Monday

The Daily WAR (09-27)

 
 
    The word of the Gospel is the spiritual light that provides the direction men and women need in their lives, says Benedict XVI. He said this in his address before praying the Angelus together with those gathered in St. Peter's Square on the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord.
    The feast is "represented by the Magi who came from the East to pay homage to the king of the Jews. The star that guided the Magi had completed its function, but its spiritual light is ever present in the word of the Gospel, which today too is capable of guiding every man to Jesus. That same word, which is nothing if not the reflection of Christ, true man and true God, is authoritatively echoed by the Church for every well-disposed soul."
    (Also: "As we prepare to say the Angelus, I offer my most cordial greetings to the brothers and sisters of the Eastern Churches who, following the Julian calendar, celebrate holy Christmas tomorrow: It is a great joy to share in the celebration of the mysteries of faith." -- Zenit)
 
    Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday criticized a world with luxury for a few and poverty for many and called for moderate lifestyles to ensure fair distribution of wealth amid a scramble for natural resources. "One cannot say that globalization is synonymous with world order — it's the opposite. The conflicts for economic supremacy, and the scramble for energy and water resources and raw materials render difficult the work of all those who strive to construct a more just and united world. Moderation is not only an ascetic rule, but also a way of salvation for humanity."
 
    Pope Benedict XVI has instructed Roman Catholics to pray "in perpetuity" to cleanse the Church of paedophile clergy. All dioceses, parishes, monasteries, convents and seminaries will be expected to organise continuous daily prayers to express penitence and to purify the clergy. Vatican watchers said that there was no known precedent for global prayer on a specific issue of this kind.
 
B16 dies ...
    The Pope dies and, naturally, goes to heaven. He's met by the reception committee and, after a whirlwind tour is told that he can enjoy any of the myriad recreations available.
He decides that he wants to read all of the ancient original text of the Holy Scriptures, and spends the next eon or so learning the languages. 
    After becoming a linguistics master, he sits down in the library and begins to pore over every version of the Bible, working back from the most recent "Easy Reading" to the original script. 
    All of a sudden there is a scream in the library. The angels come running to him, only to find the Pope huddled in a chair, crying to himself, and muttering, "An 'R'! They left out the 'R'". God takes him aside, offering comfort and asks him what the problem is. After collecting his wits, the Pope sobs again, "It's the letter 'R'... the word was supposed to be CELEBRATE."


... EMPIRE OF THE GERMAN NATION
"The Great Altar of Pergamon is in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin. It was this altar, believed dedicated to Zeus, that John of Patmos referred to as "Satan's Throne" in Rev 2:12-13. ... It can be seen alongside other monumental structures such as ... the Ishtar Gate from Babylon. - [which] was the 8th [Rev 17:11] gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north [Dan 11:40] side of the city."
 
    As things stand, Chancellor Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats and their Social Democratic counterparts appear to be barely holding their fractious relationship together. Once the voters go to the polls in state elections this year, divisions over 2 key policy issues could see the brittle façade finally shatter.
 
    Criticized for preaching old-fashioned family values long after society left them behind, some observers say a series of personal family problems have modernized Germany's conservative Christian parties.
 
    As the release of Winograd Commission's final report on the Second Lebanon War approaches, speculations in the political arena are mounting and MKs begin preparing for the report's aftermath. A senior Kadima official said that many in the faction have already agreed to promote the election of a new chairman in case the report's conclusions do not allow Prime Minister Olmert to remain in office.
 
View from Israel...
    George Bush is coming to Israel this week. Israel is making great efforts to welcome him graciously. The man who has wreaked such ruin upon the world, upon his country, and upon us is such a welcome guest only in Israel. A man is coming to Israel this week who has left a trail of killing, destruction and global hatred. Never has the US been so despised as during Bush's 7 years in office.

Arab League approves rescue plan for Lebanon
    Foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League held an extraordinary meeting on Saturday at the organisation's Cairo headquarters aimed at resolving Lebanon's worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. The Arab ministers agreed on a 3-point plan, namely the election of a president, forming a government of national unity and the adoption of a new electoral law.
 
    A car bomb attack which killed 5 people and wounded dozens of others in a predominantly Kurdish city in Turkey this week, bears the hallmark of separatist Kurdish rebels, Turkey's prime minister said.
 
    Top members of the Bush administration together with US military commanders and intelligence chiefs met in secret at the White House Friday to draw up plans for stepped-up military intervention in Pakistan, the New York Times reported Sunday. The meeting was unannounced and the White House and other government agencies refused to discuss it.
    "Several of the participants in the meeting argued that the threat to the government of President Musharraf was now so grave that both Musharraf and Pakistan's new military leadership were likely to give the US more latitude."
 
    Kenya's violent crisis threatens to destabilise one of the US's key counter-terrorism partners in Africa and could influence Washington's decision on where to site its new military command for the continent. "The last thing America needs is for Kenya to implode. Then, as far as the Americans are concerned, they basically have lost Somalia. It would certainly make Kenya an easier haven for would-be jihadists if the country imploded. The implications for America's war on terror are very very serious." 
 
 
 
Breaking news...
    Five Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked 3 US Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, CNN is reporting. Citing unidentified US officials, CNN said the Iranian vessels came within 200 yards of the US ships in international waters in the strait on Saturday, and US sailors came close to opening fire.
    The Iranian boats made threatening maneuvers against the US warships and threatening radio transmissions, the officials told CNN. The captain of one U.S. vessel was in the process of giving the order to shoot when the Iranian ships began turning away, CNN said.
 
    President Bush will not win any support for military action against Iran when he visits four Gulf Arab allies later this month, political analysts in the region say. While Gulf states are concerned about Iran's nuclear programme, they would be even more fearful of a US-Iranian conflict.
 
 
 
    "The day after a nuclear weapon goes off in an American city, what would we wish we had done to prevent it and what will we actually do on the day after?" It's a question that frightens everyone, and one to which there is no easy answer.
    ... This Pakistani-Turkish-Israeli Axis of Espionage, operating through their respective embassies, systematically combed Washington officialdom for potential moles. A vast criminal enterprise supported by at least 3 foreign intelligence agencies acting in concert with top US officials, including some "household names" – if true, it's the story of the decade.
    Corruption and a massive cover-up organized at the highest levels of government – America's nuclear secrets and technology looted on a massive scale, and sold to our enemies via a network set up by our alleged foreign "friends," while the threat of nuclear terrorism hangs over our country like a thick fog of fear, and warmongering politicians scare us into going along with the program – if even half of what Edmonds alleges turns out to be true, then we are all in some very big trouble.
    If a nuke ever goes off in an American city [Superbowl in Phoenix?], it will probably have been stolen from our own arsenal – once the American people wake up to that scary fact, the rest will follow automatically.
 
    The would-be presidents are all spouting "change" now, but of course none of them states exactly what kind of change. They are all (except Ron Paul) despicable prevaricators. When asked a question, all of them hedge, hem and haw, trying feverishly to concoct a response that won't alienate a single soul, while simultaneously attempting to incorporate the usual something-for-nothing carrots-on-sticks, which amounts to little more than buying votes with empty promises.
    You can almost see their mental machinations during the debates, as they avoid answering simple yes-or-no questions with convoluted tangential ramblings, which neatly manage to avoid offending anyone and commit to virtually nothing. Getting elected president is now all about money (the more TV ads, the better) and strategy. In other words: "buying and conniving." It has nothing to do with genuine ideas, what's good, right, Constitutional or fair.
 
 
 
The fastest-growing bet in the oil market these days is that the price of crude will double to $200 a barrel by the end of the year. Options to buy oil for $200 on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 10-fold in the past 2 months to 5,533 contracts, a record increase for any similar period
 
    OPEC's president expects oil prices to keep rising during the 1st quarter of 2008 before stabilizing in the 2nd quarter. "Given the global inflation and the steadily depreciating US dollar, $100 a barrel for oil, which is lower than its 1980 price in real terms, is only nominal and does not reflect the commodity's real value."
 
    Bears beware. The New Deal of 2008 is in the works. The US Treasury is about to shower households with rebate cheques to head off a full-blown slump, and save the Bush presidency. On Friday, Bush convened the so-called Plunge Protection Team for its first known meeting in the Oval Office.
    Judging by a well-briefed report in the Washington Post, a mood of deep alarm has taken hold in the upper echelons of the administration. "What everyone's looking at is what is the fastest way to get money out there." Emergency measures are now clearly on the agenda.
    We face a version of Keynes's "extreme liquidity preference" in the 1930s - banks are hoarding money, and the main credit arteries of the financial system remain blocked after 5 months.
    The White House certainly has grounds for alarm. The global picture is darkening by the day. "At this point the debate is not about a soft land or hard landing; it is about how hard the hard landing will be. A severe systemic financial crisis cannot be ruled out. This will be a much worse recession than the mild ones in 1990-91 and 2001."
 
    The subprime fiasco is just one example of how banks profit from shady practices.
 
 
 
    Nearly a dozen members of a police SWAT team in western Colorado punched a hole in the front door and invaded a family's home with guns drawn, demanding that an 11-year-old boy who had had an accidental fall accompany them to the hospital, on the order of a Garfield County Magistrate. The boy's parents and siblings were thrown to the floor at gunpoint and the parents were handcuffed in the weekend assault, and the boy's father told WND it was all because a paramedic was upset the family preferred to care for their son themselves.
 
Tonight's sky
    You will find these stars at this time of year by looking east-southeast in early-mid evening.
 
 

 
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