Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Benedict XVI says that even religion can become part of man's tendency to construct ideological systems, but constructing these systems leads to the blindness of egotism. "The tendency in man to construct an ideological system of security is strong: Even religion itself can become an element in this system, as can atheism, or secularism; but in constructing this system, one becomes blind to his own egoism."
(And: Full text of address)
Pope Benedict XVI made an impassioned appeal Sunday for the release of the kidnapped Iraqi Chaldean Archbishop. Gunmen on Friday abducted Rahho after killing 3 aides who were travelling in a car with him. An ancient Christian community the Chaldeans retain their own liturgy and traditions while recognizing the Roman Catholic Pope's authority.
Chancellor Merkel's Bavarian ally, the Christian Social Union, suffered setbacks Sunday in municipal elections. Two Social Democrat incumbents won the mayoralties of the biggest cities in Bavaria, Munich and Nuremberg, with increased majorities, early results showed.
The poll was viewed as a first test for Guenther Beckstein, the CSU premier of Bavaria, and the party leader, Erwin Huber, who took over the top positions 5 months ago, succeeding long-time leader Edmund Stoiber.
They are expected to return to power at state-assembly elections scheduled for late September. However, any diminution of support for the CSU is news after their half a century of power in the conservative state. The CSU visibly lost urban support Sunday in the big cities, which are SPD islands in a CDU sea.
A sharp controversy has developed regarding how Germany's established parties should deal with the Left Party, which won sufficient votes last week to enter the Hamburg state legislature. The main motivation is to declare illegitimate any party that raises social questions and speaks about social inequality, however superficially.
[Europress] [Russopress]
The Spanish election this Sunday is too close to call. What is certain, however, is that the winner will spend the next 4 years cleaning up an economic mess of a scale not witnessed in Spain in modern times.
Serbia has retaken control of a stretch of railway line in northern Kosovo, a senior Serb official has said. Earlier, Serb rail workers stopped a train on the line, saying they would not work for Kosovo's rail firms.
Dmitry Medvedev, President Putin's favored successor, won the presidential election Sunday to succeed Putin. Medvedev said that he will follow policies pursued by Putin during his 8 years as president. He has pledged he will promote a free economy with less government involvement and push for judicial independence. He is expected to ask Putin to become prime minister, an offer Putin is likely to accept.
Turkish officials have said that troops may launch another incursion into northern Iraq to battle fighters belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). A key test of the effectiveness of Turkey's ground incursion could come with the arrival of spring - the traditional start of the fighting season for the PKK.
The broader context of Israel's military offensive against Gaza is Washington's increasingly threatening stance against Iran, which backs Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Syria. The US decision to deploy the USS Cole and other warships off the coast of Lebanon has also been linked to Israel's raids in the Gaza Strip.
(And: Gaza op "not over")
Long-range rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli cities the past few days were manufactured in and imported from Iran, according to Israeli security officials speaking to WND.
What is the USS Cole doing off the Lebanese coast?
The USS Cole isn't engaged in a sightseeing tour of the Eastern Mediterranean: its sudden deployment just "over the horizon" near Lebanon – in tandem with 2 other warships – is a clear sign that the Americans are preparing for something big.
The Saudis, the Kuwaitis, and the government of Bahrain have all warned their citizens to get out of Lebanon, pronto. What's curious, however, is that, while it's big news in the Arab world, this "visit" by a guided-missile destroyer and accompanying flotilla has received scant attention in the US news media. What's going on?
Gaza, however, is just one prong in the US-Israeli "surge." The main immediate target is Syria, not Gaza or Lebanon – and, standing behind them, Iran. The Americans and their Israeli allies have tried every sort of provocation to stir the Lebanese pot and lure the Syrians back into Lebanon, where a proxy war is brewing.
The USS Cole and accompanying warships are not merely making a strong gesture; they have also effectively blockaded the Lebanese coast and will surely be intercepting any arms coming from Turkey or elsewhere, readying the battleground for the Israeli incursion.
The first stages of the coming conflict with Iran will be fought as a proxy war in Lebanon against Hezbollah and Syria. The dogs of war are straining at the leash.
Reports circulating in the Kremlin today are stating that the President Bush and his Israeli counterpart Prime Minister Olmert, are preparing for the "imminent" outbreak of Total World War by the launching of invasions in both Syria and Lebanon in order to topple their governments and seize control of their vital OIL pipelines.
Most extraordinary, however, about these reports, according to their FSB Middle East sources, is that this new warning was issued to President Ahmadinejad during his visit to Iraq, by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, who made an "unannounced emergency trip to Baghdad to meet the Iranian leader.
Coinciding with these new warnings of World War was the US abrupt order to the Germans this past week to remove their Naval Forces from off the coast of Lebanon
The US on Sunday expressed grave concern over the remark made by Pakistan's Interior Minister, in which he said that the common perception in Pakistan was that the US, Afghanistan and India were involved in the continuing terrorist activities and lawlessness being carried out on Pakistani soil.
US military planes have attacked a Somali town near the Kenyan border overnight. A local leader said two missiles had been fired from the aircraft.
On March 14, over 43.2 millions of Iranian eligible voters may flock to the polls to elect the 8th Majlis, or Parliament. The spin in the international press has been that, since many reformist candidates have been axed from the lists, the entire vote will be a charade. This is not accurate.
True, a hefty number of aspiring candidates had been eliminated from the contest, by the Guardians Council, which according to the Islamic Republic's constitution, has the function of vetting candidates.
Westerners, especially Americans, may self-righteously huff and puff and complain about such procedures in Iran. But they might also take a hard and honest look at the ongoing US election campaign, and reflect on how politically viable candidates have been marginalized and eliminated by the combination of the press and the money spigots.
Uppermost in voters' minds, along with the nuclear issue, is the economic crisis which is hitting not only Iran, but the world as a whole.
President Ahmadinejad said that some Western countries were using Iran's nuclear activity as a pretext to pressure his country. "They don't care about the nuclear programme, they're just looking for pretexts against Iran. Of course, we don't care what they think now. Not only do we think the era of atomic weapons is over, we have no interest in building them because we think they go against the rights and the dignity of human beings."
The dispatch of Prince Harry to Afghanistan's Helmand province was as naked a piece of political propaganda as could be imagined.
(And: Propaganda, PR claims)
The other day I ran across the words of the ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, who once wrote, "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life." I began to wonder how his words would have to be altered based on each of the Republican and Democrat presidential candidates – along with some of the more obscure parties and current politicians – general philosophies.
Ron Paul: "Give a man a fish domestically, and feed him for a day. Give a man a fish overseas, and you'll destabilize the dollar, the price of a fishing pole will triple and nobody will be able to afford the fishing class you were going to use to teach people to fish. None of this, by the way, is mentioned in the Constitution."
(And: Ron Paul as prophet)
At a time when the US is deeply involved militarily in the Middle East, serious, balanced and in-depth coverage of this region and its people remain elusive. The political campaigns, especially among conservative Republicans, have aggravated an already grim situation.
The "American Religious Landscape Survey 2007" indicates that the nation's Protestant majority is in a death spiral. Moving rapidly to fill this void, leftist ideologues are infecting public schools and colleges with their own godless worldview. The Bible, embraced [but not followed!] by Christians the world over, proclaims that a child becomes like his teacher when he grows up.
European and Asian stock markets have fallen as investors continue to worry about a possible US recession.
The verdict is in. The Fed's emergency rate cuts in January have failed to halt the downward spiral towards a full-blown debt deflation. Much more drastic action will be needed. Yields on 2-year US Treasuries plummeted to 1.63% on Friday in a flight to safety, foretelling financial winter.
The debt markets are freezing ever deeper, a full 8 months into the crunch. Contagion is spreading into the safest pockets of the US credit universe. As the once unthinkable unfolds, the leaders of global finance dither. The Europeans are frozen in the headlights: trembling before a false inflation; cowed by an atavistic Bundesbank; waiting passively for the Atlantic storm to hit.
Half the eurozone is grinding to a halt. Italy is slipping into recession. Property prices are flat or falling in Ireland, Spain, France, southern Italy and now Germany. French consumer moral is the lowest in 20 years. As Le Figaro wrote last week, the survival of monetary union is in doubt. Yet still, the ECB waits; still the German-bloc governors breathe fire about inflation.
The Fed is now singing from a different hymn book, warning of the "possibility of some very unfavourable outcomes". Inflation is not one of them. "There probably will be some bank failures," said Ben Bernanke. As he spelled out in November 2002, the Fed can inject money by purchasing great chunks of the bond market.
Section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act allows the bank - in "exigent circumstances" - to lend money to anybody, and take upon itself the credit risk. It has not done so since the 1930s. Ultimately the big guns have the means to stop descent into an economic Ice Age. But will they act in time?
(And: Rising euro is a concern)
Every time we get a positive statistic, we have to cut it in half to arrive at the truth, and every time we get a negative statistic, we have to double it to get the real picture.
In an election year, recessions are the kiss of death for the incumbent administration, hence the banishing of the R word. A recession is defined by two consecutive quarters of negative GNP growth, a depression of 4 consecutive quarters of negative GNP growth.
President Chavez ordered tanks and thousands of troops sent to Venezuela's border with Colombia on Sunday, accusing his neighbor of pushing South America to the brink of war and saying his government's embassy in Bogota will be closed.
"Mr. Defense Minister, move 10 battalions to the border with Colombia for me, immediately - tank battalions, deploy the air force," Chavez said during his weekly TV and radio program. "We don't want war, but we aren't going to permit the US empire, which is the master (of Colombia) ... to come divide us."
"This is something very serious. This could be the start of a war in South America," he said. He warned Colombian President Alvaro Uribe: "If it occurs to you to do this in Venezuela, President Uribe, I'll send some Sukhois" - Russian warplanes recently bought by Venezuela.
(And: "This is an alarming degeneration in the region and has ominous overtones that could lead to provocative developments. This is a situation that's unraveling and both sides need to stand back or it could degenerate into confrontation.")
Today in Scripture
"On the 24th day of the 11th month, in the 2nd year of Darius, the word of YAHWEH came to the prophet Zechariah..." (Zech 1:7-6:15)
E-mail format for military: YAHOO! WARriors
WAR fund: PayPal (payable to thedailywarrior@gmail.com)
