Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Pope Benedict XVI made a low profile but significant move in the direction of liturgical reform by completely renewing the roster of his liturgical advisors.
Prostitution is seen in all its seriousness and taken as a term of comparison to point out the gravity of the sin of those who stubbornly reject the truth.
An official of the Russian Orthodox Church says there are many similarities between Orthodox and Catholic social doctrine.
The Orthodox concept of the common good, the metropolitan continued, "is not reduced only to material well-being, to peace and harmony in earthly life, but refers primarily to man's and society's aspiration of eternal life, which is the highest good."
Money is only a means to an end, he added. It must always be moving, in circulation. "Genuine, totally exciting work, is the businessman's real wealth. The absence of the worship of money emancipates man, makes him free interiorly."
For decades, politics in Bavaria have been synonymous with the Christian Social Union. When voters go to the polls on Sunday, the party could lose an absolute majority it has maintained for decades. Is this the end of Germany's last bastion of old-fashioned conservatism?
Edmund Stoiber couldn't have found a better way to make it clear to his audience that his party lacks something: leadership, of the kind exuded by its legendary leaders of the past, men practically bursting with self-confidence.
Stoiber turned his attention to the CSU's sister party. Not much could be expected of the CDU, Stoiber complained, saying that Merkel's party had lost a lot of its substance.
And then Stoiber decided to show how things could be going. Puffing his chest out, he showed them how to campaign, even in difficult times, how to talk about success -- and how to get an audience fired up.
With the flags of Bavaria and Germany hanging behind him, Stoiber ended his speech to a resounding drum roll of applause. The people in the tent howled and clapped, stamped their feet and squealed with delight. For the space of one evening, the CSU's perfect world still seemed to exist.
In Strauss' and Stoiber's days, the Bavarian sister party was the bulky, awkward counterpart of the big CDU. It would speak up when a Christian Democratic chancellor in the capital deviated from the conservative path.
The CSU offered a home, under the umbrella of the CDU/CSU, to those who felt homeless in the CDU -- even outside Bavaria.
Stoiber and Strauss were fond of talking about how Bavaria could rise to world prominence. At his much-applauded appearance in Freising last week, Stoiber said that the election is not about capturing 50% or less than 50%. "It is about the claim our party, our party of the people, has to being a player at the federal policy level."
The CSU leadership duo would hardly survive an election result significantly lower than 50%. Even a return by Stoiber cannot be ruled out, at least to preside over the transition.
The Christian Democratic Union is concerned about support for its sister conservative party in Bavaria, the Christian Social Union. "We miss Stoiber."
The election being held for the state parliament in Bavaria today could have serious national political repercussions in Germany.
If the CSU falls under the 50% limit on Sunday or loses its majority in the state parliament, this will inevitably lead to a bitter struggle inside the party, which would spread beyond the CSU. It would also open old wounds in the CDU that party chair Angela Merkel has sought to suppress.
In particular, a revolt can be expected by the party's right wing, which has looked to the CSU to defend its interests and sees Merkel as too "left." This in turn would lead to increasing pressure on the conservative parties to quit their coalition with the SPD and call early elections.
Bavaria's state parliamentary elections haven't been this exciting for nearly half a century and may have ramifications that go well beyond the Alpine state's borders.
The CSU's fear of losing political clout after today's election is unfounded, says a leading German political scientist.
Fed up with government bickering and growing economic uncertainty, Austrian voters could hand the far right big gains in general elections today.
Last time he was in power, his nation became a pariah state. These days, Jörg Haider is more likely to praise the EU than the Nazis, although he and his party still hold controversial views about immigrants.
Jörg Haider used to be Austria's far-right scourge, the populist who could win elections. Now Heinz-Christian Strache, his former protégé, has stepped into his shoes. The 2 men hate each other, but dissatisfaction among Austrian voters today could give them unprecedented power.
German press review
Finance Minister Steinbrück delivered an impassioned speech before parliament Thursday denouncing greed and government failures for the US financial meltdown. But German commentators are asking for reassurance rather than more finger-pointing.
(And: FM: "Our economy will also suffer")
The rehabilitation of Benito Mussolini, Italy's wartime dictator, may not yet be complete — but it is not for want of trying.
There is, however, growing disquiet on the Left and among Jewish and Roman Catholic groups. They fear that neo-Fascists are taking advantage of a perceived shift to the right in Italy since elections last April, which brought to power a coalition headed by Silvio Berlusconi.
It includes not only the anti-immigrant Northern League, but also Alleanza Nazionale, the reformed descendant of Mussolini's Blackshirts.
Now Brussels has found a new explanation as to why Ireland voted down the European Union treaty in June - a CIA and Pentagon-backed plot, devised by American neoconservatives to weaken the EU.
The calls have been led by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the firebrand 1968 student leader turned Green MEP, who pointed to Irish press reports that "revealed there possibly exists a link between the financiers of the no campaign in Ireland and the Pentagon as well as the CIA.
He pointed to the right-wing Heritage Foundation in Washington as the intellectual source for the CIA's plans to derail European unity.
The European Parliament's delegation to the US will on its next trans-Atlantic visit ask Congress about allegations that the Irish anti-Lisbon Treaty campaign was funded out of America.
Russia's Foreign Minister has criticized the current security system in Europe calling for a more 'reliable' and 'collective' one. He proposed that a 'pan-European summit' be convened to take "a comprehensive look at security problems."
John McCain needs youth and sex appeal and religious right muscle to prevail. He needs Sarah Palin -- who happens to be an "end times" fundamentalist.
Barack Obama needs age and white hair and foreign policy muscle to prevail. He needs Joseph Biden -- who happens to be a self-professed Zionist.
Behold the twin "terrors" of the Holy Land: a sexy fundamentalist and a white-haired Zionist.
Come November Americans will choose 1 of 2 "terrors": the Middle East in flames to fulfill a biblical "end times" prophecy or the Middle East in flames to secure a biblical Eretz Yisrael.
A week after the bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel here, Pakistan is struggling to deal with a financial meltdown and a terrorism threat that has moved to the nation's heart and badly shaken confidence in the new government among Pakistanis, diplomats and investors alike.
In an extraordinary attempt at calming the jitters, the senior adviser at the Interior Ministry, met Friday with more than 50 ambassadors to try to reassure them that their embassies and their staffs would be safe.
US secret forces are intensifying their cross-border raids into Pakistani tribal areas because of fears of a high-profile al-Qaeda "October Surprise" attack during the American election campaign.
Hindu-Christian tensions in India.
The UN Security Council is under pressure to suspend the International Criminal Court's prosecution of Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, for alleged genocide and crimes against humanity. These are dangerous times for the fledgling court.
The UN Security Council has unanimously passed a new resolution on Iran, reaffirming demands it stop enriching uranium, but imposing no new sanctions.
Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN has rejected a Security Council resolution against the country as "illegal and unfortunate."
In a significant and highly unusual defeat for the so-called "Israel Lobby," the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives has decided to shelve a long-pending, albeit nonbinding, resolution that called for President Bush to launch what critics called a blockade against Iran.
The US has no choice but to save the world by stopping President Ahmadinejad, President Shimon Peres told Israel Radio on Thursday.
There is a core principle behind Anglo-American democracy as it has evolved in the past few centuries. Which is that you cannot rely on the judgment of one man or woman, unchecked by the law, or by parliament or Congress or the press, to govern a country.
This is why, in my judgment, the American constitution is such a conservative document: because it enshrines checks against absolute power, due process, deliberation and prudence at the core of democratic life.
This is the core conservatism that George W Bush and Dick Cheney have systematically attacked for the past 8 years – in favour of a de facto protectorate of one strong man.
They believe it's necessary to save us from terrorism. But they also believe the president of the US is constrained by no law, no treaty and no constitution when he is defending the nation.
The Democratic Party has been hijacked by elites hostile to religion, said Mark Stricherz, author of the book "Why Democrats are Blue" and a Democrat himself. Secularism and hostility to religion have become the dividing line between the Democratic Party of the past and today's Democratic leaders.
Midlevel foreign-service officers are fleeing the US State Department in droves. Guess who's taking their place?
On Wednesday, the House passed a mammoth defense bill by a 392-39 vote. It's expected to clear the Senate with little difficulty next week. "The legislation came together in a remarkably secret process that concentrated decision-making power in the hands of a few lawmakers."
In keeping with the tradition of recent years, Bush held a gun to his own head and threatened to pull the trigger if his demands weren't met. And Congress also maintained recent tradition, swearing not to give Bush a blank check and then whipping out their pens and signing a blank check.
How did the United States of America, the richest nation on earth, whose economy represents 30% of the global economy, arrive at the precipice of a financial panic and collapse?
[WAR: "The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail.
All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey YAHWEH your ELOWAH and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.
Because you did not serve YAHWEH your ELOWAH joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies YAHWEH sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. (Deu 28:43-48).]
Bush had declared, with his characteristic penchant for boiling an issue down to its bare essentials: "If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down." History may one day record whether the "sucker" he was referring to was the Bush-Paulson bail-out package or the United States itself.
It may read like a melodramatic Hollywood script but the future of the America remains at stake.
(Op-ed: I want your money)
(Cartoon: Taking in Wall Street)
(Cartoons: Wall Street collapse)
An article in CNBC states, "The US Congress and the Bush administration were under intense pressure on Saturday to negotiate a $700 billion rescue". Who is putting intense pressure on both the White House and Congress to pass the bailout?
Consider that many financial analysts say that the real reason that the government bailed out Freddie and Fannie is because China demanded it. And there were rumors last week that China instructed its banks to stop lending to US banks.
The Royal Bank of Scotland is to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the planned $700 billion bail-out that comes courtesy of the American tax-payer if the US Congress gives the financial rescue package the go-ahead this weekend. The bank's share of the bail-out will enable RBS to offload billions of dollars of questionable assets.
Congressional leaders and the Bush administration reached a tentative deal early Sunday on a landmark bailout of imperiled financial markets. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the $700 billion accord just after midnight but said it still has to be put on paper. It was not immediately clear how many House Republicans might vote for the measure.
One senior money market trader said: "If the US bail-out fails this weekend, I don't know if there's any point coming in on Monday."
The mood in equity markets was hardly more upbeat. An investment director said: "If Paulson's plan fails we will see a collapse in the markets and taxpayers will effectively pick up the tab. We could also see 1,000-point falls on the FTSE on Monday and we would be out of a job, while the banking system would freeze up."
The US stock market could suffer a devastating crash with shares losing a third of their value this week if Hank Paulson's financial bailout plan fails, US Treasury officials have warned. The financial system could face a meltdown of 1929 proportions unless US politicians succeed in their efforts for a $700bn rescue scheme, experts added.
(And: The Depression has begun)
Even if Congress backs the Paulson bail-out, the $700 billion blast cannot save the US, Britain or the world from the deepest economic slump since the '30s. If Congress balks, God help us.
The credit system is suffering a heart attack. Inter-bank lending is paralysed. Funds are accepting 0% interest on US Treasury notes for the first time since Pearl Harbour, because no bank account is safe.
Wherever you look, the stress has reached breaking point. If borrowers cannot roll over the 3-month loans that are the lifeblood of business, they will default en masse. "Money markets are imploding. If no action is taken very soon, there is a significant risk that the global economy will collapse," says BNP Paribas.
Credit is the lubricant of a modern economy. A seizure now would probably lead to the bankruptcy of General Motors and Ford in short order, but it would not stop with the US car industry.
Waves of job losses would set off a self-feeding spiral. Yet more people would default on their mortgages (and car loans), driving house prices down even further.
That, in turn, would threaten the solvency of the best banks. That is the way to Armaggedon.
Here we go again. Just 9 days ago - Thursday, Sept. 18 - financial Armageddon was warded off when word began to leak about the government's giant bailout plan.
Here we are a week later, and guess what? Armageddon is again approaching. With every passing day, the situation is getting increasingly dangerous.
Why the rush? Why not take some time to fully explore the risks, discuss the financial, economic and political ramifications, and figure out ways to minimize the cost to taxpayers?
I've been speculating all week that the pressure being used on the Congress to pass the Paulson Plan is the threat of Fed illiquidity. As of 2 weeks ago, the Fed had lent out more than $600 billion of its $800 billion balance sheet Treasuries against crap MBS collateral.
Totems are tumbling, shibboleths lie shattered. When the US Republican administration proposes buying banking assets worth more than several European countries put together, you know the normal rules are being torn up.
Right now, players throughout the system are refusing to lend and hoarding cash - and this collapse of credit reminds many economists of the run on the banks that brought on the Great Depression.
(Flashback: Bernanke: Fed caused Great Depression)
Despite all the blather and swearing-on-the-Bible pronunciamentos from establishment "pundits," our house-of-cards financial system is not fundamentally sound. Expect such indices as the Dow to tumble even much lower when the Pandora's box of derivatives is fully opened.
Believe it or not, the Dow is still not far from its all-time peaks, with a lot further to fall. The depression is still in its early stages. We are looking at $1 quadrillion of unregulated debt, with much of it at risk.
Jefferson killed a bank. Jackson killed a bank. Now it's our responsibility to untold generations to stand up and throw off the shackles of yet another criminal syndicate with the respectable sounding name: "Federal Reserve Bank."
In almost every respect the Federal Reserve was an "improved" version of the earlier attempts to place total economic control in the hands of a very small and inherently unaccountable cabal. And the entire program can be said to have been sold as a "Bailout" by government.
The rest of the world is watching our financial debacle right now. Do you think the Russians and the Chinese are completely ignorant regarding how the US is ignoring its own principles, laws, and Constitution in a naked attempt to consolidate a Global Fascist Hegemony?
Another US banking giant fell Thursday, with the government seizure of Washington Mutual and the purchase of its operations and assets by JPMorgan Chase.
The collapse of the Seattle-based firm, the 6th largest US bank and the largest savings and loan company in the country, was the biggest bank failure in American history.
JPMorgan, which bought Bear Stearns last March, took over WaMu's deposits, branches and assets at a nominal price of $1.9 billion. The sale makes JPMorgan, itself burdened with billions of dollars in toxic mortgage-backed securities and other bad debts, the largest US depository institution, with over $900 billion in customer deposits.
It's very odd to be an American abroad at the moment, reading the headlines in the Herald Tribune, watching CNN report live from Wall Street, waiting for the next piece of bad news. But now the ship isn't just sinking, it might well be gone.
September 15, 2008, the day Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, may well be remembered as the day we had to reassess our ideas about America's role in the world economy. It's that cataclysmic, that decisive, that irreversible.
What the death of the investment bank means for Wall Street.
The US Mint is temporarily halting sales of its popular American Buffalo 24-karat gold coins because it can't keep up with soaring demand as investors seek the safety of gold amid economic turbulence.
Japan, China and other holders of US government debt must quickly reach an agreement to prevent panic sales leading to a global financial collapse, said a former adviser to the Chinese central bank.
Is the United States no longer the global beacon of unfettered, free-market capitalism? Washington has not only turned away from decades of rhetoric about the virtues of the free market and the dangers of government intervention, it has also likely undercut future American efforts to promote such policies abroad.
"I fear the government has passed the point of no return. We have the irony of a free-market administration doing things that the most liberal Democratic administration would never have been doing in its wildest dreams."
What Wall Street's woes reveal about European and American views of markets.
Are European banks insulated from the panic in America? The burning question now is whether banks have enough capital. On some measures, European banks look pretty well capitalised.
Strains on capital will also intensify if European economies stall more severely than expected. What is more, about $1.4 trillion of bank debt falls due in Europe this year and next, just as bondholders have received their first big blow of the crisis thanks to Lehman's demise.
The financial meltdown may be happening mainly in America, but Europe is starting to feel the heat. Those who hoped Europe might escape Wall Street's woes were sorely disappointed this week.
The questions are how deep it will be, and how long it will last. And the answers will depend heavily on the two biggest economies: Germany and France.
Germans feel aggrieved. While others were living on easy credit and blowing bubbles, they practised virtue. With luck, Germany faces disappointment, not disaster.
In France the impact of the credit crunch has taken many by surprise. Most French indicators have weakened.
Moscow said its production levels indicate it should play an influential role in the price of oil on the world market, officials noted. Russia's Energy Minister said his country is putting so much oil into the world market that a "Russian factor" should be included.
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[Latest edition of The Religion WAR]
Church leaders have drawn up a new set of the Ten Commandments aimed at delivering "God bloggers" from the temptations of the blogosphere.
Our words are vibrations and every emotion and thought expressed has a particular vibrational energy. Scientists have proven that the energy of our thoughts, feelings and emotions can positively or negatively effect our DNA structure.
A quest is under way on 4 continents to find the missing pages of one of the world's most important holy texts, the 1,000-year-old Hebrew Bible known as the Crown of Aleppo.
Crusaders held it for ransom, fire almost destroyed it and it was reputedly smuggled across Mideast borders hidden in a washing machine. But in 1958, when it finally reached Israel, 196 pages were missing — about 40% of the total — and for some Old Testament scholars they have become a kind of holy grail.
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