The leader of an Islamic group calling for inter-religious dialogue has responded positively to a papal invitation for talks with the Holy See, Vatican Radio reports. The Jordanian prince has been the most prominent figure associated the "Common Word" initiative, in which 138 Islamic leaders signed a public statement, issued in October, calling for broader dialogue between Christians and Muslims.
Biting the hand that feeds them...
The Pope has ordered his bishops to set up exorcism squads to tackle the rise of Satanism. Vatican chiefs are concerned at what they see as an increased interest in the occult. They have introduced courses for priests to combat what they call the most extreme form of "Godlessness." Each bishop is to be told to have in his diocese a number of priests trained to fight demonic possession.
"Thanks be to God, we have a Pope who has decided to fight the Devil head-on. Too many bishops are not taking this seriously and are not delegating their priests in the fight against the Devil. You have to hunt high and low for a properly trained exorcist. Thankfully, Benedict XVI believes in the existence and danger of evil - going back to the time he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith."
[WAR: "And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, 'He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.' So Yahshua called them and spoke to them in parables: "How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come." (Mark 3:22-26).
In other words: The Vatican is "possessed by Beelzebub. By the prince of demons (it) is driving out demons. ... It is a kingdom/house divided against itself (and it) cannot stand. (Because) Satan opposes himself and is divided (schizophrenic psychopath), he cannot stand." And be sure to check out the picture of that very sinister looking B16!]
Chancellor Merkel said that Germany's growth and prosperity depended on its readiness to be engaged internationally, in cooperation with the EU and NATO, and in the face of challenges such as Kosovo and Iran. "The classical division between inner and foreign policy is outdated."
Domestic security, the fight against terrorism and the leadership roles at the Group of Eight and the European Union marked Germany's high-profile 2007. And despite the strong euro and the fledgling dollar, Germany still exports more goods than any other nation on the globe.
President Koehler sharply criticised the reform course of Chancellor Merkel, saying her government needed to do more to prepare the country to meet the challenges of globalisation. "One or two steps forward often seem to be followed by a step backward. I had hoped for more reform ambition. We have not done enough to prepare ourselves for the opportunities and risks of globalisation or for other challenges like the decline and ageing of our population."
(Also: The beguiling path of non-reform)
The new EU treaty might not be ratified because "sensitive" countries such as Britain will pick over the detail of a text that many consider is too "close" to the rejected Constitution, the man in charge of the process has said. Slovenia, which takes up the EU's rotating presidency on New Year's Day, is preparing itself for a torrid 6 months as most member states attempt to push the treaty through national parliaments before the summer.
Slovenia's prime minister (said) that a smooth ratification could not be taken for granted. "We cannot exclude the possibility that something will go wrong. There are a few sensitive issues. I do not want to go into details. We will be very careful in the area of preparation of how to implement the treaty."
Serbia's Foreign Minister said that "Kosovo is our Jerusalem" at a lecture in Tel Aviv. He held meetings during his 2-day visit to Israel with Foreign Minister Livni and Prime Minister Olmert. Following the meetings, he said Israel would not recognize Kosovo as a country should it declare independence.
Turkey said it would continue its military operations against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. "It was decided that the operations carried out with success by our armed forces will be pursued with determination." Turkey has massed up to 100,000 soldiers in its southeast near the Iraqi border.
(Also: Kurd villagers see no hope)
Osama bin Laden warned Iraq's Sunni Arabs against fighting al-Qaida and vowed to expand the terror group's holy war to Israel in a new audiotape Saturday, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction." The tape did not mention Pakistan or the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, suggesting the tape was made before the assassination.
Bin Laden's comments offered an unusually direct attack on Israel, stepping up al-Qaida's attempts to use the Israeli-Arab conflict to rally supporters. "We intend to liberate Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the sea. We will not recognize even one inch for Jews in the land of Palestine as other Muslim leaders have."
A delegation of renowned Italians was denied entry into the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces on Friday. The delegation had been promoted by members of the Italian Parliament, academics and Christian dignitaries. Several members of Parliament were among those who traveled to Gaza on the delegation. The Italian delegation also requested an audience with the Israeli Foreign Ministry to discuss the Gaza closure, but the Israeli officials refused to meet with them.
The group had planned to meet with Palestinian officials and humanitarian organizations, to help raise awareness worldwide of the plight of the Palestinian population in Gaza. They called Gaza a 'concentration camp', in which the Palestinian population is completely imprisoned with no way in or out, under a total siege by Israeli forces that control every part of the border.
Okay...
A notorious al-Qaeda leader named Baitullah Mehsud was named by Pakistan's Government last night as the mastermind behind Benazir Bhutto's assassination. The security services intercepted a call from Mehsud yesterday morning in which he "congratulated his people for carrying out this cowardly act."
In a transcript of the call released by the Government an interlocutor tells Mehsud that 3 men were involved in the attack and 2 actually carried it out. Mehsud tells Maulvi Sahib not to tell the men's families yet and adds: "It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her."
But on the other hand...
The commander of a pro-Taliban group in Pakistan has told news agencies by phone that Baitullah Mehsud, another pro-Taliban figure, denies any involvement in Benazir Bhutto's death. "He [Mehsud] had no involvement in this attack. This is a conspiracy of the government, army and intelligence agencies."
Don't know!...
The actual assassin, when and if his identity is discovered, was doubtless someone most people will never have heard of. What matters is who sent him and why. In the fevered speculation now gripping the streets of Pakistan there are essentially 2 conflicting theories.
The murder of Benazir Bhutto serves as a reminder of the thin thread by which so much in the world hangs. Assassinations in the West, although tragic, rarely imperil a country. But in countries where a stable democracy has failed to take root the removal of an individual often alters the course of history. Events in Pakistan matter to all of us.
(Also: Failing nuclear power)
Pentagon officials say Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is secure in military hands, but some US lawmakers and experts warn that nuclear material and designs could leak out if political instability persists. President Musharraf has concentrated control over the entire nuclear program. But a decline in his support within the military amid the current political crisis raises a risk that control over the weapons could weaken. That could open the door to theft or sale of weapons material to extremist groups, some experts say.
(Also: German FM evokes nuke threat)
It has been known for months that the Bush-Cheney administration and its allies have been manuevering to strengthen their political control of Pakistan, paving the way for the expansion and deepening of the "war on terrorism" across the region. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto does not change this agenda. In fact, it simplifies Bush-Cheney's options.
In fact, the central and consistent geostrategy of Bush-Cheney, and their elite counterparts around the world, is the continued imposition and expansion of the manufactured "war on terrorism"; the continuation of war across the Eurasian subcontinent, with events triggered by false flag operations and manufactured pretexts.
In fact, the main tools used in the "war on terrorism" remain Islamist militants, working on behalf of Anglo-American military intelligence agencies - among them, "Al-Qaeda", and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.
Every major Anglo-American geostrategic crime has been preceded by a convenient pretext, orchestrated and carried out by "terror" proxies directly or indirectly connected to US military-intelligence, or manipulated into performing as intelligence assets. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is simply one more brutal example.
(Also: Tangled webs: Don't weave them)
(Also: Convenient assassination)
Iran's first atomic power plant will start operating in mid-2008, Iran's Foreign Minister said today, 2 days after the country received a 2nd delivery of nuclear fuel from Russia. "Half of the capacity of the Bushehr nuclear power plant will be inaugurated next summer."
Despite a recent National Intelligence Estimate finding that Iran has halted its nuclear weapons program, Ron Paul says there is still "a great possibility" of US military action against the country. Appearing on MSBNC's Morning Joe, Paul described what he characterized as a deteriorating situation on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and said the US was preparing to kickstart yet another conflict - this time in Iran. "It is getting worse over there. Afghanistan is getting worse. Turkey is bombing Iraq. And Pakistan is blowing up and we're getting ready to bomb Iran. A bunch of those neocons want to bomb Iran."
The number of people hungry and homeless in US cities rose dramatically again in 2007. Requests for emergency food increased in 4 of every 5 cities. Among 15 cities with quantifying data, the median increase in requests for food was 10% and in some cities it was much higher. Thirteen of 19 survey cities reported they could not meet the demand for emergency food.
What began as sparsely attended press conference announcing Lakota sovereignty has grown into an international roar of freedom inspiring people on every continent and sparking excitement and discussion in homes, tribal councils, schools, and on internet blogs and message boards. Across Indian Country in particular, the impact of the sovereign action is creating both inspiration and concern as the reality of freedom sinks in.
(Also: Republic of Lakota)
I had recently been reading a Heritage Foundation study in which it argued that such forms of developing co-operation were especially characteristic of English-speaking, common law countries such as, well, Britain, Australia and America. There is a definite pattern to them. Citizens, voluntary bodies, companies, lower levels of government form their own networks of useful co-operation for practical purposes across national boundaries.
Over time, these networks become denser, more complementary, more useful, and more self-conscious, creating what Bennett calls a "network civilisation". In time, governments see the value of these networks and underpin them with new links - trade deals, military pacts, immigration agreements - creating what he calls a "network commonwealth". Bennett calls the English-speaking network civilisation "the Anglosphere".
"If there is one phenomenon on which the sun cannot set, it is the world of the English-speaking peoples."
Under the Anglo-American/common law system of jurisprudence, especially over the past 100 years, rules trump the truth. However, in this article I would like to explore the continental (civil or European) legal system of jurisprudence which I argue by design usually chooses to defend justice which is veritas (truth). The main difference usually drawn between the systems is that common law draws abstract rules from specific cases, whereas civil law starts with abstract rules, which judges must then apply to the various cases before them.
Under the Anglo-American and common-law jurisprudence this rigid, illogical adherence to "rules," if broken anywhere during the trial, can, in effect, have key evidence withheld from the jury causing a mistrial, and the prosecutor will either have to start anew or perhaps, because of financial constraints, allow the criminal to go free. However, under the continental system of jurisprudence (also in England) you have the lord (judge), solicitor (prosecutor) and the barrister (defense attorney). The only concern of the court is not merely strictly following procedure (rules), but determining veritas (truth).
Regrettably, judges in America are supposed to be "neutral and detached," which in my opinion likens the judge to a referee or a neutered dog. However, judges under the continental legal system in Europe are engaging, dynamic, Socratic, independent, probing and powerful judges who actively participate in discovering the truth and also can cross-examine witnesses for himself.
Ironically, at the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court levels they follow a modified continental legal system firing questions at the attorneys on both sides of the issue in an effort to get at the truth. Why not adopt this European system at all levels in our American courts? The law's primary purpose should not be to legalistically follow a case-driven, judge-centered template, not the rules of evidence, not politics, liberalism, conservatism, feminism, humanism, secularism, positivism, pragmatism or any other "ism"
but justice, equality under law and veritas truth.
[WAR: "Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right (Micah 3:9) - you who turn justice into bitterness ... and hate the one who reproves in court and despise him who tells the truth (Amos 7,10):
The law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; the wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted (Hab 1:4). No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies ... so justice is driven back ... truth has stumbled ... (and) honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found ... (so) YAHWEH looked and was displeased that there was no justice. (Isa 59:4,14,15).
These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts (Zech 8:16), maintain justice in the courts. (Amos 5:15), (and) follow justice and justice alone (Deut 16:20). (Because) blessed are they who maintain justice" (Psa 106:3), for YAHWEH ... loves justice (Psa 11:7).]
Denmark-based Saxo Bank predicts Ron Paul presidency in 2008, saying US economy will plunge into a depression prior to the election. Saxo Bank says the US economy will shrink by 25% and the Chinese economy will decrease by 40%. The economic downturn will come about as a result of the housing crash.
Saxo Bank also predicts $175 a barrel for oil and the price of grain will double. Some have predicted that oil will climb to $250 a barrel if the US attacks Iran. The bank also predicts that 30% of large building companies will go bankrupt.
The US dollar's losing streak looks likely to continue into 2008 as the odds shorten on an American recession and international events reduce the greenback's lure still further. Sudan's central bank is expected to humiliate the once mighty dollar on Tuesday by insisting that it will deal only in the euro and local currency, and will advise local commercial banks to follow its example.
The move follows a sell-off of US currency by Japanese traders on Friday following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The killing is expected to bring further instability to a key US ally and force oil prices higher.
Germany's annual inflation is projected to eclipse 2% this year, the highest it has been since 1994, according to government estimates released Friday. The ECB has not changed interest rates since June, but analysts and government officials have warned it will need to act soon to prevent rising energy and food prices from translating into wage demands and broader consumer price increases.
While the US has long imported oil and other raw materials from the third world, we used to import manufactured goods mainly from other rich countries like Canada, European nations and Japan. But recently we crossed an important watershed: We now import more manufactured goods from the 3rd world than from other advanced economies. That is, a majority of our industrial trade is now with countries that are much poorer than we are and that pay their workers much lower wages. And it's hard to avoid the conclusion that growing US trade with 3rd world countries reduces the real wages of many and perhaps most workers in this country. And that reality makes the politics of trade very difficult.
Japan has launched its biggest financial shake-up in a decade to regain lost business from London and meet the fast-rising challenge of Shanghai. A sweeping package of 60 measures will give special tax exemptions to hedge funds, and allow companies to make simplified disclosures in English rather than Japanese. It will tear down the archaic barrier between banking and broking, which is widely blamed for relegating Japan to backwater status, without the system of universal banking now prevalent in the US and Europe.
Japan's Financial Services Authority said the "entire government" would be harnessed to push through the master plan, aimed at turning Tokyo into the financial hub of Asia and broadening the country's economic base away from manufacturing. Officials have openly stated that the model is London. Japan remains the world's biggest creditor nation with some $2.5 trillion in net foreign assets and a massive $19 trillion pool of domestic savings and household assets, the world's biggest stash of private wealth.
If Michelangelo were to create a symbolic sculpture for today, it's not impossible it would look something like this photo; an image of the wasteful, bloated greed of our US government and megalomaniac pharmaceutical and biochemical industries that lead to the poor health of man, environment, and our financial and medical systems.
Question...
People in many parts of the world indulge in the curious practice of eating dirt, also known as geophagy. But why they do so has remained something of a mystery. Now a new study aims to show whether loam in the earth can be vital in protecting pregnant women from harm.
Answer...
To protect yourself from these disorders and insure long-term super health-as well as to aid your body's healing quest in the case of these and other related disorders-may I respectfully suggest you eat some dirt? Do not be surprised by what I say. Dirt-or to be more specific, the Earth's soil-is one of your body's best friends.
Dirt or soil is so essential to health that if you or a loved one is suffering from any of the above conditions, this may be due to a lost connection with Earth. When we were back in the era of primitive man, we got dirty. We were exposed to all sorts of microscopic bugs. Our food was dirty. But was this all bad? Not really, and it's a shame that today words like dirt or soil are such a negative concept.
Even today as children, we are meant to make mud pies, to play in the mud, to get dirty. It is as necessary to our long-term health as almost anything. Our immune systems need this kind of exposure to learn how to react later on in life to real or not so real threats to our health. You see, without early exposures to all sorts of organisms in the soil, later in life when our immune system is exposed to various benign intruders, it may overreact.
For people who still can't decide how or where to spend their New Year's Eve, a solution has emerged: travel across the globe and experience festivities in the world's most exotic locations as they happen - and all from the comfort of your living room. Computing Which?, the consumer magazine, has compiled a list of the 80 best webcams out of the thousands around the world. The magazine team scoured the web for the webcams that give internet users the best views of real-time activities in some of the world's most-visited locations.
The Book of Revelation is the ultimate I-told-you-so. There is no mistaking the scale of the horrors to come, or the foreboding with which they are prophesied. But no mistaking, either, the relish. Wow! Here comes the mother of all disaster movies.
The reason for the relish is partly obvious: humans find accidents fascinating: the bigger the spill, the bigger the thrill. Something else, however, lends to the Apocalypse a spice absent from even the most cosmic of motorway pile-ups: a sense of justice. Mankind, we are told, has brought this upon itself. After hubris will come nemesis. As we sowed, so shall we reap. Our chickens are coming home to roost, or sins returning to haunt us. How awful. How delicious.
Northern Cross stands upright on winter evenings.
Today in Scripture
"Within the 3 days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem." (Ezra 10:9) [Continued tomorrow...]