The Whore's wine...
A strong Catholic presence in the political world is "more necessary than ever" today, Pope Benedict XVI told a group of European lawmakers. He said that the Church does not dictate political policies, but informs lay leaders about appropriate moral choices. "The Church knows that it is not her specific task to oversee the political implementation of this teaching; her objective is to help form consciences in political life." The Church's viewpoint on public life, he continued, is laid out in Catholic social teaching, which emphasizes "the centrality of the human person, a respect for human rights, a commitment to peace and the promotion of justice for all."
* "The social teaching of the Catholic Church offers some points for reflection on how to promote security and justice both at the national and international levels. This teaching is based on reason, natural law and the Gospel: that is, principles that both accord with and transcend the nature of every human being." (Zenit: B16's address to CDI)
The Pope encouraged his listeners "to persevere in your efforts to serve the common good, taking it upon yourselves to prevent the dissemination and entrenchment of ideologies which obscure and confuse consciences by promoting an illusory vision of truth and goodness. In the economic sphere, for example, there is a tendency to view financial gain as the only good, thus eroding the internal ethos of commerce."
Terrorism is a serious problem, says Benedict XVI, and one in which violence and disregard for human life is used in God's name. The Pope said this today upon receiving in audience participants of the executive council meeting of the Centrist Democrat International, a global political party that promotes Christian democracy.
Party in Nineveh!...
Munich opened the beer taps on Saturday to launch Oktoberfest, with an estimated six million people expected to attend the beer celebration over 16 days. In line with tradition, the first mass, or litre, was served to the minister-president of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber, who is set to leave office at the end of the month.
Deutsche Bank's announcement that it is short €29 billion has Germans fretting. If the country's biggest bank is in trouble, what does that mean for the others? Commentators think it could be bad news.
Germany's Foreign Minister spoke about the meeting of the UN General Assembly and the week of international diplomacy it entails.
German government officials said they won't pursue the extradition of CIA agents suspected of kidnapping a German national after Washington signaled that it won't cooperate, according to news reports.
Tensions with the regions ahead of next March's general election in Spain.
France is bankrupt because of chronic budget deficits, the country's prime minister said Friday, pledging to balance the budget before the end of his term. "The truth is that I am the head of a state that is in a state of bankruptcy due to its financing plan."
Gordon Brown was under growing pressure to hold a referendum on the EU reform treaty last night after Dutch MPs demanded their people be given a vote. Like the Prime Minister, the Dutch premier opposes a referendum, insisting that the new treaty has been stripped of constitutional significance.
(EO: This week in the EU)
Brussels is becoming the world's regulatory capital. The EU's drive to set standards has many causes—and a protectionist impulse within some governments may be one. But though the EU is a big market, with almost half a billion consumers, neither size, nor zeal, nor sneaky protectionism explains why it is usurping America's role as a source of global standards.
Nearly two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the return of religion to public life, localities in Russia are increasingly decreeing that to receive a proper public school education, children should be steeped in the ways of the Russian Orthodox Church, including its traditions, liturgy and important people.
Five Kurdish guerrillas were killed in an operation by thousands of Turkish troops near the Iraqi border, an army official says.
The shoe on the other foot...
Lithuania has requested that the Israeli authorities facilitate the questioning of prominent historian and Holocaust researcher Yitzhak Arad regarding his partisan past during WW2 and his supposed subsequent service for the Soviet NKVD security police. Following WW2, Arad served for the Israeli Defense Forces and was promoted to brigadier general. After retirement in 1972, he became a historian and a Holocaust researcher. He was the director of Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Authority, for 21 years from 1972 to 1991.
Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem. The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say. They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean.
[WAR: What exactly was this "nuclear material"? And/or did the Israelis steal some samples from NK and say they "seized" it in Syria?!]
Kingdom of the South...
The much-celebrated treaty that ended decades of civil war between the north and the south, a model the UN is hoping to use to stop the bloodshed in Darfur, is at an impasse and in danger of collapsing. "We're on a path back toward war. We're seeing a military buildup on both sides and the partnership between the two sides has broken down."
President Ahmadinejad has issued a tough warning to any country considering an attack on Iran. He said Iran's forces were just for defense, but that anybody who attacked would experience nothing but regret. "Those [countries] who assume that decaying methods such as psychological war, political propaganda and the so-called economic sanctions would work and prevent Iran's fast drive toward progress are mistaken."
President Sarkozy has directly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear bomb and urged "stronger sanctions" against Teheran.It was the latest sign that Mr Sarkozy is positioning France as America's key European ally in tackling Teheran's nuclear ambitions. He said France did not want a war, but flatly declared in a television interview that "Iran is trying to obtain an atomic bomb"
For many of us it seems inconceivable the White House would launch another war of choice — a war that could wreak an even greater death toll than in Iraq. Admittedly, I find the idea outlandish given the horror a war against Iran would unleash. They wouldn't. They couldn't ... or would they? My intellect tells me they can't be serious. There are too many unknowns. Is there any chance we could be staring at WW3?
In the usual alliance of the government and the media - clearly the US media has its own interpretations of a "free" media - the Americans have launched a blitzkrieg against the IAEA and especially its head, El Baradei. The issue, which has aroused a hail of abuse is Iran's nuclear programme. What has irked the US is the fact that the IAEA under its present leadership has proactively sought to resolve this issue peacefully by dialoguing with Iran instead of supporting the American position of seeking confrontation through provocation so that a pretext can be provided for US military action.
The US Air Force has set up a highly confidential strategic planning group tasked with "fighting the next war" as tensions rise with Iran. Project Checkmate, a successor to the group that planned the 1991 Gulf War's air campaign, was quietly reestablished at the Pentagon in June. It reports directly to General Michael Moseley, the US Air Force chief, and consists of 20-30 top air force officers and defence and cyberspace experts with ready access to the White House, the CIA and other intelligence agencies.
It seems only yesterday that conservatives were complaining about the liberties that liberals took with the Constitution. Liberals were expanding rights, fancifully perhaps. But today conservatives are curtailing long established rights.
Country music has thrived for years as the soundtrack to redneck America, supplying the Republican heartlands with a diet of knee-jerk jingoism that has included flag-waving anthems supporting the war on terror. But as the US death toll rises in Iraq and public patience with the conflict — and with George W. Bush — diminishes, many anti-war songs are emerging from Nashville, Tennessee, home of the genre. No one has moved further than Toby Keith and Darryl Worley, two of the biggest names in country music.
Britain is preparing territorial claims on tens of thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean floor around the Falklands, Ascension Island and Rockall in the hope of annexing potentially lucrative gas, mineral and oil fields, the Guardian has learned.
If Kevin Rudd becomes Australia's next prime minister, then the new Labour government will push very hard for a republic. There is a strong possibility that, following a proposed referendum in 2010, Australia will no longer have a Queen.
[WAR: Good news, bad news. The good is that this won't happen. The bad news is why ... we'll be in Jacob's Trouble by that time.]
The moment every gold bug has been waiting for finally arrived this week when 'Barbaric Relic' smashed through resistance to close the week at a 27-year high. Analysts say there is now "clear blue sky" until reaching the all-time record of $850.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may have cooled off the credit crisis by cutting interest rates, but he may also have heated up oil prices this week. For seven consecutive business days, crude oil prices have hit new highs.
Fears of an abrupt slowdown in Europe deepened on Friday, after the release of weaker-than-expected economic data and a new record in the euro's relentless rise against the dollar. What concerns economists more, however, is a sharp drop in the monthly survey of purchasing managers in the 13-nation euro zone - evidence that the credit crisis that began in the U.S. mortgage market and infected British and German banks has now seeped into Europe's underlying economy.
Chairman Bernanke may go down in history not as a hero who bailed out the banking system and propped up the housing market but as the Fed chairman who presided over the dollar's collapse.
From The Economist...
The vultures circle...
Three of the world's most powerful hedge funds are plotting a break-up of Northern Rock that could generate profits of hundreds of millions of pounds from the stricken mortgage bank – but leave shareholders with virtually nothing.
Over the past few decades, many of the ideas of the far left have found new homes on the right. Many writers have pointed to the havoc and ruin that have accompanied the imposition of free markets across the world. Whether in Africa, Asia, Latin America or post-communist Europe, policies of wholesale privatisation and structural adjustment have led to declining economic activity and social dislocation on a massive scale.
I knew this would happen...;-)
Whenever humans recognize a mistake, a mysterious wave of electricity passes through the brain. Researchers think the signal could explain addiction, error correction and even the 6th sense.
What if you spent one year following every rule in the Bible?
Here's a good song from a band from Dallas.
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