Tuesday

The Daily WAR (11-25)

Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
 
 
 
What's wrong with these people?!...
    The body of the mystic monk Padre Pio, one of the Roman Catholic world's most revered saints who died 40 years ago, has been exhumed to be prepared for display to his many devotees.
    A Church statement said the body was in "fair condition", particularly the hands, which "looked like they had just undergone a manicure". The body, which had been buried under marble in a crypt, was exhumed during a 3-hour service that ended after midnight. [Just like true pagans!]
    A Catholic magazine once found that far more Italian Catholics prayed to Padre Pio than to any other icon of the faith, including the Virgin Mary or Jesus.
 
    Alitalia president Maurizio Prato has been named as the Vatican's international financial controller by Pope Benedict XVI. The vice director of the Holy See's Press Office said Prato, who has been a financial advisor to the Vatican already for some time, will be responsible for examining the Vatican's accounts and balance sheets.
    As a member of the council of international controllers that review the Vatican's finances, he will offer his services free of charge. Prato is considered one of the most competent Italian businessmen.
 
    The first Catholic Church in an Arab Muslim emirate will be dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. On March 14, Cardinal Dias will officiate at the ceremony in Doha, the capital of Qatar. The country, which has 800,000 inhabitants, established diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 2003
 
    Muslim representatives and Vatican officials begin talks this week that they hope will lead to an unprecedented Catholic-Islamic meeting. Five representatives from each side will meet today and Wednesday in Rome to work out the details of a larger meeting that will include Pope Benedict later this year.
    After the fallout from the pope's Regensburg speech, 138 Muslim scholars and leaders wrote to the Bavarian-born Pontiff and other Christian leaders last year, saying "the very survival of the world itself" may depend on dialogue between the 2 faiths.
 
    Religious conflict rages on, despite claims we live in a "secular age" -- 2 authors explore the clash of beliefs.
 
 
 
    In a Spiegel interview, Chancellor Merkel talks about the new political landscape in Germany with the onslaught of the far-left Left Party, the possibility of the conservatives and Greens governing together, calls for Germany to beef up its deployment in Afghanistan and recent Paris-Berlin tensions.
 
    The leadership of the Social Democrats has given near-unanimous backing to party chairman Kurt Beck, whose poll ratings slumped after he dropped his opposition to cooperating with the Left Party. Top SPD members are now busy mending internal rifts over Beck's U-turn.
 
    Bavaria's conservative Christian Social Union party has suffered big defeats in local elections in Munich and Nuremberg. The cities' Social Democratic mayors were returned with substantially increased margins. Sunday's election was seen as the first test for the new CSU leadership.
 
    Porsche has said it will take a controlling stake in Volkswagen, in a deal that is potentially worth almost €10bn ($15.2bn).
 
    Germany has promised to send combat troops for the Quick Reaction Force in northern Afghanistan. But an internal memo obtained by Spiegel shows that more soldiers are needed than previously thought -- meaning that Germany will need to raise its maximum troop limit.
 
 
 
Provocation from Paris
    It's not just President Sarkozy's abrupt cancellation of a planned summit with Chancellor Merkel that is ruffling feathers -- many of his recent foreign policy proprosals have also found little enthusiasm in Berlin. French-German relations are suffering as a result.
    Tith Sarkozy having been in office for less than a year, fears that the man in charge at Elysée Palace isn't completely reliable have been confirmed. It has been a long time since a French president has so sorely tested the patience of the German government.
    Sarkozy likes to invoke the "great friendship" that he insists unites him with "dear Angela," but what he then says and does is often anything but friendly, at least from a German perspective. Most of his ideas are received in Berlin as provocations.
    But now Sarkozy's impulsiveness has truly infuriated the Germans. Many in Berlin now wonder if he is at all interested in good relations with his German neighbors after he cancelled a long-planned meeting with Merkel in the Bavarian town of Straubing.
 
    President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel, appear to have reached a deal on 2 key issues, with both leaders on Monday referring to the friendship between the 2 countries after months of cool relations. They reached agreement on France's planned Mediterranean union and on how to approach European Commission proposals to reduce pollution from new cars.
    They patched up their differences on France's proposed union of Mediterranean countries, with Paris having watered down the original plan following public criticism by Merkel. She said the project "is to be called Mediterranean Union", adding that it "should be a project of all 27 member states."
 
    Bertie Ahern, the prime minister of Ireland, has emerged as a possible candidate for the Europe Union's first full-time president amid uncertainty over whether the bloc is seeking a global figure like Tony Blair or a lower-profile fixer.
    Speculation about Ahern and several other likely contenders has underlined the lack of clarity over what type of person the EU wants as its new figurehead. "There is no consensus on what the profile of a candidate should be, or on whether that person should be from a country that participates in all aspects of European integration."
 
    Serbia's Foreign Minister stressed that his country will never recognize Kosovo as an independent country. "We will employ all diplomatic and political means at our disposal to hinder, obstruct and ultimately reverse the unilateral, illegal and illegitimate declaration of independence of our southern province."
    He also condemned those countries that recognized Kosovo's "illegal and illegitimate declaration of independence." As a result of the recognition, the innate operating logic of the international system had come under direct attack, he said.
 
    Ukraine has said it may restrict Russian gas supplies to Europe if gas monopoly Gazprom goes ahead with further cuts in Ukrainian supply. A large proportion of the gas Russia sells to Europe passes through pipelines in Ukraine.
 
    The German government has given a cautious welcome to new Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, stressing that it looks forward to working with him but also criticizing the conduct of the election. German business has high hopes that he will tackle reforms.
 
 
 
    "The war between Israelis and the Arabs made it impossible for them to stay," says an Israeli historian of the almost 1 million Jews who had lived in Arab countries for several millennia prior to 1948.
    Jewish populations, who once were a significant and largely harmonious minority presence in countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Iran, migrated en masse following the establishment of Israel in 1948.
    Why did they go? Some argue that the Zionist movement, at the time predominantly European, recruited those Jews to the cause of settling Israel and setting up underground movements in Arab countries with that purpose in mind.
    Significant numbers of Jews in such countries were not Zionists, but rather members of the Communist or nationalist movements, joining the struggle against the colonial rule that dominated the Middle East at that time.
 
    After failing to anticipate Hamas's victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs.
    President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever.
 
    Like a macabre jigsaw puzzle, the pieces for a generalized Middle East flare-up are slowly -- and dangerously -- falling into place. All the ingredients are there: Relations between Saudi Arabia and Syria have reached a breaking point over Damascus' interference in Lebanese political affairs; Israel is threatening an all-out assault on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Hamas' shelling of Israeli population centers; and the US is perceived as reverting to gunboat diplomacy in the Mediterranean.
    The rising tension in the Middle East comes as the US deployed the USS Cole and 2 other warships to the eastern Mediterranean in a show of force that has brought criticism from both supporters and opponents of US policy in the region.
 
    The withdrawal of US and other Western forces from Iraq would be the only way to enable peace and security in Iraq and Persian Gulf region, President Ahmadinejad said Monday in Baghdad.
    "The world powers whose forces came (to Iraq) should leave the region and let regional governments do their job. Since the occupation, the people of Iraq have seen nothing but destruction and division. The people and their elected governments in the region, including Iraq, are quite capable of running their affairs by themselves and without the presence and interference of outsiders."
    "The US officials just talk too much. For us their accusations are not important as they are solely based on false information. But I would still like to give the US a friendly piece of advice. Accusing others for one's own failures has never solved any problems."
 
    Iran has called on the international community to take immediate action to end Israel's crimes and genocide against the Palestinians.
    "Totally disregarding all legal commitments, international conventions and regulations, officials of the usurping regime take advantage of the silence of countries and indifference of international circles responsible for protection of the basic rights of all nations. They systematically engage in brutal behavior, imposing an all-out blockade of Gaza and putting the oppressed people of Palestine under every conceivable political and economic pressure."
 
    Sudanese forces have clashed with troops from the EU Force in Chad after they crossed the border into the Darfur region, Sudan says. The EU Force (Eufor) says it was trying to recover one of its vehicles which had accidentally strayed into Sudan.
 
 
 
    Prime Minister Olmert said Tuesday that Israel had the power to defend itself against the Iranian threat. Responding to the UN Security Council's decision Monday to impose a new round of sanctions on Tehran, he said, "Israel can defend itself against any threat, but the Iranian threat is not just on Israel, and that is why Europe and the United States, and eventually Russia and China as well, agreed to the sanctions."
 
    And Iranian Majlis deputy has said that the 3rd Security Council sanctions resolution on Iran was passed under the US pressure. He said Iran would neither accept nor implement the 'unlawful and legally unjustifiable' resolution.
    "The US and Western states think they can bring the Iranian people to their knees through pressure, but they would do well to know that our nation will not give in to their machinations. Our enemies should know that there's no possibility of a change in their favor in the firm determination of the Iranian nation, government and Majlis. Under no circumstances will the Iranian nation give up its right of access to peaceful nuclear technology and efforts toward scientific progress."
 
    The 5 permanent UN Security Council members and Germany want the EU's foreign policy chief to meet Iran's chief nuclear negotiator to try to resolve a nuclear impasse with Tehran.
 
    Disputes between IAEA member states over Iran's nuclear issue led to western nations dropping a draft resolution urging Iran to cooperate fully with the UN nuclear watchdog, diplomats in Vienna said.
 
    A new round of sanctions imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council for refusing to suspend nuclear enrichment will not affect China's trade with that country, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said today.
    "China, along with other countries, has trade exchanges with Iran. These trade exchanges are within the normal range of exchange and collaboration between sovereign nations. Thus they have no correlation with Iran's nuclear plans and also do not go against the UN Security Council's resolutions. We hope for such trade exchanges and request collaboration in such trade exchanges."
 
 
 
    The way matters stand in America today, the executive branch can falsely prosecute, frame up, and imprison members of Congress and governors of states at will, but itself cannot be held accountable to law.
    The case for impeaching Bush and Cheney – indeed the entire administration – is by far the most powerful and necessary case for impeachment that has ever existed. By declaring Bush unimpeachable, Pelosi is giving away Congress' only remaining power to prevent tyrannical rule by the executive branch.
    The Democrats naïvely believe that just one more year and the Bush Regime horror will be gone. But that is not the case.
 
    Barack Obama has promised to use the presidency as a "bully pulpit" for homosexual activism, according to an open letter released on his campaign website.
    In the February 28 letter posted under the "LGBT" section of the "People" heading, Obama said he would press for the passage of hate crime laws and a "fully inclusive" Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
    "As your President, I will use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws. I will never compromise on my commitment to equal rights for all LGBT Americans. But neither will I close my ears to the voices of those who still need to be convinced. That is the work we must do to move forward together. It is difficult. It is challenging. And it is necessary."
 
    It's got millions of rightwing citizens calling Congress, sponsoring legislation, and writing manifestos in defense of US sovereignty. It comes up in presidential candidates' public appearances, has made it into primetime debates, and Ron Paul used it as a central theme of his campaign. Not bad for a plan that doesn't exist.
    The North American Union (NAU) conspiracy theory is an offshoot of an all-too-real trilateral agreement called the "Security and Prosperity Partnership" (SPP). Cultivated by xenophobic fears and political opportunism, the NAU soon outstripped its reality-based progenitor. The confusion between them has made it difficult to sort out the facts. It's time to separate out false threats from real threats.
 
Going after "our" OIL?...
    Venezuela threatened to declare war on neighbouring Colombia, raising the prospect of the US being drawn into conflict in South America.
 
 
 
    The price of oil rose Monday to nearly $104 a barrel after the dollar fell to a historic low against the euro, setting a record and exceeding the inflation-adjusted high reached in the early 1980s during the 2nd oil shock.
    Oil prices are surging as investors seek refuge in commodities to offset a slowing US economy and declines in the dollar. Financial institutions, like pension funds and hedge funds, are also investing heavily in oil and other commodities as a hedge against a rise in inflation, analysts said.
    The immediate catalyst for the spike in energy prices is the drop in the value of the dollar. Currency traders are selling dollars and buying euros to take advantage of the difference in interest rates between the US and EU.
 
    The euro is overvalued and the European Central Bank needs a political counterweight to compensate for the fact that is it "ultra-powerful", the head of International Monetary Fund was quoted as saying.
    IMF director general Dominique Strauss-Kahn praised the ECB for containing inflation, but told Le Monde newspaper that eurozones countries needed to appoint a political supremo to make sure economic growth was promoted.
 
    The European Central Bank is unlikely to yield this week to the increasingly vocal complaints from politicians and companies in Europe and cut interest rates, a decision that is likely to keep the euro at its current lofty levels.
    Meeting in Brussels, the finance ministers of the Eurozone's 15 member countriess expressed alarm at the impact the euro's 16pc surge against the dollar and 12pc jump against sterling in the past 12 months will have on the region's economy.
 
    In fairness, President Bush, like all presidents, does not deserve all the blame (or credit) for the economy's performance under his watch. But Bush did not take any steps to seriously counteract these real economic problems.
    When Bush signed the stimulus package he finally acknowledged what the rest of us already knew: The economy is in real trouble - and it is about to go from bad to worse. The meltdown of the housing market has already led to record rates of foreclosures and multibillion-dollar write-downs at the country's leading financial institutions. But this is just the beginning. The current double-digit rate of house-price decline will destroy $2-4 trillion in additional housing wealth over the course of the year.
 
    The financial system is coming apart at the seams. The severity of the financial explosion suggests that the recession will be severe. A 2nd Great Depression may occur, especially if our leaders make further policy mistakes.
    The Fed played a big role, but the Fed is not independent. Congress created it, and it is answerable to Congress. The Executive co-ordinates closely with it, especially through the US Treasury.
 
    The big subprime losses at banks "confirm a broad feeling that something's not right," says the general secretary of Germany's Left Party, which rode discontent with the global economic order to unexpected success in state elections this winter. "The elites are making decisions that aren't tolerable."
    As credit woes endanger the world economy, they're giving Europeans another reason to resent US influence. Anti-Americanism was already simmering because of the Iraq war, dislike for President Bush, and mistrust of rampaging buyout firms.
    Now, Europe's pundits and politicians are feeding public perceptions that ordinary folks will be left paying the bill for the financial missteps of big banks. "This crisis shows why the market must be regulated. Left to itself, it often produces the worst."
    It's always hard to measure the practical impact of anti-Americanism on US businesses abroad. But this latest outburst could have repercussions.
    As popular European attitudes against the American and British brand of capitalism harden, governments may tilt left (it's already happening in Germany) and economic nationalism will get a boost, as it has in France.
    In recent years, Europeans have grudgingly accepted US-style reforms as necessary to compete in the global economy. Many of the tactics that led to the subprime crisis were cooked up in London.
 
    By any definition, there is a global glut of sugar. Yet this has not stopped sugar futures jumping 40% since December. Sugar has been swept up with the whole gamut of commodities - grains, metals, oil and gas - in a fevered surge of investment in futures contracts, regardless of the real demand from daily users.
    A commodity expert said the market had become unhinged. "Investors have made far too much of the link between sugar and biofuels. We've had one massive surplus after another, yet people still keep planting more cane. Brazil is the only country where ethanol is actually viable in cars. Everywhere else is building up sugar stocks in mere hope."
    The "culprit" is the new breed of commodity index funds. Together, the indexes now hold $200bn. The bullish case is strongest for the "Ags", above all grains such as soybeans, corn, and wheat.
    The world is adding 73 million mouths each year, yet arable land is running short. The US - the superpower of grain production - aims to divert 20% of its output to biofuels. China is paving over its most fertile acres in the east.
    Asian countries with a combined population of over 2.5bn people are rapidly moving up the food ladder, switching to an animal-protein diet like the Japanese before them. It takes 8.3 grams of animal feed to produce a 1g weight gain in cattle.
    Deeply alarmed, the UN is mulling plans to ration food aid to poor countries. "If you had any major crop upset this year, I believe you'd see famine," said William Doyle, head of Canada's Potash Corp.
 
    The world's food situation is bleak, and shortsighted policies in the US and other wealthy countries - which are diverting crops to environmentally dubious biofuels - bear much of the blame.
 
    The price of wheat has doubled in the past year - and it is not the only foodstuff trading at a high price on the international commodity market. Things have got so bad that aid agencies are having to rethink their programmes. The BBC's science correspondent looks at the reasons why the era of cheap food may be coming to an end.
 
 
 
    Six paradigms in the biomedical and climate sciences have become established orthodoxies. Some of them, like HIV/AIDS and the lipid hypothesis of coronary artery disease have achieved the status of dogma. Nevertheless, skeptics have raised valid questions about them.
    Scientists who question these paradigms are denied grants by peer review study panels. The reviewers enforce these state-sanctioned orthodoxies by rejecting applications for funding research that challenges them.
 
    Children's author Jacqueline Wilson said on Monday she thinks young people are growing up too quickly, an opinion backed up by a survey showing over half of parents think childhood is over by the age of 11. Teenagers are acting older at an "alarmingly young age," she said.
 
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    Generation X and Y is a generation of Lost Boys. We live in a Never-Never-Land where boys stay boys and never become men. The Art of Manliness is dedicated to helping men uncover what manliness means in the 21st century. What skills and knowledge should a 21st Century man acquire? What traits should they develop?
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