Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Pope Benedict XVI is likely to wait at least 6 years before considering beatification of Pius XII, the pope during WW2, according to officials. The delay is being regarded as a concession to Jewish groups.
(And: B16 will weigh delay)
Liberty cannot be invoked to justify excesses that lead to a regression in the understanding of the human being, Benedict XVI says.
"A redefinition of the meaning of liberty" is needed, he said, noting that it is more and more conceived as an "untouchable right of the individual" while the "importance of its divine origins and communitarian dimension" are ignored.
Liberty has as a reference point "a universal natural moral law, which precedes and unites all rights and duties."
Benedict XVI says interreligious dialogue is becoming more and more a sacred duty in a troubled world.
He affirmed this when he addressed the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, a group that has worked with the Holy See for more than 30 years, contributing to "greater understanding and acceptance between Catholics and Jews."
Chancellor Merkel's conservative bloc was given a big boost Thursday after her allies in Bavaria swept away the older guard and promoted to the top leadership a younger generation of politicians, including women, in a shuffle aimed at winning over new and young voters and restoring the party's battered reputation before federal elections next year.
Hamburg is Germany's biggest port, and for the last 5 years Germany has been the world's largest exporter. With the whole of the globe as the target market, a global financial crisis is going to hurt.
Take that! ...
Hedge funds nursing multi-billion-dollar losses from a wrong-way bet on Volkswagen shares have launched a furious attack on the German financial authorities.
"In any other country in the world, taking control of a company in secret and still not launching a bid would be illegal. We believe the reactions of the German regulators to be criminally irresponsible but we are confident that this will be sorted out."
"Traders around the world will simply avoid Germany after this."
Assaulted by Assyria, the rod of YAHWEH's anger (Isa 10:5)!...
Financial predators became the prey
Hedge funds collectively lost a staggering £24 billion with a doomed gamble on Volkswagen shares. The biters have been well and truly bitten, and in a week full of ironies it was Porsche, manufacturer of the hedge fund managers' transport of choice, which was to blame.
Porsche had been secretly building up a 74.1% stake in VW through intermediaries. When Porsche showed its hand, it sent the VW share price rocketing and exposed the hedge funds to breathtaking losses.
"I have had hedge fund managers literally in tears on the phone," said one London-based analyst yesterday. Others likened the Porsche disclosure to a "nuclear bomb going off in our faces", describing the resulting losses as "a bloodbath".
For many impartial observers, the biggest single loss in the history of hedge funds will be nothing less than just desserts for the "vulture capitalists."
Many fund managers believe they are victims of a stitch-up ORCHESTRATED BY THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT and Porsche.
The German establishment has never tried to hide its contempt for them, with a leading politician referring to hedge fund managers as "locusts". One trader went as far as describing this week's events as "payback".
VW stock went from 210 euros to more than 1,000 euros in 2 days, making VW, at one point on Tuesday, the world's most valuable company at £240 billion.
Meanwhile, the fund managers who hadn't managed to buy enough shares to settle their accounts watched with horror as their losses spiralled out of control. Some of the bigger funds are thought to have lost as much as £4 billion.
And as the price of those precious shares quadrupled, Porsche made a paper profit of more than £100 billion, dwarfing the money it makes from selling cars.
Across the world, traders raged at what they saw as a thinly disguised sting operation by Porsche and the German financial establishment.
[WAR: The economic war is on! What a brilliant move by Germany -- kicking the greedy/profit-worshipping hedgies in the nuts.
Before WW2 started, the Jewish "powers that be" launched an economic embargo against Germany, which made war inevitable.
Now, Germany has made a surprise opening move against the Jewish/"Locusts" hedge funds. The hedgies (and the US-UK/Joseph powers behind them) will now seek economic and political revenge, and it won't be pretty -- because it will once again lead to war between Joseph and Assyria.
The final countdown to Jacob's Trouble has started ... "In little more than a year you who feel secure will tremble..." (Isa 32:10). So "be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen" (Luke 21:36). And don't forget to "pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath." (Mat 24:20 / Mark 13:18)...]
Rival natural gas pipelines to Europe hinge on geopolitical dynamics between Western nations and Russia.
Libyan President Gaddafi will discuss opening a Russian naval base in Libya during his 3-day visit to Moscow, according to a newspaper.
"In line with the Libyan leader's plan, Russia's military presence will become a guarantee of non-aggression from the United States which, despite numerous conciliatory gestures, is not in a hurry to embrace Colonel Gaddafi."
The Turkish government says it is "out of the question" for it to hand over a revered medieval church where Catholics want to hold Christian services. The church, currently run as a museum, stands in the south-eastern town of Tarsus, where St Paul was born.
With one deadly strike, the Bush administration has offered a fitting epitaph to its "might makes right" policy towards Syria – and the rest of the Middle East.
The Bush administration has confirmed, yet again, its disdain for international law and the principles of the UN Charter. Indeed, the US, in the name of fighting "terrorists," has carried out other cross-border raids in recent months.
In a blunt assessment, the commander of US forces in Iraq said Thursday that there is a 20-30% chance that the US and Iraq won't reach a deal to allow US troops to operate in Iraq past Dec. 31.
Pakistan will vigorously follow up its request to Iran for oil supply on deferred payment to tide over its current economic difficulties in case of a delay or non-availability of the Saudi oil facility.
The present-day international situation in the world is characterised by instability, Wen Jiabao, Premier of the People's Republic of China, maintains.
"Really, factors of instability in the world are growing. All countries without exception must abide by the United Nations Charter and other norms of international law. All world affairs must be resolved jointly by various countries and peoples."
"Our planet, just as the entire human civilisation, just like nature, must be diverse. We cannot live on just one model (of relations). The PRC firmly and consistently comes out in favour of world diversity, the existence of various civilisations and cultures and in this matter China and Russia have broad common interests."
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao says his country sees no obstacle to Iran's membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. "We believe that there is no problem with Iran's membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and we support the idea."
Iran has recently tested ways of recovering highly enriched uranium from waste reactor fuel in a covert bid to expand its nuclear program, according to an intelligence assessment made available to The Associated Press.
Only a few days ahead of the American presidential election, Iran's parliamentary speaker and Ayatollah Khamanai have launched harsh verbal attacks against the US.
Referring to the US army's attacks in Pakistan and Syria, the speaker said they would not be answered with diplomatic protests.
"The US method and conduct, expressed by this aggression, will only be stopped by a clear-cut and unexpected response, whose grounds were set by the martyr Hussein Fahmida. America should be aware not to put its huge body on top of the suicide bombers' explosive devices."
[WAR: While there might be suicide bombings over in Iraq, Iran will not conduct any on US soil.]
The US Ambassador to the Holy See warned in an article published by the L'Osservatore Romano that fundamentalist secularism that excludes faith from public life is threatening the United States and is an attack on so-called "positive secularity" and individual freedoms.
Documentation of the Christian heritage of the US will be restored, at least partly, to a new $600 million Capitol Visitors Center in Washington which earlier had been scrubbed of references to the religious faith and influences of the Founding Fathers.
A passion for conservative values has united diverse Christian groups, giving them influence way beyond their numbers.
They constitute a large and disciplined minority - a primarily Protestant army of Christian soldiers, with a pre-Enlightenment mindset and disdain for secular values.
Right-wing Washington insiders became "smitten" with Sarah Palin, and crowned her their VP.
Despite Barack Obama's approval of abortion and homosexual activism, new polling by a prestigious Christian research group indicates that he is making significant inroads among voters who are classified as "born-again" Christians.
(Cartoon: Elect Obama)
The common assumption of these letter-writers is that Obama is just trying to "pass," so to speak, as a warmonger. Once he's in office, peace will break out all over. What evidence do we have for this? None whatsoever.
He's telling us he wants to confront Russia and Iran. He's telling us he wants to increase a military budget already larger than the total military expenditures of all other nations combined.
He says he won't hesitate to invade Pakistan – and, presumably, any nation anywhere – if we have some reason to believe Osama bin Laden and his cohorts are in the vicinity.
I think he's telling the truth – and I challenge the Obamaoids, especially the ones who claim to be sick of 8 years of constant warfare, to prove otherwise.
If Obama is indeed giving us the real story, and if he actually implements his foreign policy proposals, we are in a world of trouble.
It seems that the final days of the presidential campaign have made Erica Jong and her friends more than a little anxious.
She says her fear that Obama might lose the election has developed into an "obsession. A paralyzing terror. An anxious fever that keeps you awake at night."
She also says that her friends Jane Fonda and Naomi Wolf are extremely worried that Obama will be sabotaged by Republican dirty tricks, and that if an Obama loss indeed comes to pass, the result will be a 2nd American Civil War.
"If Obama loses it will spark the 2nd American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me. And it's not a coincidence that President Bush recalled soldiers from Iraq for Dick Cheney to lead against American citizens in the streets."
A Warren County magistrate said he'll decide today whether Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has to get proof that Barack Obama was born in the US.
The US Supreme Court is being asked to help the nation avoid a constitutional crisis by halting Tuesday's election until Barack Obama documents his eligibility to run for the top office in the nation.
Democratic attorney Philip Berg had filed a lawsuit alleging Obama is ineligible to be president because of possible birth in Kenya, but as WND reported, a federal judge dismissed the complaint claiming Berg lacks standing to bring the action.
"We must legally prevent Obama, the unqualified candidate, from taking the office of the presidency of the United States," Berg said.
The US Constitution, which established a landmark in democracy 220 years ago, did not grant Americans the basic right of voting directly for the president. That job goes to the electoral college, which also is not mentioned in the constitution.
In devising that system, the men who became known as the Founding Fathers made one of the many compromises of the Constitution.
They borrowed from the Holy Roman Empire the concept of "electors," German princes who elected the German king, and gave each state the right to select electors equal to its combined number of representatives and senators.
Whoever wins on Tuesday, few Americans will harbor any illusions about their national unity.
No matter which pairing one chooses — red and blue, Right and Left, coastal elites and flyover salt-of-the-earthers — there is no getting around our status as a country divided, a people set apart from one another as much by regional culture as by religion or political ideology.
A perfect time, in other words, to talk about secession...
The presumption of a 2nd 9/11 has become an integral part of US military doctrine. America is under attack. The US military must respond preemptively.
Since 2003, various procedures have been adopted regarding the enactment of Martial Law in the case of a so-called "National Catastrophic Emergency".
Under martial law, the military would take over several functions of civilian government including justice and law enforcement.
According to reports out of top Chinese mainstream news outlets, the RAND Corporation recently presented a shocking proposal to the Pentagon in which it lobbied for a war to be started with a major foreign power in an attempt to stimulate the American economy and prevent a recession.
A fierce debate has now ensued in China about who that foreign power may be, with China itself as well as Russia and even Japan suspected to be the targets of aggression.
The reports cite French media news sources as having uncovered the proposal, in which RAND suggested that the $700 billion dollars that has been earmarked to bailout Wall Street and failing banks instead be used to finance a new war which would in turn re-invigorate the flagging stock markets
Investors on the outside slammed while insiders getting rich, Market conditions indicate you need to protect yourself with gold and silver, Paulson monetary voodoo reanimates zombie fraudster banks, Market crashes set the stage for bank acquisitions, predicting a financial super entity...
Less than a week before Americans go to the polls to select a president, the government reported on Thursday that the economy contracted from July through September.
In a stark indication of widening national distress, consumer spending dipped for the first time in 17 years. Economists said the drop in economic activity presages more bad news in the months ahead.
(And: Economy shrinks in 3Q)
The US government's $160 billion handout to banks from Niagara Falls to Beverly Hills is going mostly to lenders that need it least, putting weaker rivals at risk of being shut down or taken over.
"Before this is over that we're going to have casinos in Las Vegas reconstituting themselves as bank holding companies" and applying for government loans.
Actually, don't wait, because we've got to stop a bigger economic disaster in the making: 78 million baby-boomers eligible for Social Security and Medicare.
More than 50% of workers are struggling for economic survival, a study has found. And with the global financial crisis set to bite harder, that percentage is expected to rise.
What explains the paradox of the dollar's sharp rise in value against other currencies (except the Japanese yen) despite disproportionate US exposure to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?
The answer does not lie in improved fundamentals for the US economy or better prospects for the dollar to retain its reserve currency role. The rise in the dollar's exchange value is due to 2 factors.
One factor is the traditional flight to the reserve currency that results from panic. The other factor is the unwinding of the carry trade.
The Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, has called for a complete overhaul of the world's financial system in order to guarantee stability and ensure progress.
"We now clearly see the defectiveness of the monopoly in world finance and the policy of economic selfishness. To solve the current problem Russia will to take part in changing the global financial structure so that it will be able to guarantee stability and prosperity in the world and to ensure progress."
Oil fell more than $2 to below $64 a barrel today and in line with other markets was on track to post its biggest monthly fall yet.
[CFR Opinion Roundup][Newseum][Global Incident Map][Earthweek][Day-Night Map][Tonight's Sky][Moon phase]
The Phoenicians, enigmatic people from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, stamped their mark on maritime history, and now research has revealed that they also left a lasting genetic imprint.
Scientists reported Thursday that as many as one in 17 men living today on the coasts of North Africa and southern Europe may have a Phoenician direct male-line ancestor.
The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church...
(And: Halloween facts)
Tonight's sky
Our sky chart shows the southwest sky for about 1 hour after sunset. You'll need an unobstructed horizon to catch the thin waxing crescent moon and the planet Venus at dusk and early evening. Be sure to catch the shining duo fairly soon after sunset, because they'll set beneath the horizon by the time that it gets good and dark.
(And: Skymap)
[WAR: Hmmm ... this will be a close one.
According to 2 different astronomy programs (SkyGlobe and Stellarium), the crescent Moon will be ruling with the stars at night -- but the Moon will be very low on the horizon at this point. So visual observation will be needed to confirm this is the case.
If so, then tomorrow (the Sabbath Day, starting at dawn) will be the 1st day of the 8th month. And hey, how 'bout that: it'll also be the 1st day of a new papal/pagan month.]
WAR e-mail format for military: YAHOO! WARriors
WAR fund: PayPal (payable to thedailywarrior@gmail.com)
