"The WAR on error"
Pope Benedict XVI is reported to have been left "furious" and "isolated" by events of recent days when the man he approved as the next Archbishop of Warsaw was exposed as an agent of the Polish secret police. The Vatican is alive with rumours that Giovanni Battista Cardinal Re, head of the Council of Bishops, will be the next victim of the affair. Vatican observers say the German Pope has been badly damaged by the latest scandal to hit his papacy. Benedict once again appears short on wise advisers or - worse - is being deliberately led into error by forces in the Vatican who are out of sympathy with him.
Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber is struggling to tame his opponents, as a revolt against his leadership widens in his conservative party, the Christian Social Union. Reports of an uprising by key lieutenants against Stoiber which have been repeatedly denied have unsettled Chancellor Merkel's government this week and sent the popularity ratings of the centre-right down. Discontent with Stoiber has grown because CSU officials fear his loss of popularity will damage other CSU candidates.
The annual conference of Christian Social Union members of parliament (Bundestag) is traditionally used as an opportunity for the Bavarian state party to score some points against the national government in Berlin. The CSU is based in Bavaria where it has dominated political life throughout the postwar period. A former CSU leader, Franz Josef Strauss, had threatened Helmut Kohl by declaring CSU intentions to emerge as a national force. For decades, the CSU was able to exercise a virtual monopoly over politics in the state of Bavaria and make clear that it would tolerate no other party challenging its own right-wing role.
This year was different. Those in attendance at the CSU meeting in Kreuth made gushing declarations of their loyalty to party chairman and Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber, assuring him of their unconditional trust. At the moment, the CSU leadership continues to officially support its party boss. But there is much evidence to indicate that conflicts could re-emerge very soon. Only on one issue is the CSU leadership united: there should be absolutely no concessions made to pressure from the grassroots of the party or the population as a whole.
[WAR: It appears that both B16 and Stoiber are under fire/pressure. Could it be that these are divinely guided events to influence their thinking, harden their hearts, and move them in a certain parallel direction?]
Opinion-crime...
Germany wants to use its European Union presidency to push through legislation that would make denying the Holocaust punishable by stiff jail sentences in all 27 EU member states.
Socialist leader Martin Schultz is set to urge other political groups in the European Parliament to join forces and sideline the new far-right faction once it is formally confirmed next week, while calling for higher thresholds.
Germany's interior minister has called for an EU-wide dialogue with Muslims in an effort to integrate them better.
The entire Middle East is in danger of exploding into a horrific inferno as the situation in Iraq escalates and grows more intense every day. When the Bush administration invaded and occupied Iraq they initiated a chain of events that conceivably could lead to complete chaos and open warfare involving any number of Middle East countries.
It took an article from the distant New Zealand Herald to tell me "Oil giants to profit from law change". That is, the 3rd largest reserves in the world are about to be fed to the Western oil lions under another sell-out law that the Iraqi Parliament will vote on in days. Of course, the US government had a grease-stained hand in drawing up the law, a draft of which the NZ Herald got to see early on. God forbid the New York Times or Washington Post should know.
US F-16 jet-fighters arrived Thursday in Incirlik Air base in southern Turkish city of Adana - the first time in 3 years.
The US was criticised for pressing German companies to cut business ties with Iran yesterday after Commerzbank decided to end dollar transactions with Tehran. Germany's 2nd-largest bank confirmed it would cease to conduct dollar-denominated business with Iran at the end of this month.
[WAR: But what about euro-denominated - or soon-to-be deutschemark-denominated - business?!]
A recent series of American raids against Iranians in Iraq was authorized under an order that President Bush decided to issue several months ago to undertake a broad military offensive against Iranian operatives in the country.
Even a cursory review of Bush’s speech shows that the president is less concerned with "security" in Baghdad than he is with plans to attack Iran. Clearly, Bush is looking for a way to provoke a military confrontation with Iran.
President Bush's address on Iraq was less about Iraq than about its eastern neighbor, Iran. There was little new about the U.S. strategy in Iraq, but on Iran, the president spelled out a plan that appears to be aimed at goading Iran into war with the United States.
German papers on...
President Bush's speech on Iraq was marketed as the announcement of a change in strategy. It wasn't - and many critics both in the US and Germany are unhappy.
Congressional hearings on President Bush’s plan to escalate the war in Iraq revealed broad opposition from both Democrats and prominent Republicans.
Now that the Democrats are back in power, the American public can finally exhale. Bush is doomed. Cheney is on the ropes. Condi is updating her résumé while Rove prepares his exodus. Well, such an optimistic outlook is boldly misguided. Israel will continue to have an affable government in the U.S. that funds the occupation of Palestine and supports Israel’s bullying of Iran. As The Times in the UK recently revealed, Israel may be planning a nuclear strike on Iran to destroy the country’s uranium enrichment facilities, something Israel denies. All contradictions aside, the Democrats overwhelming back such an attack.
Michael Gerson helped create “compassionate” conservatism. Now he’s attacking the small-government ideal—and inadvertently highlighting America’s need to learn from Europe.
Rabbi Rubbish...
Without a vibrant and vital Christianity, America is doomed, and without America, the West is doomed. Which is why I - an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, devoted to Jewish survival, the Torah and Israel - am so terrified of American Christianity caving in. Many of us Jews are ready to stand with you. But you must lead. You must replace your timidity with nerve and your diffidence with daring and determination. You are under attack. Now is the time to resist it.
The keepers of the "Doomsday Clock" plan to move its hands forward next Wednesday to reflect what they call worsening nuclear and climate threats to the world. The symbolic clock, maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, currently is set at 7 minutes to midnight, with midnight marking global catastrophe.
The Internet should continue to be overseen by major agencies including ICANN and the ITU, rather than any new "superstructure." "We all must work together, each agency has its role to play. We must come to a better cooperation ... and avoid setting up a superstructure which would be very controversial and very difficult to put into effect."
[WAR: The "church" should be run just like the internet (and terrorist cells) - no organized superstructure with a "headquarters" somewhere. It should be just the cooperation - via the spirit - of the small scattered groups/cells around the world. But without the spirit of Elohim/God - which can only be with those who acknowledge that Yahweh came in the flesh as Yahshua - then it's a complete waste of time and effort.]
Comet McNaught, the brightest comet to appear in our skies in more than 30 years, has been putting on a spectacular show in the eastern sky at dawn and the western sky at dusk this week. And this weekend it might become even more brilliant. Ironically, the comet has also been a source of frustration for many skywatchers, because of its very low altitude. More often than not, the comet has been hidden either by clouds near the horizon, or nearby trees or buildings.
[WAR: Frustration? Absolutely! Between work and weather, I haven't been able to see it! But ... according to Space Weather, "soon it may be visible even in broad daylight."]
It accurately shows the Moon's appearance on any date from 4000 BC to AD 8000.
