Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Benedict XVI says the lay faithful need to commit themselves to being saints and active members of the Church. He said this Friday when he received in audience members of the administrative council of the Knights of Columbus. The Knights are on pilgrimage in Rome in the context of the Pauline Jubilee Year.
(And: Full text of address)
Pope Benedict XVI has opened a synod of more than 200 cardinals and bishops from around the world to examine the modern lack of interest the Bible.
He lamented what he called the harmful and destructive influence of some forms of modern culture. This, he said, had decided that God was dead, and man was the sole architect of his destiny and master of creation.
Devotion to the Virgin Mary has an essential role in ecumenical dialogue and the journey to full and visible unity among Christians, says the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
He noted that Marian devotion is fully shared with the Orthodox Church. But, he continued, "Marian devotion also existed at the time of the Reformation. Luther fervently venerated Mary during his whole life, professing her, with the ancient creeds and Councils of the Church of the first millennium, as Virgin and Mother of God."
Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, England, has come under fire for his homily during a pilgrimage to the Marian sanctuaries in Lourdes, France.
He was criticized by the England-based Protestant Truth Society, a group of Anglicans and nonconformists committed to upholding the ideals of the Protestant Reformation. "The archbishop's simple presence there is a wholesale compromise, and his sermon -- which included a reference to Mary as 'the mother of God' -- is a complete denial of Protestant orthodoxy."
[WAR: Why are the Paranoid Protestants being so difficult? They agree with the Crazy Catholics that Yahshua was "God in the flesh" and "fully God and fully man", so the logical conclusion is that Mary was the "mother of God."
Only when one realizes the truth that Yahshua was not "God" while he lived, does one also realize that Mary cannot be the "mother of God."]
To Bavarians, the end of one-party rule feels like a revolution.
To Chancellor Merkel, it is a worrying omen for the federal election due next September. And to all of Germany's big political parties, the results seem proof that they are in deep trouble.
Clinging to Catholic and folk traditions but revelling in progress, Bavarians have fashioned a regional identity stronger than any other in Germany.
A demoralised CSU will make life harder for the grand coalition. The Bavarians resent Merkel for squelching tax-cut proposals with which they hoped to stave off electoral disaster.
After a string of electoral defeats and internal divisions, the far right staged a spectacular comeback in the Austrian election.
Most analysts agree that voters did not actually move rightwards, but rather wanted to express discontent with the poor performance and squabbling of the outgoing "grand coalition" between the Social Democrats and the conservative People's Party. Alas, they will probably get a government of the same parties, albeit with different faces at the top.
European political leaders should do more to counter the appeal of the far right.
In Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where the rule of law sometimes takes a back seat to the rule of God, zealots are on a campaign to stamp out behavior they consider unchaste.
They hurl stones at women for such "sins" as wearing a red blouse and attack stores selling devices that can access the Internet.
"There are eyes and ears all over the place, very similar to what you hear about in countries like Iran."
One of Israel's leading left-wing academics tells The Telegraph the future of the Israeli state is threatened as much by Jewish terrorism as it is by Palestinian militancy.
Some members of the United Nations Security Council have done things "infinitely worse" than Iran, which is seeking a seat on the council, the president of the UN General Assembly said on Friday. "There are members of the Security Council right now who have done things infinitely worse than Iran could ever do."
The French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has said Israel is expected to launch a military strike on Iran before it acquires a nuclear bomb, and urged the Jewish state to hold back in favour of sanctions.
Israel seems adamant about prodding Americans into a cul-de-sac, despite the vivid picture Iran has painted of the chaos that would follow military action against its nuclear infrastructure.
Although Iran continues to cooperate with the IAEA to prove that its nuclear program is of a peaceful nature, the latest Washington defeat in its confrontation with Moscow over Georgia may encourage independent action on the part of Israel.
Tel Aviv may currently be in a deep political crisis, but the departure of lame-duck Olmert from power and Kadima, Israel's ruling part, may pave the way for incoming Prime Minister Tzipi Livni to unite the Zionists and pull the trigger on Iran.
Israel's outgoing Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, will lobby Russia against equipping Iran with the powerful S-300 defense system. Expected in Russia on Monday, Olmert seeks to convince President Medvedev that the sale of the advanced S-300 missile system would 'change the game' significantly.
"If Tehran obtained the S-300, it would be a game-changer in military thinking for tackling Iran," says a long-time Pentagon advisor. "This is a system that scares every Western air force."
Do the Likudniks really believe that you're stupid enough to believe that if the Israelis don't launch a "preventative strike" against the Mullahs and the Iranian IAEA-Safeguarded facilities this year or early next year that 9 out of 10 of us will – if we're the lucky ones – freeze in the dark?
The nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier has reportedly departed the Persian Gulf after experiencing a technical problem.
The Economist election special
Will America choose the old hero who favours tax cuts for business and the rich and backed George Bush's wars? Or the young man who promises health care for all, a swift exit from Iraq and more money for the average worker? As America's financial system buckles, this ought to be an unlosable election for the Democrats. But it isn't.
(And: The 3 elections)
(And: Endless culture war)
Some folks around here think the economic sky is falling and state lawmakers in Sacramento and Salem are ignoring their constituents in the hinterlands. Guess the time is ripe to create a whole new state.
That's the thinking up here along the border between California and Oregon, where 12 sparsely populated, thickly forested counties in both states want to break away and generate the 51st star on the nation's flag - the state of Jefferson.
You can hear the talk of revolution at lunch counters and grocery lines, where people grumble that politicians to the north and south don't care.
(And: Jefferson's official website)
We the citizens are being buffeted by hurricane-force winds, battered and bruised and terrified, knowing good and well that we – individually – can do nothing to stop, change or alter the course of financial history now taking place.
Folks, it's time to batten down your personal hatches. If you're planning on riding out a hurricane, you'd better prepare. Let's put it this way: If you knew that a Great Depression is just around the corner, what would you do to prepare?
Hedge funds that invest in shares tumbled an average 8.6% in September, as panic about the health of financial sector prompted a flight from equities across the globe. It was the biggest single-month fall since the group started collating data 18 years ago.
JP Morgan has been accused by its Wall Street rivals of dealing the final hammer blow that forced Lehman Brothers into collapse in a sensational claim that threatens to spark a colossal legal battle.
The giant American bank is alleged to have frozen $17 billion of cash and securities belonging to Lehman on the Friday night before its failure.
(And: The price of failure)
Nothing was taken out of the original proposal plan and much was added.
While Washington's politicians complained about the initial $700 billion cost to taxpayers, they did not agree to pass it until they had attached another $149 billion of perks for their home states.
(And: The Fed's Plan B)
(And: Bailout or blowout?)
(Cartoons: Bailout passed)
We now face market forces uninhibited by democratic governance. The bailout is an aggressive attempt to trade democracy for autocracy.
(And: Socialism for the rich)
(And: Betrayed by the bailout)
(And: The rebellion that failed)
A dish of Bailout with a side of pork, shareholders vaporized by Derivatives Death-Star, We all await the financial markets implosion, No problems solved by the bailout, Stay prepared for a full shutdown of the financial system with some cash on hand, Credit default swaps unregulated point in the chain...
When banks find it hard to borrow, so do the rest of us.
It's plain that the current financial crisis is worsening in spite of--or perhaps because of--the Treasury rescue plan. The strains in financial markets are becoming more, rather than less, severe in spite of the nuclear option of a $700 billion package.
When investors don't trust even venerable institutions like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, you know that the financial crisis is as severe as ever. When a nuclear option of a monster $700 billion rescue plan is not even able to rally stock markets, you know this is a global crisis of confidence in the financial system.
The next step of this panic could be the mother of all bank runs, i.e. a run on the trillion dollar-plus of the cross-border short-term interbank liabilities of the US banking and financial system, as foreign banks start to worry about the safety of their liquid exposures to US financial institutions.
A silent cross-border bank run has already started, as foreign banks are worried about the solvency of US banks and are starting to reduce their exposure. And if this run accelerates -- as it may now -- a total meltdown of the US financial system could occur.
(Op-ed: World on the edge)
(And: The buck swaps here)
"It's the beginning of the end of the era of infatuation with the free market. It's the end of the era where Wall Street carries high degrees of power and prestige. And it's the end of the era of conspicuous displays of wealth. We are entering a new chapter in our history."
How today's financial crisis resembles the one that happened three-quarters of a century ago, and how it does not.
The trillion-dollar Wall Street bailout plan negotiated by the White House and Congress has reinvigorated the debate about Ron Paul's Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act (HR 2755), which was introduced into Congress in June 2007.
In the halls of Congress, legislators have yet to bring Paul's bill to the floor. It is currently languishing in the House Committee on Financial Services.
European Schadenfreude over the ills of American capitalism does not signify a dramatic move away from the free market.
Governments in America and Europe scramble to rescue a collapsing system.
The global financial crisis risks sparking a new wave of economic nationalism that would put the brakes on international efforts to reduce cross-border trade barriers, Peter Mandelson, the new Business Secretary, warned.
In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mandelson said unilateral moves by individual countries to guarantee bank deposits were "distorting" efforts to co-ordinate a response to the crash.
"The danger of this crisis is it may spark a new wave of economic nationalism, with each country looking for a 'get out of jail free' card. People have to realise that selective or national approaches could lead markets to look to parts of the financial system in a distorted way."
As the Western world's banking system teeters on the edge of collapse, one crucial factor in this unprecedented crisis has gone almost entirely unnoticed.
At the heart of this catastrophe lies a drastic change made last year to banking regulations, which has led to the current freezing of the money markets. Without it, most of the banks that have collapsed, such as Lehman Brothers, might have survived.
The idea of an EU rescue fund to address financial crisis symptoms in Europe is off the table. A summit meeting on Saturday of Europe's largest economies may end up being little more than a sharing of national strategies.
The leaders of Europe's largest economies announced a multi-billion fund to support small businesses last night, while calling for a global summit to redefine the world's financial order.
Crucially, however, the meeting hosted by President Sarkozy failed to agree on the more ambitious €300 billion European rescue fund proposed earlier this week in the run-up to the Paris summit.
The European leaders demanded a global summit, to be held later in the autumn, aimed at finalising a successor to the Bretton Woods formula — the system created in 1944 that defines the world's financial relations.
Sarkozy went on to issue an outspoken attack on the short-selling investors who have brought banks around the world to their knees. "We want entrepreneurial capitalism and not speculative capitalism. We want moral issues to be taken account of."
A dangerous fault-line runs through European banking
If a week is a long time in politics, in finance it can be an eternity. In just a few days some of Europe's leaders changed their attitude from Schadenfreude over America's banking woes to near-panic.
Although the region's banks operate across the EU's single market almost unfettered by national boundaries, their regulation is still tied to national governments.
Besides supervision, there are conflicting legal (and insolvency) systems, an enduring reluctance of regulators to clip the wings of their national champions, and a recognition that taxpayers would probably balk at being asked to support depositors in another country.
There are potential pressure points right across European finance. National governments have mostly acted unabashedly in their own interests.
International property lender Hypo Real Estate is fighting for its life after German banks and insurers pulled out of a multi-billion pound state-led rescue plan after fresh financing shortfalls emerged this weekend.
Executives at the bank, which is Germany's second largest commercial property investor and has extensive holdings across Europe, are now locked in crisis talks with the German government and central bank in an attempt to deliver an alternative plan before the stock markets open on Monday.
Hypo is the 5th German bank to be bailed out in the wake of the credit market turmoil stemming from the US.
Governments across Europe scrambled to save failing banks today, working largely on their own. "The European banking industry is feeling the wind of default blowing from the other side of the Atlantic."
Looming large was a growing sense that the continent's major central banks — which have been flooding euros and dollars to banks that have become increasingly stingy about lending money even to themselves — were ready to institute emergency cuts to their benchmark interest rates this week.
This week will start with a meeting of the EU's economy and finance ministers (ECOFIN) in Luxembourg on the need for a European response to the international financial crisis. The meeting is expected to highlight the need for co-operation and cohesion among EU states on the issue.
The ministers will also underline the need to respect the so-called Stability and Growth Pact – the rules underpinning the euro, following comments coming from some EU capitals that tackling the crisis should take priority over keeping budget deficits in line with EU rules.
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[Latest edition of The Religion WAR]
The right to voice unpopular, or even untrue and unpleasant, opinions is essential to free speech - and free speech is one of the most basic values of any liberal democracy.
Free speech cannot flourish when the individual may express only those opinions which the state has decided it will permit. Once that happens, it evokes George Orwell's nightmare of the Ministry of Truth, in which the state throttles all independent thought and destroys free expression completely.
That is why the arrest of Dr Fredrick Toben at Heathrow airport last week is so disturbing. Toben has not committed a crime in this country. His offence is to have published opinions on his website that question whether the Nazi extermination of the Jews happened.
Is it possible that virtually everything you think you know about the Bible is simply not biblical? Forget the "holy baloney" you've wrongly heard all your life. It's time to put away the fables and get back to Bible facts.
Get ready for the biggest surprises of your life. It's time to get Shocked by the Bible: The Most Astonishing Facts You've Never Been Told.
"You'll truly be stunned when you see for yourself what Scripture has to say, without anyone telling you it doesn't mean what it says. You may even find that what you thought was in the Bible is the exact opposite of what it really states."
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