Sunday

The Daily WAR (10-17)

Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
 
 
 
Flashback...
    Writing in the Italian newspaper Avvenire, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger slammed the UN's proposals for a "New World Order" targeting for special criticism the UN's goal of depopulation. He noted that the philosophy coming from recent UN conferences and the Millennium Summit "proposes strategies to reduce the number of guests at the table of humanity.
    He noted that "at the base of this New World Order" is the ideology of "women's empowerment," which erroneously sees "the principal obstacles to [a woman's] fulfillment [as] the family and maternity." He also advised that "at this stage of the development of the new image of the new world, Christians have the duty to protest."
 
    Over the last 100 years, the Holy Spirit has been fostering growth in unity among Christians, Benedict XVI affirmed. The Pope said this today when he received in audience members of the Joint Working Group between the World Council of Churches and the Catholic Church, in Rome to begin a new phase of work. The Joint Working Group, or experts from panels invited by the group, examine doctrinal issues, issues related to mission, justice, peace and reconciliation, ecumenical formation and youth.
 
    In a January 25 statement to reporters in Rome, the new superior general of the Society of Jesus said that the Jesuits remain loyal to the Pope. "If there are problems" in the relationship, he said, "it is precisely because we are so close." He compared the relationship between the Jesuit order and the Holy See to a marriage, observing there are always tensions between loving couples. But as in a marriage, he added, the Jesuits and the Pope are wholly dedicated to the same goal: the welfare of the Church.
 
    Catholics in the political arena must recognize that opposition to intrinsic evils, such as abortion, euthanasia, genocide, embryonic stem-cell research and same sex unions is always required by the faithful Catholic. Because these intrinsic evils are direct attacks on human life and marital dignity, they are nonnegotiable for every Catholic.
    Catholics must recognize, too, that in the other human life issues -- such as immigration, capital punishment, the economy, health-care and war -- the dignity of the human person must first and foremost be taken into consideration in seeking solutions to these questions.
    While there can be different solutions for questions regarding some issues which are not intrinsic evils, the inherent dignity of the human person from the moment of conception to natural death must be the lens through which all decisions are made.
 
Well, hell yes!...
    Many won't like the answer, but here it is anyway: The Bible says, "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds but rather expose them." Exposing evil keeps Christians from being "polluted by the world."
    [WAR: Don't just expose "new age" practices, but expose the evil and "fruitless deeds" of pagan-polluted Christianity itself!]
 
 
 
    Vienna was once a Roman cavalry outpost on the Danube, guarding against the incursion of the Huns. Austria means "eastern realm". It was civilisation's East End, on the edge of our world. Through decline and decadence it came to be the capital of the Holy Roman Empire.
 
Uh-oh...
    Suddenly German politics is beginning to look turbulent. Regional elections are to be held today in the large states of Hesse and Lower Saxony, and in Hesse, at least, a clear division is emerging between an angry, increasingly radical Left and a disorientated, conservative Right.
    A few years ago Mrs Merkel would have been shedding, at best, crocodile tears for Roland Koch. He was part of a group of Christian Democrat alpha males who, during a political freebie to South America in 1979, vowed never to run against each other. They formed the secret opposition to Merkel — an outsider because of her east German, non-Catholic background — but each has since made his peace with her. Until she stumbles.
    This weekend could mark the beginning of the end of the career of Germany's only red-blooded tooth-and-claw politician. If Koch-conservatism is discredited for flirting too obviously with far-right xenophobia, Merkel will have to seek a new Christian Democratic identity. The most popular politician in Europe is looking vulnerable. The eggs may have missed her but the boos are still echoing in her ears.
    [WAR: Will the CDU look to Edmund Stoiber for guidance?...]
 
    The Frankfurt Rundschau commented: "Let's not kid around, the credit crisis, which has spread panic through the stock markets in the last few days, is the worst crisis for capitalism since the 1930s." Within the space of a week, the financial crisis has revealed that the capitalist system is increasingly heading towards a catastrophe for which the established political parties have no answer. The CDU and CSU both anticipate an intensification of social conflict as a result of the international finance crisis and are preparing accordingly.
 
    Germany's far-right National Democratic Party is in turmoil, according to internal party documents. It is beset by financial problems and a deeply divided leadership. Leaders are also unsure what to do about the skinhead problem.
    Whatever the right-wing extremists quarrel about internally, and whatever they happen to be planning, it always seems more ridiculous than threatening. Perhaps the best way to deal with the NPD is to emulate the pope's approach. The NPD chairman sent a birthday e-mail to the pope. He wrote in his obsequious message that he admires Benedict XVI for his "argumentative disposition, respectability and intrepidness," ending the e-mail with the words: "May your pontificate lead to a revival of moral and cultural values." The pope simply didn't respond.
 
 
 
    Leaders of right-wing nationalist parties from 4 EU member states have announced plans to create a European "patriotic" party that would protect the continent against immigration, "Islamization" and globalization. The new party -- which is yet to get an official name -- is currently referred to as the "European Patriotic Party" or the European Freedom Party."
    The heads of Austria's Freedom Party, France's Nationalist Front, the Bulgarian Attaca party and Belgium's Vlaams Belang told journalists in Vienna that they had agreed to set up a new party in order to defend Europe from numerous challenges that it faces today. The leaders declined to name any other parties the new movement was negotiating with, but ruled out talks with German right-wing extremists NPD and VDU.
    Warning about the dangers that immigration and "Islamization" pose for Europe, the right-wing leaders said that that the new party would be based on European Christian traditions across the continent -- including non-EU members such as Serbia and Russia -- and that it would fight against the EU's centralized bureaucracy.
    "We say: patriots of all the countries of Europe, unite. ... Because only together will we solve our problems." "We are for a federal Europe made up of fatherlands working together… We don't want a centralist federalized states."
 
    President Napolitano of Italy began crisis talks with political leaders in an attempt to guide the nation out of political turmoil and restore its image and morale after the departure of Romano Prodi.
    The centre Right opened champagne bottles on Thursday night, with Silvio Berlusconi, the opposition leader and media tycoon, exclaiming: "To the ballot boxes!" In the streets outside black-shirted members of the "post-Fascist" Alleanza Nazionale, part of Mr Berlusconi's alliance, careered around in open lorries waving flags and singing the national anthem.
 
    The Serbian Orthodox bishop of Kosovo Saturday urged Germany not to recognize the breakaway Serbian province if it decides to declare its unilateral independence. The outspoken bishop of Rasja and Prizren told Deutsche Presse-Agentur he had held confidential talks with officials in Berlin to warn them of the seriousness of the situation in the breakaway Serbian province. "The situation in Kosovo is very serious."
    And he also slammed the administration of President Bush, saying that until recently only a small number of officials in Washington had given serious thought to the Kosovo issue.
 
    The United Nations Secretary General on Friday warned of the "dangerous" impasse over the future status of Kosovo, saying his main concern would be to protect lives and uphold stability in the region should events on the ground degenerate. "If the current impasse continues, the situation on the ground may take a direction that nobody wants to see happen. This would be very dangerous."
 
    Russia expanded its growing European energy empire Friday, signing 2 more deals in a drive that is raising fears Moscow could use its vast oil and gas resources to meddle in the affairs of its neighbors. Russia already supplies a quarter of Europe's natural gas and oil needs, and some Western leaders worry the growing dependence is giving the Kremlin a powerful geopolitical weapon. Announcing the signing of 2 agreements with Serbia, Russian officials said the deal would make the poor Balkan nation an important hub for the distribution of Russian gas.
 
    Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan warned the European Union against becoming a "club of Christians" as he pushed on Saturday for Ankara's membership in the bloc. "If the EU finds itself as a club of Christians.... it is against the very soul of the EU. Religious lines should never be presented as a border."
    EU heavyweights France and Germany are both opposed to full Turkish membership, and President Sarkozy has been particularly vocal on the issue, arguing that the mainly Muslim country does not belong in Europe.
 
 
 
    Such depictions -- of luminous, civilised Israelis facing wicked, backward Arabs -- are the building blocks of a polemic sold tirelessly by Israeli, American and Western media. Most often, it goes unchallenged, thus defining the West's understanding of Israel and its moral "right to exist".
    In this specific context, the power of the media cannot be over-emphasised. It has defined a fallacious reality based on a skewed narrative. Never in history has a story been so slanted as that of Palestine and Israel. This is not an arrogant counter-narrative to Israel's concoctions. It's a glaring truth that continues to be either ignored or misunderstood.
 
    Forget everything you've read about the "Great Escape" from Gaza. It's thoroughly misleading, most probably cooked up in an Israeli think tank as way to rid Palestine of its indigenous people. "MK Aryeh Eldad is hailing the Arab exodus to Egypt as proof that voluntary transfer is indeed an option." So the fleeing Palestinians just walked into a trap. Now they've been banished to Egypt by their own volition. Will they be allowed to return?
    The Palestinians are regarded as a mere nuisance and a drain on Israeli resources. Now that the wall has conveniently been knocked down, the problem appears to be solved. Hamas had nothing to do with blowing up the wall. And if they did, they were just unwitting accomplices in Israel's masterplan to drive more Palestinians off the land and to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the ones that remain.
 
Shhhh! Don't tell anyone...
    The top 2 US intelligence officials made a secret visit to Pakistan in early January to seek permission from President Musharraf for greater involvement of American forces in trying to ferret out al-Qaida and other militant groups active in the tribal regions along the Afghanistan border, a senior US official said.
    The official, speaking on condition of anonymity given the secret nature of the talks, declined to disclose what was said, but Musharraf was quoted 2 days after the meeting as saying US troops would be regarded as invaders if they crossed into Pakistan to hunt al-Qaida militants.
 
    Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, may seem calm, but anarchy reigns just two hours away. In Nakuru, furious mobs rule the streets, burning homes, brutalizing people and expelling anyone not in their ethnic group, all with complete impunity. One month after a deeply flawed election, Kenya is tearing itself apart along ethnic lines, despite intense international pressure on its leaders to compromise and stop the killings.
 
 
 
    Iran is ready to soon test a new generation of more advanced centrifuges for enriching uranium, even though the UN Security Council has ordered the country to suspend the process. The new centrifuges are more than twice as efficient as their predecessors. Tehran intends to test the new centrifuges soon, possibly at its chief nuclear facility at Natanz, where there are currently 3,000 older centrifuges operating.
 
    Iran will answer all outstanding questions on its nuclear program by mid-February, the country's foreign minister said, and both he and the International Atomic Energy Agency called on the UN Security Council not to take further action until then. "The first duty of the UN Security Council is to wait for this process of new cooperation between the IAEA and the Islamic Republic of Iran to be completed. It should try to avoid hurting this new process of cooperation. The second duty of the UN Security Council is that it should base any future decisions on the results of the IAEA."
 
Puh-leaze...
    Israel's defense minister said, in an interview published Saturday, that Iran is "quite advanced" in its work on atomic weapons and may already be fashioning a nuclear warhead. "We suspect they are probably already working on warheads for ground-to-ground missiles." He also suggested that Iranians "probably ... have another clandestine enrichment operation beyond the one in Natanz."
 
    Iran's top military commander said Saturday that his forces would retaliate against American military bases in the Persian Gulf if they are involved in any possible future attack on Iran. But he assured Arab Gulf countries — some of whom are home to U.S. military bases — that only American forces would come under counterattack.
    "We realize that there is worry among neighboring countries — Muslim countries whose lands host US military stations. However, if the US launches a war against us, and if it uses these stations to attack Iran with missiles, then through the strength and precision of our own missiles, we are capable of targeting only the US military forces who attack us."
 
 
 
    An investigation into the illicit sale of American nuclear secrets was compromised by a senior official in the State Department, a former FBI employee has claimed. The official is said to have tipped off a foreign contact about a bogus CIA company used to investigate the sale of nuclear secrets. The FBI was monitoring Turkish diplomatic and political figures based in Washington who were allegedly working with the Israelis and using "moles" in military and academic institutions to acquire nuclear secrets.
 
    It was a lofty idea: Formulate a British "statement of values" defining what it means to be British, much like the Declaration of Independence sets out the ideals that help explain what it means to be American.
    Because of the peculiarities of its long history, Britain has in modern times never felt the need for such a statement. But in an era of decentralized government and citizens who tend to define themselves less by their similarities than by differences of region, ethnicity or religion, the government feels that the time is ripe for one.
 
 
 
    All in all, last week was a sign that the economy is headed toward the falls. Keep close watch on the canoe 100 yards ahead of you. If, without warning, it disappears, start paddling for the shore. Either shore. Fast.
    We appear to be in the early phase of a financial earthquake that will get into the history textbooks. The volatility of the American stock market indicates something severe, yet at present is being contained. Contained by what? By rumors and hope. The bad news is just getting rolling...
 
    Asian stocks are expected to tread water early next week ahead of the Federal Reserve's January meeting, with volatility likely to continue as investors brood about the possibility of a US recession. "Caution in the market should prevail next week. Although the market expects the Fed to cut interest rates further next week, investors still weigh the fragile state of the market and are not convinced that the worst is over."
 
    Chancellor Merkel renewed her longstanding call for greater transparency in world financial markets, although she insisted the current turbulence on world stock exchanges should not give rise to pessimism in Germany. Merkel said financial market transparency would be a key theme of the meeting of European leaders called by Prime Minister Brown in London on Tuesday. "The lesson from the turbulence must be more transparency in financial instruments."
 
Is the Pope Protestant?!...
    A proposal to establish "a new sheriff to police global financial markets" landed with a thud this week at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The meeting of bigwigs in this snow-covered Alpine village has never shied from gimmicky approaches to fostering global discussion, and this time it was a poll of several hundred participants in a debate on how best to respond to the turmoil that has gripped financial markets for much of the last six months. With small electronic devices, Davos men and women voted down the idea by a 3-to-1 ratio.
    The reflex of the Davos crowd to stay away from any kind of market intervention looms as large as it ever has. Most financiers, policy makers and chief executives prefer that the state stay as far away from business as possible.
 
War by another means?...
    Jérôme Kerviel, the rogue trader blamed for the €4.9 billion loss at Société Générale, wagered tens of billions of euros on Germany's benchmark DAX index as well as the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50, and the bank's unwinding of those bets might have been a key factor in the especially steep decline of the Frankfurt bourse last week. Kerviel took huge bullish positions on the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 index and the German DAX in particular.
 
Or an agent on assignment...
    Suspicions were growing last night that Jérôme Kerviel, a trader for just 2 years, could not have taken one of the world's biggest banks to the edge of collapse by himself. The 5 years he spent in Société Générale's compliance department may have helped him bypass the bank's security systems, but one financial analyst said he would have to be "Einstein" to have run up £3.7 billion losses without anyone noticing.
    Fears that there could be more to the affair have been fuelled by the fact that the bank used the announcement of the alleged fraud to notify the markets about £1.5 billion it had lost in the "sub-prime" mortgage lending fiasco. It was claimed yesterday that Kerviel had at one stage exposed the bank to the tune of £37 billion, even though its total market capitalisation is only £26.6 billion.
 
    The White House and House Democrats have reached an agreement on an economic stimulus plan. Unfortunately, the plan - which essentially consists of nothing but tax cuts and gives most of those tax cuts to people in fairly good financial shape - looks like a lemon.
    Specifically, the Democrats appear to have buckled in the face of the Bush administration's ideological rigidity, dropping demands for provisions that would have helped those most in need. And those happen to be the same provisions that might actually have made the stimulus plan effective.
    The bulk of the money would go to people who are doing O.K. financially - which misses the whole point. The goal of a stimulus plan should be to support overall spending, so as to avert or limit the depth of a recession. If the money that the government lays out doesn't get spent - if it just gets added to people's bank accounts or used to pay off debts - the plan will have failed.
 
The gap between the Fed and other big central banks widens. For how long?
    Almost as striking as the scale and timing of the Fed's rate cut was the coolness with which other central banks reacted. Both in Britain and the euro zone, central bankers are worried about inflation and the prospect of a wage-price spiral. But the transatlantic gap also suggests sharp differences in dealing with troubles in financial markets.
    Given the global nature of financial markets, that logic suggests there was a case for co-ordinated international action. The trouble for the Fed is that other central bankers see things differently. Whatever they think of its motives, the world's central bankers now face a Fed that is in full-scale cutting mode. And the chances are that other central banks will eventually follow suit.
 
    While the ECB and other European banks are raising interest rates to bring down the US, through the triggering of a further crash of the Dollar, and through a massive move of European and European-steered capital into the US to literally "buy up" US banks and corporations at fire-sale prices, Bernanke and company at the Fed are playing into the European assault by further weakening the Dollar through their hyperinflationary interest rate cuts.
    The raid on the US is being run out of Europe, particularly out of London, and the only way to defend the vital national security interests of the US is by raising interest rates, to protect the value of the Dollar.
 
    To find where true power and super-riches lie in modern Britain, go to the thickets of the hedge funds. What hedge funds tend to have in common is a dedication to an extreme form of capitalism.
    One of the most successful of the younger generation of hedge fund tycoons is Nathaniel "Nat" Rothschild, the son of Lord (Jacob) Rothschild. This is wealth beyond the dreams of avarice and it has brought about a dramatic power shift in the City. The profits and influence that used to belong to famous City bankers are now in the hands of hundreds of clever individuals, the hedge fund superstars, who are making more money than they could spend in a lifetime.
 
    Japan is in advanced discussions to create its first sovereign wealth fund in a move aimed at mobilising one of the world's biggest pools of foreign exchange reserves. The plans would give Japan membership of what is fast becoming a formidably powerful club of investors.
    Sovereign wealth funds have played an increasingly significant role in global investment in recent months, with several oil-rich Middle Eastern and Asian funds taking stakes in some of America's sub-prime-blighted banking giants.
 
    Gordon Rayner asks if this week's stock market crashes spell the beginning of the end for US and European domination of the world economy, as China and India prepare to swoop.
    Not since the dark days of the early 1970s had panic and fear gripped the markets with such monumental effect. The long-term implications of this week's events will be measured in jobs, property prices and unemployment. But why, after several months of economic gloom, did events take such a sudden and spectacular turn this week?
    As political and business leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, this week for the World Economic Forum, it was the representatives of the emerging economies, particularly China and India, who had a spring in their step. While the West awaits a possible recession, the emerging economies can look forward to a boom that will see them overtake the US in terms of economic power.
 
Our hungry planet
    Food prices are skyrocketing. Arable land is becoming scarce. And forests continue to disappear across the globe. The world must decide between affordable food and biofuels. Some of those who were born after WW2 and never experienced leaner times may only now be learning that food does have a value, even an existential one.
    Suddenly they realize that food is in fact an indispensable resource, critical for life, and that they can no longer expect it to be available at all times and in all places -- especially not at guaranteed low prices.
    For decades, the industrialized world enjoyed the questionable luxury of producing far more milk, butter and wheat than its citizens could ever consume. The surplus was exported, provided buyers could be found, or was placed into indefinite storage or destroyed. This folly has now come to an end. Europe's mountains of butter have been depleted, its grain silos emptied and its lakes of milk drained.
    Worldwide flows of goods are shifting and becoming reorganized. For the first time, we are seeing the emergence of a truly global agricultural market driven by the underlying force of all economic activity: the scarcity of goods.
    There are growing fears that the world could soon face a food crisis, and that the current bottleneck could expand into widespread starvation. "I am afraid that we are slipping into a global food crisis. And I'm extremely concerned about it."
 
 
 
Paranoid or predicting?...
    Venezuelan President Chavez accused the Colombian government of preparing military aggression against Venezuela, allegedly under orders from the US. "I accuse the government of Colombia of designing a conspiracy, a war provocation against Venezuela, following orders from the US, to force us to give a reply that could spark a war."
 
    A large US spy satellite has lost power and propulsion and could hit the Earth in late February or March, government officials said Saturday. The satellite, which no longer be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said.
    The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret. He would not comment on whether it is possible for the satellite to be perhaps shot down by a missile. He said it would be inappropriate to discuss any specifics at this time.
 
    Computer hackers have managed to shut down power to entire cities by breaking into the systems of electricity companies and then demanding money, a senior CIA analyst has claimed. He told a utilities security conference all the successful hackings occurred outside America, but did not specify what countries were affected, when the power cuts happened or how long they lasted.
    The Bush administration is increasingly worried about the little-understood risks from hackers to the specialised electronic equipment that operates power, water and chemical plants, known as Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition systems. These are increasingly connected to the Internet.
 
    For years, scientists have known that continents float around on the Earth's surface like ice bergs on the ocean. But what happens deep beneath our feet? A new theory envisions graveyards for continents and a life cycle not unlike the weather.
    Today, every child learns in school that the continents are enormous plates that drift on the Earth's red-hot mantle like icebergs on the ocean. Yet this hypothesis still lacks a logical and convincing foundation. Nobody has been able to explain the actual mechanics behind the motor that drives the drifting and breaking-up of the continental plates.
    The inner reaches of the Earth remain shrouded in mystery. Even the surface of Mars has been explored more extensively. Because deep drilling comes to a halt after a maximum of 12 kilometers, the remaining 6,300 kilometers to the center of the Earth remain inaccessible.
 
Look at the avocets and listen to the mistle thrush. Something's odd
    One season does not only follow another: seasons also lie one on top of the other, in an endless and complex stratigraphy. This was the first week of spring. It was also yet another of the eternal weeks of winter.
    Anyone who knows wildlife sees time as something chunky, funky, variable, untrustworthy. Spring has unquestionably begun: winter is without doubt still with us. This is not mere fancy, this is not neo-Proustian whimsy: this is a matter of hard observation.
    [WAR: So if one bases the annual appointed times on the tropical seasons and "green ears", should they consider having Passover in late February or early March? What is the protocol for situations like this? Well, it becomes a mute point when one follows the sidereal (star) seasons, as indicated in the Scriptures.]
 
    Your zodiac sign corresponds to the position of the sun relative to constellations as they appeared over 2200 years ago! A phenomenon called precession has altered the position of the constellations we see today.
    The first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere was once marked by the zero point of the Zodiac. Astronomers call this the vernal equinox and it occurs as the ecliptic and celestial equator intersect. Around 600 BCE, the zero point was in Aries and was called the "first point of Aries."
    Unbeknownst to the ancient astrologers, the Earth continually wobbles around its axis in a 25,800-year cycle. This wobble—called precession—is caused by the gravitational attraction of the Moon on Earth's equatorial bulge.
    [WAR: The same reason that astrology is out of sync with the constellations is the same one for all COG/Judaism being out of sync in their observances of the annual appointed times. (So are the COG/Jews actually practicing astrology without knowing it?!)
    But this article is wrong about the cause of precession. It's not because the Earth wobbles, but because our Sun is in a binary orbit with another star - probably a brown dwarf, which can't be seen. (See The Great Year for more on this.)
    And just as the Sun indicates the existence of another entity we didn't know about (though the evidence was there), the Son (Yahweh/Word) came to reveal the existence of another Entity (Abram/Father) that was previously unknown (though the evidence was there - "Let US make man in OUR image", etc.).]
 
 
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