Catholics involved in politics should follow their own conscience, but in doing so they need to be well informed. This was one of the points made by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone in an address. This participation by the Church in the public arena should not be seen as an undue interference, but rather as an attempt to help form consciences.
The phenomenon of "fundamentalism" has made an extraordinary impact on the world. But what is it? The various fundamentalisms are all concerned with "fortifying borders," and that is a purpose of the Vatican. The pope's exhortation concludes by referring to the Catholic people as the "flock" entrusted to bishops. Sheep stay inside the fence. But what happens when Catholics stop thinking of themselves as sheep?
Chancellor Merkel said the government will continue pushing for the release of 2 hostages kidnapped in Iraq. But she warned that Germany will not abandon Afghanistan because of terrorist threats.
German press...
US plans for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe to deflect an Iranian missile attack risks dividing the continent and could open rifts within the German government, write German newspaper commentators.
Yes!!...
In a nutshell, the European project‚ (as the aficionados like to call it) is in the mire. It has lost confidence in itself and in its sense of direction. The Commission is floundering. President Barroso is no visionary leader. He has proved to be a bureaucrat, but not an inspiration. A rot has set in. A sense of fear can be detected amongst the 100,000 officials, advisors, consultants, and others who feed off the EU‚s huge carcass. Anxiety is now being articulated almost everywhere in Brussels and, most particularly, in the navel-gazing press that circulates within.
The eurozone problem is rapidly getting out of hand. There is widespread and real bitterness at the alarming rise in the cost of living. Local ersatz currencies, introduced quietly here and there at first, are suddenly booming. The idea is spreading fast. Unofficial lira, francs and D-marks are all in circulation. In some countries there is now a majority who want a return to their own currency. Ironically, the recent resurgent strength of the euro in international currency markets could be the trigger for its demise.
[WAR: Yes, the EU will self-destruct ... and the "prophets" will be dumb-struck.]
The highly symbolic Berlin Declaration to mark the EU's 50th birthday is slowly taking shape with the current text highlighting climate change as Europe's top priority and the "community method" as a way for member states to work together.
Europeans are in no mood to celebrate the EU's birthday.
In yet another blow to the Global War aims of the US , the most militarily powerful Nation in the Middle East, Turkey , has ordered its Military Forces to prepare to invade Iraq
On the 4th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, European newspapers were gloomy as they took stock of the ongoing conflict. The broad consensus: The US has a lot to answer for.
(London Times cartoon: Happy 4th Liberation Day)
Sharon maintained the greatest secrecy with respect to contacts with Syria. He also revealed nothing at all to his deputy, Ehud Olmert. Therefore, when 2 months ago the prime minister declared that he knew nothing about the meetings, indeed, he did not know.
The German government and NATO's North Atlantic Council have criticized US General Dan McNeill, the new NATO commander in Afghanistan. McNeill has been operating too independently and has been too brash in his choice of words, critics say.
Angola, which shared the limelight with world's most powerful oil players at its first OPEC meeting Thursday, is an unlikely candidate for a darling role in the global oil industry. A corrupt, underdeveloped and war-scarred country, Angola, a West African country, is one of the poorest places on earth. But ask any energy executive and another picture emerges: a place of immense riches, solicitous of foreign investors, and among the fastest growing oil exporters in the world.
Russia denied threatening to halt nuclear fuel deliveries to Iran unless the Islamic state halts its uranium enrichment program, saying any delays in deliveries are linked to financial disagreements.
Iran stopped UN inspectors from visiting an underground bunker where it is building an industrial-scale plant to make enriched uranium but the inspectors will try again.
At first, the idea was to make sure president Bush could not launch air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities without prior Congressional authorization. But friends of Israel in and out of Congress swung into action, arguing that Iran, under present management, was a second "holocaust" in the making. The message was clear. Handcuffing Bush could have the direst of consequences for the Jewish state. Thus Congress, in its infinite wisdom, voted to tie the president's hands on Iraq while in the same week untied them on Iran.
If [when!] Bush launches a preemptive war on Iran, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will bear full moral responsibility for that war. For it was Pelosi who quietly agreed to strip out of the $100 billion funding bill for Iraq a provision that would have required President Bush to seek congressional approval before launching any new war on Iran.
Alberto Gonzales will soon be ejected from the Justice Department. Bush's Attorney General has been caught in too many flagrant lies and abuses. The real question is whether Gonzo's fall will signal the beginning of the end of the Bush reign.
Our elected representatives, if not the American people, now regard as normal such heinous actions as war crimes, the rape of the Constitution, self-serving use of government office, and the constant stream of lies and propaganda from the highest offices of the executive branch. Perhaps that is what disillusioned foreigners, who once looked with hope to America, mean when they say that America does not exist anymore.
What is it about conservative administrations that lead them into disgrace and indictment? Incompetence isn't at the core of these scandals - ideology is. Conservative presidents believe in the imperial presidency.
On September 10, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld stepped to the podium at the Pentagon to deliver one of his first major addresses as Defense Secretary under President Bush. Standing before the former corporate executives he had tapped as his top deputies overseeing the high-stakes business of military contracting, Rumsfeld issued a declaration of war. Rumsfeld called for a wholesale shift in the running of the Pentagon, supplanting the old DoD bureaucracy with a new model, one based on the private sector. Announcing this major overhaul, Rumsfeld told his audience, "I have no desire to attack the Pentagon; I want to liberate it. We need to save it from itself." The next morning, the Pentagon would be attacked...
It was supposed to be a race between Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségelène Royal. But an uninvited outsider has crashed the party. Now, centrist leader Francois Bayrou has a legitimate shot at moving in to the Elysées Palace.
What we must ask now is whether we were in the midst of or at the beginning of a major market collapse - one affecting most markets around the world. Are we now, as we look forward, on the edge of a major crisis or collapse? There have been hints that the stock-market volatility of recent weeks has alerted what is known as the "Plunge Protection Team" in the US.
The stock market is about to crash. The only question is whether it will quickly fall down the elevator shaft or follow the jerky flight-path of a man pushed down a stairwell. Either way, the outcome will be the same; stocks will nosedive, the dollar will plummet, and the bruised US economy will be splattered on the canvas like George Foreman in Rumble in the Jungle. This may explain why US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is trying to sooth jittery investors with words of encouragement while he dispatches the Plunge Protection Team to shore up the trembling stock market behind the scenes. Every effort is being made to keep this monstrous equity bubble from pirouetting to earth.
In the coming weeks, the contagion will spread from real estate to the whole of the financial sector and to US household consumption, bearing severe consequences on the results of various economic sectors in the US and on the US market.
Who is to blame? Alan Greenspan and his Ph.D-holding accomplices.
If housing prices plummet and millions of Americans find themselves owing more than their homes are worth, the blame lies squarely with Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke.
This column does not fear to rush in where angels fear to tread. The smooth-sounding gender has to do with modern social and cultural differences and tensions, while sex is a word disdained as rooted in biological rutting about. Is female doomed to a similar lexical fate at the hands of woman?
Tonight there will be a crescent moon - which, with earthshine, signals that tomorrow is the first day of a new non-Vatican/pagan/solar month. And at 7:07pm (EST) will be the vernal equinox - the moment in time when the "sun CROSSes the equator". Good luck observing this "event", because no one in the history of mankind has ever witnessed it. But yet those who claim to observe God's holy days base their calendar on this unobservable event? How is this, and why?!!
The sun is currently in the constellation (not "sign") Pisces, and in 2 weeks at the "JEWISH Passover" it will still be in Pisces. But next month, when I, and others scattered around the world, observe "YAHWEH'S Passover", the sun will be in Aries - just like Josephus mentioned when Israel left Egypt.
"Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations - I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them." (Isa 1:13,14)
"Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return. I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of YAHWEH." (Jer 8:5,7)
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