Now we know. He made the right call, if it was interfering that badly with his ability to function.
[Dawn] Recently deceased ex-pope Benedict described years of persistent sleeping troubles as the "main reason" behind his shock decision to step down in 2013, according to a German media report on Friday.
Benedict was plagued by insomnia almost "constantly" from the start of his time as pope in 2005, according to a letter written a few weeks before his death on New Year’s Eve.
In the message to his biographer Peter Seewald, obtained by German magazine Focus, Benedict said "strong" pills prescribed to him by his doctor meant he was still able to fulfil his duties as head of the Catholic Church.
The drugs however "reached their limits", meaning the ailing German pontiff was less and less available, he said in the letter dated Oct 28, 2022.
A nasty accident on a papal visit to Mexico and Cuba in March 2012 precipitated Benedict’s final decision to resign. On the first morning of the trip, Benedict found his handkerchief "totally drenched in blood".
"I must have hit something in the bathroom and fallen," Benedict wrote in the letter, according to Focus.
Following the incident, his doctor pushed for a "reduction" in Benedict’s use of sleeping pills and insisted that Benedict only participate in morning events on future foreign trips.
It was quickly clear to Benedict that the medical restrictions could only be followed "for a short time", he wrote, leading him to announce he would step down in 2013 before the next major trip to Brazil.
Benedict shocked the world with his announcement, making him the first pope in nearly six hundred years to step down.
#2
My thoughts exactly NN2N1. Or his conscience was bothering him from his own past.
Posted by: Chris ||
01/29/2023 10:16 Comments ||
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#3
Nothing like pedophilia in the Vatican/Catholic ranks to keep one up at night. I guess even reading the good book while lying in bed at night didn't help.
#4
Historically the Pope was the more the secular leader of the Holy States, a large fraction of what is now modern Italy, and the College of Cardinals had the role of deciding theology. In modern times it must be a tremendous strain to be 'perfect', unless you are a raving megalomaniac.
#5
He did some good stuff and angered all the right people. I think he knew the true condition of the Vatican and felt that he didn’t have the strength to get the needed reformation done.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/29/2023 16:01 Comments ||
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Forward with the Taliban into the Seventh Century!
[GEO.TV] At least 166 people have died in a wave of bitterly cold weather sweeping Afghanistan, an official said Saturday, as extreme conditions heaped misery on the poverty-stricken nation.
Afghanistan has been frozen by temperatures as low as -33°C (-27°F) since January 10, combined with widespread snowfall, icy gales, and regular electricity outages.
*shrug* It is well known that if a country wants to avoid power outages, it must pay its utility bills. Afghanistan’s primary supplier is Uzbekistan, but they source from a variety of Central Asian countries plus Iran. They just signed a new contract with Turkmenistan, and renewed existing contracts with Uzbekistan, but that paying thing is the kicker.
Aid agencies had warned before the cold snap that more than half of Afghanistan's 38 million people were facing hunger, while nearly four million children were suffering from malnutrition.
The disaster management ministry said on Saturday the corpse count had risen by 88 over the past week and now stood at 166, based on data from 24 of the nation's 34 provinces.
The deaths were caused by floods, fires and leaks from gas heaters that Afghan families use to heat their homes, ministry official Abdul Rahman Zahid said in a video statement.
Some 100 homes were destroyed or damaged and nearly 80,000 livestock, a vital commodity for Afghanistan's poor, also died in the cold.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2023 00:00 ||
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#1
nasty cold snap in much of Asia
last week it hit -63F in Mohe in North China; this was the coldest temp ever recorded in that country
Mohe has a population of about 80k
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/29/2023 0:08 Comments ||
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#2
So, Global Warming didn't save them? Sorry to be so unbelieving.
[Gateway] Steve Bannon was joined by General Michael Flynn on Friday and they discussed the end of the Vietnam War 50 years ago and the current situation in Ukraine.
General Flynn started by honoring American veterans for their service in all wars and especially all these heroes from the Vietnam War. He shared:
We just got out of Afghanistan and there are killing fields going on in Afghanistan today. And we, most Americans don’t know, that we’re still sending tax payer dollars now to the Taliban to help them. So it’s just insane.
He then discussed the current situation in Ukraine.
We are about to enter a war and I still haven’t heard this administration talk about any vital national security objectives. I don’t know what our objectives are...
We are going to creep into this war like we crept into other wars like Vietnam, like Afghanistan, like Iraq and this going to be turned into an absolute disaster.
General Flynn said that we can’t put the arms in Ukraine that we are putting there, without boots on the ground. The administration spent $110 billion on Ukraine which is about $200 million per Congressional District.
That kind of money could be flowing into this country instead of Ukraine into somebody’s pocket. This is bad for America. This is bad for the world. We are about to enter potentially World War III and the talk of nuclear weapons is absolutely outrageous.
It is definitely on the table because we’re hearing it from both sides.
Bannon then asked General Flynn if we were sleepwalking into WWIII.
Tom Cotton, like many of the Senators who are pushing for this thing, and on the Republican side. They have forgotten what we just did in Afghanistan which was a complete and utter disaster. The surrendered to the Taliban and left our own behind enemy lines to fend for themselves...We are being led into WWIII.
#1
But what a wonderful media driven 'Cover for Action' for the Biden Crime Family. Too bad about the Taiwanese, we were just too busy assisting Europe.
Numerous polluting urban ghettos rubblized and over 300,000,000 carbon footprints removed. Recovery will require a 'Global Effort.'
#2
Well, when the coof didn't eliminate a third of the world's population in a stroke, and the vaxxes didn't pick up the slack, the WEF types started looking for a plan C...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/29/2023 7:22 Comments ||
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#3
Too bad about the Taiwanese, we were just too busy assisting Europe.
Makes me wonder if Xi Jinping is the one telling Biden we need to get involved in Ukraine. You know that Joe will do whatever Xi tells him.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/29/2023 15:51 Comments ||
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#4
I dont care much about the Biden criminal element. Now would be the time to end the Soviets once and for all. Strategic strike the nuke sites, sink their subs and they are now a third world element.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/29/2023 20:00 Comments ||
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[ET] "The information—and the bulleted information specifically in that email—is information, in my opinion, that could only have come from a classified source and a classified document ...Where did this email come from? Hunter Biden’s laptop. This document has been known to the FBI for years," said Kash Patel.
Was there classified information on Hunter Biden’s laptop? Was this the true origin of the investigation into Joe Biden’s classified documents?
Kash’s Corner looks at recent reporting by New York Post journalist Miranda Devine. And discusses the recent indictment of ex-FBI official Charles McGonigal, a key player in the Russiagate scandal. He was indicted for aiding sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Notably, Deripaska had previously hired Christopher Steele, the author of the infamous, discredited "Steele dossier." Tonight, Patel connects the dots and breaks down what he sees going on.
[Breitbart] According to Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL), reinstatement for military personnel forced out by the Biden administration vaccine mandate remains a priority for him and his House Republican colleagues with the majority in Congress.
During an interview with Mobile, AL radio’s FM Talk 106.5, the Alabama Republican lawmaker said the Biden edict was used to "purge" those he deemed to be patriots.
"I think we have to reinstate our soldiers who were dismissed," he said. "That was a way to purge patriots — people who didn’t necessarily want to follow a narrative. And again, we didn’t have a vaccine the entire time. As it came on the scene, you either get the vaccine, or you get out of the Army, and you’re not going to be able to make a living. With Fort Rucker, I had a ton of town halls and a lot of people concerned about that. Some walked away from jobs at Fort Rucker, and some were forced out because of this mandate."
"Now, looking back as I talk to physicians, young males are most susceptible to that vaccine," Moore continued. "And so that cripples your military. If we’ve got patriots who left because they just didn’t feel comfortable with taking an untested vaccine that was not approved by the FDA, then for sure, we need to reinstate them — whether it be pilots, air traffic controllers, whatever the case may be. Those young men and women — they need to have the opportunity to serve their country. They need not be purged if they didn’t want to take the jab."
Moore added that he believed reinstatement was a realistic outcome.
#3
Maurice Henry Pappworth (9 January 1910 – 12 October 1994) was a pioneering British medical ethicist and tutor, best known for his 1967 book Human Guinea Pigs, which exposed the unethical dimensions of medical research. Born and educated in Liverpool, Pappworth graduated as a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 1932 from Liverpool University. After working in a series of junior medical positions, his applications for more senior posts were rejected. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Having been unsuccessful in achieving a post in any well known London hospital after the war, he set up in London as an independent medical consultant and tutor.
Pappworth's teaching of postgraduate students had a profound effect on the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) examination pass rate, and his contact with junior doctors led him to investigate the ethics of medical research on humans. The publication of Human Guinea Pigs, which examined unethical medical research practices, exposed the subject to a wider audience and led to Pappworth's becoming persona non grata within the medical establishment for much of his career, but ultimately helped lead to stricter codes of practice for human experimentation.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The two fighter jets took off from the Madhya Pradesh air station of Gwalior, where an exercise occurred.
A Sukhoi-30 and a Mirage 2000 collided on Saturday near Morena in Madhya Pradesh, killing one of the three pilots who suffered "fatal injuries", the official said.
Whether a mid-air collision occurred or not will be determined by an Indian Ari Force court of inquiry. The Su-30 had two pilots during the crash, but the Mirage 2000 only had one.
Both the fighter jets had taken off from the Gwalior Air Force base.
Initial reports indicate that two of the pilots are secure, and "an Indian Ari Force (IAF) chopper reaching the third pilot soon," Sources said.
The Chief of Air Staff said, "Two fighter aircraft of IAF were involved in an accident near Gwalior today. The aircraft was on a routine operational flying training mission. One of the three pilots involved sustained fatal injuries. An inquiry has been ordered to determine the cause of the accident," the Indian Air Force tweeted.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2023 00:00 ||
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#1
Generally, classic vehicles don't get used in a demolition derby...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/29/2023 7:56 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
