As well as calling for a single, elected head of state for Europe, the bloc demanded a new defence policy, under the control of a pan-EU foreign ministry commanded by Baroness Ashton, which “could eventually involve a European army”. In order to “prevent one single member state from being able to obstruct initiatives”, a reference to British opposition to a European army, the German-led group demanded an end to existing national vetoes over foreign and defence policy. This would give the EU the power to impose a decision on Britain if it was supported by a majority of other countries.

The bloc also called for a new European police force patrolling the external borders of the Schengen passport-free zone and a single European visa. The plan, which has the backing of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Holland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and Portugal, is likely to increase calls for a British referendum on EU membership.

“I believe the time has come to give a sincere and decisive witness together against divisions, against violence and against war,” the pope said September 19 at his weekly general audience. Reviewing his September 14-16 trip to Lebanon, the pope told an estimated 7,000 people gathered in the Vatican audience hall that the “relaxed and constructive climate” of meetings with Lebanese religious leaders, government officials and crowds made up of Christians and Muslims was “a strong sign of hope for the future of humanity.”

Just think about it. We throw outrageous birthday parties for our kids and we shower them with gifts. Most of our "holidays" have become highly materialistic, and the biggest holiday of all in our society, Christmas, is an absolute orgy of materialism. We make lists of the "wealthiest Americans" and we glorify their achievements.

We spend most of our time either making money or spending it. Even the phrase "the American Dream" reveals how materialistic we are. When most people are asked what "the American Dream" is, they start talking about a house, a car, vacations, retirement, sending your kids to college, etc. The American Dream has become all about money and stuff. Sadly, no matter how big our homes are and no matter how many shiny new toys we accumulate, we never seem to be happy.

We always want more, and we always seem to be willing to go into more debt to get it. We are the most materialistic society in the history of the world, and our endless greed is going to end up swallowing us alive.

National Public Radio (NPR) published an article on its website last month claiming, “Ten years ago, a piece of ice the size of Rhode Island disintegrated and melted in the waters off Antarctica. Two other massive ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula had suffered similar fates a few years before. The events became poster children for the effects of global warming. There’s no question that unusually warm air triggered the final demise of these huge chunks of ice.”

NPR failed to mention anywhere in its article that Antarctic sea ice has been growing since satellites first began measuring the ice 33 years ago and the sea ice has been above the 33-year average throughout 2012. Indeed, none of the mainstream media are covering this important story.

A Google News search of the terms Antarctic, sea ice and record turns up not a single article on the Antarctic sea ice record. Amusingly, page after page of Google News results for Antarctic sea ice record show links to news articles breathlessly spreading fear and warning of calamity because Arctic sea ice recently set a 33-year low. Sea ice around one pole is shrinking while sea ice around another pole is growing. This sure sounds like a global warming crisis to me.

The new purchase is for .223 rifle ammunition, plus another 176,000 rounds of .308 caliber 168 grain hollow point boat tail (HPBT) rounds in addition to 25,000 rounds of blank .308 caliber bullets. “It is the type of ammunition and not necessarily the quantity that is troubling,” James Smith Prepper Podcast was quoted as saying.

“All of the sniper grade ammunition is being used by trained, or in-the-process-of-being-trained snipers,” wrote Smith. Adding up the number of lethal bullets tallies a potential 135,384 kills for the snipers, based on US Army and Marine figures from the Vietnam War, when soldiers used 1.3 rounds of ammunition for each verified kill.

Homeland Security’s purchases of the huge arsenal “is both worrying and ironic given that Americans are being harassed and treated with suspicion for buying a couple of boxes of ammo at their local gun store,” Watson wrote. Government officials have refused to comment.

It has infiltrated virtually all forms of travel within the US: Air, rail, bus and even freeway checkpoints. It is asserting its authority over major sporting events and other large venues. It is estimated that there are in excess of 270 million privately-owned firearms in the United States. The rate of saturation is approximately 88.8 firearms per 100 people. In contrast, total weapons among the nation’s police force number upwards of 897,000.

If every policeman fired his weapon 1,000 times per year (99.99 percent for proficiency training), the entire force would require 897 million rounds of ammunition. Let’s round it up to an even 1 billion rounds of ammunition for all the police forces across America. Why do non-military federal agencies (who answer directly to the President) feel that they also need to acquire well over 1 billion rounds of ammunition by the end of 2012? Why does the Social Security Administration need 174,000 rounds? Or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 46,000 rounds? About one billion rounds will go to DHS.

The majority of the Administration’s purchases, including for DHS, are for copper-jacketed hollow point bullets. According to Major General Jerry Curry (USA (Retired), “Hollow point bullets are so lethal that the Geneva Convention does not allow their use on the battle field in time of war. Hollow point bullets don’t just stop or hurt people, they penetrate the body, spread out, fragment and cause maximum damage to the body’s organs. Death often follows.”

So, the Administration is stocking up on lethal ammunition to use in the US, that even the military doesn’t use in Afghanistan or Iraq? This type of ammunition is never used for training purposes, by the way, because training ammo is much cheaper.

In Naples, the Royal Palace has fractures in its façade and once-glorious fountains in the city’s squares are covered in graffiti. Pompeii is at risk of becoming a wasteland as its ruins disintegrate to dust due to lack of maintenance. In Emilia Romagna, important churches and clock towers damaged in a series of springtime earthquakes will never be repaired. There simply is no money left in Italy’s tightened budget to take care of the country’s cultural heritage.

Austerity measures to combat Italy’s stifling public debt and save the country from default has meant there is little money left over for anything but the bare necessities. But the bigger problem is that basic maintenance on many of the country’s cultural gems has been neglected for years. Recent budget cuts are just the last nail in the sarcophagus. In reality, the culture budget has been the first to be cut for the last several years.

A full third - €1.42 billion - has been slashed from the culture budget in the last three years, meaning vital maintenance on some of the country’s most important monuments was never carried out.

The overwhelming majority of Afghans simply want all foreigners to go away and leave them in peace — or maybe in war. They do not care for us, and never will. Think how ridiculous it has been, to try to win their hearts and minds, when only a handful of Nato personnel in the entire country speak any Afghan dialect.

Consider, too, how idiotic is a British Government which has sent not one, but two successive women to serve as heads of our civil aid mission. This was Whitehall PC gone bonkers, when few Afghans of any political persuasion recognise the right of women to an education, never mind to advise them on how to run their country. But that sort of folly is history.

All that matters now is to get British forces home as soon as can be contrived, and to conduct future operations with the aim of preserving the lives of our soldiers. If all deaths in all wars are tragedies, every further young man who is killed or maimed in Helmand is doubly so. The spectacle of politicians trying to preserve tatters of national dignity at the cost of lives is no less depressing because so many governments in history have followed the same path.

We have lost in Afghanistan.