Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
My book's title, Sacred Then and Sacred Now, is drawn from Pope Benedict XVI's letter to bishops that accompanied his 2007 motu proprio liberating the Church's traditional liturgy. His move may be the most important papal initiative since Vatican II.
One quarter of Germans were children during WW2. During the 1950s, researchers were still convinced that the generation had overcome the war traumas. That's not the case, according to recent studies.
John McCain will attend the 44th Munich Conference on Security Policy, due to take place in Munich (Feb 8-10). The high profile security conference which is widely seen as the top annual gathering of political movers and shakers on global strategic issues, is being financed by the German government.
(And: Afghanistan to top agenda)
[Europress] / [Russopress]
Italy's conservative opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi has again insisted on early elections, jeopardising efforts to form an interim government. He said he hoped "that after these consultations the head of state will call elections immediately".
France is expected to take a significant step towards ratifying the EU's new reform treaty with a special congress of parliament at Versailles. To push the replacement treaty forward, the French parliament has to vote for a change in the national constitution.
More than 900 MPs and senators will be asked to approve the amendment which will require 60% support. However, the majority of the opposition Socialist Party is expected to abstain from the vote. A final vote is due to take place in the National Assembly on Wednesday and the Senate on Thursday.
Serbia's pro-Western president, Boris Tadic, has won a 2nd round election run-off against nationalist challenger Tomislav Nikolic, who conceded defeat. Nikolic congratulated his opponent, but added: "My message to the EU is to stop blackmailing Serbia and stop putting impossible conditions, that we are ready to be within the EU, but there are some conditions we cannot fulfil."
Both candidates stood against independence for the largely ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo. Serbia is widely seen as key to the stability of the western Balkan region.
(And: Serb coalition in doubt)
(And: EU, Germany welcome victory)
Finally, the truth of the matter!...
With NATO's 17,000 troops backing it, Kosovo's government is set to secede on Wednesday, declaring itself a separate country. Through lies and raw military power, the US supported a pro-imperialist group of gangsters—the UCK—in the war against Yugoslavia, and this gang then took over Kosovo. Then the US supported UCK moves to detach Kosovo, where the US had built the massive military base "Bondsteel."
Kosovo is sitting on 15 billion tons of brown coal. Its mines contain 20 billion tons of lead and zinc and 15 billion tons of nickel. EU and US corporations are going to buy Kosovo as soon as its status is settled as "independent."
Why is Kosovo so crucial to NATO expansion? The creation of Kosovo as an "independent" state would be a precedent for other schemes US imperialism could take advantage of to break away areas of other sovereign nations, including China and Russia, applying the old "divide and conquer" strategy perfected by British imperialism.
The planned NATO/US plot to make Kosovo independent is a continuation of NATO military expansionism to ensure US economic control in Eastern Europe.
Do what?!...
The new chief of the Hungarian secret services, who spent 6 years at the KGB's academy in Moscow during the 1980s, has become chairman of NATO's intelligence committee, a development that diplomats said could compromise the security of the alliance.
Russia's ambassador to NATO warned of a new confrontation between Warsaw and Moscow in connection with plans by the US to base a missile shield in Eastern Europe."Attempts in Poland to take a confrontational approach have always ended tragically - as in the Second World War, when the country lost almost every third inhabitant."
The Jewish neocon Michael Ledeen, in his recent book, The War Against The Terror Masters, goes right for the jugular. He shows not hesitation in manifesting the venom of his Jewish arrogance and the Jewish neocon agenda to create a Jewish New World Order.
"First and foremost, we must bring down the terror regimes, beginning with the Big 3: Iran, Iraq, and Syria. We will remain engaged. We have to ensure the fulfillment of the democratic revolution. We do not want stability in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and even Saudi Arabia; we want things to change. The real issue is not whether, but how to destabilize. ... We must destroy them to advance our historic mission."
Now veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has weighed in on the matter. "Whatever was under construction, with North Korean help, it apparently had little to do with agriculture -- or with nuclear reactors -- but much to do with Syria's defense posture."
"This is a wonderful sort of a complicated story. Here Israel bombs another country, basically an act of war. ... They don't say anything publicly about it. The Israeli great ally, the US, says nothing. Syria doesn't say much about it. They complain, but they're very muted too. ... Nobody talks about it."
Hersh's best guess as to the motivation of the bombing is that it was partly Israeli politics and partly "a message for the Iranians that we're coming."
Better butted, than bombed!...
A pair of Israeli soldiers has been charged with exposing their backsides to a group of Palestinians in an alleged attempt to disburse the Palestinians who had gathered in a field close to a Jewish community.
Turkish warplanes have bombed several Kurdish villages near the border in northern Iraq in a fresh wave of attacks.
It is a story that has set Turkey abuzz with rumour and speculation. At its heart is an ultra-nationalist gang known as Ergenekon, exposed when 33 of its alleged members were seized in a police raid in late January.
The claims widely reported in the Turkish press ever since read like a thriller. They allege the gang was plotting to bring down the government. It is claimed their plan was to assassinate a string of Turkish intellectuals, fomenting chaos and provoking a military intervention in 2009.
There is a key to the puzzle of Pakistan: of the $10 billion the US has given to that nation, the Pakistani government has diverted significant amounts to buying weapons to shore up the Pakistani military's position against India, its chief rival. So Musharraf and the army have every incentive to fight al-Qaeda and the Islamists but never eradicate them. The military aid is fueling an arms race between Pakistan and India in what most experts say is the conflict in the world most likely to lead to nuclear war.
China and the West at odds in Africa over oil and refugees, as EU troops stay at home for now. At stake is Chad's oil, which came on stream in 2003. With south Sudan likely to secede in 2011 and take with it much of Sudan's oil, new oil sources via a client regime in Chad would be welcomed in Beijing, as a sanction-covered Sudan is out of bounds for western petroleum investment.
(Q&A: Chad rebellion)
At least 39 people have been killed and more than 300 hurt in a series of quakes in Africa's Great Lakes region. The 2 most powerful occurred hours apart in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Rwanda, with magnitudes of 6.0 and 5.0 respectively.
(WP: "The Great Lakes of Africa are a series of lakes in and around the Great Rift Valley.")
(WP: "The Great Rift Valley is a geographical and geological feature, approximately 3,700 miles in length, that runs from northern Syria to central Mozambique.")
(BS: "Some scientist are saying today that we are still seeing the formation of what will eventually be another sea, such as the Atlantic, in which the rifting causing the separation of the African and the Arabian tectonic plates will eventually be torn away and the Indian Ocean will flood away making the easternmost corner of Africa, called the Horn of Africa, a large island. In 1978, just before the Virunga, Zaire volcano, scientists noted the formation of volcanic cones along the inlet called Ghoubet Kharab, 'the devil's throat,' in Djibouti.")
(Pics: "A region of high seismic activity.")
(DS: "And then it happened: the Earth split open. Crevices began racing toward the researchers like a zipper opening up. After a few seconds, the ground stopped moving, and after they had recovered from their shock, (they) realized they had just witnessed history. For the first time ever, human beings were able to witness the first stages in the birth of an ocean. ... Geologically speaking, it won't be long until the Red Sea floods the region. The ocean that will then be born will split Africa apart.")
[WAR: "'But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.' When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
The woman was given the 2 wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach.
Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the Earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth." (Rev 12:12-16).
Although these verses haven't been fulfilled yet, the info above shows HOW/WHERE they will be fulfilled. So it's now only a matter of WHEN it happens...]
A top Iranian official believes that Cairo is keen to establish ties with Iran after both sides have "untangled" key differences. "The Egyptian nation is very interested in establishing close relations with Iran."
Iran has launched a research rocket to inaugurate a newly built space centre, state television reports. Pictures of the launch were broadcast to cries of "God is Great" from the television announcer. The test was for Iran's first low-orbit research satellite, which is planned for launch in March next year.
"We need to have an active and influential presence in space," President Ahmadinejad said in a televised ceremony before the launch. "Iran took its first step very strongly, precisely and wisely."
The long-awaited Iranian Oil Bourse, a place for trading oil, petrochemicals and gas in various non-dollar currencies, will soon open. Iran's Finance Minister told reporters the bourse will be inaugurated during the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution (February 1-11) at the latest. "All preparations have been made to launch the bourse; it will open during the Ten-Day Dawn (the ceremonies marking the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran)."
Ships are not responsible for damaging undersea internet cables in the Mediterranean, Egypt's Government says. Egypt's transport ministry said footage recorded by onshore video cameras of the location of the cables showed no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were damaged.
"The ministry's maritime transport committee reviewed footage covering the period of 12 hours before and 12 hours after the cables were cut and no ships sailed the area. The area is also marked on maps as a no-go zone and it is therefore ruled out that the damage to the cables was caused by ships."
(And: Conspiracy theories emerge)
(And: Internet traffic report)
[WAR: And what role might US and/or Israeli subs be playing? And remember the USS Liberty incident - when the Israelis attacked it because it was a communications ship, and they didn't want the truth of what was going on during the 6-Day War to be known and documented.]
McNeoCain...
Once you crack the media myths surrounding him, it's unlikely voters are going to go for an angry, unstable, hypocritical warmonger.
Virtually all sections of the US ruling elite have now drawn the conclusion that the Bush administration is a disastrous failure. The world standing of America has declined catastrophically, while the base for imperialist policies has eroded within the US itself.
The past week has seen a significant intervention by the ruling elite to promote the Obama campaign, acting through its political representatives—particularly Senator Edward Kennedy, longtime leader of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party—and through the corporate-controlled mass media. Kennedy's endorsement of Obama was a devastating blow to the Clinton campaign.
The Obama campaign is not the vehicle of a leftward movement in the United States. It is a preemptive attack by the ruling class against such a movement. Its function is to delude the American people and divert their growing opposition to war, economic crisis and attacks on democratic rights back into the dead-end of the Democratic Party.
(Op-ed: Kennedy's kiss of death for Obama)
(NO!: Can Obama save us?)
When I was a child there was an often spoken proverb "believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see." I think the intent was that we should be suspicious of "hearsay." We don't often hear this little proverb now days, but I think it still has much to say about the goings on of our governments and especially the mouth piece of governments; the mainstream media.
It's not really necessary to avoid TV altogether. It's a good idea to keep one eye on the enemy while you are searching for truth. You can do that without falling for his many devices. A bird is not caught in a snare if he knows it's there!
Numerous new figures have recently come out on the depth and severity of the collapse of the nation's housing industry. Until now, all figures of this type had been referenced to 1991, the most recent slump in the housing market.
Although significant, what is most notable about today's figures, is that they now eclipse those of 1991, and are being compared directly (and correctly) to those of the Great Depression.
With Wall Street capital disappearing as fast as foreclosures are climbing, one foreign head of state had an epiphany. French President Nicholas Sarkozy advanced the idea recently that the global financial system is "out of its mind."
To develop this theory further, I've reconstructed some of the mileposts on our journey to this financial loony bin. Cumulatively, all of these examples suggest that a strong argument could be made that unfettered greed finds its ultimate expression in systemic corruption which is frequently indistinguishable from insanity.
Banks are losing hundreds of billions of dollars and those in the banking industry tell us only losing $1 billion is considered a good news event these days. This is the kind of sociopathic insanity we have to listen to these days.
Then their answer is to give us more money to throw at the problem and we will solve it. They are lying and they simply can't help themselves. They get totally divorced from reality. They are in total denial.
We are also told that the infusion of capital from foreign institutions into the banking system to cover up their mistakes is a sign of strength. That is mindless. All the foreigners are doing is dumping dollars. We have been converted into sniveling, pathetic debtors who have been betrayed by our large transnational conglomerates.
The game has been geared to major financial profits for the leveraged speculator community. In that process Wall Street has snatched control from the Fed and the banking community. As a result, we have no regulation and control over securitization, derivatives and hedge funds.
This is an exercise in bailing out banking, insurance and Wall Street. It has nothing to do with bailing out our economy, although at times they are synonymous.
2007 may come to associated with the start of the "big" credit crunch. 2008 has begun with a number of "unresolved" items. Hope of an early resolution seems to be fading. In the words of Lily Tomlin, the American comedian: "Things are going to get a lot worse before they are going to get worse." The total level of sub-prime losses is still far from clear.
Money from Russia's newly-created sovereign wealth funds could be diverted to help local banks survive the global credit crunch - suggesting that such funds may be less of a force in global finance than claimed.
The world crisis of capitalism (part 4)
Amidst all the facts and figures which document the changes in the structure of the global capitalist economy, the most striking, and the most far-reaching so far as the perspective of socialism is concerned, is the growth in the global labour force. The entry of hundreds of millions of workers into the global labour market is an epoch-making development.
These vast changes in the structure of the global labour force have had a major impact on the wages of workers in the advanced capitalist countries and the distribution of national income between wages and profits.
Scientists who have confirmed that abiotic hydrocarbons are being released from the Lost City hydrothermal field in the Mid-Atlantic range at the bottom of the ocean say they are returning to that location this summer to try to confirm the presence of more complex hydrocarbon chains, a result that would further undermine the assumption that oils are the result of decomposed and compressed organisms.
The first 4 pics are drawings/model, but the last 2 are real photos.
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