Title: The Swiss Guard Celebrates 500 Years of Service
Description: The world's smallest army since 1506
Description: The world's smallest army since 1506
Adolf Chiang - January 23, 2006 08:11 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
 Swiss Guards celebrate 500 years of protecting popes By Hilary Clarke in Rome (Filed: 23/01/2006) Pope Benedict XVI blessed the Swiss Guards yesterday as the Vatican celebrated the 500th anniversary of its private army with a mass in St Peter's Basilica. Guards stood to attention in their blue-and-yellow tunic and breeches and red-plumed helmets as the pope addressed them from his office window overlooking St Peter's Square. The 78-year-old pontiff thanked them for their loyal service, recalling how Pope Julius II summoned them to protect him and the Vatican, with the first guards arriving on Jan 22, 1506. Earlier that day, the secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, held a mass for the guards and their families in the Sistine Chapel. Beyond their flamboyant exterior, the 110-strong army, the world's smallest, is as up-to-date as any modern defence corps with an internal intelligence service that is one of the best in the world. "They aren't just young wealthy kids from Swiss Catholic families who enjoy dressing up in fancy costumes" said one Rome-based Western security expert. "The Vatican has one of the best security systems in the world and an international intelligence network rivalled only by that of Israel." The whole of Vatican City is wired with hidden security alarms and sensory devices that can detect even small amounts of explosives on clothes. "And they are very well funded so they can afford the best," said the expert. To join as a private on a €1,350-a-month (£925) salary it is necessary to be Swiss, Roman Catholic, celibate, aged between 19 and 30, with a clean record and more than 5ft 8in tall. Only those who reach corporal rank are allowed to marry. The guards swear to protect the pope with their lives and although recruitment has been a problem recently, there is no question of women joining the force. The blackest day in the guards' history was during the 1527 sack of Rome when Spanish troops burnt the city and tried to kill Pope Clement VII. He escaped through the secret tunnel that leads into the Vatican's Castel Sant'Angelo fortress, but 146 Swiss Guards protecting him from the rear as he fled were massacred. When the Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca shot the pope in front of the crowd in St Peter's Square in 1981, a Swiss Guard in plain clothes jumped on the wounded pontiff to shield him from further attacks. Protecting Benedict XVI is easier than protecting his globetrotting predecessor Jean-Paul II, Col Elmar Maeder said yesterday. "Benedict doesn't move about much and when he does it's usually inside the Vatican City, an area that we know inside out," he said, adding that staging an attack inside the city state would be extremely difficult. |
Hauser - January 23, 2006 09:54 AM (GMT)
I thought homosexuals were now banned from the Church?
Adolf Chiang - January 24, 2006 07:34 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Hauser @ Jan 23 2006, 09:54 PM) |
| I thought homosexuals were now banned from the Church? |
Since they were invented by White people. :hilarious:
Miss_Illusioned - January 24, 2006 07:45 AM (GMT)
Since what was invented???
Adolf Chiang - January 24, 2006 07:55 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Miss_Illusioned @ Jan 24 2006, 07:45 PM) |
| Since what was invented??? |
The 'toggafs', lady.
Happy Ahmed - January 24, 2006 08:07 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Adolf Chiang @ Jan 24 2006, 08:34 PM) |
| Since they were invented by White people. :hilarious: |
| QUOTE |
| ..during the powerful Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) the homosexual activities of emperors and ministers were frequently preserved in the historical records. According to the Historical Record and Han Dynasty Records, almost all emperors of the Western Han Dynasty had lovers of their same sex. |
| QUOTE |
| Historical traces of male homosexuality persist through dynasty to dynasty from ancient times and never disappear. It was in full swing during the Spring and Autumn and the Warring Periods, at which time Mi Zixia, favorite of the Monarch Wei, and Long Yang, favored by Monarch Wei, were the two best-known figures. |
| QUOTE |
| Homosexuality has been documented in China since ancient times. According the scholar Ji Yun of the Qing Dynasty, already at the very beginning Huang Di (The Yellow Emperor, 2697? - 2597? BCE), legendary king and founder of the Chinese culture, had male lovers. |
| QUOTE |
| Scholar Pan Guangdan (潘光旦) came to the conclusion that nearly every emperor in the Han Dynasty had one or more male sex partners. There are also descriptions of lesbians in some history books. It is believed homosexuality was popular in the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties. Chinese homosexuals did not experience high-profile persecution comparing with that was received by homosexuals in Europe during the Middle Ages. |
| QUOTE |
| In some areas, same sex love was particularly appreciated. The province of Fujian was especially noted for the widespread practice of male love, and even its tradition of boy marriage, a temporary arrangement that lasted only until the boy reached maturity and took a female wife. |
Apparently, Chinese Emperors fucking love the cock.
Steveo - January 24, 2006 08:08 AM (GMT)
:ohsnap:
Adolf Chiang - January 24, 2006 08:12 AM (GMT)
That article was not even written by an authentic historian. Quite a number of the Wikipedia articles on Oriental history are questionable.
Miss_Illusioned - January 24, 2006 08:13 AM (GMT)
:clap: for Ahmed
Chiang - Your answer for everything you don't like is that it is wrong....
Chiang - Your answer for everything you don't like is that it is wrong....
the oob - January 24, 2006 08:16 AM (GMT)
This thread is going to burst into flames at any moment.
*grabs popcorn*
*grabs popcorn*
Happy Ahmed - January 24, 2006 08:24 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Adolf Chiang @ Jan 24 2006, 09:12 PM) |
| That article was not even written by an authentic historian. Quite a number of the Wikipedia articles on Oriental history are questionable. |
Until you provide evidence to the contrary, my research stands, kid.
Right now, you are the creationist standing there reading Origin of Species and saying "nuh uh".
samf - January 25, 2006 02:33 AM (GMT)
Adolf, I can't quote book titles off the top of my head, but from what I have read over the last two years I think Ahmed's research stands up.
Can you provide us with equally credible sources saying that this wasn't the case?
Can you provide us with equally credible sources saying that this wasn't the case?
the oob - January 25, 2006 02:48 AM (GMT)
As I mentioned elsewhere, you can't prove a negative.
However you can prove a positive, so you should be asking him to provide evidence of his assertion that the white man invented homosexuality.
However you can prove a positive, so you should be asking him to provide evidence of his assertion that the white man invented homosexuality.
Happy Ahmed - January 25, 2006 02:59 AM (GMT)
He can however provide substantive evidence for his case if indeed any exists. If it amounts to more than mine, then fair enough, but somehow I suspect our friend's silence is damning enough.
To make a sweeping comment with zero supporting information is fallacious. Absolute proof of the negative is not necessary nor, as you say, very possible.
To make a sweeping comment with zero supporting information is fallacious. Absolute proof of the negative is not necessary nor, as you say, very possible.
samf - January 25, 2006 03:02 AM (GMT)
Thanks for that, Oob and Ahmed.
Well, Adolf? Evidence, please. If it's good enough, I'll forward it to the keepers of the gay penguins at Central Park Zoo.
From http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...gayanimal.html:
Well, Adolf? Evidence, please. If it's good enough, I'll forward it to the keepers of the gay penguins at Central Park Zoo.
From http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...gayanimal.html:
| QUOTE |
| "Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it". So go the lyrics penned by U.S. songwriter Cole Porter. Porter, who first hit it big in the 1920s, wouldn't risk parading his homosexuality in public. In his day "the birds and the bees" generally meant only one thing—sex between a male and female. But, actually, some same-sex birds do do it. So do beetles, sheep, fruit bats, dolphins, and orangutans. Zoologists are discovering that homosexual and bisexual activity is not unknown within the animal kingdom. Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo have been inseparable for six years now. They display classic pair-bonding behavior—entwining of necks, mutual preening, flipper flapping, and the rest. They also have sex, while ignoring potential female mates. Wild birds exhibit similar behavior. There are male ostriches that only court their own gender, and pairs of male flamingos that mate, build nests, and even raise foster chicks. |
Archie McRiff - January 25, 2006 03:34 AM (GMT)
I just have a couple of points stemming from the original post:
1. The wording was a little bit stoopid - for the current Pope to actually "recall" the events of the 1500s, he would have to be centuries old. Silly old Telegraph.
2. Shit, hard to believe the Pope has been Pope for less than a year and he's 78. The Catholic Church isn't really interested in updating itself for a fresher, more liberal audience with shorter attention spans in the 21st century is it?
3. Sorry if anyone here is a Catholic (unlikely), but shit the Catholic church scares me... it currently has massive influence in various places, especially in developing countries (Africa, South America), where it close-mindedly preaches its values of not using birth control, and promoting abstinence as the only way forward in countries where 25% of the population have AIDS or HIV.
1. The wording was a little bit stoopid - for the current Pope to actually "recall" the events of the 1500s, he would have to be centuries old. Silly old Telegraph.
2. Shit, hard to believe the Pope has been Pope for less than a year and he's 78. The Catholic Church isn't really interested in updating itself for a fresher, more liberal audience with shorter attention spans in the 21st century is it?
3. Sorry if anyone here is a Catholic (unlikely), but shit the Catholic church scares me... it currently has massive influence in various places, especially in developing countries (Africa, South America), where it close-mindedly preaches its values of not using birth control, and promoting abstinence as the only way forward in countries where 25% of the population have AIDS or HIV.
Miss_Illusioned - January 25, 2006 04:56 AM (GMT)
My favourite pic of gay animals is two lions having sex.
Also if you want to get technical about homosexuality was only invented in the late 19th Century.... technically that is. Having anal intercourse has been around much longer.
I agree with Archie. The Catholic Church scares me too for those reasons. And their funerals suck big time. My favourite AIDS cure is to sleep with a young virgin! Yea that will work! (sorry feeling random today)
Also if you want to get technical about homosexuality was only invented in the late 19th Century.... technically that is. Having anal intercourse has been around much longer.
I agree with Archie. The Catholic Church scares me too for those reasons. And their funerals suck big time. My favourite AIDS cure is to sleep with a young virgin! Yea that will work! (sorry feeling random today)
Dr_Steve - January 25, 2006 06:40 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (samf @ Jan 25 2006, 03:02 PM) |
| Thanks for that, Oob and Ahmed. Well, Adolf? Evidence, please. If it's good enough, I'll forward it to the keepers of the gay penguins at Central Park Zoo. |
I have actually read a paper called "The first reported case of homosexual necrophilia in the common mallard" I'll see if I can find a link, its interesting reading.
/EDIT lol citeseer is down but google is your friend, the pdf is here
I actually tacked that on to one of my physics assignments once hehe go the bonus marks :P
Archie McRiff - January 25, 2006 10:20 AM (GMT)
Hmm Miss Illusioned, your post made me scratch my head in minor befuddlement.
I also scratched my elbow, but that was cause it was itchy (probably unrelated).
Crap now my ear is itchy! Once you start thinking about it everything seems to itch :iiam:
I also scratched my elbow, but that was cause it was itchy (probably unrelated).
Crap now my ear is itchy! Once you start thinking about it everything seems to itch :iiam:
Miss_Illusioned - January 25, 2006 10:34 AM (GMT)
Hehe what part befuddled you?
I was feeling really random so I just put all my thoughts in one post... :P
BTW blame Dr Steve for the itchiness. He has TURTLE! germs
I was feeling really random so I just put all my thoughts in one post... :P
BTW blame Dr Steve for the itchiness. He has TURTLE! germs
Dr_Steve - January 25, 2006 10:56 AM (GMT)
no. thats only partly true