Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
German politicians welcomed Barack Obama's decision to nominate his senatorial colleague Joseph Biden as his vice-presidential running mate.
The foreign policy spokesman of the Social Democrats in parliament said that Biden's nomination was a good signal for Europe. "He would never make the same categorizations as former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who spoke of an Old and New Europe."
Romanian President Basescu has strongly criticized the West's policy on the Caucasus, joining a growing number of voices which claim the West's recognition of Kosovo's independence created the problem.
He is not alone in linking the current problems in the Caucasus to the West's handling of Kosovo. Analysts believe that if Russia recognizes Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia then the West's backing of Kosovo's independence move this year will have played a key role.
"With the recognition of Kosovo, they opened Pandora's box," said the head of Russia's mission to NATO.
If the Bush administration proceeds with its plan to deploy its Missile Defense System in Poland, Russian Prime Minister Putin will be forced to remove it militarily. He has no other option.
The proposed system integrates the the entire US nuclear arsenal into one operational-unit a mere 115 miles from the Russian border. It's no different than Khrushchev's plan to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba in the 1960s.
Nuclear weapons specialist, Francis A. Boyle, says the Bush administration's plans represent the "longstanding US policy of nuclear first-strike against Russia." Bush's real goal is to force Moscow to conform to Washington's diktats or face the prospect of first-strike nuclear annihilation. Putin must respond.
Russian forces were still deployed deep inside Georgia Saturday, keeping their grip on a strategic port city, as Moscow continued to brush aside Western accusations it was failing to abide by a ceasefire deal. The latest focus of international tension was the Black Sea, where NATO naval exercises are taking place.
Today's Russia is not a resurgent imperial power. In the post-Cold War period, it was Washington, not Moscow, which started the game of acting outside the UN Security Council to pursue coercive regime change in problem states and redraw the borders of nominally sovereign countries.
The US has said it is "very concerned" about reports that Russia was planning to sell weapons to Syria.
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, now plans to visit Moscow in early September to try to persuade President Dmitry Medvedev to abandon any arms deal.
Pakistan's coalition government is looking increasingly shaky after an aide to Nawaz Sharif, leader of one party in the goverment, said his PML-N party was inclined to pull out.
Press TV's exclusive interview with Hamid Gul, a retired general who served as head of the Pakistani military's Inter-Service Intelligence, on his opinion about the reason behind the recent escalating violence in Pakistan.
The Taliban stepped up attacks on US-led coalition forces this week, prompting Washington to increase pressure on Pakistan to rein in its "rogue" military intelligence agency.
Senior US officials have leaked to the media Washington's frustration with the Pakistani government's inability to control the Taliban's alleged backers, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate. But the civilian government is powerless to confront the agency.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei on Saturday praised the country's government for resisting international pressure on the Islamic republic to halt its controversial nuclear programme.
"Some domineering countries and their worthless followers want to get their own way with the Iranian nation, but the nation, the president and the government have stood up to them."
President Ahmadinejad renewed his verbal attacks on arch-foe Israel, accusing it of dragging the world into turmoil and predicting its demise. "About 2,000 organised Zionists and 7,000 to 8,000 agents of Zionism have dragged the world into turmoil." He said that if the West does not restrain Zionism, "the powerful hand of the nations will clean these sources of corruption from the face of the earth."
Whatever hopes the Bush administration may have had for using its post-9/11 "war on terror'' to impose a new Pax Americana on Eurasia, and particularly in the unruly areas between the Caucasus and the Khyber Pass, appear to have gone up in flames – in some cases, literally – over the past 2 weeks.
"The list of foreign policy failures this week is breathtaking." The Russian move on Georgia, in particular, signaled ''the end of the Pax Americana – the era in which the United States more or less maintained a monopoly on the use of military force."
Is this legal filing on Obama's birth certificate part of a carefully prepared ploy to trigger a crisis at the Democratic Convention? The suit was filed in Philadelphia 5 days prior to the Democratic Convention.
Philip Berg is close to Hillary Clinton. Is this action being launched because Hillary Clinton was not chosen as Obama's running mate for the office of the Vice President? Will the law suit be allowed to proceed?
Are the Republicans supportive of this initiative? Will the lawsuit be used by the McCain campaign? The mainstream media has not covered the issue. There is barely mention of the lawsuit in America's main news sources.
Whatever...
A most interesting report received today from Bishop Michael of Geneva and Western Europe Diocese, a member of the Council of Bishops, Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, is claiming that that Barak Obama's choice of Senator Joseph Biden for his Vice President 'clearly shows' that the Vatican is vying for control of the US for the first time since their last attempt ended with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Senator Biden was born of Irish Catholic ancestry, educated by the Catholic Norbertine Order at one of their most prestigious, and secretive, schools named Archmere Academy, became one of youngest ever elected US Senators, and has full control of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee which is comprised entirely of Roman Catholics.
(And: Obama, Biden bound)
The latest Zogby poll shows support for Obama among Catholics remains low at 36%, while Catholic respondents support McCain at a rate of 45%. A July 9-13 poll found that 47% of Catholics supported Obama.
Not only does religion have a place in the public square, a democracy needs the input of religious morals and convictions to remain healthy and strong, says the archbishop of Denver.
Taking religion out of play, adds Archbishop Chaput, author of "Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life," is the fastest way to destroy a democracy.
In this interview with Zenit, he talks about the ideas put forth in his book on Catholics and politics, and comments on what he thinks are the important issues facing voters this November.
The country is sliding inexorably into the jaws of a deep recession. The Telegraph confirms what many of the doomsayers have been saying for more than a year now; we're facing a severe bout of deflation.
It's August. Nothing is meant to happen. Global markets are supposed to be asleep. If only that were true. There is alarming new evidence that the credit squeeze, far from abating, is tightening its vice-like grip.
The latest Federal Reserve data shows that between April and June, American banks significantly tightened their lending standards and are about to do so even more - across all types of credit.
Not known for hyperbole, the IMF suggests total write-offs by all US banks could reach $1,000bn before this episode is over. Serious industry experts think $2,000bn is more likely - 4 times what we've seen so far.
Over the coming months, US banks will have to increase their loan loss provisions even more - which, of course, will further depress their share prices and ability to raise new capital. That's why a major banking crisis is brewing.
And then there's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - which, between them, own or guarantee a mind-boggling $5,300bn of US mortgages - half of all outstanding home loans. As defaults have risen, these quasi-private lenders have swallowed massive losses - they've lost 90% of their value in 12 months - and are now in grave danger of collapse.
That would spark systemic meltdown - which is why Congress recently passed a bill allowing an unprecedented taxpayer funded bailout.
Such drastic events are now almost unavoidable and could very soon be upon us. And when they happen, a sense of shock will pervade not only the US financial sector, but the Western world and, in fact, the entire global economy.
(And: Kansas bank fails)
Crude oil prices fell more than 5.4% on Friday in the biggest one-day slide since 2004 as dealers turned their focus to rising supply levels and weakening global demand. US crude fell $6.59 to settle at $114.59 a barrel. London Brent crude fell $6.24 to $113.92 a barrel.
[CFR Opinion Roundup][Newseum][Global Incident Map][Earthweek][Day-Night Map][Tonight's Sky][Moon phase]
[Latest edition of The Religion WAR]
I've no doubt that God created the South for the sole purpose of the good life, and it's too bad that the devil came along and made us all have to waste so much time working.
In the morning, when you're hauling yourself out of bed to go to work, just remember that it is Eve's fault. She had paradise, but, being the mother of all women, she was, of course, not quite satisfied. It's one of those traits that is both annoying and charming at the same time.
The old-fashioned attitudes and hierarchies of churches are causing a steep decline in the number of female worshippers, according to an academic study. It says that instead young women are becoming attracted to the pagan religion Wicca, where females play a central role, which has grown in popularity after being featured positively in films, TV shows and books.
The report's author said: "In short, women are abandoning the church. Because of its focus on female empowerment, young women are attracted by Wicca, popularised by the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
Puuuuh-leaze!...
Is it possible the entire world is just plain wrong when it comes to the current method of counting of days, weeks and months?
At least 2 Christian women on the Pacific Coast think so, as they claim God's original calendar set into motion at Creation is not based on a continuous 7-day week.
Their belief is that the "true" system of counting time is tied to what is called a "lunisolar" calendar, based upon both the sun and phases of the moon. They contend every new moon restarts the 7-day cycle, rather than having a continuous 7-day cycle which currently runs the world.
The theory suggests whatever day of the week the new moon occurs on, that particular day becomes "Day One" of the month.
[WAR: I haven't read their particular writings yet, but I know the argument. And there is no possible way that this could be true. Why? Because the 4th Commandment says that we're to work 6 days and rest on the 7th. And this is a continuously repeating cycle: work 6, rest 1. There's nothing here, or anywhere in the Bible, that makes the count dependent on any other factor or point of reference.
The lunar cycle is not divisible by 7 days (not 28-days long), so there's always going to be 1 or 2 extra days at the end of the 29/30-day month that have to be dealt with -- are they days of work or rest, or just not counted? So it is utterly beyond all possibility to work 6 days and rest on the 7th according to the cycles of the Moon.
Besides, the events of Exodus 16 prove that the 7-day weekly cycle is not tied to any astronomical cycle -- hence the miracle of manna every morning. And let's not forget Gen 1:14: "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years." Notice that the words "week", "month" or "moon" are not listed. Why is this?!
Back to Exo 16: This count started on the 16th day of the month, which means that the Sabbath Day, 7 days later, would've been on the 22nd day of the month. And this means that the 15th and 8th and 1st days of that month would've been the Sabbath Day also. But if the 1st day of that month was the Sabbath Day, then how can you possibly start the weekly count on the 7th day?!!
Back to Exo 16: This count started on the 16th day of the month, which means that the Sabbath Day, 7 days later, would've been on the 22nd day of the month. And this means that the 15th and 8th and 1st days of that month would've been the Sabbath Day also. But if the 1st day of that month was the Sabbath Day, then how can you possibly start the weekly count on the 7th day?!!
(And by the way, Exodus 16 also proves that the day starts in the morning -- not at sunset.)
During my stay here in Kentucky, I've been doing a lot of review/research on the Biblical and Gregorian calendar issues, and am absolutely certain -- convinced beyond any doubts whatsoever -- that the original/true calendar (revealed in scripture, but sullied by the scribes and tainted by tradition) is a "luni-sidereal" one, based upon the phases of the Moon and the seasons/cycles of the stars -- with the Sun being used only for telling the progression of the day.]
WAR e-mail format for military: YAHOO! WARriors
WAR fund: PayPal (payable to thedailywarrior@gmail.com)
