"The WAR on error"
Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today before reciting the midday Angelus with several thousand people gathered in St. Peter's Square. In his address the Pope referred to the FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
A German far-right party was to open its national party congress Saturday in the capital after an appeals court ruled a neighborhood's concerns were not enough to block it. Though it is a fringe party at the federal level, never garnering more than a handful of votes, the NPD has made inroads at the state level and now holds seats in two state parliaments.
[WAR: Nazis, schmazis! Germany has "been there, done that" - and will not repeat that mistake again.]
Six decades after the end of WW2 and 15 years after the reunification of Germany, the German Army is once again emerging as a force on the world stage. This is the central claim of the “White Paper 2006 on German Security Policy and the Future of the Bundeswehr” published at the end of October. Economic interests, which lie at the heart of the new security policy, are openly formulated as follows: “Germany, whose economic prosperity depends on access to raw materials, goods and ideas, has an elementary interest in peaceful competition over thoughts and views, an open world trade system and unrestricted transportation routes.” The coalition of Social Democrats and former Green pacifists will go down in history as the government that initiated the process of breaking up Germany’s post-war consensus and reviving the deadly heritage of German militarism.
Vladimir Bukovksy, the 63-year old former Soviet dissident, fears that the European Union is on its way to becoming another Soviet Union. In a speech he delivered in Brussels last week Mr Bukovsky called the EU a “monster” that must be destroyed, the sooner the better, before it develops into a fullfledged totalitarian state. In his speech Mr Bukovsky referred to confidential documents from secret Soviet files which he was allowed to read in 1992. These documents confirm the existence of a “conspiracy” to turn the European Union into a socialist organization.
"The ultimate purpose of the Soviet Union was to create a new historic entity, the Soviet people, all around the globe. The same is true in the EU today. They are trying to create a new people. They call this people 'Europeans', whatever that means. ... The most likely outcome is that there will be an economic collapse in Europe ... I have no doubt about it. There will be a collapse of the European Union pretty much like the Soviet Union collapsed. The recrimination between nations will be huge. It might come to blows."
European Union foreign ministers were to consider proposals today for building closer ties with Russia, but the efforts face a possible veto from Poland. Increasingly dependent on Russian energy, the EU is pushing Putin to sign an energy charter that would make it easier for foreign companies to invest in the Russian energy sector and provide legal guarantees for investors.
Israel has to prepare for a full-scale war, in which Syria will be an important player, an Israeli military official told the British Sunday Times. "The challenge from Iran and Syria is now top of the Israeli defense agenda, higher than the Palestinian one," another official said.
Arab foreign ministers meeting in Egypt yesterday called for a fresh international peace conference to resolve the Arab-Israeli dispute and resolved not to abide by financial sanctions on the Palestinian Authority.
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday said the EU would make African development a priority next year and not leave it up to China, which has just signed massive trade deals with the continent.
A Chinese submarine stalked a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific last month and surfaced within firing range of its torpedoes and missiles before being detected. The surprise encounter highlights China's continuing efforts to prepare for a future conflict with the US.
"We call upon all mujahedeen in Palestine and around the world to start hitting Americans without mercy. The Americans are destroying Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan and are bombarding our Muslim land. The Americans seem not to understand any language but that of blood and violence. We say the Americans have an artificial culture. It is a country that doesn't respect the blood of innocents. Americans only take into consideration the blood of the Jews."
It is also worth considering just how much the Republicans’ performance was not a betrayal of their true selves, but rather an unmasking of it. When one looks at the history of the Republican Party, it has always been the party of state capitalism (or, more specifically, state corporatism). It was founded for the express purpose of seizing the levers of power for the Northeastern banking and industrial establishments. Why, then, should we consider their behavior these past years to be a "betrayal?" Could it not, more accurately, be called an "actualization?"
Don't get me wrong. I love conservatives. Some of my best friends are conservatives. But being "conservative" is not a bold vision for the future. Being "conservative" will never inspire Americans to reject socialism and immorality. Banking on this word, this wholly inadequate, timid ideology is, instead, a sure-fire recipe for political defeat for the foreseeable future.
With Mr. Bush entering the lame-duck period of his presidency in a weaker state than imagined just a week ago, some diplomatic observers believe the moment could constitute one of the most important turning points in his dealings with the world.
The Bush family psychodrama is the stuff of perennial speculation but little information, since the two people who know the most about it—the father and the son—speak of it so infrequently. Yet its complexity, its blend of love and rivalry, is rich analytical territory. Much has been given to George W. Bush, and now, in the twilight of his term, as his father's men step in, he has been given another great gift: one more chance to set things right.
Corporate profits are at record levels. The Dow, too, has climbed past its high-water mark from the dot-com era. Executives reap bigger and bigger paydays, even as wages have stagnated. It seems almost unbelievable, then, that corporate America would pick this moment to beg for relaxed regulation and enforcement, as well as more protection from investors' lawsuits.
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