Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
It should. This is the earliest date for Ash Wednesday since 1913.
The basic rule for determining the date for Easter is that it is on the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after March 21st - usually the vernal equinox. Now the ecclesiastical full moon can actually be at a different time than the actual astronomical full moon at least for various locations.
The current formula for Easter's date was first developed at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. But it was then applied to the Julian Calendar (developed under the Roman Empire). Because there was no leap year to keep the actual year aligned with the calendar year, the date for the vernal equinox would seem to advance at a steady rate through the calendar over the years.
Had not Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 executed a reform of the calendar that kept it steadily aligned with the actual astronomical year, Easter, being based on the vernal equinox, would also have lost all consistency of date.
[WAR: So the determination of both Easter and Passover are based on the vernal equinox? Should this be the case? Should the count for Passover (and thus all the holy days) have the same foundational starting point as the pagan Whore in Rome?
Is this not the "detestable" thing of some men "bowing down to the sun in the east" that Ezekiel was being shown in Eze 8:15? It's not that they were celebrating sunrise Easter services, but they were acknowledging the primacy of the vernal equinox in establishing the appointed times. Thus those days became their appointed times, rather than Yahweh's - and that's why He hates them so much, and why He won't even listen to our prayers! (Isa 1:13-15).
And formula for determining Easter and Passover both came out around the same time in the 4th century - with Easter being the first? That sure is suspicious! Was the formula for Passover influenced/determined by the one for Easter?
How much can you trust that Hillel II revealed the true "secrets" of the calendar? Are you willing to bet your eternal life on it? Are you going to believe a long-dead Rabbi, or the truth of the living Scriptures?...]
Spain's Roman Catholic Church denied that it had urged believers not to vote for the ruling Socialists in a March general election, a day after attacking several government policies. "Bishops do not say who to vote for. We provided a series of criteria so that those who want to listen to us can have an idea (of what we think)."
[WAR: They don't say directly WHO to vote for, but rather WHAT people should vote for - which contructively suggests WHO to vote for.]
The senior bomb maker of the PFLP-GC was identified as a Jordanian explosives expert, by the name of Marwan Khreesat. The West German magazine Stern quoted 2 high-ranking security officials as saying that Khreesat, "the man who made radio bombs for attacks on planes", was a Western Intelligence asset. American officials confirmed that Khreesat indeed worked for West German intelligence.
Hesse's premier, Roland Koch, may lose his job. The Left Party, an amalgam of the former East German communist party with west German leftists, won seats in Hesse and Lower Saxony and threatens to complicate German politics permanently. Germany, it seems, is leaning leftwards. This will rattle the balance between the CDU and the SPD in the ill-tempered "grand coalition" that governs Germany.
Once again, Christian Democrats are fighting over their position on integration. It is a debate they have had many times before. And it was supposed to have been resolved. This week, though, it looks like the CDU is right back where it was at the beginning of the decade. And with an open letter published by the party's centrist wing on Wednesday, the dirty laundry is hanging in public for all to see.
President Koehler called on Europe Saturday to step up its commitment in Africa and help the continent develop its own economic structures. "I would like to see more European companies invest in the markets there. That would pay off in the long run," the president said in an interview on the eve of a visit to Uganda and Rwanda.
He said the growing influence of China on the African continent was a wake-up call to Europe. If it doesn't react, he said, it will add to the view "Europe is taking a back seat on the global political stage."
He leaves today on a 6-day visit, continuing the strong focus during his presidency on development in Africa, which he has already visited four times since taking office.
[Europress] / [Russopress]
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has spoke out in support of recognizing "the Christian roots of Europe." At a meeting of his political party, the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, Sarkozy said that leaders of the European Union were wrong to exclude an explicit reference to Christianity from the language of the proposed EU constitutional treaty.
"We erred when we turned our back on the past, and in a certain sense turned our back on our roots, which are obvious." Echoing the argument that has been advanced by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the French leader said that without a basis in Christian culture, the EU will have no firm foundation. "If we reject our past, we are not ready for our future."
[WAR: So how can the EU be some kind of "Holy Roman Empire" if it doesn't even reference Xianity in its treaty?! HOW?!! Explaineth this little quandary all you COG "prophets" - you who "prophesy lies" (Jer 5:31), "practice deceit" (Jer 6:13/8:10, "prophesy by Baal and lead Israel astray" (Jer 23:13), "prophesy the delusions of your own minds" (Jer 23:26), "steal from one another words supposedly from me" (Jer 23:30), and "prophesy out of your own imagination" (Eze 13:2).]
Tony Blair has been holding discussions with some of his oldest allies on how he could mount a campaign later this year to become full-time president of the EU council, the prestigious new job characterised as "president of Europe".
Blair, currently the Middle East envoy for the US, Russia, EU and the UN, has told friends he has made no final decision, but is increasingly willing to put himself forward for the job if it comes with real powers to intervene in defence and trade affairs.
Blair is being actively promoted by the French president Nicolas Sarkozy. But it is thought that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is not persuaded of the advantages of a Blair presidency.
Blair himself is still doubtful that the role of council president will become a powerful job, saying he senses that even pro-Europeans might recoil from ceding power from the nation state.
Everybody agrees that the last thing that Italy needs is another succession of fractious, short-lived governments. It could just about get away with them when growth was strong, and vibrant private enterprise, especially in the north, more than made up for a shoddy (and often corrupt) public sector and the sclerotic Mezzogiorno. More recently, though, Italy's economic prospects have worsened.
(And: Italy: Berlusconi redux?)
Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France, has urged his country's ambassadors to engage in "diplomacy in motion." Kouchner is, by French standards, stoutly pro-American. On foreign policy, with only a few exceptions, he shares the views of the conservative President Sarkozy.
The challenger in today's Serbian elections has added to regional tensions with an offer to let Russia build military bases in his country to help counter the American missile shield. "If the United States deploys its missiles in Europe for protecting their country against terrorism, Russia could in the same way create its stronghold in Serbia." He added he woud not rule out the deployment of Russian nuclear missiles in his country, "if it would contribute to ensuring Serbian security".
(And: High turnout for elections)
Over 30 Russian strategic bombers and long-range interceptors are participating in joint exercises with a naval task group in the Atlantic and Arctic, an Air Force spokesman said on Friday. Russian pilots are practicing reconnaissance, missile and bomb strikes on an "aggressor force", and are flying simulated air combat and air patrolling missions.
The flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva guided missile cruiser, joined up with Russian naval warships in the Mediterranean on January 18 to participate in the current maneuvers. The current operation is the first large-scale Russian Navy exercise in the Atlantic in 15 years. All combat ships and aircraft involved carry full combat ammunition loads.
Israel calls for shelter rooms to be set up in a bid to prepare the public for yet another war, this time, one of raining missiles. Israeli officials, who have been preparing the public for a major war, have started the distribution of brochures in 6 languages instructing people on how to react during a future war, particularly in the event of missile attacks. "The next war will see a massive use of ballistic weapons against the whole of Israeli territory," claimed retired general Udi Shani.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer joined the debate on Afghanistan Saturday, increasing pressure on Germany to deploy troops in the hostile south of the country where Taliban insurgency is strongest. Under a mandate approved by parliament in October, Germany can only send combat troops to the south under exceptional circumstances.
German politicians are reluctant to commit more forces amid growing concern among the population that the country could become a target for terrorists because of its involvement in Afghanistan. The opposition Greens Party defence spokesman said: "The German government should not allow itself to be blackmailed by a sinking US administration."
The army is battling a Taliban insurgency in the tribal areas of the Afghan border, in which hundreds have been killed in recent weeks. In the cities, activists shouting "Go, Musharraf, Go!" are up in arms about alleged pre-election rigging of the vote due on February 18th. He is hugely unpopular and all the opposition parties want him out. Most Pakistanis also see this as America's war.
Iran's Oil Minister said Saturday a large gas field has been located in the Persian Gulf. He said an Indian company found a gas field with about11 trillion cubic feet in reserves off the coast of Iran. Iran is 2nd only to Russia in the amount of available proven gas reserves. He also said his country wants OPEC to cut its crude oil output in the near future.
Persia 'n Kingdom of the South...
Iran's Parliament Speaker has said the time is ripe for opening a new chapter in Iran-Sudan relations. He stressed that the countries have always lent support to each other. He praised Sudan's significant support for Iran's Islamic Revolution which is rooted in the states' commonalities.
Several non-permanent UN Security Council members are holding up agreement on a new sanctions resolution against Iran over its nuclear program, said France's envoy to the US. "This is not easy. We are still having some difficulties with some of the members but we are trying to reach an agreement on the new resolution. This may take some time. There is more work to be done."
How America's own intelligence services have brought international policy on Iran to the edge of collapse
If you are locked eyeball to eyeball with an adversary as wily as Iran, it does not make much sense to do something that emboldens your opponent and sows defeatism among your friends. But that, it is now clear, is precisely what America's spies achieved when they said in December that, contrary to their own previous assessments, Iran stopped its secret nuclear-weapons programme in 2003.
Iran's jubilant president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, immediately called the American National Intelligence Estimate a "great victory" for his country. Subsequent events suggest that he was right. Western diplomats are despondent and international efforts to get Iran to stop enriching uranium and working on plutonium have been thrown into confusion. Already difficult diplomacy has got harder.
Israel says that even if America's spies are right (and it does not think they are) about Iran having given up its efforts to build a nuclear warhead in 2003, Iran's enrichment activities at Natanz are a clear and present danger.
(Op-ed: Has Iran won?)
(Cartoon: Time to act is running out...)
Iran has summoned the French ambassador to protest Paris's reaction to President Ahmadinejad's remarks about the Israeli regime - advising the West to accept Israel's "imminent collapse."
Iran's Foreign Ministry said today that a French military base in the Persian Gulf would not be helpful for security and stability in the region. "We are opposed to the military presence of foreigners in the region because we believe their military presence would not only not help the regional security but it would be the cause of instability in the region."
The base, which will hold 400 to 500 French soldiers from every branch of the military, will give France a toehold near the Strait of Hormuz through which some 40% of the world's oil is transported.
Oh no, here it goes!...
Unprecedented mass Internet outages throughout the Middle East and Asia after no less than 4 undersea Internet cables were cut without explanation are spurring suspicions that a major event of geopolitical proportions may be just around the corner.
According to InternetTraffic.com, Iran has been completely cut off from the Internet, though President Ahmadinejad's blog can still be accessed. Most notably, Israel and Iraq are unaffected by the outage.
An analyst with TeleGeography, a research company that consults on global Internet issues, said the damaged cables collectively account for the majority of international communications between Europe and the Middle East. Is this a pre-cursor to throw a veil over an imminent staged event in the Middle East?
"I am greatly concerned that these undersea cable cuttings are intended to prevent the world from seeing something that is about to happen, other than through the government-controlled propaganda/media."
(And: Mideast struggles to reboot)
Or is it 2-birds-with-1-stone?...
Reports circulating in the Kremlin today are painting a grim picture of just how desperate US War Leaders have become as their economy continues its freefall towards total bankruptcy by their crashing of Global Internet access for the Middle East's banking centers.
These reports state that the Americans became 'enraged' this past week when OPEC rejected US demands for an immediate increase in oil production. Further angering the Americans this past week was Turkey 's rejection of US demands for them to sever banking ties with Iran
But, these reports state, the greatest fears of the US were raised this past week when Saudi Arabia 'warned' the US to 'back off' of its threats against Iran or face the Saudi's decoupling the US Dollar from its enormous World oil trade transactions.
American War Leaders, though, have had previous warnings of the Saudis growing fears of being the holders of trillions of declining US Dollars - with Saudi Arabia, for the first time, refusing to drop their interest rates in 'lock-step' with the US Federal Reserve, and leading to fears of a 'stampede' by other Middle Eastern Nations out of US Dollar backed assets.
The significance to the severing of these cables is the Middle East Banking Centers being denied access to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication -- based in Brussels, and which carries up to 12.7 million messages a day containing instructions on many of the International transfers of money between banks -- lies in Saudi Arabia, or any other Middle East Nation, being unable to change their previously, before loss of communication, encoded currency instructions from being changed.
To the final outcome of these events it is not in our knowing, other than one Russian Banking Official, wishing to remain anonymous, stating that, "Should the Saudi's effectively decouple their oil from the US Dollar, the United States, for all practical purposes will cease to be a World power as it economy will collapse completely as the US Dollar has no value in and of itself due to the staggering debt of the Americans. Without oil they are nothing."
Unrelated, yet totally related!...
The Pentagon's Information Operations Roadmap is blunt about the fact that an internet, with the potential for free speech, is in direct opposition to their goals. The internet needs to be dealt with as if it were an enemy "weapons system".
It should come as no surprise that the Pentagon would aggressively attack the "information highway" in their attempt to achieve dominance in information warfare. One problem with the current internet is the potential for the dissemination of ideas and information not consistent with US government themes and messages, commonly known as free speech.
Former FBI agent Sibel Edmonds has revealed – in defiance of several government gag orders – of how this and several previous administrations "monitored", but did little or nothing to interfere with, the "infiltration" of Western states by "foreign states" seeking "nuclear secrets."
The London Times claims that in 2001 "CIA chief George Tenet gathers officials for crisis summit on the proliferation of nuclear technology from Pakistan to other countries." Notice the Times says "proliferation of nuclear technology," not proliferation of nuclear weapons. Tenet didn't claim that Khan was a nuclear-weapons proliferator, or that AQ Khan had done anything that had resulted in nuclear-weapons proliferation.
Nevertheless, the Times claims that in 2004, "Khan [was] placed under house arrest and confesse[d] to supplying Iran, Libya, and North Korea with weapons technology." But Khan's "confession" was made on Pakistani TV, in English, and is a matter of record. He did not confess to supplying Iran or Libya or North Korea anything, much less "weapons technology."
So what? Well, it is important in this and all other matters pertaining to Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, DPRK, Turkey, et al that the differences between [a] plain-vanilla nuclear materials/technologies and [b] nuclear weapons materials/technologies be kept foremost in mind.
There are entirely too many groups – not just the neocrazies – who deliberately obfuscate those differences for their own purposes. Why? So they can bomb, bomb, bomb – bomb-bomb Iran.
State legislators in Vermont introduced legislation Wednesday demanding the state's National Guard troops return from Iraq. Lawmakers in Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania are poised to push similar legislation. At the heart of the matter is a contention that President Bush's legal authority to deploy the National Guard to Iraq has expired.
"If the president believes there's still a need to have our National Guard in Iraq to stabilize that country or whatever, it's his job to go back to Congress and ask for that authorization. The president doesn't have the authority to permanently federalize our Guards."
[WAR: It may be true that Bush doesn't currently have the legal authority. But that can change...
With a stroke of the pen!...
Governors' control of the National Guard can be trumped with a simple presidential declaration. Bush can commandeer a state's National Guard any time he declares a "state has refused to enforce applicable laws." Does this refer to the laws as they are commonly understood - or to the "laws" after Bush "fixes" them with a signing statement?"
While President Bush was standing before the members of Congress on January 28 laying out his plans, such as they are, for the final year of his second term in the White House, he was also seriously and perhaps fatally undermining the authority of Congress with a new signing statement, attached to the latest National Defense Authorization Act, in which he declared that he would simply violate or fail to comply with 4 provisions. Let me say that again. The president states in writing that he is not going to obey and will not be bound by 4 parts of a law duly passed by the Congress.
Logically one would expect members of Congress in both parties to be up in arms over this illegal and clearly unconstitutional defiance—the more so because both houses of Congress are in the hands of the Democratic Party. But we have heard barely a peep from the "people's representatives" at this brazen abuse of power--and certainly no one in Congress, save Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), is calling for action. The reason: Congress is afraid of impeachment.
A militarist suffering from acute narcissism and armed with the Bush Doctrine is not fit to be commander in chief. If McCain finally makes it to the White House, the U.S. will surely start new wars, and not just in the Middle East.
Biblical, yes - Judeo-Xian, no!...
The majority of Americans want a president who mirrors biblical ideals of leadership, revealed a new poll out Thursday. About 6 in 10 Americans likely to vote say they would be more likely to vote for a presidential candidate who speaks publicly about following the example of admirable leaders from the Bible and who uses the Bible for guidance in both public and personal matters.
Also, most Americans voters want a candidate who has a servant-leader attitude. Respondents are more likely to support a candidate who sees the office as a privilege to serve others, with a responsibility to God. By far, truthfulness and integrity – characteristics often emphasized in the Bible – topped the list of qualities respondents feel are most important in a leader.
[WAR: Yes, what we need is someone to follow the Bible, rather than the pagan "traditions of men" found in Judeo-Christianity!]
Rare winter tornadoes in the Midwest. Powerful Pacific storms with hurricane force winds. More than 1,000 daily high temperature records. And that's just in the first month of 2008. Is January the new March? Weather extremes are nothing new for this country. It's a big place that experiences lots of variability — more so than most other places, according to weather and climate experts. But are the extremes becoming more extreme?
We now have confirmation that the banker and Wall Street neolibs — more interested in good old fashioned looting than engaging in the process of balkanization — indeed accomplished their scheme to rob the Iraqis blind.
"Increased Iraqi oil revenues stemming from high prices and improved security are piling up in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York rather than being spent on needed reconstruction projects," reports the Washington Times.
"Out of $10 billion budgeted for capital projects in 2007, only 4.4% had been spent by August, according to official Iraqi figures reported this month by the GAO. The report cited unofficial figures saying about 24% had been spent.
"Meanwhile, some $6 billion to $7 billion from last year's budget is "being rolled over" and invested in US treasuries, said Yahia Said, director of Iraq Revenue Watch, part of the private watchdog group Revenue Watch Institute."
Aggressive moves to cut interest rates by America's central bank are intended to stave off a financial meltdown
In moving with unusual speed to cut interest rates, officials at the Federal Reserve are aiming to prevent a nationwide recession, but they're also doing something more targeted: throwing a lifeline directly to the beleaguered banking industry. "This is more about Wall Street than Main Street. We've got the monetary strategy we've got because financial markets are nervous."
(And: Aggresive activism)
It was fun while it lasted, but the carry trade - maybe the world's biggest leveraged bet - is rapidly fading from the scene. The practice of borrowing in currencies with low interest rates, like the yen or Swiss franc, and plunking the money into something with a higher rate, or something you just hope will go up, has been estimated at up to $1 trillion in value.
But the great unwinding of debt now under way has made banks too scared to lend much and investors too scared to take on much risk. The carry trade has clearly taken a big knock since financial markets became unstable last summer, as shown in a strengthening yen.
Fears that the US economy is heading into a recession were compounded by the first fall in employment in almost 4 1/2 years. "We are on the brink of a recession. The job market is always a lagging indicator. This is a nail in the coffin."
Amid growing fears that the US economy is sliding into recession, accompanied by both mounting layoffs and an increased assault on the living standards of the working population, the big oil companies once again posted record profits. Just the profit taken in by ExxonMobil amounted to more than the gross domestic product recorded in two thirds of the world's nations.
The Big 3 American oil companies recorded combined 4th-quarter profits that amounted to $10 million an hour for every hour of every day. These massive windfall profits were the result not of increased productivity on the part of the big oil companies, but rather the spiraling of oil prices driven in large part by rampant speculation.
Jerome Kerviel is being hailed in his home country as a modern-day Robin Hood; the non-entity who dared to make a mockery of the greedy fat-cats who control the all powerful markets, and almost got away with it. Thousands have joined his online "fan club"; trendy young Parisians sport T-shirts bearing his face; he is even being dubbed "the Che Guevara of France".
Nor is it only among gleeful Left Bank subversives that Kerviel is being viewed as an anti-hero. He is the toast of bars in Middle France, where he is held to embody the social catastrophe that they fear will ensue should the French abandon a Gallic lifestyle to adopt the frenetic, profits-driven model of British and American capitalism.
Chinese state-owned company Chinalco has stunned the market with a daring raid on Rio Tinto, disrupting a potential takeover of Rio by BHP Billiton and risking the wrath of Australia's political establishment. Chinalco and its American partner aluminium giant Alcoa surprised everyone with a dawn raid orchestrated in complete secrecy after the markets closed on Thursday night.
Reports of 2 multi-billion pound financial transactions dominated the world's markets yesterday. A Chinese government-backed corporation bought part of a stake in the Rio Tinto group; Microsoft offered the almost unimaginable sum of £22.4 billion to buy Yahoo.
The circumstances could hardly have been more different. But if the deals proceed as planned, and the purchasers succeed in their ultimate aims, then globalisation will have entered a new era and all our lives could be affected.
Here, then, we have 2 models of globalisation. China is digging up the mineral wealth of Africa, South America and Australia - an enterprise that, despite its use of multinational corporations, remains deeply nationalistic and geopolitical. A Microsoft-Google duopoly, meanwhile, is more subtly political: it brings us close to a world in which corporations wield more power than governments. In both cases, massive issues of sovereignty and commercial freedom are being decided not in parliaments but in boardroom negotiations.
The world crisis of capitalism (part 3)
"Any serious attempt at a political prognosis, at an estimate of the potentialities within the existing political situation, must proceed from a precise and accurate understanding of the historical development of the world capitalist system. The analysis of the historical development of capitalism must answer the following essential question: Is capitalism as a world economic system moving along an upward trajectory and still approaching its apogee, or is it in decline and even plunging toward an abyss?"
The eruption of this crisis certainly underscores the central issue we have emphasised in our analysis—that globalisation, far from propelling capitalism into a new epoch of progress, has intensified all the contradictions which afflicted it in the 20th century, resulting in wars and revolutions.
There is an astounding amount of misinformation on gold available on the Web. This shows the tremendous impact of the Web. Back in 1995, this misinformation was far more limited in its scope. Here is the main piece of information: "Gold! Gold! I'll be rich – rich, I tell you! Hahahahaha." No, you won't. Here's why.
Yes!...
The chemical industry has helped fortify our homes against microbial invasion. But is our fear of germs making us even sicker?
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