"The WAR on error"
"Perhaps the ways of refusing God in the modern age are even more insidious and dangerous: from outright rejection to indifference, from scientistic atheism to the presentation of a modernized or post-modernized Jesus, a human Jesus, reduced in various ways to being a simple man of His time and deprived of His divinity..."
Where's my passport?!...
Lufthansa German Airlines plans to offer special promotional fares as low as $400 for its new Denver-Munich daily nonstop. Introductory fares have not been finalized, but with taxes and fees included, they could be as low as $481 round trip.
Police divers recovered the body of Felix von Quistorp, 14, yesterday from a deep well at a 17th-century Bavarian castle. The discovery ended 6 days of frantic speculation about the whereabouts of the boy, who was descended from one of Germany’s oldest families.
The German economy, written off in the last 5 years as fat, lazy and condemned to long-term decline, is bouncing back thanks to corporate cost-cutting, surging demand for its cars and machinery and the reforms of former Chancellor Schröder.
Germany's top security chief has come under fire because he wants to allow the military to shoot down passenger planes kidnapped by terrorists.
Chancellor Merkel flies to Washington today to seek President Bush's backing for a fresh Middle East peace drive and bolstered transatlantic economic ties under her EU presidency.
Germany's security policy during its EU presidency aims to give Europol additional powers in order to better fight international terrorism and cross-border crime. It also calls for improved police cooperation.
Rebellious Reuben...
In Europe at the start of this New Year, all eyes are turning to the east, where three intriguing dramas are under way. But those eastward-looking eyes may be gazing in the wrong direction, because Europe's biggest headache in this coming year is likely to be in one of the EU's founding bastions, the "problem child" of France.
As it grows to 27 countries, the European Union is the most successful example of peaceful regime change in our time. Everything that the European community did from the late 50s to the early 90s was packaged within a larger historical narrative. Of course individual nations had their own different narratives about their place in Europe and Europe's place in them, but there was sufficient common ground among two generations of political leaders shaped by the memory of war. No longer.
Some more-farsighted political commentators are warning that the increasing gulf between the poor and the rich could have revolutionary implications. The globalisation of production has resulted in the ascendancy of a tiny financial elite, which has been able to acquire fabulous wealth at the expense of the population as a whole. This same elite is represented by an equally unscrupulous layer of politicians dedicated to defend such plundering of society’s wealth.
Following report of risk of collapse, Western Wall authorities plan to demolish Mugrabi hill – Jews' only entrance to the Temple Mount, meaning Jews can no longer enter site.
Israeli ambassadors and consuls general in European countries and the United States have complained that recurring corruption scandals involving Israeli politicians and senior public figures are damaging Israel's image abroad.
After his remarks calling the killing of 2 million Jews in WW2 a” myth” and calling for Israel to be “wiped of the map” sparked international outcry last year, President Ahmadinejad launched a new verbal attack against the Jewish State, this time predicting it will collapse soon and warning its allies face the "boiling wrath" of the people if they continue to support Israel.
Brent Scowcroft on...
An American withdrawal before Iraq, in the words of President George W. Bush, can "govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself" would be a strategic defeat for American interests, with potentially catastrophic consequences both in the region and beyond. The effects would not be confined to Iraq and the Middle East. Energy resources and transit chokepoints vital to the global economy would be subjected to greatly increased risk.
Today's London Times political cartoon
What, nothing? Not a peep, not a dickie bird? How long can Blair maintain radio silence? This is the Prime Minister who once used an official statement to call for the release of "Deirdre" from her fictional Coronation Street jail — and yet he won't give the nation the benefit of his views on the death of Saddam Hussein.
German papers...
The clandestine video of Saddam's execution has become a bestseller among Shiites in Baghdad. German papers wonder if the public spectacle was a deliberate inflammation of Shiite sentiment.
The European Union yesterday called for a revival of the peace process in Somalia but said that a possible international peacekeeping force in the war-torn country should be an African-led operation.
Of course...
Far beneath the surface of the tragic drama of Somalia, four major U.S. oil companies are quietly sitting on a prospective fortune in exclusive concessions to explore and exploit tens of millions of acres of the Somali countryside. That land, in the opinion of geologists and industry sources, could yield significant amounts of oil and natural gas if the U.S.-led military mission can restore peace to the impoverished East African nation.
As if to kick off the New Year, and usher in the required political mindset, the Israelis are switching the attack Iran mantra into hyperdrive.
"President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran. As an American strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party and US newspaper editors. We need to do this in order to turn the Iranian issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure."
With the dawning of a new year, the Bush-Blair partnership is working on an even more horrendous foreign policy disaster. What now seems to be in preparation at the White House, with the usual unquestioning support from Downing Street, is a Middle Eastern equivalent of WW2. The trigger for this all-embracing war would be the formation of a previously unthinkable alliance between America, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Britain, to confront Iran and the rise of the power of Shia Islam.
[WAR: In historical and prophetic terms, we're talking an alliance between Manasseh, Judah, Ishmael and Ephraim against Persia.]
It seems more than likely that if attacked, Iran will, one way or another, manage to strike back — against US troops in Iraq, against Israel, and against US bases and US allies in the Gulf. Of all these targets, the Arab states of the Gulf — the most prosperous, modern and forward-looking of the Arab world — are perhaps the most vulnerable. The effect on Arab society would be incalculable.
You always think that the United States of America is the only real superpower in the current world. Well… soon you may have to rethink about it. The "real superpower" title is going to become the mother of all lies and conspiracy theories that the world have had ever known. Don't accept it? Read the following facts and think again.
For 6 years George W. Bush has governed like a dictator. He has imposed his will upon a pliant if not culpable Congress. The GOP controlled Congress abdicated their constitutional responsibilities for their party allegiances. They put their party before their country.
How to find the comet tomorrow and Saturday morning.
When scientists wrote in a recent issue of the journal Nature that they could induce phantom effects — the sensation of being haunted by a shadowy figure — by stimulating the brain with electricity, it made perfect neurological sense.
A German archaeologist said he has found relics of "humanity's first war" in the northeast of Syria in the form of clay balls used as ammunition almost 6000 years ago.
Authorities were trying to identify a mysterious metallic object that crashed through the roof of a house in eastern New Jersey. Nobody was injured when the golf-ball sized object, weighing nearly as much as a can of soup, struck the home and embedded itself in a wall Tuesday night. Federal officials sent to the scene said it was not from an aircraft. The rough-surfaced object, with a metallic glint, was displayed yesterday by police. "There's some great interest in what we have here. It's rather unusual. I haven't seen anything like it in my career."
Humans have marked their bodies with tattoos for thousands of years. These permanent designs have served as amulets, status symbols, declarations of love, signs of religious beliefs, adornments and even forms of punishment.
Being wild at heart!...
Michael is one of the lucky ones. Our risk-averse society denies so many children even the most benign of challenges. Activity holidays, camping trips, even school trips, are being phased out because of health and safety concerns, and parents who, cheered on by no-win, no-fee lawyers, seek financial redress for the slightest mishaps to their offspring. At the very age when the appetite for such things is greatest, their chances of sampling something out of the norm, something that stretches and inspires, are shrinking.
[WAR: Before, I've highly recommended getting Wild at Heart. But now I'm even more highly recommending it's sequel: The Way of the Wild Heart. I'm in the middle of reading it, and it is absolutely great!!]
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