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Paris’ Olympics opening ceremony has been widely criticized by many who still hold to standards such as dignity, decency, modesty, and other biblical values. Parts of the ceremony deserve a range of adjectives such as disgusting, ugly, perverted, wicked, and abominable.

For those of you fortunate enough not to have seen the entire ceremony, here is how one review described it:

The prevailing wisdom on the oxygenation of the ocean is that plants in the top layers of ocean waters produce oxygen through photosynthesis, just like plants on land. As ocean depths increase and light gives way to complete darkness, oxygen levels in seawater should theoretically decrease.

After Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago, fear and unrest spread across Europe. A ground war on European soil conjured up memories of the past. Following the invasion, Germany’s Interior Minister stated that “Germany is to begin strengthening its bunker and basement infrastructure following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” (The Independent, April 9, 2022).

Sometime in the 1960s, Israel became the first nation in the Middle East to possess a nuclear bomb. Thanks to assistance from France, Israel created a nuclear deterrent intended to allow the fledgling nation to survive while surrounded by nations that hate its existence. Opponents of Israel’s nuclear ambitions warned that these efforts could lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. However, perhaps due in part to Israel’s efforts to intentionally avoid publicly acknowledging and flaunting its nuclear capability, that arms race never began.

Europeans have been talking about a common defense union for many years, but little has developed. That appears to be changing. Ursula von der Leyen was just reelected for another five-year term as President of the European Commission after nearly losing her job (CNN, July 18, 2024). In one speech, she profoundly observed that the next five years will define Europe’s place in the world for the next five decades.