Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
[WAR: Sitting in the Dragoon Mountains in SE Arizona conducting this WAR. Uh-oh ... here comes the Border Patrol up the trail. So I gotta go!...]
Pope Benedict XVI spoke on Saturday about the "emptiness" of modern times and called for a "New Europe" in which people, especially the young, could approach the "spiritual treasures" of religion.
Today's world was characterised by a "dangerous culture of emptiness and senselesness", the pope said in an address at the general meeting of the Benedictine order in Castel Gandolfo.
In the midst of problems ranging from juvenile violence to corruption, Panama needs the principles of Catholic social doctrine, says Benedict XVI. He affirmed this today when he received bishops of Panama in Rome for their 5-yearly visit.
He encouraged the prelates to "promote the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which facilitates a more profound and systematic knowledge of ecclesial guidelines, which the laity in particular must assume in the political, social and economic realm."
(Wiki: Catholic Social Teaching)
The Holy See's diplomatic relations form a part of her mission of service to the international community. Her engagement with civil society is anchored in the conviction that the task of building a more just world must recognize the supernatural vocation proper to every individual.
The Church therefore promotes an understanding of the human person who receives from God the capacity to transcend individual limitations and social constraints so as to recognize and uphold the universal values which safeguard the dignity of all and serve the common good.
Here is the text of a message sent to Muslims by the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. The message was sent on the occasion of the end of Ramadan.
There is no a priori incompatibility between the Bible and Darwin's theory of evolution, says the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
Archbishop Ravasi, also president of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church, affirmed this when he presented an upcoming international conference that will gather theologians and scientists to discuss Charles Darwin's theory.
When it comes to the creation, there are some ticklish problems about the detail of which beast arrived when.
[WAR: There are no "ticklish problems" when one realizes that dinosaurs were created by angels/demons when they inhabited the Earth before the events of the re-creation recorded in Genesis 1.]
Thousands of left-wing demonstrators gathered to protest against an extreme right-wing rally have clashed with police Cologne.
Violence erupted after the protesters tried to halt an "anti-Islamification" rally, which police eventually banned. The extreme-right Pro-Koeln group had sought to protest against plans to build one of Europe's biggest mosques.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has slammed US and British moves to bail out the troubled financial sector as undermining efforts to instill more transparency, in an interview to be published Monday.
"I criticise the perception that the financial markets have of themselves. Alas, they have opposed for too long the introduction of rules with the backing of the British and American governments. On top of national rules, we need more international agreements to stem irresponsible financial speculation."
Is the Roman Catholic Church a beleaguered underdog, fighting for a voice in secular Europe, or a still-mighty power, wielding its influence on European law through friendly center-right governments?
That question, which has been building throughout Pope Benedict XVI's 3-year-old papacy, came to the fore in his recent trip to France.
Yet even as the pope called for more animated discussion of church and state and more interreligious dialogue, no one, probably not even at the Vatican, expects Europe to become newly devout anytime soon.
The EU is one manifestation of European identity, but it is not the only one.
It is not an end in itself; nor an institutional device to be constantly modified according to the dictates of some abstract intellectual concept. To suppress nationhood and concentrate power at the centre of a European conglomerate would be highly damaging.
Voters don't know much about the European Union. What's more, they don't want to learn.
How, then, can the EU obtain consent? Two answers suggest themselves, both seemingly rather extreme. One involves much more federalism; the other is a strict commitment to keeping the EU as an intergovernmental club, in which national parliaments and national governments are dominant.
Two international research teams have compiled a genetic map of Europe, revealing little genetic diversity between the various nationalities. But the differences are enough to tell which country an individual comes from.
The EU will resume partnership talks with Russia as early as October if Moscow withdraws its troops from the Georgian mainland completely, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon after meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Israel's embattled prime minister, Ehud Olmert, today confirmed his resignation but will remain in power until a new government is formed.
Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu met Saturday evening with Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv.
They were expected to discuss recent political developments in the wake of Tzipi Livni's win in the Kadima primaries. Barak said he is interested in the formation of an emergency national unity government, yet Netanyahu rejected this option thus far.
President Zardari has said he will not allow Pakistan's territory to be violated by terrorists or foreign powers fighting them. "We will not tolerate the violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity by any power in the name of combating terrorism."
It appeared to be a message sent from Hell. The massive blast was heard 15 kilometres away.
Eyewitnesses have told the BBC that a vehicle crashed through the security barriers in front of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. The 290-room building was the scene of total carnage as the blast ripped into its facade, destroying everything in its path.
(And: Who was behind bombing?)
(And: Iran slams bombing)
Militants in Nigeria said Saturday they had destroyed a pipeline run by Royal Dutch Shell in the 6th attack of a declared "oil war," with the armed group vowing to reduce oil exports to "zero."
North Korea has stopped disabling the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and is making "thorough preparations" to restart it, a foreign ministry official has said. He said that Pyongyang had suspended work to put the plant out of action because the US had not fulfilled its part of a disarmament-for-aid deal.
President Ahmadinejad has proposed that the UN headquarters be moved to an independent state.
"The United Nations should be the organization of all nations not the organization of some powers and coalitions. All nations should have the right to vote and make decisions at the United Nations and Diplomatic relations should dominate all parts of the United Nations."
Russia will resist western pressure for tougher UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, it said yesterday. The announcement came after the Kremlin agreed to sell advanced antiaircraft systems to the Iranians.
On Friday, Governor Palin once again took the spotlight from the Republican presidential nominee and sang a brand new anti-Iran jingle: "Iran is planning a second Holocaust." Speaking at a campaign rally in Blaine, Minnesota, she told a crowd of 9,000 supporters that President Ahmadinejad plans to acquire nuclear weapons to use them against Israel.
John McCain will now be able to lure in evangelical Christian voters with Palin.
(Good!: Americans leaving churches in droves)
Homeless encampments dubbed "tent cities" are springing up across the US, partly in response to soaring numbers of home repossessions, the credit crunch and rising unemployment, according to a report.
On Tuesday, in the middle of the worst financial panic since the Great Depression, the kings of Wall Street held their last jamboree - in the midst of the end of the world as bankers knew it.
The panic subsided a fraction. But what's still not clear is whether we're going to be let down gently, or suffer more bank collapses and other shocks.
(Economist op-ed: What next?)
The market was 500 trades away from Armageddon on Thursday, traders inside two large custodial banks tell The Post.
Had the Treasury and Fed not quickly stepped into the fray that morning with a quick $105 billion injection of liquidity, the Dow could have collapsed to the 8,300-level - a 22% decline! - while the clang of the opening bell was still echoing around the cavernous exchange floor.
According to traders, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, money market funds were inundated with $500 billion in sell orders prior to the opening. The total money-market capitalization was roughly $4 trillion that morning.
The Fed's dramatic $105 billion liquidity injection on Thursday (pre-market) was just enough to keep key institutional accounts from following through on the sell orders and starting a stampede of cash that could have brought large tracts of the US economy to a halt.
(And: 7 days that shook the world)
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Sunday that the nation's still-frozen credit markets are very fragile and Congress must move quickly to pass a $700 billion bailout package for financial firms.
(Q&A: Bailout plan explained)
(And: WSWS on the bailout)
"It's more of the same. More debt and more inflation and more pressure on the dollar. Ultimately, although the markets are responding very favorably at the moment, I think it is going to be devastating to the dollar and to our financial situation in this country."
(And: Rescue plan will not work)
We all know that the Fed is trying to stick the American taxpayers with trillions of dollars in debt (direct or through inflation) to bail out the Wall Street robber barons. But did you know that they are also trying to get you to bail out foreign gamblers?
(And: Foreign banks may get help)
Measures taken to deal with last week's devastating financial falls may only be storing more trouble.
Is that it? One minute, the world stands on the brink of financial apocalypse - the future of capitalism in jeopardy. The next, governments spend $1 trillion or so bailing out the lucky banks left standing; share prices bounce back with a single leap to where they were before the crisis and a few scapegoats are strung from the nearest lamppost. Dogs bark, the caravan moves on.
The biggest irony is that just as the US Treasury is now standing behind the US banking system as the lender of last resort, the Chinese government stands behind the US Treasury as its lender of last resort.
Were the Chinese to stop recycling their giant trade surplus by buying up US government debt, the resulting panic could make last week's crisis look like a storm in a teacup.
It was the end of the worst week for financial markets since 1929.
So rather than help solve the crisis, the Treasury has actually contributed to the biggest problem in the market right now: an utter lack of confidence.
Nobody understands who owes what to whom - or whether they have the ability to pay. Counterparties have become afraid to trade with each other.
Sovereign wealth funds are no longer willing to supply badly needed capital because they no longer know what they are investing in.
The crisis continues because nobody knows what anything is worth. You simply cannot have a functioning market under such circumstances.
It is no surprise the mood on the markets is manic depressive. One day the commentators say we are all doomed, then they take heart again.
It is hard to grasp the sheer magnitude of the events of the past week. In the land of the brave and the free market, they have nationalised their biggest insurer and much of the housing market.
Two of the remaining 4 Wall Street investment banks have disappeared. The remaining 2 are threatened.
What a week. Within 5 breathless days, global capitalism teetered on the brink of the abyss, tipped over into systemic failure – and then yesterday bounced back.
The turmoil has claimed tens of thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands, of victims.
The reputation of Wall Street and the City has been fundamentally damaged. The collapse of the banks has revealed the depth of the public's distrust – and dislike – of bankers.
Most important of all, a chapter of ungoverned globalisation has closed. The crisis was, in many ways, triggered by financial forces far from Wall Street.
The contradiction in all this, of course, is that the response to a global problem has been singularly American.
The US Government, headed by a Republican president, has abandoned conservative economic doctrine and announced, in effect, a willingness to nationalise the banks' bad debts. This is a new New Deal that would make Franklin D. Roosevelt blush.
So, here we are - the start of a new world order. After the tumultuous events of the last fortnight, the global economic landscape will never look the same again.
With 1 in 10 US mortgages now "delinquent" or "in foreclosure", and house prices still falling, such "toxic waste" is burning holes in balance sheets wherever it sits. That's why this crisis is far from over.
Despite the torrent of cash the US has directed at the credit markets, longer-term inter-bank rates have stayed stubbornly high, and some have gone up further. In other words, even the banks themselves don't think the rescue plan will work. Expect more - and bigger - liquidity operations in weeks to come.
How much more can the US taxpayer take? It sounds insane, but the liabilities being taken on by the Fed and the US Treasury are now so enormous that the government itself could default.
Yes siree, the mighty US government could default. That's how much the world has changed.
The fallout from the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers
When Warren Buffett said that derivatives were "financial weapons of mass destruction", this was just the kind of crisis the investment seer had in mind.
A bankruptcy the size of Lehman's has three potential impacts on the $62 trillion credit-default swaps (CDS) market, where investors buy insurance against corporate default.
All of them would have been multiplied many times had AIG failed too. The insurer has $441 billion in exposure to credit derivatives. A lot of this was provided to banks, which would have taken a hit to their capital had AIG failed.
Small wonder the Federal Reserve had to intervene.
Officials from the Treasury and the Fed and members of Congress intend to spend the weekend hammering out the details. Be afraid, be very afraid.
If, as anticipated, the Treasury moves next to assume the rotten paper currently being held by banks and other lenders, then it is fair to conclude that the government has given up entirely on the free market and has decided to occupy the wasteland where outright socialism and economic fascism meet.
The question is: How many times can the government race its emergency bailout vehicle toward the cliff without dragging the entire economy irretrievably into the abyss of outright socialism or full-fledged, Mussolini-style economic fascism?
To call this a roller-coaster fails to do justice to the scariness of the ride. The eternal verities of capitalism have been challenged by the country most wedded to free enterprise.
Any one of these panicky, though decisive, interventions would have had enormous consequences for the financial system; taken together, they are truly astounding.
In a special 9-page report, we look at how the global financial system has fallen into the grip of panic.
(And: The last resort)
Failed American investment bank Lehman Brothers is rumoured to have made a distress call to Warren Buffett to rescue it, but the legendary investor politely hung up as he did not see good returns.
France and President Sarkozy had plenty of economic problems already, but America's economic crisis has only added to the uncertainty.
"France wasn't in the eye of the storm and the center from which the toxic waste came," said Daniel Cohen, a professor of economics. "But we're going to get a fair amount in the face. And Europe may at the end of the day be hit worse than the United States."
Sarkozy has announced a major speech on the economy for Thursday, but his aides don't yet know what he is going to say.
The EU's economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, has said Europe should not employ what he called "financial socialism" to solve the ongoing banking crisis by bailing out failing companies. "Socialists like me, we are against financial socialism."
It's a rare day when finance officials, leftist intellectuals and ordinary salespeople can agree on something. But the economic meltdown that wrought its wrath from Rome to Madrid to Berlin this week brought Europeans together in a harsh chorus of condemnation of the excess and disarray on Wall Street.
What Russia's stockmarket collapse means for Russia and for its neighbours.
Russia is seeking to work with OPEC in a move that will unnerve European countries worried that Moscow is seeking to raise the oil price and control energy supplies.
More than 10,000 marched in the Swedish city of Malmoe on Saturday in a demonstration against the excesses of globalisation, organised as part of the European Social Forum being held there.
The Economist
Special Report on Globalization:
Globalisation is entering a new phase, with emerging-market companies now competing furiously against rich-country ones.
Why rich-world multinationals think they can stay ahead of the newcomers.
Not without its flaws, but infinitely preferable to the state-bound version.
Coming to grips with sovereign-wealth funds.
[CFR Opinion Roundup][Newseum][Global Incident Map][Earthweek][Day-Night Map][Tonight's Sky][Moon phase]
[Latest edition of The Religion WAR]
Interactive map of Arctic's resources and the territorial claims.
The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva will be out of action for at least 2 months, the European Organization for Nuclear Research says.
Part of the giant physics experiment was turned off for the weekend while engineers probed a magnet failure. But a spokesman said damage to the $6.6bn particle accelerator was worse than anticipated.
The first beams were fired successfully around the accelerator's 16.7 miles underground ring over a week ago. The crucial next step is to collide those beams head on.
However, the fault appears to have ruled out any chance of these experiments taking place for the next 2 months at least.
The September equinox falls Monday at 3:44 p.m. Universal Time, when the sun leaves the northern half of the celestial sphere and enters the southern half. The sun is crossing the celestial equator.
(And: Due east/west?)
(Wiki: Equinox)
[WAR: Yes, it's that time of year (tropical) again -- when the pagans get all giddy about that never-before-seen event: the Sun crossing the non-existent equator. But what's so sad/bad, is that there are sooo many people that try to observe the appointed times who use this same equinox as a time marker.
But how can an unobservable non-event be used as a sign to determine the holy days? HOW?!
Genesis 1:14 is as plain-as-DAY about what is supposed to be used for marking "seasons, days and years": "LightS in the expanse of the sky" -- and not shadows on the soil cast by an stick/obelisk/Asherah-pole/steeple, nor grains in the ground (which are subject to all kinds of variables)!
"My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge" (Hos 4:6) WHY? Because they "reject it" by refusing to look up and see that "night after night they display knowledge" (Psa 19:2).
But!, His people brag: "We are wise, for we have the law of YAHWEH."
But nothing!, YAHWEH replies: "The lying pen of the scribes have handled it falsely" (Jer 8:8), and this is the reason why "I cannot bear your evil assemblies (New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations)", "hate" "your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts," and why "they have become a burden to Me; and I'm weary of bearing them" (Isa 1:13,14).]
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