World peace is possible only if it is "solidly anchored in natural law, given by the Creator," Pope Benedict XVI told the members of the Vatican diplomatic corps in a major address on Monday.
Early each year the Roman Pontiff meets with all the diplomats accredited to the Holy See. The annual address has become the equivalent of a "state of the world" speech, with the Pope offering a panoramic view of world events as seen from the Vatican's perspective.
After giving a rundown of the world's trouble spots, Pope Benedict concluded that "the security and stability of the world are still fragile." To maintain a lasting peace, he said, world leaders must recognize natural law. "This is another reason why God can never be excluded from the horizon of man or of history."
(Also: Full text of address)
(Also: 176 states have envoys to HS)
The Church is counting on the Society of Jesus to play a role in restoring the sense of Church among religious families, says a Vatican official. The prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said this today during a liturgy opening the 35th General Congregation of the Jesuits. The Jesuits are gathered in Rome to evaluate their mission in today's world, as well as elect a new superior-general.
The Vatican prefect spoke particularly about the role of the Jesuits in restoring the "sensus Ecclesiae." "Consecration to service to Christ cannot be separated from consecration to service to the Church."
He said that love for the Church is based on faith, not sentiment. "Love for the Church in every sense of the word -- be it Church people of God, be it hierarchical Church - is not a human sentiment which comes and goes according to the people who make it up. ... The fundamental nucleus of Ignatian spirituality consists in uniting the love for God with love for the hierarchical Church."
"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."
What has happened to Angela Merkel? The soft-spoken German leader has started talking tough in a debate on youth crime and immigration that is dividing the nation. The pastor's daughter is descending into the political fray to weather state elections that herald a turbulent 2nd half of her term.
A senior figure in Chancellor Merkel's conservative party has focused his re-election campaign in a regional poll on crime, in particular offenses by foreigners. It's not the first time the party has used such tactics.
Seeking a 3rd consecutive term as leader of the prosperous western German state of Hesse, Roland Koch has made immigration the centerpiece of his campaign, stirring memories of a similar election bid almost a decade ago.
Members of the CDU's sister Bavarian party, the Christian Social Union, have often used anti-immigrant rhetoric in their speeches, most notably former Bavarian premier Edmund Stoiber.
Britain may face difficulty getting its parliament to ratify a treaty overhauling the EU's institutions but the charter's terms are the best deal London will get, France's junior minister for Europe said. "I think the UK will not see another such opportunity to secure its objectives of taking part in the European adventure, staying at the heart of the EU project and at the same time respecting the peculiarities of British society."
Fantasy...
And now for something radical. It's an idea that comes from a dour-looking man with an acute political mind. Here's his notion: The US and Europe soon risk being overtaken by the rest of the world. To hold on to their place and value system, they ought to form an organic alliance, a Union of the West. The time to get moving is now.
The idea comes from Edouard Balladur, the former French prime minister whose belly-of-the-beast Gaullist establishment credentials stretch back 40 years. For all its deliberately provocative and spiky aura, Balladur's Union of the West concept is not a bolt out of the blue.
Rather, it extends into a Great Notion a current, but still hesitant, attempt to bring the US and the EU closer together. That project involves the sketchy outlines of a trans-Atlantic economic zone. Pushed by Angela Merkel, and backed in principle by Gordon Brown, it led last year to promising meetings between groups of EU commissioners and US cabinet-level officials aimed at a vast harmonization of trade-related issues.
Reality...
A top French bank has warned that mounting strains within the eurozone will set off a sharp jump in spreads on Italian, Spanish, Greek, and Portuguese sovereign bonds this year, forcing major changes in government policy across the region. A decade of lagging performance across southern Europe has left the region unable to compete with the eurozone's northern tier.
"While tensions can be camouflaged during economic upswings, they will move to the surface during downswings. It is no coincidence that all failed currency unions were abandoned during times of economic stress."
A spread shock of this order would be greater than anything seen since the launch of the euro. It would amount to a stark reappraisal of the EMU project, raising the risk of a chain reaction as rising debt costs erode budget deficits even further.
"These countries will want higher inflation in Germany to get them off the hook, but I doubt Germany is ready to do that. This is going to create friction within the eurozone. Euro weakness will be the inevitable result."
No major bank in the eurozone has ever published a report predicting the break-up of the EMU.
[WAR: I've been saying for a number of years that the euro/EMU is destined to collapse - and along with it the EU. Then Germany will finally be free to exercise its full sovereignty and fulfill its prophetic destiny - to be the rod in God's hand to punish modern-day Israel during Jacob's Trouble.]
Kosovo's two leading parties have formally sealed a coalition agreement, giving them a parliamentary majority. Party leaders have set a clear agenda of independence for the break-away province.
The Serbian Orthodox Church used its Christmas message Monday to denounce what it called world "power-mongers" seeking to take Kosovo away from Serbia. The church, whose ancient seat was in Kosovo, said world powers were "shamelessly violating all norms of God's and human justice" by backing independence for the separatist province.
Kosovo was "our holy land, the heart and soul of the Serbian people. Today, the power-mongers of this world are throwing dice for our ... land and shamelessly insulting our feelings and our dignity. Today, for their own interests in the Balkans and Europe .... they want to take away from the Serb people their cradle, heart and soul that will forever remain in Kosovo."
The formerly staunch US ally has shifted its tone, and now an ambitious pet project of the Bush administration - a missile shield to protect Europe and the US - is no longer a sure thing in Poland.
German press...
The elections in Georgia came out well for President Saakashvili, as expected. Even without immediate evidence of fraud, though, trust in his government has eroded, and people are marching in the streets. German papers on Monday point out that Saakashvili may have found other ways besides vote-rigging to arrange a victory; and they worry that an ally of Washington may be slipping into totalitarianism.
Recent experience suggests that we should be very worried that President Bush is coming to the Middle East this week to "promote peace." The last time he made such a journey - June 2003 - his legacy turned out to be an accelerated cycle of violence and ideological battle that now sees most of the Middle East region wracked by active warfare, routine terrorism, and intense political confrontations, threats and stress.
Is the assassination of Benazhir Bhutto yet another piece in the neocon puzzle aimed at further de-stabilizing the Islamic world and furthering the goal of perpetual war in the Middle East for Israel's benefit? In the last speech before her death, she said the insertion of NATO troops into Pakistan was unacceptable. People arguing that she was murdered because of her intransigence to American and Israeli interests have plenty of circumstantial evidence.
The UN Security Council on Monday expressed serious concern about mounting tension along the Chad-Sudan border in the wake of stepped-up activities by rebel groups on both sides.
China has contingency plans to dispatch troops into North Korea and secure nuclear weapons in the event of instability in the hardline communist state, according to US experts who have talked to Chinese military researchers.
"I should also like to express my support for continued and uninterrupted pursuit of the path of diplomacy in order to resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear program, by negotiating in good faith, adopting measures designed to increase transparency and mutual trust."
A rift is emerging between President Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, suggesting that the president no longer enjoys the full backing of Khamenei, as he did in the years after his election in 2005. In the past, when Ahmadinejad was attacked by political opponents, the criticisms were usually silenced by Khamenei, who has the final word on state matters and who regularly endorsed the president in public speeches. But that public support has been conspicuously absent in recent months.
An incident in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday involving US warships and small, high-speed Iranian craft has served to heighten tensions in the Gulf on the eve of President Bush's departure for his first extended trip to the Middle East.
The only details have been provided by the US. A series of high-level US warnings have followed. While there are no independent accounts of what took place, it certainly cannot be ruled out that the encounter was deliberately provoked by the US navy, rather than the IRG vessels, with the intention of inflaming tensions as Bush arrives in the region tomorrow.
Desperate for a Gulf of Tonkin style incident to reinvigorate momentum for an attack on Iran after the National Intelligence Estimate derailed the push for war, the Pentagon is crying foul over the alleged hostile intent of Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats after an incident in the Strait of Hormuz this weekend. Numerous respected public figures, from Ron Paul to Zbigniew Brzezinski, have warned that a Gulf of Tonkin style stunt could be pulled as a pretext for air strikes on Iran.
What a timely report!...
North Vietnamese made hoax calls to get the US military to bomb its own units during the Vietnam War, according to declassified information that also confirmed US officials faked an incident to escalate the war. The report was released by the National Security Agency in response to a "mandatory declassification" request, the Federation of American Scientists said Monday.
"What this study demonstrated is that the available intelligence shows that there was no attack. It's a dramatic reversal of the historical record. There were previous indications of this but this is the first time we have seen the complete study."
If Edmonds' (FBI whistleblower) story is correct, it casts an even darker shadow over the mysterious and still unexplained incident last August, when a B-52 Stratofortress, based at the Minot strategic air base in Minot, ND, against all rules and regulations of 40 years' standing, loaded and flew off with 6 unrecorded and unaccounted for nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.
Incredibly, almost 5 months after that bizarre incident (which included several as yet unexplained deaths of B-52 pilots and base personnel occurring in the weeks shortly before and after the flight), in which 6 150-kiloton warheads went missing for 36 hours, there has been no Congressional investigation and no FBI investigation into what happened.
So why, one has to ask, is this story appearing in a highly respected British newspaper, but not anywhere in the corporate US media?
IAEA Director-General ElBaradei said Monday that the chances of terror groups attempting to carry out an attack on a radioactive facility are increasing and in fact supersede their chances of obtaining nuclear weapons. "Terror groups might try to attack a facility housing radioactive materials in a populated area or even in one (of the world's) capitals, which could lead to a wide area being infected with radiation and thousands of deaths."
(Also: Super Bowl Sunday in Phoenix)
(Also: The "Sum of All Fears"?)
The assault on the US Constitution by the Democratic Party is as determined as the assault by the Republicans. On October 23, 2007, the House passed a bill sponsored by the chairwoman of a Homeland Security subcommittee, that overturns the constitutionally guaranteed rights to free expression, association, and assembly. The bill passed the House on a vote of 404-6. In the Senate the bill apparently faces no meaningful opposition.
The bill is called the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act." When HR 1955 becomes law, it will create a commission tasked with identifying extremist people, groups, and ideas. The commission will hold hearings around the country, taking testimony and compiling a list of dangerous people and beliefs.
The bill will, in short, create massive terrorism in the US. But the perpetrators of terrorism will not be Muslim terrorists; they will be government agents and fellow citizens. We are beginning to see who will be the inmates of the detention centers being built in the US by Halliburton under government contract.
History revisited...
"In order to increase his federalist vision of centralized power, 'Honest' Abe misled the nation into an unnecessary war. He claimed that the war was about emancipating slaves, but he could have simply paid slave owners to free their slaves . . . . The bloodiest war in American history could have been avoided."
Lincoln's "actions were unconstitutional and he knew it," writes Napolitano, for "the rights of the states to secede from the Union . . . [are] clearly implicit in the Constitution, since it was the states that ratified the Constitution . . ." Lincoln's view "was a far departure from the approach of Thomas Jefferson, who recognized states' rights above those of the Union."
"Saying that Lincoln abolished slavery and calling him the 'Great Emancipator' are grossly inadequate mischaracterizations," writes the judge. "Lincoln was interested in promoting his political agenda of centralizing government power, and freeing the slaves was only a means of advancement of that end.
Two men who authorities said dabbled in satanism have been arrested in connection with a recent rash of arson and vandalism at rural churches. Satanic graffiti was scrawled at or near some of the east Alabama churches, including "Teach children to worship Satan!!", which was painted on a Sunday school classroom wall.
[WAR: But the churches are already teaching children to worship Satan!]
The real 2007 federal budget deficit was $4 trillion, not a previously reported $163 billion, an economist contends, based on data from the Treasury Department's annual financial report. "It's only a matter of time until the public realizes that the government is truly bankrupt and no taxes are being held in reserve to pay in the future the Social Security and Medicare benefits taxpayers are earning today."
The risks of food riots and malnutrition will surge in the next 2 years as the global supply of grain comes under more pressure than at any time in 50 years, according to one of the world's leading agricultural researchers.
Recent pasta protests in Italy, tortilla rallies in Mexico and onion demonstrations in India are just the start of the social instability to come unless there is a fundamental shift to boost production of staple foods.
"Over the next 12 to 24 months we are in a fairly risky situation. Large consuming nations, particularly China, will feel pressed to enter international markets to bid up prices to unusual levels. For a year or two countries can stabilise with stocks. But the risk comes in the next 12 to 24 months. The countries that cannot afford to buy will be the losers, while those with huge foreign exchange reserves will bid up the world market."
Charlie Wilson's War is a truly dangerous piece of pro-war propaganda from Hollywood.
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