When I was growing up it always bothered me to find an ad about becoming a ventriloquist next to an ad about learning magic. Since I had become a fairly good ventriloquist for my age, it bothered me to find my skill associated with magic. However, whether I liked it or not, the two arts are definitely related.

In both cases the method is the same -- a distraction is created that enables a desired illusion. While the audience's attention is being directed somewhere else, a subtle manipulation of something in plain sight goes undetected. It's an ancient art. And, it's very effective.

Magicians and ventriloquists aren't the only ones who employ this art. Sometimes diplomats and world leaders use it too. For example, for the last few days we've all had our attention on the new war possible in the Middle East. And, it is widely believed Iran may have instigated the crisis in order to direct our attention away from their refusal to respond to the six powers deadline on their nuclear incentive package. If so, it worked like magic -- didn't it?

Yesterday I ran across an interesting sentence in a report about the European Union (EU). The report was from an Arab perspective and was concerned that the EU may be turning away from Mediterranean concerns and focusing instead on internal interests. Here is the sentence that caught my attention:

Most likely, the dispute between the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, and the Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (who holds the EU presidency until the end of next year), and, in digression, the bickering between supporters of the rapid expansion of the Union and the advocates of postponement, will control the European agenda in the coming months and detract attention from Arab issues Read about it here.

Why did this sentence catch my attention? Because, it brought me back to the reality of what's going on in the EU. While a battle is raging in the Middle East, another battle is raging in Europe. In it's most basic elements, it's a battle for control of the new Roman Empire between the EU heads of member states who meet in the Council, and the EU bureaucrats in the Commission. As the above Arab report correctly says, a "dispute between the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, and the Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen." You see, Vanhanen is the new president of the Council.

That's why this next report may be important. Evidently, one of Vanhanen's first actions is to curtail the powers of the Commission. The report says:

Helsinki is pushing to shave €1.8m off commission budget proposals for 2007 and to slash 1700 eurocrat jobs over the next seven years Read about it here.

Long ago I learned about something that I call, "euro-spin." Euro-spin is the ability to say one thing, and mean something else -- sometimes even the opposite. That's why I don't believe for one moment the reasons the Finnish Presidency is giving for wanting to slash the budget of the Commission. So, in order to understand the real reasons for this slash, let's take a closer look at some of the other goals of the incoming Finnish Presidency.

According to this report, the Finnish Presidency feels the EU can't wait for the new constitution to be ratified before making some of the changes that the constitution calls for Read about it here. And, wouldn't you know it? One of those changes the EU heads can't afford to wait for is having their new, super foreign minister.

So, while we students of Bible prophecy are busy watching the amazing events in the troubled Middle East, a powerful new European leader may be rising completely unnoticed.

Like magic.