the opinion that it was a terrible tragedy… It is well-known that the hunger of the 1930s was the reason for the deaths of millions of Ukrainians but also millions of villagers living along the Volga River, in the Ural Mountains, West Siberia, Kazakhstan, the North Caucasus and other regions. Every nation should remember its victims but it is high time to forget Yushchenko's ideology (of designating the Golodomor as "genocide"). We also mean the attempt to interpret the hunger in Ukraine in the 1930s as the genocide of the Ukrainian people alone.
Recall that in the 1920s the Bolsheviks carried out the genocide of Russians and the elimination of the Russian Orthodox Church and actively supported the idea of the so-called Ukrainisation. It was an attempt to separate Ukrainians from Russians and make a thousand years of our common history null and void. As for the hunger, it was a consequence of Stalin's industrialization policy. It was a conflict between the city and the countryside which involved the entire territory of the Soviet Union, including Russians and Ukrainians. It was not genocide but sociocide associated with the industrialisation policy."
RT summarized the official explanation by relating that:
"Russia argues that the famine was caused by a combination of bad management, unfavourable weather and disastrous collectivization policies, which lead to the tragic events and cost numerous lives of many ethnic groups over several territories and not just Ukraine alone."
Additionally, it has come out that some of the numbers being cited by the Ukrainian government to account for its associated victims have been faked:
"As quoted by the Russian Izvestia newspaper, Vladimir Kornilov of the Kiev branch of the Institute of CIS Countries has discovered why the official number of alleged Holodomor victims has significantly increased since the launch of Yushchenko's campaign. According to Kornilov, the so-called "Book of Memory", published in Ukraine's regions, is full of falsifications. Instead of real victims of famine, one can find in the book alcoholics, different crash victims, and even those who weren't alive in 1932-1933."
Furthermore, some of the photographic 'evidence' that has been passed around as supposedly confirming the "genocide" is also falsified:
""Here's a photo by Dorothy Lang, shot in 1936 in Oklahoma. And here's a photo by Fritof Nansen made in Russia's Povolzhe region in 1921. But both of those pictures and other falsified photos were displayed at Sevastopol's exhibition on the Ukrainian famine of 1932-1933," (Sevastopol city council deputy) Merkulov says, demonstrating aged photographs…"We go to the Ukrainian president's official website. Click on the photo gallery. Click on public events. And we see this picture – Yushchenko looking at pictures of the Ukrainian famine of the 1930's. But the picture he's looking at is this one, also shot by Nansen in Russia's Povolzhie region. It is written here: Famine in Russia."
"We have declassified all documents on the famine in Ukraine and there are only two genuine pictures from that time. The rest are very much distantly related and are not necessarily shot in Ukraine," Olga Ginzburg the head of Ukraine's State Archive told RT."
Rejecting The Lie:
The claims of "genocide" are so dubious that the Council of Europe, generally pro-Western (despite Russia's membership), refused to use such a label, opting instead to drop the false description from their draft resolution on the topic. Instead, their 2010commemorative report, while mentioning that Kiev does call the tragedy "genocide", recognizes all of the victims of the Golodomor, not just Ukrainians, specifying that:
"In Kazakhstan, too, millions fell victim to the mass famine, and the ratio of the dead to the whole population is believed to be the highest among all peoples of the former Soviet Union. Traditionally nomads, the cattle-raising Kazakhs were forced to settle down and were deprived of livestock. The Great Famine is remembered as the greatest tragedy of the Kazakh people.
In the grain-producing areas of Russia (the Middle and Lower Volga, the North Caucasus, the Central Black Soil region, the Southern Urals, Western Siberia and some other regions), the famine caused by "collectivisation" and dispossession of individual farmers took millions of lives in rural and urban areas. In absolute figures, it is estimated that the population of Russia had the heaviest death toll as a result of the Soviet agricultural policies.
Hundreds of thousands of farmers also died in Belarus and the Republic of Moldova.
While these events may have had particularities in various regions, the results were the same everywhere: millions of human lives were mercilessly sacrificed to the fulfilment of the policies and plans of the Stalinist regime."
What's more, even the pro-Western 'human rights' group, Memorial, notorious for lambasting Russia's Soviet-era heritage and labeled a "foreign agent" in accordance with Russian law, surprisingly presented a strong argument against calling the Golodomor a "genocide" back in 2010. Voice of Russia quotes Interfax as reporting that:
"Ukraine was right to make a legal assessment of the Soviet leadership's crimes, but the famine of the 1930s was not genocide against Ukrainians, Arseny Roginsky, head of Russia's Memorial human rights and history society, has told Interfax. On Wednesday, the Kiev Court of Appeals declared Soviet and Ukrainian Bolshevik leaders guilty of organizing the Holodomor, or famine, in Ukraine in 1932-1933, which it qualified as genocide. The court ruled the criminal case to be dropped because the defendants, among them Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov and the then Ukrainian leadership, were already dead.
"Still, I don't understand what documents were used to prove that the famine in Ukraine was genocide," Memorial's leader said. In his firm belief, the "famine of the 1930s is a common tragedy that befell Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan and therefore, instead of driving them apart, it should bring them closer together." Memorial, a major nongovernmental human rights organization in the post-Soviet space, conducts research into the history of Stalinist repressions and the rehabilitation of victims of political terror in the former USSR."
Who Goes Gaga For "Genocide"?:
If the Council of Europe and pro-Western foreign agents inside Russia itself refuse to bite the bait of politicization over the Golodomor, who then subscribes to and perpetrates this myth? First and foremost, it's the Ukrainian government, which actually made denial of the Golodomor as "genocide" acrime per a piece of legislation passed in 2006 under the Orange Revolutionary government. While the law carried with it no "criminal responsibility", it symbolically elevated the hoax to the level of national myth and part of the official Ukrainian identity, thereby facilitating the implementation of the US' aforementioned geopolitical designs against Russia.
Prominent neo-conservative icon and famous anti-Russian author Anne Applebaum is another "genocide" activist and plans to pen a book about the "very, very well managed cover-up" behind the Golodomor, alleging that there has been a vast conspiracy to hide the truth about what happened. In actuality, the real cover-up is that certain parties are hiding the fact that other nationalities besides Ukrainians were also victims of the 1930s famine and that it was not "genocide", but describing Applebaum's personal life might shed some valuable light into why she would so actively want to politicize this tragedy. Her husband just so happens to be Radoslaw Sikorski, the rapidly pro-Western former Foreign Minister of Poland and current speaker of the Polish Parliament, who was also the co-author of the EU's 2009 Eastern Partnership initiative that ultimately forced Ukraine into the doldrums that it's currently in. It should go without saying that just as Victoria Nuland and her neo-conservative husband Robert Kagan coordinate their anti-Russian activity as a couple, so too do Anne Applebaum and Radoslaw Sikorski act as a singular unit in attacking Russia in every means available to them.
Adding a geopolitical aspect to the discussion is that Poland and the Baltic States, the most anti-Russian entities in the world today aside from the current Ukrainian authorities, are among the handful of countries which label the Golodomor as "genocide". These states' political establishments have a vested interest in promoting Russophobia in any and all of its iterations, including historical revisionism, and they've been some of the most enthusiastic supporters of Ukraine's ultra-nationalist government since it seized power in the coup last year. Additionally, these are also the states which have become most heavily fortified by NATO since the Ukrainian Crisis began, which underlines their anti-Russian strategic dispositions.
OR Note: Even more important dimension of the "Golodomor" controversy consists in trade embargo imposed by the West on Soviet gold in 1920s. They accepted only grain as a mean of payment for modern machinery and industrial equipment being widely exported to the USSR in the framework of huge industrialization policy. Under such circumstances Moscow had nothing to do but paying grain at the expense of its own people! For more details read "Who organized the famine in the USSR in 1932-1933?"
The True 'Francis Effect'
Smoke And Mirrors:
Unlike Poland and the Baltic States, which have minimal if no influence whatsoever worldwide in propagating this tale, Pope Francis has a global congregation of over 1 billion people who eagerly listen to his words and understand them as being representative of the will of God Himself. Not only is he the world's most prominent religious leader, he's also something of a global celebrity too, attracting the attention of millions of non-Christians all across the world who are interested in what he has to say. The media-driven 'Francis Effect', however, has elevated the Pope to such an esteemed level of popular culture and furthered his cult of personality to such extreme extents that it's become impossible for anyone to criticize or accuse him of any wrongdoing without coming off as ill-spirited and self-serving. Essentially, he's become an unassailable actor that can operate with impunity and away from any mainstream media scrutiny over the intentions.
The Real Deal:
Through his association with the Catholic Church, he's assumed to be 'infallible' and a 'man of God' (much as the Dalai Lama is seen to be in relation to Buddhism), with the underlying idea that such an individual would never be guided by political motivations. This idea is absolutely misguided, since it's been proven that both Pope John Paul II and the current Dalai Lama have both been ultra-politicized throughout their 'religious' careers, being weaponized by the US for use against the Soviet Union and China's interests, respectively. The same is shaping up to be true about Francis, who is now beating the drums of Ukrainian "genocide" to advance the agenda of the US, Ukrainian nationalists, and his own proselytization interests.
"Genocide" Accuser:
Prior to becoming the leader of the Catholic Church, Francis spoke about his views on the Golodomor in his 2010 book, "On Heaven and Earth" [link to full original text in Spanish – OR], in which he wrote that "People who suffered massacres and persecution – as they did during the three biggest genocides of the last century, the Armenians, Jews and Ukrainians – struggled for their freedom." From this bombshell of a quote, the future Pope is telling the world that the deaths of Ukrainians during the Golodomor is on par with the events that befell the Armenians and Jews during their associated tragedies. When compared with his recent news-making quote about how "the remaining two (genocides) were perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism", it's clear that he's equating Nazism with the genocide of Jews and Stalinism with the genocide of Ukrainians.
Addressing another very important point, Francis also falsely stated that the Ukrainians suffered from their supposed "genocide" because they "struggled for their freedom". To put everything into perspective, the alleged "genocide" didn't occur until the early 1930s, and the only Ukrainian 'freedom' organization (as the West sadly views it) active at the time was the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. To bring unaware readers up to speed, this group was the forerunner to the actual genocidal Ukrainian Insurgent Army (responsible for the targeted slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Poles – watch video below) and the ideological cradle of notorious Nazi Stepan Bandera. What Francis is plainly doing here is defending the seed of Ukrainian Fascism and perverting history to paint the proto-Nazi group as the 'good guys', after which he imagines that the Soviet government's only response to their 'struggle for freedom' was to commit "genocide" against all of their ethnic kin.
At this point it's relevant to reference Putin's response that was noted at the beginning of Part I, in which the Russian President declared during his annual Q&A that "Attempts to put [Nazism and Stalinism] in the same basket are absolutely baseless…As ugly as the Stalin regime was, with all its repressions and ethnic deportations, it never attempted to eradicate [an ethnic group] completely." This puts him at absolute odds with Francis, who had earlier used his global pulpit to preach the exact opposite. While it may seem strange to some that Argentinian Francis would try to involve himself in former Soviet affairs and potentially butt heads with Putin, the reasoning is that the pontiff is actually fulfilling a very important role in the context of the New Cold War.
New Cold War Context:
Historical revisionism is one of the postmodern battlefields of the New Cold War, and Francis is set to make himself one of its most 'celebrated' pro-Western fighters as he moves closer to openly promoting his Golodomor "genocide" campaign. Although not emphasizing it at the moment (and with the media currently obsessed with his Armenian commentary and Erodgan's reaction), it's expected that he'll certainly become more active on this front in the future, which will further the three following anti-Russian objectives that are pivotal components of the West's strategy in the New Cold War:
Misleadingly Tarnish Russia's Reputation
The Soviet Union and its darker historical events are falsely associated with the Russian Federation in many uneducated circles across the world (especially in the West), and one of the lies pervasive of this inaccuracy is that the communist state was essentially a 'Russian' state. By drawing greater attention to the Golodomor as "genocide", Francis is passively allowing this inaccurate association to take runaway root in people's minds, with all of the negative implications thereof in the context of current tensions. This could predictably include a spike in anti-Russian sentiment throughout the West, as well as the vile assumption prodded on by Ukrainian nationalists that the tragic events were a 'Russian-managed genocide' against Ukrainians.
Legitimize And Secure Ukrainian Nationalism
The 'authority' and 'legitimacy' that Francis' words hold in the minds of millions makes him the world's most dangerous proselytizer of Ukrainian nationalism, in that he secures the foundations of this ideology and makes it 'acceptable' to the global public. The myth of "genocide" and the absolutely false statement that this alleged crime occurred because of Ukrainians' "struggle for their freedom" (led at that time by the proto-Nazi Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) does more to support modern-day Fascism in Ukraine than Nuland's celebrated $5 billion ever could hope to do.
Propagating the concept of Ukrainians being the most victimized and oppressed demographic in the former Soviet Union and forgetting about the other 150+ nationalities is geopolitically dangerous as well, since it promotes "Ukrainian Exceptionalism" and 'justifies' its nationalist consequences in the modern day. The Pope's blessing of and sympathy for Ukrainian nationalism stabilizes the core of the US' geopolitical imperative in Eastern Europe by laying the framework for Washington's socio-political engineering operations that aim to turn all of Ukraine against Russia.
OR Note: A self-telling evidence of the hate-speech by Vatican-controlled clergy in the West of Ukraine well before the current crisis:
Create A Clash Of Christian Civilizations
One of the most often overlooked details of Samuel Huntington's 'Clash of Civilizations' theory is the division of the traditionally Christian World into East and West. While there certainly are cultural and historical differences between Huntington's defined realms of both religious denominations, sectarian understandings are in no way the primary driver of any sort of their contemporary geopolitical competition. Rather, religion is being weaponized by the West as an asset in promoting pre-established geopolitical ends, such as the destruction of Russia's soft power potential as the spiritual center of the Orthodox faith.
The Catholic Church's recognition of the Golodomor as "genocide" and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its spawn as 'freedom fighters' is meant to attract more Ukrainian converts to the Vatican, hoping that their nationalist fervor overrides their Orthodox obligations (which does not recognize the previous in the same manner). This Western-based 'spiritual' seduction is meant to complement the already existing Western political and social sentiments that have invaded the country and institutionalize Ukraine's division between East and West. Francis' end goal is to aggressively expand Huntington's previously defined boundaries of Western Civilization, conform to his theories of a possible clash between the Catholic and Orthodox worlds, and firmly divide the Christian faith into geopolitical spheres vis-à-vis their political leaders' relationship to the West.
Francis' sectarian plans in the Christian world mirror those of Saudi Arabia in the Islamic one, in that the Catholic/Sunni strands of belief are seen as being on the 'right' side of the geopolitical spectrum while the Orthodox/Shia ones are seen as being on the 'wrong' one. It's important to underline that geopolitical identification has nothing whatsoever to do with religion, and although certain denominations happen to be a prevailing demographic characteristic in certain Resistant & Defiant (R&D) states, it is by no means a cause of their strategic dispositions or in any way exclusive to any sort of political belief. Atheist China, for example, is just as opposed to the US' unipolar hegemony as predominantly Orthodox Russia and majority Shiite Iran, just as Orthodox Romania and Shiite Azerbaijan are currently aligned with the US (with Bucharest being deep in Washington's pocket and Azerbaijan on the potential verge of pivoting). Dividing religious spheres along sectarian beliefs and falsely attaching a political connotation to one's faith only serves the geopolitical dividends of those who are drawing the lines, in this case, the Vatican, Saudi Arabia, and their allied American strategists.
Concluding Thoughts
Catholicism has historically been used by the Vatican to subvert predominantly Orthodox areas, especially as a means of geopolitically countering Russia. While the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is long gone (despite efforts by Warsaw to contemporaneously revive it), the strategic goal of Catholic proselytization in the East still remains, with the battlefield continuing to center on Ukraine. The Papacy's centuries-long goal of poaching Ukrainian converts has undergone a tactical modification through its promotion of Ukrainian nationalism, which both serves the Vatican's own interests and complements the geostrategic ones of the US. Francis' push to have the Golodomor recognized as "genocide" against Ukrainians, as well as his inference that this mythical crime occurred as punishment because the proto-Nazi Ukrainian Organization of Nationalists' "struggled for their freedom", is indicative of the strategic confluence currently underway between Rome and Washington. While Francis has yet to fully play his hand in this regard, the fact that he's still crying wolf about "genocide" since being elected two years ago shows that he may be testing the waters in anticipation of a full-fledged information offensive in the near future. Should he continue behaving this way, then Francis' antics are expected to further 'legitimize' and institutionalize this hateful ideology, which would in turn have exceptionally dire consequences for the memory of historical truth as well as facilitate the US' geopolitical plans against Russia in the New Cold War.
Andrew Korybko is the political analyst and journalist for Sputnik who currently lives and studies in Moscow, exclusively for ORIENTAL REVIEW.


text:
This chapter contains an overview of Oracle HTTP Server security features, and provides configuration information for setting up a secure Web site.
Unless otherwise mentioned, the information in this document is applicable when Oracle HTTP Server is installed with Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle Fusion Middleware Control. It is assumed that readers are familiar with the key concepts of Oracle Fusion Middleware, as described in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Concepts Guide and the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide.
For information about installing Oracle HTTP Server in standalone mode, see "Installing Oracle Web Tier Without Oracle WebLogic Server" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Web Tier.
This chapter includes the following sections:
Section 8.4, "Authentication, Authorization and Access Control"
Security can be organized into the three categories of authentication, authorization, and confidentiality. Oracle HTTP Server provides support for all three of these categories. It is based on the Apache Web server, and its security infrastructure is primarily provided by the Apache modules, mod_auth_basic, mod_authn_file, mod_auth_user, and mod_authz_groupfile, and the Oracle modules, mod_ossl and mod_osso. The mod_auth_basic, mod_authn_file, mod_auth_user, and mod_authz_groupfile modules provide authentication based on user name and password pairs, while mod_authz_host controls access to the server based on the characteristics of a request, such as host name or IP address, mod_ossl provides confidentiality and authentication with X.509 client certificates over SSL, and mod_osso enables single sign-on authentication for Web applications.
Oracle HTTP Server provides access control, authentication, and authorization methods that can be configured with access control directives in the
httpd.conf file. When URL requests arrive at Oracle HTTP Server, they are processed in a sequence of steps determined by server defaults and configuration parameters. The steps for handling URL requests are implemented through a module or plug-in architecture that is common to many Web listeners.
Figure 8-1 shows how URL requests are handled by the server. Each step in this process is handled by a server module depending on how the server is configured. For example, if basic authentication is used, then the steps labeled "Authentication" and "Authorization" in Figure 8-1 represent the processing of the Apache mod_auth_basic, mod_authn_file, mod_auth_user, and mod_authz_groupfile modules.
Figure 8-1 Steps for Handling URL Requests in Oracle HTTP Server
Oracle HTTP Server authorizes and authenticates users before allowing them to access, or modify resources on the server. The following are three classes of users that access the server using Oracle HTTP Server, and their privileges:
Users that access the server without providing any authentication. They have access to unprotected resources only.
Users that have been authenticated and potentially authorized by modules within Oracle HTTP Server. This includes users authenticated by Apache HTTP Server modules like mod_auth_basic, mod_authn_file, mod_auth_user, and mod_authz_groupfile modules and Oracle's mod_ossl. Such users have access to URLs defined in
http.conf file.
Users that have been authenticated through mod_osso and Single Sign-On server. These users have access to resources allowed by Single Sign-On.
See Also:
Oracle HTTP Server may be configured since these resources are not protected out of the box:
Static content such as static HTML pages, graphics interchange format,
.gif, files, and other static files that Oracle HTTP Server provides directly.
CGI/FastCGI scripts, simple scripts or programs that Oracle HTTP Server invokes directly.
Content generated by modules within Oracle HTTP Server. Modules such as mod_perl, mod_dms generate responses that are returned to the client.
Oracle Application Server components that exist behind Oracle HTTP Server, including servlets and JSPs running with Oracle WebLogic Server that are accessed through mod_wl_ohs. Oracle HTTP Server forms the first line of authentication and authorization for these components, although further authentication may occur at the component level.
Oracle HTTP Server provides user authentication and authorization at two stages:
Access Control (stage one): This is based on the details of the incoming HTTP request and its headers, such as IP addresses or host names.
User Authentication and Authorization (stage two): This is based on different criteria depending on the HTTP server configuration. The server can be configured to authenticate users with user name and password pairs that are checked against a list of known users and passwords. You can also configure the server to use single sign-on authentication for Web applications or X.509 client certificates over SSL.
Access control refers to any means of controlling access to any resource.
See Also:
Refer to the Apache HTTP Server documentation for more information on how to configure access control to resources.
Critical Note:
The FMW 10g based Single Sign-On Plug-Ins like OSSO Plug-In for Oracle HTTP Server and other web servers. such as IIS, has been deprecated and will be discontinued in future releases. You should upgrade to the Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g-based Single Sign-On Plug-In known as WebGate. For more information, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Security Guide at:
Authentication is any process by which you verify that someone is who they claim they are. Authorization is any process by which someone is allowed to be where they want to go, or to have information that they want to have.
Access control refers to any means of controlling access to any resource.
See Also:
Refer to the Apache HTTP Server documentation for more information on how to authenticate users.
mod_osso for use with Oracle Single Sign-On 10g is deprecated and is not recommended for use. Instead, you should use the Oracle Access Manager.
mod_osso enables single-sign on for Oracle HTTP Server. mod_osso examines incoming requests and determines whether the resource requested is protected, and if so, retrieves the Oracle HTTP Server cookie for the user.
Through mod_osso, Oracle HTTP Server becomes a single sign-on (SSO) partner application enabled to use SSO to authenticate users and obtain their identity using Oracle Single Sign-On, and to make user identities available to Web applications as an Apache header variable.
Using mod_osso, Web applications can register URLs that require SSO authentication. When Oracle HTTP Server receives URL requests, mod_osso detects which requests require SSO authentication and redirects them to the SSO server. Once SSO server authenticates the users, it passes the user's authenticated identity back to mod_osso in a secure token, or cookie. mod_osso retrieves the user's identity from the cookie and propagates the user's identity information to applications running in Oracle HTTP Server instance. mod_osso can propagate the user's identity information to applications running in CGI, and those running in Oracle WebLogic Server, and it can also authenticate users for access to static files.
See Also:
Oracle HTTP Server supports a directive called
OraAuditEnable. The purpose of this directive is to enable auditing of authentication and authorization using the FMW Common Audit Framework. This directive takes on two values, ON and OFF. When the value is set to ON, all the audit events reported by Oracle HTTP Server are recorded into an audit framework specific file. By default, the value is ON. If
OraAuditEnable is set to OFF or is not present, then audit is disabled. The default
httpd.conf file that is provided with Oracle HTTP Server sets it to ON. For more information, see

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Read the full story here Web Link posted Monday, July 1, 2013, 11:37 AM
Town Square
Menlo Park: New Hillview Middle School playing field must be ripped up and rebuilt
Original post made on Jul 1, 2013
Read the full story here Web Link posted Monday, July 1, 2013, 11:37 AM
Comments (33)
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jul 1, 2013 at 11:43 am
Who's paying for all the rework?
a resident of Menlo Park: Downtown
on Jul 1, 2013 at 1:07 pm
Who was in charge of supervising the work?
Are the attorneys standing in line?
and who will pay for all of that?
a resident of Menlo Park: other
on Jul 1, 2013 at 1:12 pm
If the problems are due to defective workmanship and not following plans and specifications, the contractor that originally did the work will have to pay for it. At least that's the way it usually works.
a resident of Menlo Park: Downtown
on Jul 1, 2013 at 1:34 pm
SteveC is a registered user.
How about being covered by warranty???
Editor's note: District Superintendent Maurice Ghysels told the Almanac that the contractor will be responsible for the repair costs. "We expect that all the corrections to the field will be complete this summer and will meet required installation specifications without any additional costs" to the district, he wrote in an email.
a resident of Woodside: other
on Jul 1, 2013 at 1:40 pm
I'd settle for government doing something right... just once.
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jul 1, 2013 at 2:22 pm
What about the potential health impacts of artificial turf?
Check this article from Environment and Human Health, Inc. (a non-profit environmental health organization).
Web Link
a resident of Menlo Park: other
on Jul 1, 2013 at 2:33 pm
Another opportunity to do the right thing & put in grass! One can wish....
a resident of Menlo Park: other
on Jul 1, 2013 at 3:00 pm
It took me months to get my ankle right after I hit a gopher hole playing on a grass field. Add to that the expense, the pesticides, herbicides and oil based fertilizer. Count the increased availability of turf when rains close grass fields (if it ever rains again!)
The government made the correct choice to go with turf. Sounds like the contractor erred and is responsible.
a resident of Menlo Park: Downtown
on Jul 1, 2013 at 3:29 pm
The basketball area should be redone too. It looks good from a distance but up close the courts have too much slope( I don't think you need that much slope for drainage). Players feel like they are shooting or running uphill or downhill all the time. The rims are flimsy and without any springs. The backboards are razor thin. You may slice a ball in half if you hit it against the sides of the backboard. cheap materials, poor planing and worse oversight.
a resident of Menlo Park: other
on Jul 1, 2013 at 10:45 pm
we need another bond measure.
a resident of Menlo Park: other
on Jul 1, 2013 at 11:02 pm
[Portion removed. Not relevant to topic.] The folks writing headlines for the Almanac are obviously residents of the spin zone. I'll bet this turf will be rolled up, not ripped up.
a resident of Menlo Park: Belle Haven
on Jul 1, 2013 at 11:35 pm
I first heard about the turf replacement three months ago. I don't know why this is a surprise to anyone.
a resident of another community
on Jul 2, 2013 at 10:45 am
To "not a surprise" -- I recall this too. Perhaps the editor dredged it up as a contender for the "outrage of the week" to generate angry letters about a local government conspiracy and/or government ineptitude.
Editor's note: The story is based on an announcement on June 28 by Ahmad Sheikholeslami, director of facilities for the Menlo Park City School District.
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jul 2, 2013 at 11:35 am
"Neighbor" from "another community" (how does THAT work?), you say you knew this work had to be done three months ago, even though you live in "another community." Odd, given that many residents in Menlo Park didn't seem to know about it until the Friday announcement by the district. How did you find out?
a resident of Menlo Park: South of Seminary/Vintage Oaks
on Jul 2, 2013 at 11:39 am
That field has been in constant use since it opened. Lots of kids on there all the time playing lacrosse, soccer, etc. Not all live in Menlo Park. I don't remember who told us that the turf was being redone, but it was common knowledge within a month or so of the turf first opening. It was so clearly defective.
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jul 2, 2013 at 12:30 pm
This is not new news. The summer field repair project was previously announced along with all other summer facility projects in an earlier District newsletter:
Due to increased enrollment, we have several summer construction projects. To accommodate more students, the District will be installing one classroom portable at Laurel and one at Encinal, as well as converting the small multi purpose room at Oak Knoll into classrooms. As a matter of routine the District will also be conducting several maintenance projects over the summer. Also, we have noticed areas of the new field at Hillview where the subterranean drainage system has not been working as expected. The contractor is responsible for the installation, and their corrective work will be conducted during the summer to avoid any impact on the instructional year. The City of Menlo Park has also been informed, and they will be scheduling alternative locations for summer community uses of the field. District staff will closely monitor the work to ensure that the field corrections are timely and meeting the design parameters."
a resident of Menlo Park: Linfield Oaks
on Jul 2, 2013 at 12:31 pm
For years, The Almanac was a shill for the MPCSD. It printed all of their propaganda verbatim, and when a reporter covered board meetings there was never any mention made of anything contentious. If someone contacted The Almanac to report questionable conduct, it went nowhere.
Now, after many years, the local paper is showing some independence. It's long overdue. A public agency is supposed to operate in the public eye, so the MPCSD needs to stop whining about being picked on when their actions make headlines. It is appropriate for a newspaper to report on this subject because it does have an impact on the entire community -- especially the neighborhood around Hillview that's already been changed dramatically.
And for those of you with short memories, the cost of the Hillview field went significantly OVER BUDGET during the construction because this drainage problem was discovered then and the scope of the project had to be changed to accommodate it. Taxpayers have already paid a price for this correction, which makes it even more sad that the work still has to be redone.
The other reason it is appropriate to report on the Hillview site issues is that it reflects on how the MPCSD has managed its construction work to date, in light of the fact that they are about to ask taxpayers to approve yet another hefty bond measure to rebuild the O'Connor site. It will be overseen by the same person and most likely awarded to the same architect and builder.
a resident of Menlo Park: Allied Arts/Stanford Park
on Jul 2, 2013 at 1:35 pm
Deja vu all over again! Does anyone remember when the "new" Hillview Gym was built about 7 years ago? Mistakenly built below sewer level, so sewage from lavatories have to be pumped-up and out. Ain't there an App for that - sheesh!
a resident of Woodside: other
on Jul 2, 2013 at 1:44 pm
The question that should be asked is why wasn't it done right the first time?
Yes, it could be the contractor's fault but the district's engineering team gave final approval.
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jul 2, 2013 at 3:57 pm
Between the Hillview construction defects & the troubles PA has with Mitchell Park Library issues, it appears that the local engineers & inspectors don't know how to read the plans & specs, understand if the engineering calculations are correct, or evaluate the quality of work as it's performed.
For all the grief residents endure during home remodels & new constructions, it is ridiculous that if the project is big enough, anything goes.
Does the company who'll supposedly redo the field at its cost have adequate funds or insurance to do so? Is there a completion bond? Who will oversee the work this time? Are there new specs for drainage? Is the same engineer doing the specs?
It's just so much easier to get it right the first time. Who selects the winning contractor? Is it based on lowest cost? Maybe that shouldn't be the primary consideration and perhaps the people who decide to whom the contracts are awarded are incompetent to make that determination.
a resident of Atherton: West Atherton
on Jul 3, 2013 at 12:35 pm
Did they even check references of the contractor before giving the contractor approval to commence work? The School District and the City Public Works departments usually choose the lowest bidder, not a very good practice in my opinion.
a resident of Menlo Park: Downtown
on Jul 3, 2013 at 5:20 pm
Wasn't it the sole responsibility of Sheikholeslami this past year to to complete the construction of Hillview? How could something like this happen when there is a full-time, highly paid district employee overseeing this project? People have been ousted from the district for making fewer, if any, mistakes. How does he manage to come out of this unscathed?
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jul 4, 2013 at 9:25 am
I might be wrong but don't local school districts have some sort of exemption when it comes to local government oversight of designs and construction projects. Thus home much if any inspection responsibility does MP Building and Planning Depts have over the school projects?
a resident of another community
on Jul 4, 2013 at 9:46 am
Disgusted-Your comment reminds me of something I read in the Almanac from 2009. This was about Ghysels time in Mountain View Whisman School District.
"The "Gang of Four" administrators, as I have heard them refer to themselves, operate as though they are untouchable and unanswerable to the community they have been hired to serve."
The same scenario is now playing out in Menlo Park. Sheikholeslami is Ghysels "golden boy" and part of his new gang in Menlo Park.
Wake up Board!
a resident of another community
on Jul 5, 2013 at 2:00 pm
Folks, The time to influence your board about their chosen Supt is when they are hiring! After that, the Supt works for the Board, and all other District Employees are the Supt's responsibility. Contractors have to fix defects all the time, and public agencies select the low bidder almost exclusively because the Public Contract Code requires them to except in specific circumstances. School projects are usually processed through the Division of State Architect (not city building dept's), by Architects rather than Engineers, and yes I was able to observe Dr. Ghysels while he served the MVWSD board -- Plenty of positives to go along with all the negatives you all are still twitching over.
a resident of Encinal School
on Jul 5, 2013 at 7:07 pm
Unfortunately, in this case, the negatives far out weigh the positives. Hopefully the Board will understand before much longer that their selection for superintendent is slowly disemboweling the entire district. It is getting worse and worse as each day goes by!
a resident of another community
on Jul 5, 2013 at 9:09 pm
Old Steve,
To be clear, we gave as much input as we could into hiring a new superintendent. The hiring process, after the input sessions, was completed by only the 5 board members. And it was completed in a facility off-site. And Ghysels is friends with Larry Aceves, one of the recruiters from Leadership Associates. We were bamboozled by the board and by Leadership Associates.
a resident of Woodside: other
on Jul 6, 2013 at 8:23 am
Citizens still have the right (and obligation, if you ask me) to make their feelings clear to elected officials. If you don't like the way your school district is managed, you should go to a school board meeting, stand up and tell them. These elected officials are your neighbors and you should be able to speak to them.
If enough people did that, they would get the message. If people don't do that, then the board rightfully assumes that citizens approve of their actions.
a resident of Menlo Park: other
on Jul 7, 2013 at 11:53 pm
With two senior members of the administration announcing that they are leaving in the past two weeks, MPCSD is not in good shape. This disruption will only end with the realization by the Board and community that the emperor is wearing no clothes. Until then, you will see more people fleeing for the exits, to the detriment of the District.
a resident of another community
on Jul 8, 2013 at 4:15 pm
Why doesn't the board get the root of the problem and remove Ghysels from his position rather than sit back and wait for more administrators to leave. Soon there won't be anyone left! What's shocking is that one of the senior administrators leaving was HIS hire.
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jul 8, 2013 at 4:23 pm
Could someone satisfy my curiosity and say who the two admiinstrators are who are leaving?
a resident of another community
on Jul 8, 2013 at 4:55 pm
Jim Bowlby, Director of Technology and Allison Liner, Chief Learning Officer. Yes, his second in command is leaving for a lesser position in a different district and a huge cut in pay. What does that tell you?
a resident of Atherton: West of Alameda
on Jul 10, 2013 at 12:21 am
Hillview School is the historic site of "The Tank Collection grounds" for the Sharon Estate and it's then hundreds of acres of fruits and vegetables grown to send up by train for the Palace Hotel in the city, also owned by the Sharon family.
La Loma creek and all the run off from the hills west of the Alameda slope down naturally to the school grounds. A hundred years ago and until the forties or fifties, this water was collected right there at what is now the school grounds, and then pumped back up to Sharon Heights for irrigating the entire estate.
Some of the best wells currently owned by the County are under the School
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text:
In folklore, a doppelgänger (literally "double walker") typically bodes evil or death: seeing ourselves in the mirror is hard enough, but glimpsing another one of us in the flesh is enough to shake us to our core. In Fight Club, Tyler Durden admonishes, "You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else..." Krzysztof Kieslowski's Jungian drama The Double Life of Véronique is a quite a bit less blunt, but still serves as a reminder that our place in the vast universe is small, our time fleeting, and our interconnectivity underrated.
Critics' darling Kieslowski (also known for his Three Colors trilogy and The Decalogue) is never less than ambitious, though many will find The Double Life of Véronique impenetrably pretentious. Accordingly, the film opens on a haze observed by Polish girl Weronika ("It's not haze," her mother tells her. "It's really millions of little stars"), contrasted to a leaf contemplated by French girl Véronique. What follows, as we are introduced to the identical girls as grown women, is a mood piece, its strictly metaphysical concerns reflected in Slawomir Idziak's adventurous camerawork. Who are we? Why does a particular person attract us? How and why do we relate to those around us? And why does one piece of music "speak" to us? Kieslowski's script, co-written with Krzysztof Piesiewicz, suggests a deep dive into the collective unconscious, following the lead of intuition, may be the only way to get close to some answers, and so goes the film, with little concession to narrative niceties.
Blessed with a beautiful voice, Weronika (Irène Jacob, dubbed by Anna Gornostaj) makes her way into a prestigious Polish choir, though she also has on her mind her boyfriend Antek (Jerzy Gudejko) and her sick aunt (Halina Gryglaszewska). One day Weronika sees her double, French tourist Véronique (Jacob, not dubbed), on a bus, her feeling that she's "not alone in the world" confirmed. Indeterminably haunted, Weronika gives her all for her art, the beauty of song. The film's focus shifts to Véronique, also musically gifted and also romantically involved with a man: likewise haunted, Véronique sidelines music (teaching it instead of pursuing it as a career) and finds herself entangled with another man, a visiting puppeteer named Alexandre Fabbri (Philippe Volter). Wouldn't you know it? He has a marionette that looks an awful lot like our girl.
The Double Life of Véronique is a puzzle film, itself a metaphor for life: a mystery that may have a design but, if so, willfully obscures it to force us to pursue meaning. Kieslowski returns again and again to lenses of perception and meaning (eyes, cameras, glasses and the like) and shares with his twin protagonists both an obsessiveness about music, dance and art, and a sense of wonder for small phenomena, like dust falling from a ceiling or the bending of vision through a clear rubber ball. Jacob's performance—listless, glazed, dreamy, beautiful—fits the film's tone, and the motif of her looking into the camera builds audience identification through the use of "reverse shots."
Kieslowski gives the film a soft glow with washes of color (occasionally contrasted to pale light and drained color). Some have interpreted the film's duality to be most meaningful in geopolitical terms: the vagaries of fate for two women destined to grow up on two sides of the Iron Curtain with two different ideas of personal freedom. It's a fair interpretation and certainly part of the mix, but for Kieslowski, the film was about those feelings that cannot be put into words. It's an intriguing artistic goal Kieslowski was chasing, resulting in a film that washes over the viewer and invites meditative contemplation about our awareness while swimming the big river of consciousness.
Criterion again delivers a magnificent hi-def upgrade in its Blu-ray special edition of The Double Life of Véronique. The film gets a gorgeous video rendering that expertly recreates the film's original theatrical appearance, free of digital artifacts. The image boasts a natural grain structure, fine contrast, true and rich colors, and detail and texture much improved from previous DVD issues; it is a film of its time and place, so don't expect three-dimensional "pop," but this is exactly as the film is meant to look. Similarly, Criterion doesn't mess about with the sound, instead presenting a remastered, clean and clear DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track.
Bonus features kick off with a brainy 2006 commentary by Annette Insdorf, author of Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kie?lowski. Insdorf knows her stuff, and knows better than to dictate the film's meaning, though she stokes plenty of intriguing options.
The disc includes (and contextualizes) the film's Weinstein-suggested "U.S. Ending" (5:17, HD), which differs by four shots.
A Short Films section includes 1958 short "The Musicians" (10:35, HD) by Kieslowski teacher Kazimierz Karabasz and the Kieslowski documentary short subjects "'Factory' (1970)" (18:10, HD), "'Hospital' (1976)" (21:22, HD) and "'Railway Station' (1980)" (13:16, HD). Cumulatively, the four films offer an insight into Polish life and Kieslowski's development as an artist.
The 1991 doc "Kieslowski—Dialogue" (52:43, HD) provides insight into the filmmaker's process by way of an extensive interview and behind-the-scenes footage.
The 2005 doc "1966-1988: Kieslowski, Polish Filmmaker" (30:39, HD) is a career retrospective tracing Kieslowski roughly up to The Double Life of Véronique.
The 2006 interview "Slawomir Idziak" (24:18, HD) allows the cinematographer to share his memories of working with Kieslowski and achieving the film's visual goals.
The 2006 interview "Zbigniew Preisner" (21:16, HD) garners similar insights from the film's composer.
The 2005 interview "Irene Jacob" (16:44, HD) finds the actress recalling her excitement to work with Kieslowski and the sometimes baffling process of playing the film's double role.
Lastly, the disc comes with a 46-page booklet with film stills, credits, tech specs, critic Jonathan Romney's essay "Through the Looking Glass", and interview excerpts from the 1993 book Kieslowski on Kieslowski.
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text:
Available for Holiday Parties: Tony and Carmela Soprano
Many companies have been busy cancelling their holiday parties in recent weeks. But if your firm is still searching for a little entertainment to spice things up (and you're not interested in having a losing contestant from Top Chef make an appearance), here's one more option to add to the list. Donald and Allison, who operate a site called SopranosLookalikes.com and claim they served as James Gandolfini and Edie Falco's photo doubles on the HBO show, say they still have some availabilities for upcoming holiday events. The couple promises to offer up quite a show if you hire them. They'll happily meet and greet your guests, "present awards," and "do toasts." They're also willing to "argue with each other" and "Tony can humiliate those you want made an example out of," which, come to think about it, might come in handy if the CEO of your company just slashed the budget and fired a big bunch of people.


text:
Fishes that once were abundant in North American streams, rivers and lakes are now disappearing, with nearly 40 percent of all species in jeopardy, according to the most detailed assessment of the conservation status of freshwater fishes in the last 20 years.
The report shows that 61 fishes are presumed extinct, and 280 species are classed as endangered. In addition 190 are considered threatened, and 230 fishes are listed as vulnerable to extinction.
The new report, published in the journal "Fisheries," was conducted by a team of scientists from the United States, Canada and Mexico, led by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey. The team examined the status of continental freshwater fishes and those that migrate between rivers and oceans.
"Freshwater fish have continued to decline since the late 1970s, with the primary causes being habitat loss, dwindling range and introduction of non-native species," said Mark Myers, director of the USGS. "In addition, climate change may further affect these fish."
The 700 fishes now listed as imperiled for this report by the Endangered Species Committee of the American Fisheries Society are a 92 percent increase over the 364 listed in the previous 1989 study.
The fish at greatest risk are the salmon and trout of the Pacific Coast and western mountain regions. More than 60 percent of the salmon and trout had at least one population or subspecies in trouble, the report shows.
Also at great risk are minnows, suckers and catfishes throughout the continent; darters in the southeastern United States; and pupfish, livebearers, and goodeids, a large, native fish family in Mexico and the southwestern United States.
Fish families important for sport or commercial fisheries are also vulnerable to extinction. One of the most popular game species in the United States, striped bass, has populations on the list.
Twenty-two percent of sunfishes, a family which includes the well-known species such as black bass, bluegill and rock bass, are listed as at risk.
The southeastern United States, the mid-Pacific coast, the lower Rio Grande and basins in Mexico that do not drain to the sea are losing their freshwater fish species more quickly than other regions.
"Human populations have greatly expanded in many of these watersheds, compounding negative impacts on aquatic ecosystems," said Howard Jelks, a USGS researcher and the senior author of the paper.
River systems that are both hotspots of regional biodiversity and also show the greatest levels of endangerment are the Tennessee, where 58 fishes are in jeopardy; the Mobile with 57 fishes at risk; and the southeastern Atlantic Slope river systems where 34 fishes are imperiled.
The Pacific central valley, western Great Basin, Rio Grande and rivers of central Mexico also have high diversity and numbers of fish at risk of extinction, according to the report.
Many of the fish populations at risk are restricted to only a single drainage.
Of fish on the American Fisheries Society's 1989 imperiled list, 89 percent are either still listed with the same conservation status or have become even more at risk. Only 11 percent improved in status or were delisted.
The authors say the new list is based on the best biological information available.
"We believe this report will provide national and international resource managers, scientists and the conservation community with reliable information to establish conservation, management and recovery priorities," said Stephen Walsh, another lead author and USGS researcher.
The authors emphasize that improved public awareness and proactive management strategies are needed to protect and recover these and other aquatic species.
"Fish are not the only aquatic organisms undergoing precipitous declines," said USGS researcher Noel Burkhead, a lead author on the report and the chair of the AFS Endangered Species Committee. "Freshwater crayfishes, snails and mussels are exhibiting similar or even greater levels of decline and extinction."
For an interactive map showing the fish species at risk, click here.